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.

December 10, 1993

The Hockey News December 10, 1993

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06326/6336633-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="384" height="487"></div>The Hockey News has declared a timeout from the referees&rsquo; strike to talk about, gasp, the game. Hockey. Remember that? This is only a temporary measure. I promise. Office coverage resumes on page 5. What a relief, eh?Anyway, before I get called for delay of column (by some nasty replacement reader), let me get straight to a point: Goalies are the most under-valued asset in professional sport. There is abundant evidence of that (see cover story on page 24), but the most compelling is in voting for regular-season MVP. Only four goalies have won the Hart Trophy in its 70-year history.Compare that with the number of goalies-10 in 29 years-who have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. No goalie has won the Hart since the Smythe was introduced in 1965. Nine have finished second in the balloting by journalists. Teams don&rsquo;t win post-or regular-season championships without standout goaltending. Yet, journalists don&rsquo;t think they have Hart&hellip;until the playoffs. No Stanley Cup winner in memory has accomplished the feat without extraordinary goaltending.Puckstoppers are also continually overlooked at the entry draft, where a netminder has never gone higher than fifth. Granted, goalies are high-risk picks. But they are also high-return choices. It&rsquo;s too early for firm judgments on 1994-draft-eligible players, but goalie Jamie Storr of the Owen Sound Platers is available and he should be among the top picks. He&rsquo;s fifth in our first ranking of the season.Only extraordinary players-Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, etc.-are more valuable than first-rate goalies. But even they need superior goalies-Grant Fuhr, Tom Barrasso, Gerry Cheevers, etc.-to win the Cup.NHL general managers might want to clip and save this column.<h2>1994 NHL DRAFT: THE THN T0P 15</h2>International League teenage sensation Radek Bonk heads the first THN ranking of prospects for the June 28-29 entry draft in Hartford. Listed are skaters&rsquo; goals, points and penalty minutes and goalie&rsquo;s goals against, save percentage and goals-against average. The Florida Panthers have first pick in the draft.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07212/6336626-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="504" height="1629"></div> &#9632;

f0002-06

IN THIS ISSUE

NHL GMs had better read this column

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011664/6336850-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

THE DRAW

<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. 22</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01814/6337905-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="622" height="3085"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02547/6337898-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="592" height="608"></div><h2>TUESDAY, NOV. 23</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03373/6337891-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="610" height="2803"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04263/6337884-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="606" height="2461"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, NOV. 24</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05190/6337877-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="598" height="950"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06153/6337870-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="617" height="3511"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-07129/6337863-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="613" height="3507"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01755/6337856-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="607" height="3513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02491/6337849-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="598" height="2317"></div><h2>THURSDAY, NOV. 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03355/6337842-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="596" height="1096"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04268/6337835-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="587" height="600"></div><h2>FRIDAY, NOV. 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05218/6337828-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="609" height="2816"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06180/6337821-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="612" height="3511"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07156/6337814-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="606" height="3505"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01804/6337807-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="595" height="912"></div><h2>SATURDAY, NOV. 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02553/6337800-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="613" height="2488"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03381/6337793-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="609" height="3492"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04256/6337786-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="619" height="3488"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05185/6337779-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="617" height="3489"></div><h2>SUNDAY, NOV. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06153/6337772-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="602" height="3397"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>When Minnesota opened the Western Collegiate Hockey Association season with an 0-5-1 record, someone asked coach Doug Woog if the situation was hopeless.Never mind that 30 regular-season games remained. Never mind that the Gophers played seven of their first eight games on the road. Never mind that the team, a perennial national powerhouse, was in major transition having lost its top two offensive threats to the U.S. Olympic team.But hopeless?&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not as good as we&rsquo;ve been and we understand that,&rdquo; Woog said. &ldquo;But we have to keep working at it. If our goaltending stabilizes, we&rsquo;ll get better.&rdquo;Minnesota made strides. Since that start, it regrouped to go 2-0-2 through Nov. 12. That stretch coincided with some good work by Jeff Callinan and Jeff Moen in goal.As a result, the Gophers had a measure of momentum working when they took on Michigan and Michigan State in the College Hockey Showcase at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., Nov. 26-27.The Wisconsin Badgers also took part in a gathering of Big Ten Conference schools. Michigan State and Michigan, both former members of the WCHA, now compete in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.Not only has Minnesota done without Olympians Darby Hendrickson and Craig Johnson, it has missed winger Joe Dziedzic, who broke his arm during the first weekend of play and is expected to be out of action until mid-December.&ldquo;All of a sudden you don&rsquo;t have two lines of experienced players,&rdquo; Woog said. &ldquo;We need Joe back.&rdquo;The Gophers averaged just 2.80 goals-per game in 10 games, easily the lowest in the WCHA.Their leading scorer, Steve Magnusson, had 11 points, but only one goal. He was the only Minnesota player ranked among the top 25 scorers.Complicating matters is the fact the Gophers have perhaps the toughest schedule in college hockey. In addition to Michigan and MSU, they will play either the Maine Black Bears or Lake Superior State Lakers, the national champions in 1993 and 1994, respectively, in the Mariucci Classic Dec. 31-Jan. 2.&ldquo;If anyone has (a schedule) tougher, I feel sorry for them,&rdquo; Woog said.CROSSING THE LINE: With its on-ice officials on strike, the NHL has turned to referees from the minors, colleges and major juniors.Greg Shepherd, regarded as the best official in the WCHA, worked three NHL contests in the first two weeks of the standoff.PRICE OF ACADEMICS: After the Michigan Tech Huskies came away with a 4-4 tie and 5-1 loss against the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves Nov. 19-20, it was revealed the Huskies are 2-13-2 in games the weekend following final exams since 1985-86. &#9632;

Minnesota plight not hopeless

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01925/6338675-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>THE THN TOP 15 Our first ranking for 1994 draftRenewed faith inspires DevilLINDROS IIBig-time bangerNHL goaltending hits all-time high &#9632;

Cover-01

PIPE DREAMS

&ldquo;I got down on my knees at the front of my bed and I said Jesus. I need your help. I&rsquo;ve got everything I wanted, but all I ever do is complain. I want to enjoy my life.&rsquo;&rdquo;&ndash;Reborn Devil Stephane Richer. Page 8.&ldquo;As long as Marcel Aubut is at the helm of the Nordiptes. I would not report. I would be betraying my brother.&rdquo;&ndash;Draft eligible prospect Brett Lindros, the brother of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Eric. Page 38. &#9632;

QUOTABLE

<div class="byline">By Mike J. Brophy</div>Radek Bonk put a new spin on the term &ldquo;hat trick&rdquo; when he heard what Bob Clarke had to say about his tour of duty in the International League. Until recently, a Florida Panthers&rsquo; cap was a prominent part of the 17-year-old Czech phenom&rsquo;s wardrobe. But Bonk ditched the headwear when he heard Clarke&rsquo;s comments about his decision to play for the Las Vegas Thunder. Clarke, whose Panthers pick first overall in the 1994 entry draft, thinks Bonk should be playing major junior hockey. Bonk is regarded as this year&rsquo;s best prospect. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s stupid for (Bonk) to be playing here,&rdquo; Clarke told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. &ldquo;He should be playing junior hockey where he&rsquo;d get 35-40 minutes of ice time per game, playing power plays, killing penalties and taking all the important faceoffs.&rdquo; Before taking to the ice for his first game after hearing the comments, Bonk said,&rdquo;This is for Bob Clarke,&rdquo; and proceeded to score four goals against the Peoria Rivermen&hellip;Hall-of-Fame goalie Gump Worsley recently ran into Gary Bettman and had a lively exchange with the NHL commissioner. Worsley said Bettman told him to just ask if there were ever anything he could do for him. The 64-year-old Worsley replied,&rdquo;How about getting me my pension money?&rdquo; The NHL appealed a court ruling that awarded millions of dollars to a group of former players. &ldquo;Bettman told me they were working on it,&rdquo; Worsley said,&rdquo;and I said to him, &lsquo;But will I see the money before I&rsquo;m dead?&rsquo;&rdquo;&hellip;A Calgary Flames&rsquo; left winger is on pace to become the highest-scoring German in league history. Cologne-bom Uwe Krupp holds the record of 44 points. German Titov was on pace for 60-plus points&hellip;One high-ranking NHL team executive hopes the officials undergo an attitude adjustment before they return to work after their walkout. He said they wield too much power and think too highly of themselves. &ldquo;They can be an egotistical, nauseating group sometimes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They say they care about the integrity of the game; the only thing they&rsquo;re concerned about is what they can get for themselves.&rdquo; He said the striking officials should not consider themselves irreplaceable and substitutes have done an adequate job&hellip;Average time to complete games prior to officials&rsquo; strike: Two hours and 37 minutes. Average time to complete games during officials&rsquo; strike: Two hours and 37 minutes&hellip;There was an average of 41 penalty minutes per game during the first 23 games played in Canada with replacement officials and an average of 51 minutes in 35 U.S. games. No comparable stats are unavailable from before the strike&hellip;Don&rsquo;t blame the departed Ted Green for the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; troubles; blame the Oilers for not giving their players more green. Adam Graves, who left the Oilers to sign as a free agent with the New York Rangers in 1991, is on pace for 60 goals this season. Troy Mallette, who went to Edmonton as compensation, is on pace for five-with his latest team, the Ottawa Senators.&hellip;Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Chris Joseph has been traded twice for beverages-Paul Coffey and Bob Beers. His next destination? The Los Angeles Kings for Tim Watters&hellip;Since the NHL started naming players of the week in 1981-82, no defensive defenseman has been chosen for the honor. In fact, there were four seasons when no defensemen were named, period. Forwards have been named top player 212 times, goalies 124, defensemen 12. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to gauge the performances of defensive defenseman,&rdquo; said league statistician Benny Erco-lani. a member of the panel that chooses player of the week. &ldquo;Unless you watched every game, how else would you judge them?&rdquo;&hellip;Has anybody noticed my byline includes a middle initial this week? Does anybody care? NHL executives Gary B. Bettman, Stephen J. Solomon and Brian P. Burke all have their middle initials listed in the Guide and Record Book. Wonder why. I can understand Stephane J.J. Richer (the star) and Stephane J.G. Richer needing extra letters. But are there two Gary Bettmans? Officials everywhere hope not&hellip;Eric Lindros provided Canadians with a vivid memory of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France when he scored during a shootout to give Canada a victory over Germany. Those who favor the NHL adding the shootout to break ties often point to that goal and the thrills it supplied. But Carl Lindros, Eric&rsquo;s father and agent, doesn&rsquo;t like the idea. &ldquo;The shootout is really a crapshoot,&rdquo; he said. I don&rsquo;t like to see any game decided that way. To a degree it&rsquo;s interesting, but it might be better if they played a five-minute overtime period and then played four-on-four for five minutes, then three-on-three for five minutes. Boston Globe hockey writer Kevin Dupont has a different plan. He would have no tie-breaker, but award no points to teams in the event of a draw. &ldquo;Teams would play differently in the final few minutes of the game,&rdquo; Dupont wrote. &ldquo;You might see both teams pull their goalie in an effort to get the winning goal because getting the tie wouldn&rsquo;t mean a thing.&rdquo;&hellip;Mighty Ducks of Anaheim coach Ron Wilson assured us before season&rsquo;s start that America&rsquo;s Team would be Canada&rsquo;s Team-playing an aggressive, Canadian brand of hockey. But nearly two months into the season, Anaheim had the second-fewest penalty minutes in the league. Nobody expected Tinkerbell to have such a huge impact. She annoints scorers with her magic wand on all replays of goals and her sense of fair play has evidently won over the team&hellip;If Philadelphia Flyer Mark Recchi were to win the scoring title, he would be the lowest-drafted player (67th overall in 1988) ever to capture the Art Ross Trophy. Bryan Trottier currently holds that distinction (22nd in 1974). Recchi, of course, would have to beat Wayne Gretzky, who was never drafted.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011576/6336716-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="370" height="368"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021406/6336709-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="389" height="595"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Wilson</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031180/6336702-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="912" height="1754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Lindros was a shootout hero two years ago, but his father is an opponent of shootouts.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04962/6336695-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="912" height="1760"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Oilers&rsquo; unwillingness to pay for quality led Adam Graves to Broadway, where he&rsquo;s a smash hit.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05780/6336688-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="390" height="600"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Joseph</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

Bonk blows top at Clarke

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editorin-Chief</div>Tensions ran high as the NHL officials&rsquo; strike made unwelcomed history.It became the third-longest work stoppage by officials in North American pro sports history as the strike edged into a third week.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think it would go this long,&rdquo; said Don Meehan, negotiator for the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association.A meeting between NHL and NHLOA executives on a new collective bargaining agreement was set for Nov. 30-Day 16 of the strike.That was two weeks too long for disgruntled players, but considerably short of past strikes by referees and umpires in the National Basketball Association (47 days) and Major League Baseball (45 days).One newspaper said another strike was being contemplated in the NHL-a one-day wildcat walkout by players to indicate their concern over the level of replacement officiating.League commissioner Gary Bettman, who consulted with NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Bob Goodenow, said he did not think that option was likely to be exercised.A long-term option for the league is to hire replacement officials on a permanent basis. They were being retained on a game-by-game basis.&ldquo;At some point, in order to get the best possible replacement officiating,&rdquo; Bettman said,&rdquo;we may have to consider what our other options are-hiring some people on a permanent basis.&ldquo;Not all of our best (replacement) officials are always available to us because of their other commitments. The only way to deal with that is to relieve them of their other commitments. I&rsquo;m not looking to do that in the short term. I&rsquo;m looking to bring back all of our striking officials.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the 58 striking referees and linesmen remained defiant.&ldquo;I feel like the mouse that roared,&rdquo; said veteran linesman Ron Asselstine. &ldquo;I feel that if we keep kicking (the NHL) in the shins, we&rsquo;re going to kick it in the groin one day.&rdquo;Meehan was more diplomatic.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve indicated that we&rsquo;re prepared to make concessions to arrive at a settlement,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not quite sure what the league expects from us now from a negotiating point of view, other than to totally submit to their position.&rdquo;Points of contention included term of agreement (the NHLOA wanted a three-year deal, the NHL a four-year), retroactivity (the NHLOA wanted the new deal to be in effect from season&rsquo;s start) and total dollars in a benefits package.They were at least $275,000 apart on the last issue. Meehan said the NHLOA had more than halved its demands that accounted for a $1.5-million difference in what officials wanted and the NHL was willing to pay.It was believed the new submission-out of which come such things as playoff bonuses, severance and retirement payments and pension benefits-left the two sides $600,000 apart.The NHL asked the association to submit a package that fell into a range of $0-325.000.Some people were incredulous the league let the situation fester over a relatively small amount of money. But Bettman said the league had already set aside more money than it considered reasonable.&ldquo;If you start at Venus and you wind up at the moon, it still means you&rsquo;re pretty far apart,&rdquo; Bettman said of the NHLOA positions.The commissioner was the focal point of officials&rsquo; bitterness.&ldquo;Ultimately he&rsquo;s my boss and if he comes into our dressing room after it&rsquo;s over, I&rsquo;ll respect him as commissioner Bettman,&rdquo; said veteran linesman Ron Asselstine. &ldquo;But he always insisted it was Gary before. From now on, he&rsquo;s Mr. Bettman.&rdquo;&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll have to call him Mr. Asselstine,&rdquo; Bettman said.Criticism of replacement officials, muted early in Week I, erupted in Week 2 as player dissatisfaction mounted. Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; enforcer Ken Baumgartner was among the most vocal.&ldquo;When the replacements first started, they were okay,&rdquo; Baumgartner told the Toronto Star. &ldquo;But there has been a big drop-off. These guys have no feel for the game. They don&rsquo;t know what to call or when to call it&hellip;I&rsquo;m taking all sorts of liberties I wouldn&rsquo;t normally take.&rdquo;At least one incident warranting punishment occurred during the first two weeks of the strike, a stickswinging-throwing incident between Denis Savard of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Steve Smith of the Chicago Blackhawks. Both were suspended four games.NHL vice-president Brian Burke said replacement officials were being judged by higher standards than the regular officials.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying that they&rsquo;re officiating at the same level as our contract officials,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;(But) I think they&rsquo;ve done a very competent, workmanlike job under difficult circumstances.&rdquo;Burke insisted the presence of replacements was not lowering the league&rsquo;s credibility. He said regular officials have also been subjected to fierce criticism from players and fans in recent years.Asselstine said there is a difference between jabs at regular officials and replacement workers.&ldquo;My brother and I are enemies, but my brother&rsquo;s enemy is my enemy,&rdquo; Asselstine said. &ldquo;Sure, if we screw up, the players are going to be on our case and so they should be because we&rsquo;re supposed to be the best in the world. But they realize that they&rsquo;re not dealing with the best in the world and they want us back.&rdquo;Hope a settlement might be reached arose out of consecutive meetings in Hartford and Buffalo, Nov. 21-22. But the officials left with an empty feeling after agreeing to scale back demands, but still not making headway.&ldquo;When the league rejected (the NHLOA proposal) and we got the kind of response we did,&rdquo; Meehan said,&rdquo;then I suspected we would be in fora long haul.&rdquo; &#9632;

Officials’ strike remains black-and-white issue

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky and Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Ray Bourque are the early leaders in balloting for the All-Star Game.Gretzky polled 47,741 votes for the Western Conference team through Nov. 24, while Bourque had 40,388 for the Eastern Conference.The NHL&rsquo;s 45th annual All-Star Game takes place Jan. 22, 1994 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011488/6336771-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="575" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Ray Bourque is a hit with fans.</figcaption></div>The fan balloting program began in all NHL arenas Nov. 1 and continues until Dec. 15. The 112 players on the ballot consist of 18 wingers, 10 centers, 10 goalies and 18 defensemen for each conference.There were some surprises. Eric Lindros led the balloting at center in the Eastern Conference, ahead of such stars as Mario Lemieux, Pat LaFontaine and Pierre Turgeon. Wendel Clark, the league&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer, wasn&rsquo;t even included on the ballot.The leading vote-getters at each position are listed below. (For a complete list, see page 33.)<h2>Western Conference</h2>C-Gretzky (46,741). W-Brett Hull. St. Louis (41,125); Teemu Selanne, Winnipeg (28,558). D-Chris Chelios, Chicago (33,266); Paul Coffey, Detroit (32,856). G-Felix Potvin, Toronto (41,097).<h2>Eastern Conference</h2>C-Lindros, Philadelphia (37,117). W-Alexander Mogilny, Buffalo (34,177); Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh (33,097). D-Bourque (40,388); Brian Leetch, Rangers (26,516). G-Patrick Roy, Montreal (36,885).RYAN STEPS DOWN: Steve Ryan resigned from his post as president of NHL Enterprises Inc., Nov. 23.Ryan has been the chief operating officer of NHL Enterprises for the past eight seasons. NHL senior vice-president Stephen Solomon assumes the title of acting president.SLOVAKIA TOPS: Slovakia&rsquo;s fledgling hockey program got a huge boost when the team won the Telehockey Cup pre-Olympic tournament in Lillehammer, Norway Nov. 21.Slovakia finished with a 3-0-2 record. The Canadian Olympians finished with a 4-1-0 record, but lost to the Slovaks 4-0 Nov. 18. Team USA finished third at 2-2-1, Norway fourth (2-2-1) and France fifth (0-5-0).VIKING CUP: The Czech Republic, Russian and Finnish national under-18 teams will be in Camrose, Alta., during the holiday season to take part in Viking Cup &rsquo;94.Expected to be with their national under-18 teams this year are top 1994 draft prospects right winger Vadim Sharifjanov and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky of Russia, defenseman Stanislav Neckar of the Czech Republic and center Jussi Tarvainen of Finland.Other teams participating in the Dec. 29 to Jan. 4 tournament are Vaes-tra Froelunda of Sweden, Augsberg University of Manitoba, the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Jr. League and the Augustana Vikings and Mount Royals Cougars of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.OBITUARY: Former NHL center Alexander (Bud) Cook died Nov. 13 after a lengthy illness. He was 85. Cook played from 1931-35 for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators and St. Louis Falcons. &#9632;

f0005-01

Gretzky, Bourque fans’ top choices

Fans of Wendel Clark and the Toronto Maple Leafs will have plenty of opportunity to see their favorite team this season.The Leafs are featured seven TSN contests from the beginning of December to the end of the season and 17 Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts.The following is a listing of hockey coverage on CBC&rsquo;s Hockey Night in Canada, TSN, ESPN. ESPN2, ABC and NBC.HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA: Dec. 4: NY Rangers at Toronto; Philadelphia at Calgary; Dec. 11: Washington at Montreal; Calgary at Toronto. Dec. 18: Detroit at Montreal: Los Angeles at Toronto. Jan. 1: Los Angeles at Toronto. Jan. 8: NY Islanders at Montreal; Vancouver at Toronto. Jan. 15: Florida at Montreal; Toronto at Winnipeg. Jan. 22: AllStar Game at New York. Jan. 29: Pittsburgh at Toronto; New Jersey at Vancouver. Jan. 30; Philadelphia at Montreal. Feb. 5: Montreal at Ottawa; Detroit at Toronto. Feb.12: Quebec at Montreal; Toronto at Calgary. Feb. 19: Pittsburgh at Montreal; Edmonton at Toronto. Feb. 26: Montreal at Toronto. March 5: Toronto at Quebec. March 6: Pittsburgh at Winnipeg. March 12: Philadelphia at Montreal: Winnipeg at Toronto March 19: Quebec at Montreal. Detroit at Winnipeg. March 20: Calgary at Toronto. March 26: Quebec at Toronto: Pittsburgh at Calgary. April 1: Winnipeg at Vancouver. April 2: Toronto at Anaheim; NY Islanders at Montreal. April 9: Pittsburgh at Montreal; Anaheim at Vancouver April 10: Winnipeg at Toronto.THE SPORTS NETWORK: Dec 6: Vancouver at Montreal. Dec. 13: Los Angeles at Ottawa. Dec. 20: Los Angeles at Calgary. Dec. 23&rsquo; Toronto at New Jersey. Dec. 27: Winnipeg at Edmonton. Jan. 3: Pittsburgh at Ottawa. Jan. 10: Toronto at Boston Jan. 17: Washington at Montreal. Jan. 19: Toronto at Hartford. Jan. 21: NHL All-Star Friday. Jan. 24: Montreal at Florida. Jan. 31. Quebec at Boston, Los Angeles at Vancouver. Feb. 7: Montreal at Pittsburgh. Feb. 14: NY Rangers at Quebec. Feb. 21: Toronto at Los Angeles Feb. 24: Winnipeg at Chicago. Feb. 28: Toronto at Ottawa; Montreal at Los Angeles. March 7: St. Louis at Toronto. Florida at Vancouver. March 14: Boston at Montreal. March 24: Montreal at Chicago. March 28: Ottawa at Montreal. April 4: Philadelphia at Winnipeg. April 11: Montreal at Hartford; Calgary at Anaheim. April 14: Toronto at Chicago.ABC: ABC will broadcast six regional games on the following dates: March 27, April 3, April 10 (regular season) and Apnl 17, Apni 24 and May 1. Teams were not decided at press time. ESPN: Games until Dec. 31: Dec. 14: Los Angeles at Pittsburgh. Dec. 21: Chicago at Detroit The rest of the ESPN schedule was not available at press time.ESPN2: Games until Dec. 31: Dec. 6: Vancouver at Montreal Dec. 8: Pittsburgh at Dallas. Dec. 9: TBA Dec. 13: TBA. Dec. 15: Chicago at Dallas. Dec. 16: Quebec at Philadelphia. Dec 20: Los Angeles at Calgary Dec. 22: NY Rangers at Flonda. Dec. 23: Pittsburgh at Boston. Dec. 28: Philadelphia at Pittsburgh. Dec. 29: NY Rangers at St. Louis. Dec. 30: Anaheim at Washington. The rest of the schedule was not available at press time.NBC: The 45th NHL All-Star Game is scheduled to be broadcast Saturday, Jan. 22. The game is at Madison Square Garden in New York City. &#9632;

NHL RADIO-TV DIRECTORY

The residents of Channel-Port-aux-Basques, Nfld., were very displeased with the remarks made by Bill McDougall of the Tampa Bay Lightning during a recent broadcast of Grapevine with Don Cherry.When Cherry asked him about his hockey days in Port-aux-Basques, MacDougall said he didn&rsquo;t want to talk about that place where &ldquo;everyone wore long rubber boots.&rdquo;We happen to be very proud of our fishing tradition and the fishermen and plant workers who wear long rubber boots.Those same people helped pay McDougall&rsquo;s wages in 1988-89 when he came to town as an unemployed hockey player and was signed by the Port-aux-Basques Mariners.If not for the exposure he got as a member of the Hardy Cup (Canadian Senior AA Hockey) champion Mariners, he might never have made it to the NHL.The people of this area opened their homes and extended their sincere hospitality to McDougall while he lived here and do not deserve his condescending attitude.Although McDougall is now playing in the NHL, he lacks some of the characteristics which make up a truly &ldquo;professional&rdquo; hockey player.Given his ungrateful nature he probably won&rsquo;t have a lengthy stay in any town or league.Kelvin Parsons, Port-aux-Basques, Nfld.<h2>Survival crucial</h2>In 1988, the National Football League&rsquo;s St. Louis Cardinals&rsquo; move to Phoenix, Ariz., devastated our city. We have scrambled ever since to recover from this avoidable harpooning.The presence and success of the Edmonton Oilers and the Canadian Football League&rsquo;s Edmonton Eskimos seals Edmonton&rsquo;s world-wide image as a big-league city.It is imperative the city council and Northlands Coliseum make the necessary financial sacrifices to ensure Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington does not move his team.While saving the Oilers will cost millions of dollars, the loss of the team and irreparable damage to the city&rsquo;s big-league image will cost untold billions.Gregory Pantazi, St. Louis, Mo.<h2>Not Hall material</h2>In another blatant example of The Hockey News&rsquo; Toronto bias, Mike Brophy had the nerve to reserve a spot in the Hall of Fame for Toronto Maple Leaf demi-god Doug Gilmour.Gilmour had a monster year last season with 127 points, won the Selke Trophy and made a run at the Conn Smythe Trophy.But that was one season. What has he done that merits Hall of Fame consideration? He has one Stanley Cup ring with a talent-rich Calgary Flames&rsquo; team and cracked the 40-goal and 100-point barrier only once prior to last year. He owns no scoring titles and has not been selected to the NHL&rsquo;s first all-star team.Had Gilmour accomplished the same things last season with the Winnipeg Jets or Hartford Whalers, Brophy would no doubt be singing another tune altogether.Annie Carlson, Long Beach, Calif.<h2>Ridiculous idea</h2>Shootouts to decide a tie hockey game is a great idea-for the minor leagues. For a major league such as the NHL, it is ridiculous.Consider how it would look if the other major leagues took similar action. What if NFL games were decided by a field goal kicking contest? How would it look if a National Basketball Association game was decided by foul shots or Major League baseball games by a home run contest?These may be entertaining, but they take away from the legitimacy of the game.If the NHL wants to be considered on a level with the other pro leagues, it must put the idea of a shootout to rest.Robert Kroeker, Lacombe, Alta.<h2>Hackett attack</h2>Chicago goalie Jeff Hackett&rsquo;s backhanded comments (THN, Oct. 22) regarding his former employer the San Jose Sharks, once again proves why he will never be a first-line NHL netminder.With San Jose, Hackett only occasionally displayed the maturity a quality goaltender needs to survive and win at the major league level. Should Hackett begin whining about his misfortunes in Chicago (bet on it) he will find Blackhawk fans a lot less forgiving than those who cheered him at the Cow Palace.Hackett thinks he can slam the Sharks as a &ldquo;prison&rdquo; now, but we in the Bay area have not forgotten San Jose gave him his first big break in the NHL.Bruce Iwamoto, Mountain View, Calif.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

McDougall needs to respect his past

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><h2>Shark points equal &rsquo;92-93</h2>1. San Jose Sharks, Third-year team already matched last season&rsquo;s point total-24.2. Paul Coffey. Detroit Red Wing defenseman scored goal, eight points in three games after dismal start.3. Colgate Red Raiders. Trailed Brown 5-1 after 57 minutes; won 6-5 in regulation time.4. Luc Robitaille. Six goals in two games more than doubled prior output for L.A. Kings&rsquo; left winger.5. Players of week. Arturs Irbe (3-0-0, 2.33 GAA) of Sharks; Jeff Reese (2-0-0,0.48) of Hartford.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021135/6336881-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="582" height="756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Luc Robitaille</figcaption></div><h2>Oilers&rsquo; move not too slick</h2>1. Edmonton Oilers. Made coach Ted Green fall guy for team&rsquo;s dismal performance.2. Chris Kontos. No goals in first eight games with Canadian Olympic Team.3. Newmarket Royals. Worst team in Canadian Hockey 1-eague certain to move after season.4. Nice try. Denis Savard-don&rsquo;t pawn stick swinging incident off on replacement officials.5. Panther warmups. Florida lost Joe Cirella and Dave Lowry in pre-game warmup mishaps. &#9632;

f0006-02

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011575/6336912-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stephane Richer admits he probably partied too much when he was in Montreal.</figcaption></div>New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach Jacques Lemaire is a cautious man, so when his comments reached the game&rsquo;s first star, Stephane Richer allowed himself a smile.The right winger had just scored two goals and set up another as the Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3.The choice of Richer as first star was obvious. For one night, all the promise had congealed into a dazzling performance. His skating was powerful. He moved the puck with confidence, sometimes finessing it past checkers, sometimes blowing past Sabres, reducing them to pedestrians trying to hail a cab. He hit a bit, pressured on the penalty kill and converted his only two chances of the night.&ldquo;That,&rdquo; Lemaire said,&rdquo;was the best game I&rsquo;ve ever seen Stephane Richer play.&rdquo;Lemaire, as a member of the Canadiens&rsquo; front office, witnessed more than 250 of Richer&rsquo;s games, including two 50-goal seasons. But this stopover in the middle of a road trip on a Wednesday night in Buffalo was a high-water mark.&ldquo;He was good defensively, he played physically,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;You can see the confidence he has.&rdquo;Confidence not vanity, the fool&rsquo;s gold version of selfesteem, has often eluded Richer.He buckled under the mantle of deity he inherited in Montreal as a Francophone star and watched as Kirk Muller, the player he was traded to New Jersey for in 1991, led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup. Muller is everything Richer was not. A homebody and father of twin girls. Muller possesses a game built on grit, not glitz. He played hurt, seemingly without effect, and last year&rsquo;s championship cemented Muller&rsquo;s reputation as the consummate pro.Richer&rsquo;s goal total fell to 31 from 51 in his final year and he was dogged by media reports.&ldquo;There were rumors that I was on cocaine, and that I was gay. The people who knew me knew it wasn&rsquo;t true,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;It got to be a joke.&rdquo;Only Richer wasn&rsquo;t laughing. He tried to get by partying a little harder. Despite the efforts of teammates, specifically Guy Carbonneau. to rein him in, Richer never learned there was no lasting solace to be had at closing time.In his first year in New Jersey, he struggled under coach Tom McVie, but still managed 29 goals. His knees hurt, but not nearly as much as the suspicion, both inside and outside the organization he would not play hurt. He was young, wealthy, famous and never more miserable in his life. He toyed with the idea of retirement.Many factors have helped Richer&rsquo;s game evolve. Former Devils&rsquo; coach Herb Brooks liked him, gave him plenty of ice time and implemented an offensive system that allowed Richer to do the things that came naturally. Richer responded with 38 goals, his best total in four years.Lemaire, whom Richer admires tremendously, and assistant coach Larry Robinson, Richer&rsquo;s first NHL roommate and a current Devils&rsquo; assistant coach and confidant, built on those successes.But the fundamental architect of his resurgence. Richer said, is God.Richer was raised a Roman Catholic in the small Quebec town of Ripon. He was an altar boy who served four or five times a week. &ldquo;My Dad always told me, &lsquo;Some day, God will repay you for what you did,&rsquo;&rdquo; Richer said.One morning, Richer called in God&rsquo;s marker.&ldquo;I got down on my knees at the front of my bed and I said. &lsquo;Jesus, I need your help. I&rsquo;ve got everything I wanted, but all I ever do is complain. I want to enjoy my life.&rsquo;&rdquo;Richer and God have been inseparable since. He prays when he wakes up, before he goes to sleep and before a game. He doesn&rsquo;t pray for victory, he asks God to protect those around him. Richer said God didn&rsquo;t make him a better player, just a better person. The rest took care of itself.At 27, Richer remains an impatient man. often overly critical of his own play.Richer made $862,000 last season and was in line for a 15 per-cent raise. But he wanted more than a one-year pact and negotiated a three-year deal for about $800,000 per season without the help of his former agen. Don Meehan.He was so exasperated with his play in the first 20 games, he threatened to pull himself out of the lineup. This came at a time when Devils&rsquo; watchers said he was the team&rsquo;s best player.But those moves turned out to be glitches along the way to a fine season.Richer has no bitterness over his past, only a little regret. Canadiens&rsquo; general manager Serge Savard did everything he could for him. Richer said. He admires Muller. but points out the team Muller inherited was far better than the one Richer found in Jersey.Now the trade doesn&rsquo;t seem so one-sided.The Devils are moving among the league&rsquo;s elite. He may not score 50 goals again, but Richer is back and perhaps better than ever.&lsquo;I was young, just a kid in Montreal,&rdquo; Richer reflected. &ldquo;Trade me back to Montreal tonight, and see what happens.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

REBORN

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Michael Ulmer</div>New York Ranger Mike Gartner has made no secret of his Christianity.&ldquo;There have been enough articles written about my faith,&rdquo; Gartner said,&rdquo;but I&rsquo;ll tell anyone that has been the key to my success. I rely on the Lord for strength.&rdquo;But somehow, Gartner&rsquo;s greatness, achieved partly in the media capital of the world, has been accomplished with little fanfare. Gartner, 34, will soon pass one of his two idols, Bobby Hull, on the all-time goal-scoring list.Gartner entered the season with 583 career goals, sixth on the all-time list and one place below Hull&rsquo;s 610. Gartner halved the 27-goal margin between him and Hull by scoring 13 goals in the Rangers&rsquo; first 22 games and will almost certainly extend his NHL record with his 15th consecutive 30-or-more goal season.Were he to keep up that pace, he would pass Hull in the team&rsquo;s 46th game, the Rangers&rsquo; only visit to the Chicago Stadium. The Blackhawks move out of the 65-year-old Stadium after the season.&ldquo;Bobby Hull was a player I always followed,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;For some reason I liked the Blackhawks when I was growing up, even though my family were all Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; fans.&rdquo;That didn&rsquo;t stop Gartner, who has also played for the Washington Capitals and Minnesota North Stars, from following a less likely idol-Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; mucker Gary Domhoefer. Gartner blew by Domhoefer&rsquo;s career total of 214 goals in his sixth season. Nine years later, the mark of a far greater icon is at hand.&ldquo;The impact of the record is something I won&rsquo;t understand until after my career is over,&rdquo; Gartner said,&rdquo;but breaking it in Chicago would be neat.&rdquo; &#9632;

Faithful Gartner nears mark

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>When Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers compared left winger John LeClair to Pittsburgh Penguin Kevin Stevens last season, the guffaws were endless.But LeClair and Demers had the last laugh. LeClair was an integral part of the Canadiens&rsquo; championship team. He was a physical force in the comers and in front of the net, while scoring twice in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup final.Five months later, LeClair again is being compared to a Stevens-Connie. The rugged 6-foot-2, 205-pound left winger has had a sluggish start with just one goal and three assists in 15 games.Demers is very disappointed with LeClair&rsquo;s play and can&rsquo;t understand why his playoff success hasn&rsquo;t carried over.&ldquo;I was looking for him to come back and benefit from the accolades, the ice time and everything else,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I had him penciled in as a big-time player on this team.&rdquo;LeClair spoke up at a players-only meeting following a 9-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Nov. 24 and confessed his sins.He admitted he wasn&rsquo;t playing to expectations but denied it had anything to do with his contract status. He is currently in his option year.&ldquo;It (his disappointing play) is no secret. I wasn&rsquo;t telling anyone earthshattering news,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The whole playoff I felt I played well. I had expectations of coming back and performing at the same level, but it&rsquo;s just not there.&rdquo;BACKING THE BACK-UP: The Canadiens continue to support backup goaltender Andre Racicot.Racicot returned from strained knee ligaments in the 9-2 loss against the Flyers. He allowed four goals on the first six shots and it was downhill from there.He was removed after two periods, during which time he allowed eight goals on 18 shots. He surrendered 13 goals in three games and had a woeful 5.61 goals-against average. His save percentage was.790.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the team quit onAndre Racicot,&rdquo; said Jacques Demers,&rdquo;and I don&rsquo;t think he should be singled out. He played well last year. This was his first game in six weeks.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Rob Ramage was traded to the Flyers Nov. 28 for future considerations. The 34-year-old veteran was the Canadiens&rsquo; eighth defenseman on a team that routinely dresses six per game. It was obvious his position had become redundant. He appeared in just six games for Montreal this season, picking up one assist. Ramage, who was earning $400,000 U.S., was traded to the Canadiens last March by the Tampa Bay Lightning for Eric Charron, Alain Cote and future considerations, which turned out being Donald Dufresne. The Flyers are Ramage&rsquo;s eighth team.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: Lyle Odelein, D. suspended one game by NHL after receiving third game misconduct this season. Eligible to return Dec. 1. Nov. 26: Donald Brashear, LW, assigned to Fredericton (AHL). Nov. 27: Rob Ramage, D, traded to Philadelphia for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kirk Muller. Paul DiPietro. Ron Wilson. Guy Carbonneau.LW&mdash;John LeClair, Gilbert Dionne. Vincent Damphousse, Pierre Sevigny. Mario Roberge.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Mike Keane. Benoit Brunet. Ed Ronan.LD&mdash;Kevln Haller. Mathieu Schneider, J. J. Daigneault.RD&mdash;Eric Desjardins, Patrice Brise-bois.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Andre Racicot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Bellows, RW, bruised ribs, indefinite Stephan Lebeau, C, sprained right ankle, indefinite. Peter Popovic, D, strained right knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

LeClair’s sluggish start growing concern for Demers

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>Ottawa Senators&rsquo; defenseman Norm Maciver is feeling better after taking time off to rest his bruised heart.Rest is the latest remedy being tried by the team&rsquo;s medical staff to heal Maciver&rsquo;s bruised ventricle. He sustained the injury Oct. 1, when he was hit by a stick in an exhibition game against the Canadian Olympic team. He played 16 games, but was forced out of the lineup after complaining of shortness of breath.The injury has been frustrating for Maciver and a puzzle for medical staff treating him since there is no precedent for this type of injury to an elite athlete, said Conrad Lackten, the Senators&rsquo; medical trainer.&ldquo;The doctors have encountered it in people who have been in car accidents, but those people don&rsquo;t notice it because they&rsquo;re not stressing themselves like an elite athlete,&rdquo; Lackten said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like resting a leg or a shoulder where the muscle does nothing. You can put an arm in a sling, but your heart is always working. It&rsquo;s going to take extra time to get better.&rdquo;Maciver has suffered from a lack of energy all season. His most effective game came Nov. 3 against the Edmonton Oilers which was preceded by three non-game days, leading doctors to believe rest could be the answer.Lackten added Maciver doesn&rsquo;t endanger himself by playing with the injury.&ldquo;(It&rsquo;s fine to play) but he&rsquo;s not playing up to his potential,&rdquo; Lackten said. &ldquo;His body can go like a mad man, but the heart is a step behind.&rdquo;The Senators hoped to have Maciver back in the lineup as early as Dec. 1 against the Montreal Canadiens.REALITY CHECK: Alexei Yashin met with coach Rick Bowness after the rookie&rsquo;s good friend, Dmitri Filimonov, was assigned to the Senators&rsquo; American League franchise in Prince Edward Island Nov. 23.Yashin and Filimonov are the only Russians on the team and were teammates last year with Moscow Dynamo of the Russian elite league.The two Russians spend much of their free time time together, particularly on the road.Bowness wanted to make sure Yashin understood the reasoning behind the move.&ldquo;I understand it, but I can&rsquo;t do nothing about it,&rdquo; Yashin said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the coach and the GM&rsquo;s decision, who will play and who will not. These are not my questions.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Forget trash talk. The dialogue between the Senators and Buffalo Sabres after their game Nov. 29 sounded more like Siskel and Ebert. In that game, Ottawa defenseman Dennis Vial brushed by the Sabres bench with his elbow raised, prompting Buffalo coach-general manager John Muckier to claim Vial&rsquo;s move was right out of the hit movie Slapshot. Said Vial: &ldquo;Slapshot was a good movie.&rdquo; Senators&rsquo; GM Randy Sexton also joined the fray. &ldquo;Whoever said that play is out of Slapshot hasn&rsquo;t seen the movie,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the greatest overstatement since Richard Nixon said, &lsquo;I am not a crook.&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Radek Hamr, D, and Hank Lammens, 0, recalled from P.E.I. (AHL). Dmitri Filimonov, D. assigned to P.E.I. Nov. 25: Graeme Townshend, RW, recalled from P.E.I. Robert Burakovsky, RW. assigned to P.E.I.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Alexandre Daigle Alexei Yashin, Mark Lamb.LW&mdash;Vladimir Ruzicka, Dave McLI-wsin, Troy Maliette, Dercy Loewen. Kekalainen, Graeme Townshend.LD&mdash;Radek Hamr, Hank Lammens, Darren Rumble, Dennis Vial.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw, Brian Glynn, GordG&mdash;Darrin Madeley, Craig Billington.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Archibald, RW, separated left shoulder indefinite Pavol Demitra, RW. broken right ankle, day-to-day. Norm Maciver, D, bruised heart day.to day Sylvain Turgeon, LW, broken left arm, indefinite. &#9632;

Doctors hoping more rest will mend Maciver’s heart

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011566/6337036-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="970" height="291"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03736/6337029-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="774" height="244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04501/6337022-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="723" height="304"></div>Personnel and execution are critical factors in power play success but youth hockey teams should be able to capitalize on one of hockey&rsquo;s most intimidating weapons.The most basic power-play systems in college hockey are variations of what is called the &ldquo;overload system&rdquo;. Clarkson University coach Mark Morris, whose teams are renowned as masters of the man advantage, says they are adaptable to minor hockey.&ldquo;You want to have a guy somewhere down below the goal line to one side of the net or behind the net,&rdquo; Morris said. &lsquo;Then, preferably you have a winger on the hash marks or near the boards, a defenseman at the blueline near the boards, the other defenseman directly in front of the net but back at the blueline and the fifth player is a weak side player who is either in front of the net or off the top of the far circle.&rdquo;This &ldquo;overload formation&rdquo; creates manpower superiority on the strong side while leaving the threat of a trigger man on the far side.After setup, the player below the goal line has the option of playing catch with the forward on the boards.&ldquo;The guy below can step out from behind the net if that option is open or he can rotate with the man on the boards who would enter the inside of the defensive box. He also can continue the cycle and go below the goal line. The other player is on the opposite side of the elliptical shape you&rsquo;re trying to create.&rdquo;These two players are excellent stickhandlers and their role is to create motion.Morris maintains there are a number of additional options open to the player behind the goal line with the puck.&ldquo;He can step out and look for the off side forward coming to the goalmouth for a tap-in pass or he can step out and feed a defenseman who is trying to sneak in the back door,&rdquo; Morris said.The six-year Clarkson coach afeo likes to work in the high rotation from the overload formation.&ldquo;You send the defenseman from the center of the ice down through the slot and have the trigger man come back and fill his spot which is in the high rotation,&rdquo; Morris said. &ldquo;You can usually collapse the defenders&rsquo; box by sending somebody down the middle. Then you get the puck to the guy who is filling his spot and that would be the trigger man.Because of the limited ice time in youth hockey, Morris suggests trying a very basic system with learning progression components.Youngsters should be able to overload the scoreboard with power-play goals too!<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021170/6337015-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="562" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Morris</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0010-01

COACHING TIP OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>For Dale Hawerchuk, leadership isn&rsquo;t a question of what letter he wears on his sweater.It&rsquo;s a case of what he does on the ice.The Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; alternate captain stepped to the forefront after Pat LaFontaine sustained a tom anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.Hawerchuk scored seven goals in six straight games leading the Sabres to a 4-1-1 record.He also had three points in a 6-0 win Nov. 19 against his old team, the Winnipeg Jets, giving him 300 points in just over three seasons as a Sabre.The 30-year-old center had 10 multiple-point games and was within three of equalling his goal total for last season (16). He had 28 points in 23 games.Hawerchuk&rsquo;s effort dispelled rumors the veteran was unhappy that right winger Alexander Mogilny was named to replace LaFontaine as team captain.&ldquo;I like it this way,&rdquo; Hawerchuk said. &ldquo;I know my role and I think what they did is good for Alex and good for the team. I&rsquo;ve been a captain before (in Winnipeg). I know what that&rsquo;s like, but this is new for Alex and it&rsquo;s a good opportunity for him.&ldquo;The important thing is we all know our roles on the team and we execute our responsibilities.&rdquo;FUHR INJURED: Goaltender Grant Fuhr missed a Nov. 26 game against the Ottawa Senators after sustaining a knee injury.The club issued a news release saying Fuhr had problems with swelling in his right knee, but the goalie said it was his left, the same knee that troubled him last season when he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;It has been pretty cranky since last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I get hit on it enough times, it gets a soft spot and it gets tender.&rdquo;Fuhr said the problem stems from the heavy workload he has taken since he underwent an arthroscopic procedure last season. He appeared in 58 games, 29 with the Leafs and 29 with Buffalo. He then started eight consecutive playoff games and appeared in 16 games this season.&ldquo;I never let it heal properly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When it was inflamed I&rsquo;d sit a few days and then go play again. It&rsquo;s no one&rsquo;s fault but my own.&rdquo;Fuhr was sidelined on a day-to-day basis.NOTEBOOK: The Sabres still weren&rsquo;t sure when center Pat LaFontaine would undergo reconstructive knee surgery. Some reports suggested LaFontaine is looking to go outside the organization, perhaps to New York, Los Angeles or Denver to have the operation done.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Markus Ketterer. G, recalled from Rochester (AHL). Nov 24: Doug Macdonald, C, assigned to Rochester.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Derek Plante, Bob Sweeney. Dave Hannan.LW&mdash;Yuri Khymlev. Randy Wood. Brad May. Rob Ray.RW&mdash;Alexander Mogilny, Donald Au-dette, Wayne Presley. Scott Thomas.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Richard Smehlik. Petr Svoboda, Randy Moller.RD&mdash;Ken Sutton, Craig Muni, Gord Donnelly. Philippe Boucher.G&mdash;Dominik Hasek, Markus Ketterer.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Grant Fuhr, G, sore left knee, day-to-day. Pat LaFontaine. C, tom anterior cruciate ligament in right knee, out for season. Sergei Petrenko. RW, strained groin, day-to-day Denis Tsygurov, D. severe Charley horse, indefinite. &#9632;

Not wearing captain’s ‘C’ doesn’t bother Hawerchuk

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>The name and number on the sweater were the same, but this was a much different John Blue.The Boston Bruins&rsquo; backup goaltender, known as &ldquo;Surfin&rsquo; John&rdquo; both for his off-season hobby and his acrobatic style, is attempting to transform into a standup specialist.Blue showed off his new style Nov. 26 against the expansion Florida Panthers and was brilliant. He made 40 saves in a 3-2 victory and played well in a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs two nights later.The split left Blue with a 3-3-1 record in seven starts, but his goals-against average was an excellent 2.60.Blue saved the Bruins against the Panthers, a game that may have been Boston&rsquo;s worst of the year. The 42 shots Blue faced were the most given up by the Bruins in 23 games.&ldquo;I was glad to get a lot of work, though,&rdquo; Blue said. &ldquo;If I can get involved in the game early, play the puck and be aggressive, it seems to get me right into the game.&rdquo;Blue did have to made a few of his trademark diving, sprawling saves that day, but for the most part he made sure he was where he had to be ahead of time.&ldquo;It felt good,&rdquo; he said,&rdquo;because even on some of the shots I didn&rsquo;t see, I was in the right position for them to hit me. It&rsquo;s something I try to work on all the time in practice, because you can&rsquo;t really experiment in games. This time I felt I did it well.&rdquo;Blue, 27, knows he&rsquo;s the No. 2 man in Boston behind starter Jon Casey and understands why. But he&rsquo;s doing everything he can to become dependable enough to be considered for a No. 1 job someday.&ldquo;My style is something I need to work on to get to the next level,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Before, I was flopping around and usually all over the place. It&rsquo;s tough to play that way because you&rsquo;re usually not ready for the second or third shot. Now, if I can be more in position before the shot, I can just let it hit me and be in the right spot to make any other saves.&rdquo;JOLTIN&rsquo; JOE: Left winger Joe Juneau returned to the lineup Nov. 26 after missing six games with a fractured jaw.The 25-year-old was expected to miss a month because of the in-jury-which required surgery-but was back in 20 days.He picked up two assists in his first game back, the 3-2 win over the Panthers.He is wearing a specially designed helmet to protect the jaw, similar to the one Buffalo Sabre Pat LaFontaine wore when he broke his jaw two years ago.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Cam Neely missed three games following the death of his father. Mike Neely, who battled cancer for several years, was visiting his son&rsquo;s suburban Boston home when he passed away Nov. 21. Neely was expected to return to the lineup Nov. 30 against the Nordiques in Quebec&hellip;The Bruins and Larry Kelly, Joe Juneau&rsquo;s agent, had preliminary discussions about a new contract. Juneau enters his option year next season.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Andrew McKim. C, recalled from Providence (AHL). Nov. 25: McKim and Sergei Zholtok. C, assigned to Providence. Nov. 26: Darren Banks. LW, recalled from Providence. Nov. 29: Banks assigned to Providence.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates. Bryan Smolinski, Jozef Stumpel. Ted Donato.LW&mdash;Joe Juneau, Dave Reid, Brent Hughes, Darren Banks. Cam Stewart.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Steve Leach, Steve Heinze. Glen Murray, Dmitri Kvartalnov.LD&mdash;Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Gord Roberts.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, David Shaw, Paul Stanton, Glen Featherstone.G&mdash;Jon Casey. John Blue.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Daniel Marois, LW. left shoulder surgery, indefinite. Cam Neely, RW. sore left knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Blue changes his tune

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>In a span of a few games, Mike McKee advanced from &lsquo;Mike Who?&rsquo; to a regular on the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; defense corps.The 24-year-old Princeton graduate has taken the fast course to the NHL. He split his rookie pro season last year between the Greensboro Monarchs of the East Coast League and Halifax Citadels of the American League.McKee was the first overall selection in the 1990 supplemental draft after a solid sophomore season at Princeton. He scored 12 goals and 29 points in 27 games as a senior. Then came his rocky rookie pro season.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t one of (Halifax coach) Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s favorites,&rdquo; McKee said. &ldquo;I respected Doug for his knowledge, but he was a coach who preferred to use the older guys. Young guys are in the minors to learn. But we can&rsquo;t learn if we sit on the press box night after night.&rdquo;The 6-foot-3, 203 pounder was the player in the best physical condition at Quebec&rsquo;s training camp.McKee was recalled from the Cornwall Aces of the AHL Nov. 2 and had one assist in six games before being returned. He was recalled Nov. 22 and scored his first goal Nov. 25 against the Los Angeles Kings.He has surprised everyone with his poise and skating skills. He has an above average shot and is very coachable. &ldquo;As long as he keeps producing like he&rsquo;s doing, he&rsquo;ll keep playing,&rdquo; said coach Pierre Page.McKee can also speak French.&ldquo;I took French as a second language in Princeton,&rdquo; he said.ALL IN PLACE: The Nordiques and defenseman Alexei Gusarov came to terms on a new contract.Gusarov was playing out the option year of his first contract which was paying $230,000. Pierre Page has said Gusarov is the team&rsquo;s best defenseman. Steven Finn, Curtis Les-chyshyn, Craig Wolanin and Kerry Huffman are all making significantly more.Gusarov&rsquo;s new contract is reported to be in the $600,000 range.NOTEBOOK: Pierre Page is not happy with Andrei Kovalenko&rsquo;s conditioning. &ldquo;He is carrying six pounds too many,&rdquo; Page said. Kovalenko was sat out two games&hellip;Goalie Garth Snow came to terms Nov. 27. Snow played his first game with Cornwall Nov. 28, a 2-1 win over the Moncton Hawks.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Chris Lindberg. LW. assigned to Cornwall (AHL). Mike McKee. D, and Ed Ward. RW. recalled from Cornwall. Nov. 27: Alexei Gusarov, D. agreed to to multi-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, lain Fraser.LW&mdash;Chris Simon, Valen Kamensky, Claude Lapointe, Martin Rudnsky, Tony Twist.RW&mdash;Andrei Kovalenko, David Karpe Scott Young, Ed Ward, Paul MacDermid.LD&mdash;Steven Finn, Alexei Gusarov, Curtis Leschyshyn.RD&mdash;Kerry Huffman, Craig Wolanin. Adam Foote. Mike McKee.G&mdash;Jacques Cloutier. Jocelyn Thibault.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Fiset, G, herniated disc, indefinite. Martin Gelinas, LW, separated left shoulder, indefinite. Paul MacDermid, RW, back sprain, day-to-day Owen Nolan, RW, left shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Unknown McKee graduates to become blueline regular

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>Goaltender Jeff Reese was red hot in his first week with the Hartford Whalers.The 27-year-old Brantford, Ont. native was superb in his Whalers&rsquo; debut Nov. 23 against the Florida Panthers, leading the team to a 2-1 overtime win.Unfortunately, Reese was hospitalized for two hours the next day for dehydration.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little embarrassed,&rdquo; said Reese, who was acquired from the Calgary Flames Nov. 18 for defenseman Dan Keczmer and a conditional draft pick. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve practised hard, but I just wasn&rsquo;t in game shape.&rdquo;Coach Pierre McGuire was hesitant to use Reese against the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 24, but put him back in net when the Whalers hosted Florida Nov. 27.He responded with 31 saves in a 40 win, his fourth career shutout and the first by a Whalers&rsquo; goalie since Kay Whitmore beat the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 on March 13, 1992.The Whalers had gone 118 games without a shutout. In his first two games in Hartford, Reese was 2-0-0 with a 0.48 goals-against average.&ldquo;Reese is a smart positional goalie,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a battler who is not afraid to go out and handle the puck and control the game. Great goalies like (Tom) Barrasso, (John) Vanbiesbrouck, (Mike) Richter and (Patrick) Roy do that.&rdquo;Reese was stuck behind veteran Mike Vernon in Calgary and the Flames also had youngsters Trevor Kidd, Andrei Trefilov and Jason Muzzatti.He had started just one game for the Flames this season and lasted 13 minutes before a minor injury knocked him out. He hadn&rsquo;t played until the trade.The Flames had trouble trading Reese, because of a poor finish in the playoffs last season. He had 144-1 record and 3.20 GAA during the regular season, but allowed 13 goals on 39 shots in the final two games of the Flames&rsquo; first-round series loss to the Los Angeles Kings.The Whalers were desperate for goaltending help because of injuries to Sean Burke and Mario Gosselin, and an inconsistent season from Frank Pietrangelo.ON TRACK: The Whalers are confident second-year center Michael Nylander has returned to the form he showed late last season.The 21-year-old Swedish center finished the year with 14 points in the final eight games, but had just one goal and four assists in his first 16 games this season.He seemed to turn things around, however, in games against the Florida teams. He had a goal and assist in a 2-1 win over the Panthers Nov. 23, then was the Whalers&rsquo; best in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning the next day.NOTEBOOK: The Whalers set an NHL record with nine overtime losses last season. But the 2-1 overtime win over Florida pushed their overtime record this year to 2-0-2.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Robert Petrovicky, C. and Al Pedersen, D, assigned to Springfield (AHL). Mike Lenarduzzi, G, recalled from Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Andrew Cassels, Michael Nyland-er, Darren Turcotte. Mark Janssens.LW&mdash;Geoff Sanderson. Jim Storm. Brian Prapp, Randy Cunneyworth.RW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, Robert Kron, Mark Greig, Marc Potvin.LD&mdash;Adam Burt, Bryan Marchmerit, Chris Pronger.RD&mdash;Zarley Zalapski, James Patrick. Brad McCrimmon. Bob McGill.G&mdash;Jeff Reese. Mike Lenarduzzi.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Sean Burke, G, pulled left hamstring, day-to-day. Mario Gosselin, G. damaged left knee ligament, indefinite. Jim McKenzie, LW, broken toe, day-to-day. Frank Pietrangelo, G, back strain. Indefinite. Jim Sandlak, RW, broken right foot, day-to-day &#9632;

Reese hot stuff in debut

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>It wasn&rsquo;t a record-breaking performance by any means.But Larry Murphy&rsquo;s 646th career assist in a 2-2 tie with the Ottawa Senators Nov. 27 was significant to him.&ldquo;After I&rsquo;m done playing, it will be something I&rsquo;ll always cherish,&rdquo; he said.It&rsquo;s easy to understand why.That assist moved the 32-year-old into sixth place on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time list for defensemen, one spot ahead of Bobby Orr. Murphy, like so many players his age, grew up in awe of Orr, who rewrote the job description of defensemen.Murphy&rsquo;s immense respect for Orr was evident in the way he discussed getting No. 646 and in how he stressed that no one should read too much into their respective totals.&ldquo;Bobby Orr was probably the greatest defenseman to play the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;By no means do I (measure) myself equally with him.&ldquo;But still, when you&rsquo;re able to have your name in the same sentence as Bobby Orr, that&rsquo;s something I take as a true compliment. It&rsquo;s something I never dreamed I could possibly do when I started this game.&rdquo;Murphy&rsquo;s teammates understood what it meant for him to move past Orr on the assists list.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tremendous accomplishment for Murph, to be in the same galaxy, if you want to call it that, as Bobby Orr,&rdquo; said center Bryan Trottier, one of the few active NHL players who played against Orr. &ldquo;It makes his accomplishment that much more incredible.&rdquo;Murphy is not inclined toward selfpromotion and talked about his assist total as if it were the inevitable byproduct of his offense-oriented style and a lengthy career.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011437/6337163-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="575" height="723"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Murphy has immense respect for his idol, Bobby Orr.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tribute to my longevity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The style I play obviously helps me put up good numbers. And this is my 14th year.&rdquo;Murphy is one of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s most valuable players. He doesn&rsquo;t have a particularly high profile among fans, but his teammates and coaches appreciate his value and importance.&ldquo;You take Murph for granted a lot of the time, but every year he piles up the points,&rdquo; said coach Ed Johnston.Murphy had 21 of those-six goals, 15 assists-in his first 25 games. But he had been in an assist drought before the Ottawa game, going nearly two weeks without one before recording two in the game against the Senators.&ldquo;I had a little dry spell,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s finally over with, so I don&rsquo;t have to worry about that anymore.&rdquo;WREGGET IS READY: With Tom Barrasso sidelined by a mysterious hip problem-one that an MRI and bone scan failed to identify-the Penguins turned their goaltending duties over to Ken Wregget.He responded superbly.Wregget went 1-0-3 in the first four games Barrasso missed, allowing just 11 goals in that span.&ldquo;He has proven his whole career he&rsquo;s a goalie who can come in and play,&rdquo; said defenseman Peter Taglianetti. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have any qualms about having Kenny do the job.&rdquo;They shouldn&rsquo;t. Wregget was 6-23 and opened December with an unbeaten streak that stretched back to Oct. 14.&ldquo;Kenny has been great all year,&rdquo; Rick Tocchet said. &ldquo;He has been the ultimate backup goalie.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Mike Needham, who sat out 12 of 13 games because of what the Penguins called a strained back, underwent surgery to repair a herniated disc Nov. 26. He is not expected to to return to the lineup until late January&hellip;The Penguins tied three of their final four games in November and entered the month of December with a six-game unbeaten streak (30-3).<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Ed Patterson. RW. and Greg Andrusak, D, assigned to Cleveland (IHL). Nov. 23: Roberto Romano, G, recalled from Cleveland.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis. Martin Straka, Bryan Trottier. Mike Stapleton.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Markus Naslund, Doug Brown, Jeff Daniels.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr. Joe Mullen.LD&mdash;Ulf Samuelsson, Jim Paek, Grant JenningsRD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Kjell Samuelsson, Patrick Neaton. Peter Taglianettl.G&mdash;Ken Wregget. Roberto Romano.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tom Barrasso, G, injured left hip, day-to-day. Mario Lemieux. C, back rehabilitation, indefinite Marty McSorley. D, sprained ankle, day-to-day. Mike Needham, RW, back surgery, indefinite. Mike Ramsey, D, broken toe, day to day. &#9632;

f0013-01

Murphy moves ahead of Orr, but says they’re not equals

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011517/6337201-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="386" height="536"></div>A truly curious reunion has been ended by the call of a greater Reunion. For how long is up to Dallas Stars&rsquo; general manager Bob Gainey.Ken Hitchcock and Rob Brown were together again in Kalamazoo, Mich., until Brown was unexpectedly recalled by the Stars, who play at Reunion Arena.Hitchcock and Brown are the overweight coach and underachieving player. They are old friends/enemies who enjoyed their time together this season. It&rsquo;s a good thing because this separation may only be temporary.Brown has an enormous challenge ahead of him-to prove he belongs in a faster, higher, stronger league than the International League. If he makes it, Hitchcock deserves credit for helping turn around one of the game&rsquo;s better offensive forces.Hitchcock is now &ldquo;in the business of resurrecting careers.&rdquo; Brown is hoping to come back from the dead.Almost 10 years ago, Hitchcock and Brown waged a battle of wills in Kamloops.Hitchcock was banished to the minors during the summer after three years as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers. His demise can be traced to the Flyers&rsquo; inept special teams and his role as heavy (no pun intended) on the coaching staff. His act wore thin (none there, either).Brown, who once scored 49 goals playing with Mario Lemieux, was bought out by the Chicago Blackhawks last season. He signed a two-year deal with the Stars during the off-season.Both men are trying to exorcise demons that have haunted them.Hitchcock, 41, insists Brown is a changed man. Brown, 25, works in practice, he goes hard for loose pucks and pays attention to conditioning. Hitchcock, meanwhile, continues his quest to be half the man he used to be. Once a 400-pound eating machine, Hitchcock is down to 260 and said he won&rsquo;t stop eating rabbit food until he&rsquo;s down to 200.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t look 100 per-cent normal, but at least I look semi-normal,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;Now I can look in the mirror and feel good about myself.&rdquo;The Wings are in first place in the Atlantic Division and Brown was leading the IHL in scoring before his recall.&ldquo;Rob still has a ways to go, but his biggest challenge is to change the image people have of him,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about trust and understanding. You have to earn the right for someone to trust you, not just me or Bob Gainey, but everyone in the NHL.&rdquo;Over the last two seasons, Brown watched more hockey than he played. They were dark times, even for a free spirit.&ldquo;For the first time in my life, I started thinking about retiring,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;I let people tell me I wasn&rsquo;t good enough and I let it get to me. I wasn&rsquo;t even playing and I was still getting trashed in the papers.&rdquo;Having Hitchcock in Kalamazoo helped Brown. Their close friendship is bom of a love-hate relationship that began in 1984 when Hitchcock came to coach the Kamloops Blazers of the Western League. Hitchcock moved Brown from defense to forward and demanded discipline. The two saw eye-to-eye about as well as Uwe Krupp and Theo Fleury would.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021158/6337194-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="588" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Brown</figcaption></div>Legend has it Hitchcock kicked Brown off the ice 20 times during practices that season. Complicating matters was the fact Brown&rsquo;s father, Bob, was the GM. Despite Rob&rsquo;s pleadings, Hitchcock refused to let his father deal the problem child and eventually made him captain. Brown finished his WHL career with 522 points and Hitchcock went down as one of the most successful coaches in league history.&ldquo;Back then Hitch coached a lot through negativity,&rdquo; Brown said of the characteristic that also led to Hitchcock&rsquo;s demise in Philadelphia. &ldquo;But I think he has learned a lot since then.&rdquo;His prospects of returning to the NHL are considered good by one person. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see Ken Hitchcock coaching in the NHL, no question,&rdquo; Gainey said.Could they be together again in the NHL? &#9632;

f0014-01

Brown and Hitchcock aiming for Stardom

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03795/6337232-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg"></div>Although the NHL says otherwise, all is not well between the league and the television network ESPN. Insiders report a less amiable relationship between the two. One rumor is the five-year deal between the NHL and ESPN was never actually signed, which the network denies. &ldquo;We do have a binding agreement with the NHL,&rdquo; said an ESPN spokesman. Another source said communication between the two parties has been &ldquo;on the verge of breakdown.&rdquo; Meanwhile, ESPN&rsquo;s hockey ratings have been down from last season to the tune of 0.7 from 0.9 in 1992-93. The network claims the absence of stars such as Mario Lemieux and Eric Lindros sliced the ratings. Industry sources told Bluelines the NHL &ldquo;is looking beyond ESPN and eventually will internalize everything (in terms of television).&rdquo;<h2>Sacre bleu, non</h2>If Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; owner Marcel Aubut had his way, Jacques Lemaire would be coaching his team and not the New Jersey Devils. Aubut tried to obtain Lemaire from the rival Montreal Canadiens on two occasions and was rebuffed by Canadiens&rsquo; president Ron Corey each time. Corey asserted he would never allow one of his best front office employees to sign with the team&rsquo;s biggest foe&hellip;Slava Kozlov is the most underrated Russian in the NHL&hellip;Buffalo Sabre rookie Sergei Petrenko had been warned about American crime when he landed in Buffalo. So, what happened? On the day he moved into his new townhouse in Buffalo, his Moscow apartment was robbed.<h2>Kirk is okay</h2>Don&rsquo;t try selling Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; goalie Kirk MacLean on the theory that goalies are oddballs.&rsquo;Tm not like that,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just like everybody else. I know an oldtimer like Glenn Hall used to throw up before games because he was nervous, but I know some regular players who are in the bathroom throwing up before games or between periods.&rdquo;&hellip;Contrary to popular belief, Alexander Mogilny is not the first Russian-born player to wear the captain&rsquo;s &lsquo;C&rsquo; in the NHL. Johnny Gottselig, who was bom in Odessa, Russia, captained the Chicago Blackhawks from 1935-36 to 1939-40, including the Hawks&rsquo; 1938 Stanley Cup team&hellip;Pat Conacher, 34, said he&rsquo;s good for four more NHL years. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to have to drag me out of here screaming because I still want to play,&rdquo; said the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; forward. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to play until my legs drop off.&rdquo;<h2>Just say no</h2>Don&rsquo;t count NHL vice-president and director of hockey operations Brian Burke among those who favor shootouts to break overtime ties. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a number of fans who would like to see nude dancing girls in the games,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;The fact that the shootout is great theater does not make it attractive to someone who is trying to sell the game. My answer is that if there are not enough penalty shots, then let&rsquo;s call more penalty shots.&hellip;Former Montreal Canadien Ralph Backstrom, now commissioner of Roller Hockey International, has been talking to the NHL in hopes of striking a deal whereby promising officials could work for RHI games in the off-season&hellip;Have you noticed how Mike Milbury has become a young Harry Sinden in both style and temperament; especially when it comes to post-loss explosions?<h2>Walter is next</h2>Prediction: The next ex-NHLer to break into the coaching ranks will be Ryan Walter&hellip;Ron Caron rates four stars for lifting the St. Louis Blues where they are but, sad to say, it&rsquo;s still not enough for serious Stanley Cup dreams. There&rsquo;s not enough depth beyond Brett Hull, Craig Janney, Brendan Shanahan and Phil Housley&hellip;Top unsung hero of the decade has to be Joe Mullen.<h2>Something ajar</h2>The Winnipeg Jets might want to reconsider some of their game-night promotional schemes. At a recent game the club gave away free jars of Kraft Light peanut butter. When the Jets started to play badly, fans began tossing the giveaways on the ice. One jar that didn&rsquo;t reach the ice hit spectator Kelly Livesley in the back of the head and injured her. &ldquo;I was lucky it wasn&rsquo;t worse,&rdquo; said the 20-year-old. &ldquo;The back of my neck hurt, but according to the ambulance attendant it could have easily broken a vertebrae. I could have imagined the obituary: &lsquo;Suddenly, by a jar of peanut butter.&rsquo;&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-03

League, ESPN bond on shaky ground?

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Ted Green took one for the team.His former players and fellow coaches know it. And it hurt them, but certainly not as much as it hurt Green to be relieved of his duties as Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; coach.&ldquo;In the scope of world events this is pretty small, but in my little world it&rsquo;s very devastating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nobody forced me into this ring. I climbed into it. I didn&rsquo;t go the distance.&rdquo;Green&rsquo;s team had slumped to 3-183 and last place when he got the hook Nov. 25. General manager-president Glen Sather added the coach title to his portfolio the same day Green was re-assigned as assistant to the president.Sather made it clear he will coach until the end of the season, when it&rsquo;s believed Cape Breton Oilers&rsquo; coach George Burnett will be promoted from the American League.The move, hardly a shock, came three days after Sather had given Green a half-hearted vote of confidence in the local newspapers.Sather pulled the trigger after the ninth-straight home loss, 3-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks in front of the smallest crowd in team history-10,656.&ldquo;This is one of the most difficult decisions I&rsquo;ve had to make,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very hard to have to go through this. It&rsquo;s hard on my family. It&rsquo;s hard on Teddy&rsquo;s family. We&rsquo;ve been friends for 30 years.&rdquo;Green took over from John Muckier in 1991 and had a 65-102-21 record with the Oilers.Some players felt they let him down, others, such as Bill Ranford. disagreed. &ldquo;We worked as hard as we could for him,&rdquo; he said.Sather, whose team beat the Vancouver Canucks Nov. 27 in his first game after replacing Green, brought his lifetime.629 winning percentage and hard-nosed attitude back to the job he left in 1989.Ranford wondered whether Sather&rsquo;s return would solve the Oilers&rsquo; most pressing need.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think a shock like this will produce a 50-goal scorer,&rdquo; he said.GOAL FOR TED: Shayne Corson scored the goal that nobody could score for Ted Green on almost any night.And when it went in, Glen Sather could think of only one thing. And it wasn&rsquo;t celebration.&ldquo;I felt we were going to win and I felt sorry Teddy wasn&rsquo;t here,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;I felt remorseful.&rdquo;The entire team shared that emotion after a 2-1 win over Vancouver, just two days after Green was fired. Corson tipped in the winning goal.NOTEBOOK: The firing of Ted Green delayed a couple of brewing trades. Defensemen Geoff Smith and Luke Richardson have become expendable&hellip;The Oilers found a faceoff specialist in center Peter White, who was recalled from Cape Breton of the AHL Nov. 26. &ldquo;He was really composed out there,&rdquo; said Craig Mac-Tavish, after White&rsquo;s debut against Vancouver Nov. 27. White had 33 points in 20 games with Cape Breton.Kelly Buchberger took 10 stitches inside his nose after being cut by the skate of Vancouver&rsquo;s Jiri Slegr.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Louie DeBrusk, LW, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL). Nov. 25: Ted Green, coach, fired and reassigned as assistant to president. Glen Sather. GM/president, named interim coach. Nov. 26: Peter White. C. recalled from Cape Breton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jason Arnott, Doug Weight, Craig MacTavish, Dean McAmmond, PeterLW&mdash;Shayne Corson, Scott Pearson. Louie DeBrusk. Scott Thornton.RW&mdash;Vladimir Vujtek, Zdeno Ciger, Kelly Buchberger, Kirk Maltby. Steven Rice, Shjon PodemLD&mdash;Luke Richardson, Igor Kravchuk. Geoff Smrth, Ian Herbers.RD&mdash;Dave Manson, Adam Bennett, Bob Beers, Ilya Byakm.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Fred Brathwaite<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Sather back in control as Green’s reign ends

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Like the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defense, general manager Nick Beverley&rsquo;s patience is wearing thin.If his team continues to perform the way it did early in the season, it could miss the playoffs for the first time since 1986. This after making it to the Stanley Cup finals last season.With a little more than one-quarter of the 1993-94 schedule complete, the Kings were 9-12-2 and sitting in ninth place in the newly aligned Western Conference-one spot removed from a playoff berth.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how much the players are paying attention to that,&rdquo; Beverley said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re digging ourselves a hole.&rdquo;The Kings gave up 26 goals in losing five consecutive games and were particularly inept on the road, losing 10 of 11. They were outscored 57-25 and shut out three times away from the Forum. Beverley preferred not to imagine where the Kings might be without goalie Kelly Hrudey, who faced an NHL-high 38 shots per start. He stopped 90 per cent of them.The Kings permitted fewer than 35 shots in just five of 23 games, twice gave up 52 shots and yielded between 41 and 49 shots in five others.&ldquo;It would be nice if someone would backcheck once in a while,&rdquo; a disgusted Beverley said. &ldquo;There has been an obvious lack of commitment to the defensive aspect of the game and that&rsquo;s where you win or lose.&rdquo;The Kings have performed so poorly that a revolving door has been installed on coach Barry Melrose&rsquo;s doghouse.&ldquo;Part of the problem is getting these guys to perform,&rdquo; Beverley said. &ldquo;Heaven knows (Melrose) is trying. We can&rsquo;t make wholesale changes because we don&rsquo;t have much depth. All I can do is make it very obvious that he has my full support.&rdquo;TAKING A STAND: Barry Melrose left himself and the team open for a fine in the final minute of a 4-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens Nov. 27.Melrose casually stood behind the bench and chewed gum while defying referee George McCorry&rsquo;s order to send a player to the penalty box following what appeared to be an intentional delay-of-game infraction.McCorry called three straight penalties against the Kings, who responded by milling in front of the bench for several minutes with 56 seconds remaining before play resumed.Melrose later joked about his refusal to send a player to the penalty box after McCorry skated over and demanded that he comply while stone-faced NHL supervisor Bryan Lewis watched from the press box.&ldquo;It was a way of getting (McCorry&rsquo;s) attention,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;I wanted to talk to him about a couple of calls, ask him how his wife was doing and check up on his kids. I heard his kids were having trouble in school. He said everything&rsquo;s fine, that the kids are doing good.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Luc Robitaille broke out of a 14-game goal-scoring slump, the worst of his career, in a big way with six goals in two-games. He also had a career-high-tying four goalgame Nov. 25 in an 8-6 loss in Quebec.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: David Goverde. G. and Mark Hardy, D. assigned to Phoenix (IHL). Rick Knickie. G, recalled from Phoenix.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Shawn McEachern, Jimmy Carson. Gary Shuchuk.LW&mdash;Jan Kurri, Mike Donnelly. Luc Robitaille. Warren Rychel, Phil CroweRW&mdash;Tony Granato, Tomas Sandstrom, John Druce. Dave Taylor.LD&mdash;Alex Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor. Brent Thompson.RD&mdash;Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy, Doug Houda, Tim Watters.G&mdash;Kelty Hrudey, Rick Knickie.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pat Conacher, C. lower back strain, day to day. &#9632;

Defensive breakdowns grating on Beverley’s nerves

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>The weeks of waiting and watching are almost over for Trent Yawney.Yawney received medical clearance to play his first game of the season for the Calgary Flames Nov. 30 against the Dallas Stars.It isn&rsquo;t the first time Yawney spent September and October in limbo, but he certainly hopes it&rsquo;s the last. Two years ago, he was embroiled in a contract dispute with Mike Keenan, then the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; general manager. He didn&rsquo;t begin to play regularly until he was traded to Calgary for Stephane Matteau.Last season, he broke his collarbone in the final exhibition game and was out until mid-November.This year was the freakiest of all. He tore a muscle in his right shoulder doing a bench press in physical fitness testing the day before training camps opened.&ldquo;I hope I&rsquo;m done with injuries now,&rdquo; Yawney said. &ldquo;The one good thing is you learn how to handle it after the first one. There&rsquo;s not a whole lot you can do. You&rsquo;ve just got to be patient. That&rsquo;s the hardest part.&rdquo;With Gary Suter&rsquo;s return from tom left knee ligaments set for mid-December, Yawney will most likely be given a chance to help jumpstart the Flames&rsquo; slumping power play.Coach Dave King used Yawney to spell Suter towards the end of last season and the 28-year-old responded by scoring his only goal of the year in the final game.He scored three more times in the Smythe Division semifinal against the Los Angeles Kings.Yawney had a decent finish to a year that started badly, something he hopes to duplicate this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping to build on last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just want to build on each game and contribute in my own way&rdquo;KEEPING BUSY: The Flames had only one game in an eight-day span between Nov. 19th and 27th and Dave King wanted to use the time off as productively as possible.The players received a weekend off and then were put through a training regime to touch up elements of their game that had slipped: most notably, special teams.The Flames began the year killing off 32 of 34 penalties. They were No. 1 in penalty-killing three weeks into the season but slipped to 13th as November came to a close. The power play was also mediocre.NOTEBOOK: German Titov had his nine-game point-scoring streak stopped in a 6-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Nov. 26. It would have been the longest streak of the season for a rookie except that Titov, at age 28, does not fit into the NHL&rsquo;s definition of a rookie.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Kevin Wortman, D, assigned to Saint John (AHL). Nov. 25: Wes Walz, C. and Brad Miller, 0, assigned to Saint John.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Robert Reichel. Joel Otto, Kelly Kisio.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts. German Titov. Paul Ranheim, Paul Kruse.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury, Ron Stem, Ted Drury, Sandy McCarthy.LD&mdash;Frank Musil. Chris Dahlquist. Trent Yawney. Lee Norwood. Dan Keczmer.RD&mdash;AI Maclnnis. Michel Petit, Kevin Dahl. Brad SchlegelG&mdash;Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Paslawski, RW, strained left knee ligaments, indefinite. Gary Suter, D. tom left knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

Yawney hopes to contribute after missing another autumn

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>Ron Wilson came out of the Mighty Ducks&rsquo; dressing room at Winnipeg Arena and broke into a grin.&ldquo;Break up the Mighty Ducks!&rdquo; he said.With a 2-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets Nov. 25, Anaheim became the first post-1967 expansion team to win four consecutive games on the road.The Ducks&rsquo; road kill included: the Vancouver Canucks (6-3 Nov. 19), Edmonton Oilers (4-2 Nov. 21), Calgary Flames (2-1 Nov. 22) and the Jets.The 4-0-0 trip doubled their season victory total to eight.&ldquo;If anybody was to say, &lsquo;The Mighty Ducks are going to win four in a row,&rsquo; people would probably have laughed their heads off,&rdquo; goaltender Ron Tugnutt said.Wilson reasoned the Ducks&rsquo; style is more conducive to playing on the road. When the team comes home and opens up a little, its shortcomings are more pronounced.Tugnutt agreed with his coach.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to play our road-style game at home,&rdquo; Tugnutt said. &ldquo;We can outmuscle teams in their own building, that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re an effective road team. We&rsquo;ve got to win games 3-2 on a regular basis. We can&rsquo;t finesse people.&rdquo;Tugnutt was one of the keys to the streak. He was in goal for three of the victories, making 44, 46 and 29 saves. Guy Hebert made 33 saves in the win over Calgary.E-WORD ENEMIES: The Ducks banned the word &ldquo;expansion&rdquo; from their vocabulary. Too bad they can&rsquo;t ban the other recent expansion teams from their schedule.Anaheim was 0-5-0 against the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks through the end of November.The Sharks were 4-0-0 against the Ducks-with all the games decided by one goal. The Senators beat the Ducks 4-1 in Ottawa in October.Anaheim plays the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first time Dec. 5 and the Florida Panthers for the first time Dec. 7. Both games are at Anaheim Arena.NOTEBOOK: General manager Jack Ferreira has made only one trade so far, but it has proven to be a good one. He acquired wingers Todd Ewen and Patrik Carnback from the Montreal Canadiens during the summer for a 1994 third-round draft pick. Ewen, an assistant captain, had four goals and six points in 23 games and has been a physical force. Camback, a rookie, had four goals and seven points in 25 games, and had his first two-goal game Nov. 26 against San Jose&hellip;The biggest disappointment of the early season for the Ducks has been right winger Steven King, who was the first forward taken in the expansion draft in June. King was such a regular scratch from the lineup that teams began to inquire about trades, assuming the Ducks had given up on him. He started to see more ice time toward the end of November and played on the Ducks&rsquo; top line with Anatoli Semenov and Garry Valk for a couple of games. He broke through for his second goal of the season Nov. 26. &ldquo;I kind of forgot what it&rsquo;s like to score,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My confidence still isn&rsquo;t sky-high, but it&rsquo;s getting there.&rdquo;<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Anatoli Semenov, Bob Corkum, Shaun Van Allen, Patrik Carnback.LW&mdash;Garry Valk. Joe Sacco. Tim Sweeney, Stu Grimson.RW&mdash;Terry Yake, Peter Douris, Todd Ewen. Steven King, Jim Thomson. Robin Bawa.LD&mdash;Biil Houlder, Randy Ladouceur. David Williams.RD&mdash;Sean Hill. Alexei Kasatonov, Bobby Doilas. Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G&mdash;Ron Tugnutt, Guy Hebert<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Ferner, D. strained groin, day-to-day. Troy Loney. LW, arthroscopic surgery on right knee. Indefinite. &#9632;

Four wins on road sets mark

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>While many of his teammates have slumbered offensively this season, Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; captain Trevor Linden is playing and scoring better than ever.The 23-year-old right winger hit the NHL&rsquo;s quarter pole on a 50-goal pace, which would easily surpass his career high of 33. His hands, often thought to be the weakest part of a very strong package, have resembled Mike Bossy&rsquo;s.&ldquo;This is the best I&rsquo;ve felt since I&rsquo;ve been a professional,&rdquo; said the native of Medicine Hat, Alta. &ldquo;I feel strong and I&rsquo;m skating the best I ever have. I worked out hard in the summer but I think it&rsquo;s just confidence. When you feel good about yourself on the ice, things start to happen.&rdquo;Linden&rsquo;s outstanding first quarter was a stark contrast to his first quarter last season. He had six goals and 15 points at the 21-game mark in 199293, ninth in team scoring behind the likes of Dixon Ward (8-9-17) and Adrien Plavsic (2-14-16).Linden scored his 15th goal of the season in a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Nov. 27, giving him 15 in 23 games. It took him 41 games to score 15 last year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny,&rdquo; Linden said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my sixth year, I&rsquo;m 23 and I think I&rsquo;m finally learning the ins and outs.&rdquo;Linden has also learned to handle criticism with more diplomacy.&ldquo;I think my skin&rsquo;s gotten a little thicker,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Before, for me to listen to someone criticize me on a phone-in show, I was broken-hearted. Now I can just take that and throw it out the window.&rdquo;POWER OUTAGE: Although the Canucks&rsquo; point total (24) was identical to last year&rsquo;s at the quarter pole, their goal total was down by 20, a drop-off of nearly 21 per cent.The Canucks scored 92 goals in their first 21 games last season, led by Pavel Bure with 22, Geoff Courtnail with 12, Petr Nedved and Greg Adams with nine apiece and Dixon Ward with eight.This year, due to Bure&rsquo;s groin problems, Nedved&rsquo;s refusal to sign and slumps by many others, the goal total was just 72.The only players to buck the downward trend were Trevor Linden (up seven), Gino Odjick (up six) and Sergio Momesso (up five).NOTEBOOK: Canucks&rsquo; coach and general manager Pat Quinn denied persistent rumors that he is trying to acquire center Dave Gagner from the Dallas Stars and/or defenseman Steve Duchesne, who is involved in a bitter contract dispute with the Quebec Nordiques. &ldquo;These rumors get started and take on a life of their own,&rdquo; he said.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 27: Dan Kesa. RW, recalled from Hamilton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Cliff Ronning, Greg Adams. Murray Craven. Neil Eisenhut.LW&mdash;Geoff Courtnall. Sergio Momesso, Dixon Ward. Adrien Plavsic.RW&mdash;Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden. Shawn Antoski. Dan Kesa.LD&mdash;Dana Murzyn, Dave Babych, Robert DirkRD&mdash;Gerald Diduck, Jyrki Lumme. Jin Siegr.G&mdash;Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jose Charbonneau, RW, sore back, day-to-day. Tim Hunter, RW, sprained right knee, indefinite. John McIntyre, C. fractured left foot, indefinite. Gino Odjick, LW. separated shoulder. Dec. 13. &#9632;

More confidence spurs Linden to most impressive start ever

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The San Jose Sharks spent the first month of the season looking for a reliable No. 2 center, but the search ended when they found Todd Elik.Since being claimed off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers Oct. 26, Elik has entrenched himself as the No. 2 center behind Igor Larionov.On a line with Pat Falloon and Gaetan Duchesne, Elik had 13 points in 18 games, including 12 points in the last 13 games. He also had eight assists in seven games to establish a team record for consecutive games with at least one assist.&ldquo;(Elik) has been able to make adjustments to the way we&rsquo;re trying to play,&rdquo; coach Kevin Constantine said. &ldquo;His group has become our second most productive unit and he has done a lot to make that happen,&rdquo;Before they claimed Elik from the Edmonton Oilers, the Sharks experimented with Jon Morris, Dave Capuano, Kip Miller and Gary Emmons.Morris and Capuano were traded and Miller and Emmons are with the Kansas City Blades of the International League.&ldquo;Going on waivers turned out to be a break for me,&rdquo; said Elik, who has also played with the Los Angeles Kings and Minnesota North Stars. &ldquo;The timing was right. It was a good situation for me to get playing again.&rdquo;Still, being placed on waivers was a blow to Elik&rsquo;s pride.&ldquo;My immediate reaction was I didn&rsquo;t want to go to the minors,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then I started hoping that somebody would pick me up.&rdquo;The Sharks obliged and Elik, a 21-goal scorer for the Kings in 1990-91, has responded. He also helped light a spark in Falloon, who had a six-game point-scoring streak.POWER ON: Bob Errey didn&rsquo;t spend much time on power plays during his first 10 seasons, but he suddenly has found a niche for himself in power-play situations.When Errey scored on a power play to lift the Sharks to a 1-0 victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Nov. 27, it marked his second powerplay goal in three games.Before scoring one in a 6-4 victory over the Detroit Red Wings Nov. 23, Errey hadn&rsquo;t had a power-play goal since 1986.Kevin Constantine said it was fitting Errey scored the winning goal because of his willingness to take abuse in front of the net.&ldquo;The reason he was put on the power play is that he has the fortitude to go in front of the net and get involved,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;It was that mentality of &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid to stand in here&rsquo; that allowed him to stand there and take enough whacks to eventually get it in.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Arturs Ir-be isn&rsquo;t on the NHL all-star ballot, but had enough write-in votes by mid-November to rank fifth among Western Conference goalies. After his 1-0 win over Anaheim, when he earned the second shutout in team history, Irbe was 8-10-4 with a goals-against average of 2.54&hellip;The last four goals Mike Sullivan had scored came shorthanded.The Nov. 27 victory over Anaheim gave the Sharks a three-game winning streak for the first time in franchise history.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: Michal Sykora, D. recalled from Kansas City (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jgor Larionov, Todd Elik, Dale Craigwell, Jamie Baker, Mike Sullivan.LW&mdash;Johan Garpenlov. Gaetan Duchesne, Bob Errey, Dave Maley. Shawn Cronin.RW&mdash;Sergei Makarov, Pat Falloon. Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers.LD&mdash;Jeff Norton. Doug Zmolek, Rob Zettler.RD&mdash;Sandis Ozoiinsh, Tom Pederson, Mike Rathje, Michal Sykora.G&mdash;Arturs Irbe. Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Lalor, D, torn right knee ligament, indefinite. Jay More, D. broken right wrist, indefinite. Ray Whitney, LW. strained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Elik new center of attention

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011108/6337407-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="384" height="538"></div>I haven&rsquo;t needed a single drop of Geri-tol since the season started. No more Grecian Formula for me, man. When I scan the summaries in the paper every morning, I feel 20 years younger.Two decades ago, men of vision foresaw hockey as the next great national sport. In application, however, a lot of these guys proved more myopic than Bob Morley. As a result, the 1980s passed with only one team in a city where you needed shades. But now, look at these attendances on a recent November Saturday night: 16,483 in Dallas, 14,441 in Miami and 22,086 in St. Petersburg. Hockey is finally happening.Of course, I believed all along the proclaimed Sport of the &rsquo;70s would someday fulfill its manifest destiny. This is why I am writing this wearing my leisure suit and listening to Barry Manilow. Nevertheless, I am amazed how much smoother expansion is going in the &rsquo;90s than it did in the &rsquo;60s and &rsquo;70s.The Philadelphia Flyers drew 7,000 for their first home game and fewer than 5,000 for their second. Early in the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; existence, owner Jack Kent Cooke said he understood why hundreds of thousands of former Canadians living in southern California had relocated: &ldquo;They hate hockey,&rdquo; he said.The St. Louis Arena was practically empty until a spectacular series of overtime and double-overtime games in the Blues* first playoffs ignited the city. Oakland was a total flop. The NHL also failed in Kansas City, Cleveland, Denver and, after an initial burst of enthusiasm, it died in Atlanta, too.In subsequent years, the Blues and Washington Capitals came close to bailing out and the Minnesota North Stars eventually did. It finally took the coming of two of the best players who ever lived to get Los Angeles and the Pittsburgh Penguins over the subsistence level.In other words, most of the teams that made it only did so after struggles. And, like their expansion ancestors, Anaheim, Dallas, Tampa Bay and Florida all had built-in reasons to open their doors to four-figure crowds.Wayne Gretzky, the only man who could turn southern California on to hockey, only comes to The Pond three times a season. Dallas, like Denver, Kansas City and Cleveland, is a football town. The San Jose Sharks aren&rsquo;t any more competitive than the Oakland Seals were. In Florida, people who can still get around won&rsquo;t sit inside.True, the NHL&rsquo;s newest teams have things going for them that the early expansionist didn&rsquo;t. The Kansas City Scouts were not owned by entertainment marketing geniuses such as Disney and Blockbuster. The Sharks are Marin County&rsquo;s only majorleague franchise. Dallas received a playoff-calibre team, not an expansion club or one run into the ground in another city. Phil Esposito beat the National Basketball Association and Major League baseball into a burgeoning market.Nevertheless, there is an overriding difference this time around. Despite the fact hockey doesn&rsquo;t pull in appre-ciably-better national television ratings than it did during the &rsquo;70s, there were obviously more hockey fans inwaiting this time around. Except for Dallas, these franchises were bom during a three-year period when the NHL took a hike from ESPN, yet the absence of that exposure hasn&rsquo;t seemed to make any difference.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s marketing,&rdquo; said Florida Panthers&rsquo; president Bill Torrey, an early general manager of the Oakland Seals. &ldquo;Many of the persons who received franchises then had no real knowledge of how to run them.&ldquo;I was running a promotions business in Pittsburgh when the Penguins started, so I saw the mistakes. They didn&rsquo;t keep the name or the colors of a successful minor-league team and that turned people off. The Flyers did more things right, obviously, but how many T-shirts did they sell in 1967? The whole concept of sports marketing has grown tremendously.&rdquo;Television has, too, despite hockey&rsquo;s still-smallish national numbers,&rdquo;We averaged 13,500 persons in Atlanta the first year,&rdquo; said the Leafs&rsquo; Cliff Fletcher, the original GM of the Flames. &ldquo;But in the end, one of the reasons why the team moved was that there was practically no local television revenue.&ldquo;Like almost all the expansion teams, we took a UHF deal for a certain number of road games just to get ourselves on. Now, there are all these local and regional cable channels needing programming and willing to pay for it.&rdquo;So while the national ratings have not appreciably increased, television exposure has. Two more decades of southern migration have brought that many more fans south. Private boxes, a novelty in the &rsquo;70s, have become corporate status symbols, increasing the demand for new teams and buildings.The &rsquo;70s have finally arrived. I believe disco is coming back, too. &#9632;

f0019-01

Southern exposure working this time

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Eleven months of threats, accusations, name-calling, bluff-calling, offers and counter-offers, done deals and dead deals, stalling and posturing have taken Edmonton&rsquo;s hockey team and its dwindling legion of fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride.It&rsquo;s almost time to get off.It appears the bitter marriage between Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington and Edmonton Northlands, the publicly funded, non-profit agricultural society that holds a 27-year lease on the Coliseum where the Oilers play, is all but over.On Dec. 6, the parties fight it out in the Alberta courts as Pocklington seeks to overturn an injunction obtained by Northlands that prevents his Oilers from playing home games anywhere but the Coliseum until the end of the 1998-99 NHL season. That&rsquo;s when the lease he signed in June of 1989 expires.Two days later, Pocklington is scheduled to plead his case before the NHL board of governors meeting in Laguna Niguel, Calif. He&rsquo;ll likely receive formal permission from the league to move his team to the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn.Neither side was discussing the situation in late November, but Pocklington made his feelings clear earlier in the month.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not looking to negotiate (with Northlands) now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I gave my word to Minnesota that if they produce the deal they proposed, we&rsquo;re going there.&ldquo;The only thing that can prevent us going to Minnesota is that Edmonton will have the right to match that deal to keep the team. I&rsquo;m not about to change my mind. I can&rsquo;t jerk Minnesota around.&rdquo;Many Oilers&rsquo; fans feel they&rsquo;ve been jerked around since August, 1990 when Pocklington-fed up with Northlands-revealed plans to build his own arena.Two months later, Northlands offered to buy the team for $70 million. A month after that, Pocklington counter-offered to lease the Coliseum for a price of $1 million a year, provided he receive all building revenues.The confrontation went daily this past February when Northlands offered $65 million for the team. Pocklington laughed it off, saying the Oilers weren&rsquo;t for sale at any price. Then he named one-$95 million. Then it was $105 million.Hamilton, Ont., entered into the picture in April when Mayor Bob Morrow spread the word Copps Coliseum was close to luring the Oilers to the Steel City. Pocklington confirmed the news and said Northlands had until May 14 to come up with a better deal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02800/6337438-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="966" height="1616"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s Oilers are close to moving to Minnesota.</figcaption></div>What doesn&rsquo;t he like about his current pact? He gets no revenue from parking or concessions, a lump sum from board advertising and half the revenue from 16 luxury boxes. He also pays a percentage of ticket revenue in rent and claims he&rsquo;ll lose $6 million this year as attendance dips to new franchise lows.But when the two sides struck a tentative lease deal May 13, Pocklington was thrilled. He said his bottom line would improve by millions of dollars. Northlands was happy as it would lease the Coliseum to Economic Development Edmonton, the city-funded body that brokered the deal, for $3 million a year. EDE would sub-lease it to the team for $1.5 million and make up the shortfall by sharing revenue with Pocklington.But there were too many details unresolved, including the issues of maintenance, parking, renaming the Coliseum and capital improvements to the building (namely more luxury boxes) totalling somewhere between $10 million and $20 million. Pocklington wouldn&rsquo;t pay for them, nor would Northlands, the City of Edmonton nor the Alberta government.The deal died July 21 when Northlands&rsquo; board of directors voted to cease negotiations.It took Northlands almost two months to come up with a new offer. They wanted Pocklington to buy a 40-year lease for about $52 million, all cash, all up front. He was incensed at having to wait for that proposal and set an Oct. 6 deadline, then an Oct. 13 deadline for another deal or he would again seek a new home.The deadline came and went without a deal. Pocklington launched a lawsuit, claiming Northlands reneged on the May 13 handshake deal. He withdrew it the same day to facilitate negotiations.But there haven&rsquo;t been any. Northlands wants a $22.4-million tax concession and 30-year lease extension before they&rsquo;ll try to cut a new deal. The city has refused.So Pocklington went shopping for a new home, settling on the Target Center, where he is guaranteed 11,000 season tickets, revenue from 63 of 65 luxury boxes ($8 million to $10 million), 40 per cent of concession revenue and 50 per cent of inhouse advertising.Faced with the reality Pocklington is ready to move, the provincial government threatened to demand payment of the $42-million line of credit it extended to him. &#9632;

f0019-02

Going, going…

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Not many first-year players can change the course of a game with talent and determination.Mikael Renberg can and has.The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; rookie left winger has a knack for coming up with clutch plays. Take, for example, the Flyers&rsquo; 4-3 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 28.It looked like the Flyers were beginning to sag midway through the second period at the ThunderDome. They were playing their third game in four nights and second in two days against the Lightning.Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead and the momentum seemed to be shifting to the home team, but then Renberg went to work. First, he tipped in a Garry Galley point shot on a power play to tie the score.Next, he took control of the puck in the defensive zone, split the defense, raced the length of the ice and beat Daren Puppa for the go-ahead goal.&ldquo;Mikael has played great all year,&rdquo; Kevin Dineen said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real pleasure to watch. Good things happen when you have his work ethic and the talent to go with it.&rdquo;&ldquo;When you play like that, you make things happen,&rdquo; said coach Terry Simpson. &ldquo;Mikael&rsquo;s got the size (6-foot-2, 218 pounds) and determination and has played well. He&rsquo;s such an enthusiastic guy and team player. It&rsquo;s nice to see him have some success. You know he&rsquo;ll always put the team first, he&rsquo;ll never put himself ahead of the team.&rdquo;The 21-year-old native of Pitea, Sweden is in a tight battle with Ottawa Senators&rsquo; center Alexei Yashin for the scoring lead among first-year players. Renberg had 14 goals and 28 points in 26 games, while Yashin had 13 goals and 29 points in 22 games.Renberg&rsquo;s early-season success has made him a definite contender for the Calder Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top rookie. The Flyers have never had a Calder winner, despite brilliant first years by Bill Barber (1972-73) and Ron Hextall (1986-87).Renberg has an advantage over most high draft picks who enter the NHL at 18 or 19. He stayed in Sweden and played in the Swedish Elite League before jumping to the NHL. The extra development time appears to be paying off.&ldquo;I know they wanted to have me before this year but I didn&rsquo;t feel mature enough to come over,&rdquo; said Renberg, the Flyers&rsquo; third pick in the 1990 entry draft. &ldquo;I really wanted to be prepared for it and it didn&rsquo;t feel right then.&rdquo;RAMAGE ADDED: The Flyers acquired veteran defenseman Rob Ramage from the Montreal Canadiens Nov. 27 for future considerations.Ramage, 34, played on Stanley Cup championship teams with the Calgary Flames (1988-89) and Montreal Canadiens (1992-93). He was the first overall pick in the 1979 draft and began his career with the Colorado Rockies. He has also played for the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota North Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning.The Flyers have been looking for a veteran defenseman since the retirement of Ric Nattress in October.NOTEBOOK: Center Rod Brind&rsquo; Amour&rsquo;s NHL-high 13-game pointscoring streak ended in the Flyers&rsquo; 30 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 26.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 25: Jim Cummins. RW. recalled from Hershey (AHL). Chris Winnes, C, assigned to Hershey. Nov. 27: Roh Ramage. D. acquired from Montreal for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Viacheslav Butsayev. Pelle Eklund. Dave Tippett.LW&mdash;Mikael Renberg. Josel Beranek, Brent Fedyk.RW&mdash;Mark Recchi, Kevin Dineen. Dave Brown, Al Conroy, Jim Cummins.LD&mdash;Garry Galley. Yves Racine, Jeff Finley, Greg Hawgood.RD&mdash;Dimitri Yushkevich. Ryan McGill. Stewart Malgunas, Rob Ramage.G&mdash;Tommy Soderstrom, Dominic Roussel.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin, LW. left knee surgery, indefinite. Jason Bowen, D, bruised cornea in left eye, day-to-day. Eric Lindros, C. tom medial collateral ligament in right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Super Swede Renberg sets sights on Calder

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>The expansion Florida Panthers got off to a great start but injuries and bad luck brought them back to earth.The Panthers lost three of four games in late November after rookie center Rob Niedermayer went down with a separated right shoulder.Niedermayer, who led the team with five goals and 14 points, will be sidelined until late December. He sustained a third-degree shoulder separation Nov. 18 in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.The team also lost its two best defenseman, Joe Cirella (fractured right cheekbone) and Keith Brown (arthroscopic knee surgery), and one of its top forwards, Dave Lowry (cracked left cheekbone).Cirella and Lowry were hit by flying pucks-as was defenseman Brent Severyn-in warmups. Severyn also sustained neck bums before a 4-0 loss to the Hartford Whalers Nov. 27. A cup of hot coffee accidentally fell from above his locker.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating because we keep having bad things happen to us,&rdquo; said right winger Scott Mellanby. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had injuries during warmups. Now we&rsquo;re getting hurt just drinking a cup of coffee.&rdquo;The Panthers were also a victim of questionable officiating by replacement officials in a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins Nov. 26. Coach Roger Neilson was so incensed after what he felt was another missed offside cal] on the winning goal, he threw two sticks and two water bottles on the ice.Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said the team can&rsquo;t throw in the towel, however.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been having some odd things and some freakish injuries pile up against us,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said. &ldquo;But we have to climb over that.&rdquo;BARNES STORMING: General manager Bobby Clarke tried to jumpstart the offense by trading Randy Gilhen, 30, to the Winnipeg Jets Nov. 26 for Stu Barnes, 22.&ldquo;Barnes is younger and his offensive abilities are more than Randy Gilhen&rsquo;s,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;He can play for us for a lot of years and he should get plenty of time on the power play.&rdquo;Barnes, the fourth overall pick in the 1989 entry draft, had five goals and nine points in 18 games before the trade.NOTEBOOK: Captain Brian Skrudland expects to be fined for his comments about the replacement officials in the controversial loss to the Boston Bruins. &ldquo;You have the paying public that&rsquo;s being forced to watch replacement hockey,&rdquo; Skrudland said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s crap. I&rsquo;ll be the one to pay the fine, but I&rsquo;m not going to put up with it.&rdquo; Skrudland was unhappy with what he termed an arrogant attitude by replacement referee Michael Foy. &ldquo;For some reason this guy had a chip on his shoulder,&rdquo; Skrudland said. &ldquo;This is a game of respect. If they want to earn respect, they have to give us respect.&rdquo;<h2>FLORIDA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Dallas Eakins, D, recalled from Cincinnati (IHL). Nov. 26: Randy Gilhen. C, traded to Winnipeg for Stu Barnes, C.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Brian Skrudland, Jesse Belanger, Tom Fitzgerald, Stu Barnes.LW&mdash;Mike Hough, Bin Lindsay, Evgeny Davydov.RW&mdash;Scott Mellanby, Jody Hull, Andrei Lomakin, Scott Levins, Mike Foligno.LD&mdash;Alexander Godynyuk, Brian Benning, Brent Severyn.RD&mdash;Gord Murphy. Paul Laus. Dallas Eakins, Greg Smyth.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mark Fitzpatrick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D. bruised knee, day-to-day Joe Cirella, D, fractured right cheekbone, day-to-day. Dave Lowry, LW, cracked left cheekbone, day-to-day. Rob Niedermayer, C. separated right shoulder, indefinite. Stephane Richer, D, arthroscopic shoulder surgery, day-to-day. &#9632;

Series of freakish events cages raging beast

<div class="byline">By Jett Williams</div>Pat Flatley has had to cope with many traumatic injuries during his tenure in the NHL.&ldquo;Blowouts,&rdquo; he calls them.There have been broken knuckles, ripped up knees and a cracked rib or three. But like his style, he keeps coming back.It came as no surprise to Islanders&rsquo; fans that Flatley, who sustained a broken jaw Oct. 22, returned to the New York Islanders&rsquo; lineup Nov. 24 for a game against the Dallas Stars. His return was a week or two earlier than expected.Flatley made it a success by scoring a goal off a deflection. He followed that with two key assists in a 6-4 win over the New York Rangers Nov. 27.His first assist was typical Flatley. He hounded Esa Tikkanen in the right comer, took the puck away and fed a quick crossing pass to Travis Green who scored.Flatley missed nine games with the broken jaw. an injury he sustained when he collided with Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; defenseman Jason Bowen. He tried to play in three games after sustaining the injury but couldn&rsquo;t.He tried a series of special chin guards to protect the injury, similar to the old style faceguards worn by football players. The one he settled on is a plastic concoction that dips well below his chin to protect against butt-ends.Flatley does not have a great shot and he isn&rsquo;t a fast skater. His forte is getting control of the puck along the boards.&ldquo;We need his grit and determination,&rdquo; said coach Al Arbour. &ldquo;He gives us spirit and consistent effort. He doesn&rsquo;t take a shift off.&rdquo;Flatley played 80 games last season, the most of his career. But he sustained a knee injury in the Islanders&rsquo; upset of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Patrick Division final that limited his effectiveness.Flatley&rsquo;s broken jaw doesn&rsquo;t limit his effectiveness, only his eating. Fortunately for him, most of his meals consist of easy-to-chew pasta. The upper wisdom tooth on the right side of his jaw was cracked and can&rsquo;t be extracted until after the season. If it is removed, the procedure could weaken or even break the jaw again.Don&rsquo;t expect the 30-year-old Toronto native to complain about his predicament, however.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to talk about my injuries,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They heal and I go on.&rdquo;FALLING DOWN: Defenseman Darius Kasparaitis was scratched for two straight games then dressed as a seventh defenseman without playing a shift against the Philadelphia Flyers Nov. 21.Needless to say, Kasparaitis was not pleased.&ldquo;It makes me feel bad,&rdquo; Kasparaitis said. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m playing as good as last year.&rdquo;Coach Al Arbour didn&rsquo;t think so. particularly early in the season when Kasparaitis ran his minus rating to 12, the worst on the team.The two had a closed-door meeting Nov. 22 to discuss the situation and Kasparaitis played the team&rsquo;s next game against the Dallas Stars.NOTEBOOK: Center Claude Loiselle sustained a tom anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the game against the Stars Nov. 24 and is out indefinitely. He could be lost for the season.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Sandy Smith, LW. assigned to Salt Lake (IHL) Brent Gneve. LW, recalled from Salt Lake.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon. Ray Ferraro, Travis Green.LW&mdash;Derek King, David Voiek, Benoit Hogue. Marty McInnis. Joe Day. Brent GneveRW&mdash;Steve Thomas. Pat Flatley. Brad Dalgamo. Mick VukotaLD&mdash;Vladimir Malakhov. Tom Kurvers. Dennis Vaske.RD&mdash;Scott Lachance Darius Kasparaitis. Dean Chynoweth, Wayne McBean.G&mdash;Ron Hextail. Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brad Dalgamo, RW. hip flexor, day-to-day Uwe Krupp, D, broken sinus bone, indefinite. Claude Loiselle, C, torn antenor cruciate ligament in left knee, indefinite. Rich Pilon, D. dislocated left shoulder. day-to-day. &#9632;

Injuries don’t faze Flatley

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>What goes around comes around for Dale Hunter of the Washington Capitals.The inspirational leader was knocked out of the lineup until the second week of December thanks to a cheap shot by Alexei Kovalev of the New York Rangers Nov. 28. It happened in Hunter&rsquo;s second game back from a 21-game suspension issued following a cheap shot he delivered on Pierre Turgeon of the New York Islanders in last season&rsquo;s playoffs.Hunter rejoined the Capitals in stirring fashion Nov. 26. He assisted on two goals and was a spiritual lift in a 4-4 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But two nights later, Hunter sprained his left knee.The Capitals played in Long Island Nov. 30 without Hunter. It was to be the first meeting of Turgeon and Hunter since the incident.In the Ranger game, Hunter was skating toward his net with the intention of taking the puck from goalie Don Beaupre. Kovalev skated up behind Hunter and before turning to circle out of the zone, Kovalev used his left skate to kick out the right skate of Hunter. Off balance. Hunter fell and his left knee buckled.No penalty was called and replacement referee Tim MacConaghy didn&rsquo;t stop the action to allow the injured Hunter off the ice, even though the Capitals had possession of the puck.&ldquo;They are just not capable of refereeing an NHL game and it&rsquo;s no secret,&rdquo; center Dave Poulin said of the replacement officials.Hunter said almost nothing as he left the dressing room after the game.&ldquo;I would be playing if I could,&rdquo; Hunter said. When asked if Kovalev should be suspended. Hunter would say only,&rdquo;It&rsquo;s a sprained knee.&rdquo;Kovalev broke the wrist of Hunter&rsquo;s brother, Mark, last season when Kovalev was playing in the American League for the Binghamton Rangers and Mark Hunter was playing for the Baltimore Skipjacks.Wally Harris, an NHL officiating supervisor, said he would recommend the Kovalev play and an uncalled highstick by Ranger Tony Amonte on defenseman Al lafrate be reviewed by the league office.&ldquo;We will miss (Hunter),&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;There should have been a call. What&rsquo;s going to happen or should happen is irrelevant (because Hunter will be out). (Kovalev) deliberately kicked his feet from under him.&rdquo;Murray was restrained in his comments. Before making them, he, general manager David Poile and public relation&rsquo;s director Ed Quinlan conferred. Poile sets policy.Asked about the Hunter-Kovalev situation, Poile said,&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not important what I think.&rdquo;In Hunter&rsquo;s lone full game, he received a warm ovation from 18,130 fans. It was the first sellout of the season.NOTEBOOK: Mike Ridley became the Capitals&rsquo; second all-time leading goal scorer, but he has a long way to go for No. 1. Ridley&rsquo;s empty-net goal in a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues Nov. 24 gave him 197 goals in 528 games with Washington. At 30 years old, Ridley is highly unlikely to overtake the franchise leader in goals, Mike Gartner, who scored 397 in 10 seasons with the Capitals.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 28: Olle Kolzig. G. recalled from Portland (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley. Dave Pouhn Michal Pivonka, Steve Konowalchuk.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller. Randy Bumdge. Dimitri Khristich. Craig Berube.RW&mdash;Peter Bondra, Todd Krygier, Pat Peake, Keith JonesLD&mdash;AI lafrate. Calle Johansson, Shawn Anderson, Enrico Ciccone.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher. Sylvain Cote. Brian Curran.G&mdash;Don Beaupre. Olie Kolzig.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dale Hunter, C. sprained left knee, indefinite. Alan May, RW, broken left hand, indefinite. Rick Tabaraccl, G. back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Hunter becomes hunted and sidelined with injury

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>Something has to give when two streaks collide.The New York Rangers&rsquo; 14-game unbeaten streak, fourth longest in team history, had to end sometime. Predictably, it ended at Nassau Coliseum. The Rangers went to Long Island on a 12-0-2 tear Nov. 27 and left with a 15-game streak.But it wasn&rsquo;t the 15-game streak they wanted. It was a four-year, 0-12-3 streak against the Islanders at Nassau.The Islanders beat the Rangers 6-4 and it wasn&rsquo;t close. It marked the first time the Rangers had allowed more than four goals this season, and the second time they surrendered as many as two power-play goals in a game.&ldquo;I have no explanation for it,&rdquo; said Islanders&rsquo; captain Pat Flatley. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those mysteries of sports. I just hope it doesn&rsquo;t end.&rdquo;The Rangers also have no answers for the Coliseum jinx. They never do. Roger Neilson won there in his first visit as Rangers&rsquo; coach Oct. 29, 1989, and Neilson, Ron Smith and Mike Keenan have all guided the Rangers to the Coliseum since without a regular-season victory&ldquo;This was a good measure, a good opportunity to assess what we may or may not have in a game of this intensity and magnitude,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;The bottom line in this whole discussion is we weren&rsquo;t prepared to play. It doesn&rsquo;t matter what your talent base is, if you&rsquo;re not prepared to respond to this level of intensity, it doesn&rsquo;t matter.&rdquo;HUNTER AND HUNTED: The Rangers got back on track with a masterful 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals the night after the Islanders&rsquo; game. But it wasn&rsquo;t without incident.Alexei Kovalev tripped Dale Hunter behind the Capitals&rsquo; net and Hunter&rsquo;s left knee gave out. Hunter had returned just two days earlier from a 21-game suspension and the Capitals were furious.He sustained a sprained left knee and was expected to miss at least four games, which included a game against the Islanders. Kovalev escaped without a penalty.The Capitals requested the league review the video tape. Supervisor of officials Wally Harris said he felt Kovalev&rsquo;s action was accidental, but said he would send the tape to NHL senior vicepresident Brian Burke.Washington gained a measure of revenge on Kovalev in the second period, when Capitals&rsquo; forward Keith Jones, anticipating a collision, got his stick up into Kovalev&rsquo;s throat. Jones, however, was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct, and Kovalev returned during the power play.NOTEBOOK: Mike Keenan sustained a tom meniscus cartilage in his knee while jogging and was to undergo arthroscopic surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York Dec. 1. Keenan didn&rsquo;t expect to miss any games after the procedure, but was likely going to be off the practice rink ice for a few days&hellip;Right winger Mike Gartner passed former New York Islander Mike Bossy and moved into 24th place on the all-time points list. He was three short of Bernie Federko for 23rd. Gartner was also four goals short of becoming the sixth player in league history with 600 goals.<h2>N.Y, RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Sergei Nemchinov. Esa Tikkanen, Mike HudsonLW&mdash;Adam Graves, Greg Gilbert, Tony Amonte. Ed Olczyk, Mike Hartman. Nick Kypreos, Phil Bourque.RW&mdash;Alexei Kovalev, Mike Gartner, Steve Larmer, Joey Kocur.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Jay Wells, Kevin Lows. Peter Andersson.RD&mdash;Jetf Beukeboom, Alexander Karpovtsev. Sergei Zubov, Doug LidsterG&mdash;Mike Richter, Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Nightmare at Nassau keeps going strong with loss

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Denis Savard was trying to deflect blame for the actions that led to his suspension by the NHL.The Tampa Bay Lightning center said he might not be sitting had regular NHL officials worked Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Nov. 20 game against the Chicago Blackhawks.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to get into anything about the officials, but let&rsquo;s just say maybe it wouldn&rsquo;t have happened,&rdquo; Savard said when asked if regularNHL officials could have stemmed the stick-swinging match that resulted in four-game bans for him and Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Steve Smith.&ldquo;The game started getting out of control in the second period,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;It was a very physical game and I&rsquo;m not saying that led to it. But just maybe it could have been stopped.&rdquo;Savard will be out until Dec. 4 and was fined $500 fine as a result of the incident.Savard said the battle between him and Smith actually began years ago.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve always had our little battles and it just started up again when he hit me,&rdquo; Savard said.Considering the history of the Savard-Smith duel, Lightning coach Terry Crisp suggested regular NHL officials might have been able to stop it from escalating.&ldquo;The difference with regular officials is they know the players a little better, and they can probably sense better when a guy is getting ready to explode,&rdquo; Crisp said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01785/6337589-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="592" height="808"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Savard has had a long-running feud with Steve Smith.</figcaption></div>MORE LOSSES: Two games into Denis Savard&rsquo;s four-game suspension, the Lightning lost another key player when John Tucker went down with sprained ligaments in his right knee.The injury occurred during Tampa Bay&rsquo;s 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Nov. 26 and it left the Lightning, who were last in the NHL in goals scored, without two of its top four scorers.Terry Crisp said the losses could not have come at a worse time for his club, which had won two straight.&ldquo;Just when we start rounding into form, boom,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;Of course, it has been like that all season. It has been one thing after another.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Brian Bradley is starting to play like he did last season when he collected 86 points. The center had goals in five of six games through Nov. 28&hellip;The Lightning ended an 0-for-42 slump when it scored with the man advantage Nov. 27 against Philadelphia. The Lightning&rsquo;s power play was working at less than 10 percent efficiency and was the worst in the league.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Denis Savard. C, suspended by NHL for four games. Eligible to return Dec. 4. Nov. 27: Tim Bergland. RW, and Jason Ruff, LW, recalled from Atlanta (IHL) Jason Lafremere, C, recalled from Milwaukee (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Brian Bradley. Chris Gratton, Bill McDougall. Jason Lafreniere.LW&mdash;Petr Klima, Mikael Andersson, Rob Zamuner. Jason Ruff.RW&mdash;Danton Cole. Marc Bureau, Tim Bergland. Rudy Poeschek.LD&mdash;Joe Reekie. Marc Bergevin, Shawn Chambers, Chris LiPuma.RD&mdash;Chris Joseph. Roman Hamriik. Donald DufresneG&mdash;Daren Puppa, Pat Jablonski<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Creighton, C, strained right knee, Dec. 1 Rob DiMaio, C. broken left leg, indefinite Pat Elynuik, RW, concussion, day-to-day Gerard Gallant, LW. bruised back, day-to-day John Tucker, RW, sprained right knee, indefinite Wendell Young, G, right shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

f0023-01

Suspension avoidable with regular refs: Savard

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>The scouting reports said Bobby Carpenter was finished as a regular NHL player.His left knee was shot, his scoring touch was long gone and he brought a bad attitude which would be unwelcome in most dressing rooms.So much for the scouting reports.&ldquo;I figured I could use him in certain situations, but he has given us much more,&rdquo; said New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach Jacques Lemaire.While the Devils awaited the return of Bernie Nicholls from California, where he was attending the funeral of his infant son, Lemaire made two significant moves. He played left winger Bobby Holik at center and increased Carpenter&rsquo;s ice time.The impact was immediate. The Devils extended their road unbeaten streak to a franchise-record seven games (5-0-2). Holik dominated in the Devils&rsquo; 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres Nov. 24 while Carpenter continued to prove critics wrong by creating offensive opportunities, playing strong defense and taking the team&rsquo;s most important faceoffs. He chipped in with one goals and 10 points in 19 games.&ldquo;In some ways it&rsquo;s satisfying to show those who didn&rsquo;t believe in me, but I had no doubt in my mind,&rdquo; Carpenter said. &ldquo;Also, it&rsquo;s not like I had a better place to go.&rdquo;Cut loose by the Washington Capitals last summer, Carpenter won a spot with the Devils in training camp as a free agent tryout.&ldquo;The year before, I saw what he did at certain times,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;He played well against us (the Montreal Canadiens). And in camp he was skating well and he was in good shape.&rdquo;So how does Carpenter feel about those negative scouting reports?&ldquo;There are reasons people would make judgements on me last year, but they have no idea what I went through,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even play there. They had their players and if you didn&rsquo;t fit into their system, you didn&rsquo;t play. I&rsquo;m getting 12-15 minutes of ice time here this year. There, I was getting two-to-four minutes.&rdquo;The 30-year-old veteran believes Lemaire&rsquo;s honesty and faith in his players is the key to the Devils&rsquo; early success.Not to mention the risk of signing Carpenter, which has already paid off.DIFFERENT DEFENSE: Via-cheslav Fetisov, playing his finest hockey since coming to the NHL in 1989, found himself in a Newark, N.J., courtroom in late November to answer charges from Rhode Island agent Mark Malkovich.Malkovich claimed the defenseman broke a player-agent contract they agreed to in 1989 which would&rsquo;ve paid the agent a percentage of any money Fetisov earned in the NHL. Malkovich was seeking $1 million in damages in the year-old lawsuit.According to general manager Lou Lamoriello, Fetisov will not have to be present in court throughout the trial and the court would take into consideration his travel schedule.NOTEBOOK: The win over Buffalo pushed the Devils to 10 games over.500. The franchise record is 14 games set in 1991-92 (32-18-7).<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Aiexander Semak, Bernie Nicholls. Corey Millen, Bobby Carpenter, Bobby Holik.LW&mdash;Valeri Zelepukin, Stephane Richer. Tom Chorske, Mike Peluso.RW&mdash;Claude Lemieux, Bill Guerin, John MacLean, Randy McKay, Ben Hankinson.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Viacheslav Fetisov.RD&mdash;Ken Daneyko. Scott Niedermay-er. Tommy Albelm. Jaroslav Modry, G-Chris Terreri, Martin Brodeur.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Carpenter retools in Jersey

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>The goalies have struck back.It has been 10 seasons since the Edmonton Oilers scored 446 goals to set an all-time single-season standard. Today, the tug-of-war between offense and defense has taken another pronounced turn: NHL teams are on pace to average the fewest goals per game (6.71) since 1977-78. (See story on opposite page.)The league average last season was 7.25, more than half-a-goal-per-game higher.Theories on why deflation has hit the NHL abound.The defense-first posture of young teams such as the Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks has contributed to a downturn in scoring.So has a more meaningful regular season with a heavy accent on conference play. It has resulted in more competitive, lower-scoring games than in past years when not as much was at stake in games between inter-divisional rivals.But the most likely explanation for the shortage in goal-scoring is also the most obvious-this is the best group of goalies ever.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying there weren&rsquo;t great goalies in the six-team days,&rdquo; says Hall-of-Fame netminder Glenn Hall. &ldquo;But now we&rsquo;re talking quantity as well as quality.&rdquo;Scoring isn&rsquo;t down because players are shooting less, it&rsquo;s because netminders are stopping more. Through games of Nov. 28, the league&rsquo;s goalies had a combined.891 save percentage. Last year at the same time it was.880.&ldquo;Goaltending has never been better than it is right now,&rdquo; says former NHL goalie John Davidson, now an analyst with the Madison Square Garden Network.&ldquo;There are six great goalies out there-Patrick Roy, Curtis Joseph, Ed Belfour, Bill Ranford, Felix Potvin and Tom Barrasso and some more-Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck and Chris Terreri-are having very good seasons.&rdquo;&ldquo;(Goaltending) has changed for the better,&rdquo; says Vladislav Tretiak, the former legendary Russian goalie and goaltending consultant for the Chicago Blackhawks. &ldquo;Goalies are much better than they were 10 or 15 years ago.&rdquo;The best barometer of goalie effectiveness is save percentage, a statistic that compares total saves to total shots. To calculate save percentage, you divide the saves a goalie has made by the shots he has faced. Ten years ago, no No. 1 goaltender finished the regular season with a save percentage better than.900.Last season, five netminders turned the trick, stopping an average of nine out of every 10 shots. At the quarter-mark of 1993-94, 16 regulars had.900-plus save percentages and four-Roy, Potvin, Joseph and Terreri-were over .920.If the new abundance of premier goalies is today&rsquo;s new reality, NHL coaches and general managers have been slow to catch on-judging by the status accorded goalies.Imagine National Football League teams waiting until the third or fourth rounds to draft promising quarterbacks. That&rsquo;s when Roy and Potvin were claimed by NHL teams.Goalies are historically treated as pariahs in the draft. None has ever been among the top three picks. When Jocelyn Thibault was selected 10th overall by the Quebec Nordiques last June, it marked the highest a netminder had been drafted since the Chicago Blackhawks made Jimmy Waite the eighth pick in 1987.Compare that to dominant position players in other sports. Over the past 20 years, six of the NFL&rsquo;s No. 1 overall choices have been quarterbacks and six of Major League Baseball&rsquo;s first overall picks have been pitchers.Imagine Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal or Patrick Ewing, dominant players in the game&rsquo;s dominant position, slipping through the National Basketball Association draft. That&rsquo;s how Joseph and Belfour arrived in the NHL. They were never even drafted.Imagine only half of Major League baseball&rsquo;s 28 teams bothering to hire pitching coaches or parttime consultants.No need to imagine in hockey, truth is stranger than fiction. There is no more specialized position in the game, yet only half of the NHL&rsquo;s teams have a goaltending coach or consultant on staff.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t imagine not having one,&rdquo; Terreri says. &ldquo;The teams who have one are a step ahead.&rdquo;&ldquo;Everything goes in cycles,&rdquo; says Ottawa Senators&rsquo; broadcaster Greg Millen, a former NHL goalie. &ldquo;I think one of the major factors has been improvement in goaltending equipment.&rdquo;Technological advances in goalie gear lagged behind improvements for skaters&rsquo; equipment partly because there is more money in shoulder pads and shin pads than goalie pads.But a host of companies began competing for the goaltending dollar in the late 1980s and the impact has been profound.Synthetics, most importantly in goaltending pads, have helped revolutionize the position. Foam replaced horsehair as stuffing and pad weight was reduced, on average, from seven to four pounds.Foam does not take on water and new leather treatments mean pads remain at four pounds, even late in games in sweltering arenas. Some of the older versions swelled to over 10 pounds late in the game when goalies&rsquo; leg strength began to ebb.&ldquo;Imagine trying to move in the third period with two giant sponges attached to your legs,&rdquo; Richter says.Aside from in their skates, where synthetics are also gaining a foothold, some goalies don&rsquo;t wear a stitch of leather. Better pads, larger and better gloves, hybrid masks with built-in cages, have fostered a sense of invincibility in goalies.&ldquo;I once counted 16 major bruises on my body after a home-and-home series,&rdquo; Davidson recalls. &ldquo;Now goalies can practise and play without fear of pain.&rdquo;Better practising means better performance in the games. So does better conditioning.&ldquo;When I first came into the league,&rdquo; Terreri says,&rdquo;I weighed about 10 pounds less than I do (now). That has all come through weight training.&rdquo;Terreri&rsquo;s story is not unique. Belfour has competed in triathlons. Rangers&rsquo; netminder Glenn Healy works out four hours a day during the off-season.&ldquo;Goalies were always the worst-conditioned athletes on the team.&rdquo; Millen says. &ldquo;They spent half the game standing around. Now they&rsquo;re often among the best.&rdquo;Offense and defense are the twin dynamics of sport. To evolve on offense is to challenge your opponent to devise a better defense.A flood of new strategies that emphasize offense-the wholesale move to weight training, improved sticks and greater reliance on lateral puck movement-pushed skaters past goalies.Premier passers such as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have combined with the arrival of Europeans well-schooled in eastwest puck movement to render obsolete the classic goaltending technique of staking out the correct angle and challenging the shooter.&ldquo;I see an adjustment that has been made across the league,&rdquo; Richter says. &ldquo;Goalies are staying deeper in the net and they&rsquo;re not getting beaten by the back-door passes. Goalies who stay deep in the net are becoming the rule, not the exception.&rdquo;This is not to say that European goalies have or will dominate the NHL. Adjusting to the European leanings of a North American game is much easier for a North American than learning a new system for a European.North American goalies can tinker, European goalies must overhaul and very few have done so successfully.But the fact remains Potvin. Joseph and Roy position themselves in a way almost unthinkable 15 years ago. Tretiak considers Potvin the most European goalie in the NHL.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m buying the idea of an influence on goalies because of the European movement more and more,&rdquo; Millen says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s really no question any more that it has happened, the goalies are deeper because if you challenge a guy, he&rsquo;ll pass, stop turn back or make a lateral pass.&rdquo;The question now is, how will forwards react? The pendulum rarely stops and another chapter in the cat-and-mouse game between shootist and stopper is being written now.For now, goaltenders are enjoying their moment in the sun.&ldquo;Last year, there were all sorts of stories about how many 50-goal scorers were in the league,&rdquo; says St. Louis Blues&rsquo; netminder Curtis Joseph. &ldquo;Maybe this is the year of the goalie.&rdquo;<h2>Playing the percentages</h2>How much better are goalies now than 10 years ago? Consider that 17 current netminders who play for the 21 teams that existed in 1983-84 have better save percentages than their predecessors. The following chart compares save percentages of the No. 1 goalies from the two years. The 1983-84 numbers are end-of-season. This year&rsquo;s goalies are in the shaded areas.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01858/6337644-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="719" height="2195"></div> &#9632;

f0024-01

SHARP IN-CREASE

<div class="byline">By Jason Kay</div>The recession has found its way onto the ice this season.Goal-scoring is at its lowest point since 1977-78. Through games of Nov. 28, the league&rsquo;s teams were averaging 6.71 goals per game. That&rsquo;s almost half a goal fewer than last season&rsquo;s average of 7.25.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01769/6337689-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="676" height="916"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine</figcaption></div>There are several probable causes for the 16-year low. Among them are the emergence of a high number of high-calibre goalies, an abundance of playoff-style games because of the new conference postseason format and long-term injuries to some of the game&rsquo;s best scorers-including three of the top four scorers last season, Mario Lemieux, Pat LaFontaine and Steve Yzerman.<h2>NHL&rsquo;S FIVE-YEAR PLAN</h2>Scoring is at its lowest point since the pre-WHA merger era. Here&rsquo;s a look at the average goals-per-game every five years since 1945.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02491/6337682-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="646" height="730"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03314/6337675-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="2492" height="3476"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s.920 save percentage is fourthbest in the NHL. Last season it would have been first.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0025-01

Stoppers help keep goals down

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01836/6337741-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01787/6337734-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="3094" height="3674"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01822/6337727-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="3159" height="3669"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01717/6337720-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="3094" height="3040"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01725/6337950-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01813/6337943-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3109" height="3674"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01775/6337936-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="1242" height="3654"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02571/6337981-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-02

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01730/6338012-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Dick Denny</div>The Edmonton Oilers dropped a bombshell on the hockey world and wound up with three players almost certain to lift the team in the World Hockey Association standings.Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington swung a deal that brought 17-year-old star Wayne Gretzky, rugged Peter Driscoll and promising goalie Ed Mio from the Indianapolis Racers for cash.The announced figure was $850,000 for the three. Pocklington also said he had an agreement from Indianapolis owner Nelson Skalbania that he would end all claims to compensation from Pocklington when the Oilers finally are admitted to the NHL in any merger between the WHA and NHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01654/6338043-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="535" height="757"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky played eight games for Indianapolis of the WHA.</figcaption></div>Pocklington, a multi-millionaire who took control of the Oilers from Skalbania about two years ago, said he got involved in the transaction because of his commitment to provide the best possible team for Edmonton fans.&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t sit by and watch our team lose,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our fans are impatient-so am l-and I&rsquo;m sure the fans will agree that this is a big step forward for us, whether we&rsquo;re in the NHL or the WHA.Gretzky, hailed since before his 12th birthday as a future superstar, was undeniably the longterm key to the trade.Before he left Indianapolis, Gretzky said,&rdquo;I was forewarned by Nelson. I don&rsquo;t like it, but I&rsquo;m like a puppet on a string. I want to play and I have to go where they send me.&ldquo;I always will have great memories of Indianapolis, which has the greatest fans in the world. I&rsquo;ll always remember that this is where I broke into hockey.&rdquo;Indianapolis coach Pat Stapleton said: &ldquo;Wayne Gretzky has an excellent future as a hockey player, but from our position we can&rsquo;t wait for a player to develop. The No. 1 guy in this we&rsquo;ll miss is Mio.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0037-01

Pocklington purchases Gretzky

Between periods of a close game, coach Milt Schmidt entered his team&rsquo;s dressing room and delivered one of the most rousing pep talks Leo Labine had ever heard.It was inspirational, moving and well thought-out. Unfortunately, it was also an oldtimers&rsquo; game.&ldquo;I used to tell him if he coached that way in the NHL, we would have won the Stanley Cup five times in Boston,&rdquo; Labine said.As it turned out, the Bruins never did win a championship during Labine&rsquo;s 10 years with the team. They came close a number of times, making it to the finals on three occasions, but came up short each time against the Montreal Canadiens.Labine attributes the Bruins&rsquo; misfortune to bad timing and, yes, bad coaching. He said the years when the Bruins didn&rsquo;t have to meet the juggernaut Canadiens in the playoffs, they were usually talented enough to win. During one particular series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Labine matter-of-factly said his team was outcoached by Leafs&rsquo; legend Punch Imlach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been telling everyone, including the brass in Boston, that for years,&rdquo; the Haileybury, Ont., native said. &ldquo;I used to ask why we didn&rsquo;t match lines and I never got a good answer.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s not to say Labine is bitter. Like most players who enjoyed fruitful NHL careers, Labine is grateful he got the opportunity to play for as long as he did in the league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02462/6338074-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="575" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leo Labine made it to the Stanley Cup finals four times in 11 years.</figcaption></div>That career started with Boston in 1951 and ended with the Detroit Red Wings 11 years later. Labine was traded to the Red Wings with Vic Stasiuk for Gary Aidcorn, Murray Oliver and Thomas McCarthy in 1961. That year, the Wings lost in the final to the Chicago Blackhawks.He quickly earned a reputation as a rugged winger with the ability to score. Today he would be classified as a power forward. His best year offensively was 195455 when he collected 18 goals and 47 points.While he is best remembered for the devastating hits he delivered, Labine instead prefers to talk about the times he got clocked.&ldquo;One time against Chicago Gus Mortson got me,&rdquo; he said,&rdquo;then another time Bert Olmstead of Montreal knocked me into the boards and I didn&rsquo;t get up for a day or two.&rdquo;And what about the guys Labine laid up? &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have to talk about them,&rdquo; he laughs. &ldquo;They know who they are.&rdquo;The 62-year-old former transportation company salesman is a content retiree, living in North Bay, Ont. He said he received a nice settlement from the firm for which he worked for 20 years and no longer needs employment.He is, however, banking on at least one more source of income. Labine is among those anxiously awaiting the court&rsquo;s final ruling in the lawsuit retired players launched against the NHL.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have to work anymore, but hopefully they&rsquo;ll come through with that pension money,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0037-02

Labine says timing, coaching kept him from winners’ circle

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01728/6338112-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="387" height="542"></div>The expansion Florida Panthers are headed for the playoffs and the Detroit Red Wings, pre-season favorites to reach the Stanley Cup finals, will miss the annual spring sprint to the finish line.That&rsquo;s what will transpire if the pattern developed through the first quarter of 1993-94 continues. Here are some highlights, lowlights and sidelights about people and events from the first quarter.&#9633; Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s return to form. The Great One&rsquo;s decision not to retire (he wasn&rsquo;t serious, was he?) was the right one for him and the game. Gretzky&rsquo;s great play has helped make up for the absence of other stars through injury. He was on pace for more than 150 points and his 10th scoring championship.&#9633; Officials&rsquo; strike. The league&rsquo;s latest labor dispute has been extremely damaging. The replacement officials are barely adequate and the integrity of the game is in jeopardy as long as they continue to work.&#9633; Intensity of games. A more balanced, conference-oriented schedule, new playoff format and solid expansion efforts have combined to inspire playoff-type hockey since opening night.&#9633; Superstar injuries. NHL stars are becoming like National Football League quarterbacks-an endangered species. Mario Lemieux is the key loss, but Steve Yzerman, Pat LaFontaine, Eric Lindros (and periodic disappearances by Cam Neely) are other major absentees.&#9633; TV timeouts. Having to watch players mill about their benches four times a period is cosmetically incorrect. However, it means the best players are better rested and receive more playing time. We&rsquo;d say unequivocally that&rsquo;s a decent trade-off if not for the possibility stars are playing too much because of it-and more susceptible to injury.&#9633; New gunners. Combine Wendel Clark&rsquo;s and Mike Modano&rsquo;s single-season highs for goals and you still fall 22 shy of Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s NHL record of 92 in a season. Gretzky led the league in scoring, but Clark, Modano, Bob Kudelski and Josef Beranek have been the most successful snipers.&#9633; Quebec Nordiques. After experiencing the greatest turnaround in NHL history, the bottom has fallen out for Quebec. They were on course to finish well below.500 and in danger of missing the playoffs. Is it the absence of a front-line goaltender? Steve Duchesne&rsquo;s holdout? Or PierrePage&rsquo;s presence behind the bench? All of the above.&#9633; Disappearing Act I. Folks wondered what effect Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s presence would have on Paul Coffey. The last time Bowman coached the superstar defenseman, in Pittsburgh, he played him at forward occasionally. Coffey had just two goals and four assists through Detroit&rsquo;s first 19 games under Bowman. He bounced back with eight points in his next three games.&#9633; Disappearing Act II. Contract disputes led to impact players Petr Nedved, Duchesne and Chris Kontos bolting from their teams. Kontos has joined the Canadian Olympic team for $25,000 (considerably less than the $225,000 Tampa Bay offered him). And Nedved, who recently became a Canadian citizen, is close to joining him. Duchesne is waiting for a trade from Quebec. The Vancouver Canucks are surviving without Nedved, but the Tampa Bay Lightning could use Kontos&rsquo; goals and Quebec misses Duchesne on the power play.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02539/6338105-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="572" height="887"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gino Odjick</figcaption></div>&#9633; Look ma, hands. Canuck pugilist Gino Odjick has been using his paws for more than fighting this season. The big left winger matched his career high of seven goals-three were game-winners-in 20 games.&#9633; Welcome back. Some of the league&rsquo;s productive players are bouncing back from injuries and slumps. Al Maclnnis and Brian Leetch, both hurt last year, were putting up Norris Trophy-like numbers; Clark, who last played a full season in 1986-87, is an early favorite for MVP and Shayne Corson is one of the few reasons to watch the Edmonton Oilers. &#9632;

f0038-01

Intensity high due to format change

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>There are a few uncertainties in Brett Lindros&rsquo; life at the moment.Will he make Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team? How high will he go in the 1994 draft? Is he worried about his uncertain future?Answers: Things look good, possibly as high as first overall and no.Four months with the Olympians have made the 18-year-old a new player. He&rsquo;s learning things he wouldn&rsquo;t have experienced playing major junior. Traveling and living with veterans has helped him mature as a person.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll truly appreciate all that I&rsquo;m experiencing until I&rsquo;m older,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Like, I was in the Eiffel Tower last week and went to The Louvre. I looked at Mona Lisa and thought, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s cool; where are the hot dogs?&rsquo;&rdquo;Scouts know where the beef is when they watch the hulking right winger play. At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, he is solid and plays with determination. Right now, he&rsquo;s focused on a golden dream.Lindros remembers watching his older brother Eric play in the 1992 Olympics on television. He wished he would get the same opportunity.He started working towards that goal last year, when he saw spot duty with the national team. For the most part, though, he played with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Kingston Frontenacs. He collected 11 goals, 22 points and 162 penalty minutes in 31 games before sustaining a knee injury that kept him off skates for six months.His goal is to be with the Olympians in February for the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, but he is not a lock to make the team. Nor is he interested in playing if he feels he can&rsquo;t contribute.&ldquo;Brett joined on the basis if he didn&rsquo;t feel he was an integral part of the team or was in over his head, he would have the option of leaving,&rdquo; said Carl Lindros, Brett&rsquo;s father and agent.He has shown steady improvement. Through Canada&rsquo;s first 29 games, No. 75 (his jersey number reflects his year of birth) had five goals and 12 points. His 96 penalty minutes were a team high. In a preOlympic tournament in Alaska, he was kicked out of three of four games for fighting.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03435/6338143-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="578" height="968"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Lindros missed most of last season with a knee injury.</figcaption></div>Lindros&rsquo; size and toughness have NHL scouts enthusiastic. He&rsquo;s rated as a top prospect for the draft. But he isn&rsquo;t a clear favorite to go first overall. Radek Bonk, playing with the Las Vegas Thunder of the International League, is tops on many lists. In order to challenge Bonk, many scouts feel Lindros will have to add polish to his offensive game.If he did go first overall, the Lindroses would be the first brothers to go No. 1.The Quebec Nordiques would be well advised to stay away from Brett. After his brother&rsquo;s experience with Quebec after being selected first overall in 1991, Brett said he will never play there.&ldquo;As long as Marcel Aubut is at the helm of the Nordiques, I would not report,&rdquo; Brett said. &ldquo;I would be betraying my brother.&rdquo;And he won&rsquo;t try to portray his brother, either. Brett accepts comparisons to Eric, but doesn&rsquo;t always appreciate them.&ldquo;There is a perception Eric is the bad guy and I am the good guy,&rdquo; Brett said. &ldquo;Maybe I am a little more easy going than he is, but that doesn&rsquo;t make him a bad person. It&rsquo;s what makes him a great hockey player.&rdquo;The Olympic team management said Lindros has looked more comfortable with each game. He has learned to control his temper and is playing a solid two-way game. But is it enough to make the team?NHL scouts can afford to project him as a 21 or 22-year-old. Team Canada officials must feel confident he can perform at a high level now. If anything holds him back, it will be his skating.It has been rumored that Lindros has a no-cut contract with the Olympians. Some have even suggested that Brett&rsquo;s involvement with the 1994 team was negotiated when Eric joined the team in 1992. Both sides deny that is the case.&ldquo;Obviously we hope his involvement with our program will accelerate his learning process to the point where he will be effective for us in Lillehammer,&rdquo; said Canadian coach Tom Renney. &ldquo;Only time will tell. I would suggest, however, he&rsquo;ll be a dominant force at the age of 22.&rdquo;No matter what happens, Lindros is looking at a no-lose proposition.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it would be devastating not to make the team,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing my best to showcase my abilities and to prove I deserve to make it. If they take me, great. If they don&rsquo;t, then I had all this time to develop and play with and against older guys. It&rsquo;s still a positive experience.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0038-03

An Olympian task

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Mike Brophy</div>Hey Jim Craig, Mike Dunham would love to talk to you.Craig, you will recall, backstopped the U.S. Olympic Team&rsquo;s Miracle On Ice in 1980. Dunham hopes to duplicate Craig&rsquo;s gold-medal effort and become the first American goalie to lead his team to victory on foreign ice at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to talk to Jim,&rdquo; said the 21-year-old Dunham, the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; fourth pick in the 1990 NHL entry draft. &ldquo;It would be interesting to hear about his experiences. He has achieved what I hope to achieve.&rdquo;The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Johnson City, N.Y., native signed with the Devils in August and attended their training camp. He was chosen 53rd overall by the Devils in 1990. With Chris Terreri, Martin Brodeur and Peter Sidorkiewicz there, the Devils felt his development would be best served with the American squad. He was one of three goalies with the 1992 team, but didn&rsquo;t play in Albertville. France.Dunham, along with Olympic team battery mate Garth Snow, led the Maine Black Bears to the National Collegiate Athletic Association title last season.&ldquo;Guys realize the NHL is the place to be,&rdquo; Dunham said. &ldquo;But any kid who saw the Americans win in &rsquo;80 would love to experience the same thing.&rdquo; &#9632;

American Dream in Dunham’s hands

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>The office soap opera of the Hamilton Canucks may finally be coming to a close.Before getting to the technicalities, here&rsquo;s the gist of a Nov. 22 board of governors meeting: Hamilton will continue to operate and play in Copps Coliseum, but the parent Vancouver Canucks will run the show.The American League dissolved the financially troubled Hamilton franchise owned by Double Hitch Enterprises Ltd., which was owned by a group of five investors from the Toronto area.Purchased in August from a former investment group headed by Pat Hickey, the new Double Hitch owners became disinterested when they learned they inherited large debts.The new owners said it wasn&rsquo;t financially feasible to operate under those conditions. They closed club offices at Copps Nov. 1 and attempted to negotiate new deals with the arena and the parent Canucks.They were unsuccessful so the AHL terminated the Double Hitch franchise. They allowed the team to continue playing because Vancouver assured the league they would pay the bills.&ldquo;If Vancouver had not offered to keep operating the team and pay the bills, there would not be a team in Hamilton,&rdquo; said AHL vice president Gord Anziano. &ldquo;We certainly owe Vancouver a debt of gratitude.&rdquo;Vancouver may be interested in buying a $1million AHL expansion franchise for the Hamilton market, though nothing is certain.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still negotiating with the Coliseum (concerning the lease),&rdquo; said Vancouver assistant general manager George McPhee. &ldquo;I certainly think it can work here.&rdquo;Hamilton was averaging 2,974 fans in five home games through the first six weeks of the season. The team was 8-11-1 through Nov. 26.McPhee said there were offers to relocate or disband the team and disperse players to assorted minor-league teams, but Vancouver wanted to stay in Hamilton.PERFECT FIT: When Ken Hammond&rsquo;s role changed with the Ottawa Senators during training camp, his first thought was how to keep playing and still be close to his family.Hammond, a nine-year veteran, played 62 games for the Senators last season. But Ottawa wanted him to go to Prince Edward Island this season and the defenseman refused, stating it was too far from Clifton Park, N.Y., where he makes his home with his wife and three children. He asked to be traded to a team in the northeastern U.S.A trade couldn&rsquo;t be worked out so Ottawa bought him out of the remaining year of his contract. He signed with the Boston Bruins Nov. 7 and was assigned to Providence.Hammond got off to a fast start with the baby Bruins and earned Sher-Wood player of the week honors for the period ending Nov. 28. He scored three goals and seven points and was a plus four in three games.&ldquo;I run into guys who keep saying, &lsquo;I thought you were going to retire?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Hammond, who has a civil engineering degree and MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. &ldquo;Five years ago, guys said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to play 10 years in the minors.&rsquo; Now you can legitimately get $70,000 to $90,000. You can&rsquo;t get that in the real world. People now say they will play as long as they can. So as long as teams are interested, I&rsquo;ll keep playing.&rdquo;QUICK DRAW: Portland Pirate Chris Jensen burned the Springfield Indians for two quick goals Nov. 19. He scored 10 seconds into the second period and 22 seconds into the third, helping the Pirates to a 4-3 victory&hellip;St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Chris Snell had a big game Nov. 24 against the Saint John Flames. He assisted on five goals in a 6-6 tie. &#9632;

Vancouver now controls troubled Hamilton team

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>David Bruce has goal-scoring numbers that are very impressive in the minor leagues, but he can&rsquo;t make them add up to an extended stay in the NHL.The Kansas City Blades&rsquo; left winger has picked up where he left off the last time he spent significant time in the minors. Bruce pumped in 10 goals in his first 13 games for the Blades after the parent San Jose Sharks farmed him out in early November.And that led to this staggering statistic: Bruce had scored 102 goals in his last 104 IHL games, dating back through the 1989-90 playoffs with the Milwaukee Admirals.The veteran of 232 NHL games has split six of the past eight seasons between the minors and the big leagues.Bruce scored 64 goals in 60 games to lead the Peoria Rivermen to a Turner Cup championship in 1990-91 while earning MVP honors. He was also named The Hockey News minor league player of the year in 1991.San Jose, meanwhile, struggled early in the season for offense, yet had this $225,000-per-year player stashed in the minors.&ldquo;I think about that all the time,&rdquo; Bruce said. &ldquo;San Jose talks about how they don&rsquo;t score enough goals up there. I think I could help them and I don&rsquo;t know why I&rsquo;m not there.&ldquo;I guess what they really want is for the right guys to score the goals for them. I guess I&rsquo;m not the right guy. Hey, they&rsquo;re management and it&rsquo;s their decision. I don&rsquo;t understand it.&rdquo;One reason is that he hasn&rsquo;t even come close to approaching his minor pro scoring level in the NHL. He has 48 in 234 NHL games and had none in two games this season.The Sharks grabbed Bruce in the NHL expansion draft in 1991, after he led the Rivermen to a playoff title with 18 goals in 18 games.Bruce missed much of last season with a strained abdomen that required surgery in June. He was limited to 17 NHL games.The 29-year-old native of Thunder Bay, Ont., knows he has to make up for lost time this season, regardless of which league he&rsquo;s spending it in.&ldquo;Sometimes when I look back I wonder how I did that (64 goals, 60 games),&rdquo; Bruce said. &ldquo;I think I could do it again. You have to believe in yourself. I&rsquo;m trying to get back to the NHL, so it has to be another big year for me.&rdquo;Bruce was a second-round draft choice of the Vancouver Canucks in 1983 and has also played in Fredericton of the American League and the St. Louis Blues.GOLDEN GATE CLOSED: The IHL turned down an expansion application from San Francisco Nov. 20, saying prospective owner George Rinderspacher did not satisfy all financial requirements.Rinderspacher, who heads Power Play Enterprises Inc., is reportedly gathering some more investors and the venture isn&rsquo;t dead.Applications from Houston and St. Paul, Minn., meanwhile, appear solid and will likely lead to new teams. Denver has already been granted admission starting next season.There&rsquo;s also interest expressed from a group in New Orleans which recently added former NHLers Dave Schultz and Larry Goodenough to its advisory staff.I-OPENERS: Kansas City center Kip Miller had an 11-game point-scoring streak through Nov. 23&hellip;The Indianapolis Ice was entrenched in a franchise-record eight-game losing streak through Nov. 23, during which the team was outscored 44-18.Salt Lake Golden Eagles rookie left winger Zigmund Palffy was IHL player of the week for the period ending Nov. 21. The New York Islander prospect had seven points in three games and was 13th in league scoring with 11 goals and 22 points in 20 games. &#9632;

Goal-scoring king Bruce hopes stay won’t be long

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Brendan Savage</div>Long road trips aren&rsquo;t a problem for the Colonial League&rsquo;s Thunder Bay Senators.Thunder Bay, Ont., is located at the northern tip of Lake Superior, so the Senators must travel farther than other CHL team to play road games.But the long trips haven&rsquo;t kept them from soaring to the top of the East Division. They were 12-4-1, 10 points ahead of the second-place Brantford Smoke. They were 8-0-0 at home and 4-4-1 on the road. Among the road wins was a 2-1 triumph in Flint, ending the Generals&rsquo; nine-game winning streak.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re the best road team in the league,&rdquo; said Flint coach Peter Horachek.HELPING HAND: The CHL is trying to organize an all-star benefit game for St. Thomas&rsquo; Chris Garafalo, who lost an eye after a freak accident in Flint Oct. 23.Commissioner Bob Myers is hoping the CHL all-stars can either play the top players from another league or one of the Olympic teams with proceeds going to Garafalo.The tentative date is Jan. 28, but details have yet to be finalized. &#9632;

Thunder Bay soars to top

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Once Sean Cowan&rsquo;s playing days are over he may have a future in coaching.The Richmond Renegades&rsquo; defenseman got an unexpected opportunity to move behind the bench for one game Nov. 19 and directed the Renegades to a 5-4 victory over the Raleigh IceCaps, his former team.Cowan, who played for the IceCaps the past two seasons, was on injured reserve because of a shoulder injury. When coach Roy Sommer was ejected for mouthing off to referee Terry Ko-harski in the first period, Cowan took over.&ldquo;My job was pretty much keeping the lines together they way he had them,&rdquo; Cowan said. &ldquo;I tried to keep the players calm. It got a little hectic there for a while.&rdquo;After the IceCaps scored two goals in 47 seconds, Cowan called a timeout to let the Renegades regroup.&ldquo;We looked a little panicky,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It worked out because we scored a quick goal.&rdquo;Cowan enjoyed matching wits with his former coach Kurt Kleinendorst.&ldquo;There were a few plays on faceoffs that I pointed out to the guys, especially right at the end of the game,&rdquo; Cowan said. &ldquo;It felt good to look over and see my old coach and see I was standing up there with him.&rdquo;THANK GOD: With his club locked in a slump, Roanoke Express majority owner John Gagnon was willing to try anything heading into a home date Nov. 20 with the Nashville Knights.Gagnon summoned a Catholic priest to the Roanoke Civic Center to bless the Express before the game. But the priest was detained because of a funeral.Despite the lack of divine intervention, the team&rsquo;s prayers were answered. Dan Dorio, 30, the league&rsquo;s oldest player, knocked in a rebound with five seconds left to give Roanoke a 3-2 win.&ldquo;Thank God we won this game,&rdquo; Gagnon said. &ldquo;I would have died had we lost.&rdquo;CALLED ON CARPET: Nashville Knights&rsquo; assistant coach George Kozak received a five-game suspension for losing control of his team in the late stages of a 5-1 loss to Knoxville Nov. 13. The game was called with 1.1 seconds left after a melee erupted. Commissioner Pat Kelly said Kozak lost control of his team after coach Nick Fotiu was ejected&hellip;Bill Wardle, the longtime voice of the Greensboro Monarchs, was replaced by Brooks Melchior, 26, a University of Georgia graduate. Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker was supposedly critical of Wardle&rsquo;s comments. Melchior began the season in Huntsville, but quit. The Blast left Melchior behind in Knoxville one evening and the broadcaster was forced to spend the night at a motel and rent a car to return to Huntsville the next day. Blast owner Larry Revo refused to reimburse Melchior for expenses. &#9632;

Cowan’s coaching debut a resounding success

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>&ldquo;I feel like we&rsquo;ve led them down the garden path,&rdquo; one Ontario League owner said as he and his collegues said &ldquo;no&rdquo; to Toronto&rsquo;s return to major junior hockey.OHL governors voted Nov. 22 not to approve an expansion bid from a Toronto group spearheaded by Robert Blakely.After the vote, which OHL commissioner Dave Branch said &ldquo;wasn&rsquo;t close,&rdquo; Blakely said the league would not hear from the group again.Toronto has been without junior hockey since the Marlboros left in 1989.The group proposed to play 12 home games at Maple Leaf Gardens with the remaining 21 at the University of Toronto&rsquo;s Varsity Arena.Governors wanted all games at the Gardens, but Blakely said his group wasn&rsquo;t prepared to take the financial risk. The governors twice delayed their vote while the group secured a lease arrangement at the Gardens.&ldquo;We asked them to get a lease and they did, but Varsity Arena doesn&rsquo;t portray the image we&rsquo;re looking for in Toronto,&rdquo; the owner said.Besides playing at two venues, the Toronto team would have practised at a third, an arena in the suburb of North York.Blakely said the OHL&rsquo;s demands dictate &ldquo;the only logical franchise for Toronto would be someone with an ownership tie-in with the Leafs. Our stance is we have a different view on what&rsquo;s an appropriate venue for OHL hockey.&rdquo;Branch said the league will consider another application in the next couple of months, but wouldn&rsquo;t identify the city. He said that application is for the 1995-96 season.MARSON DISMISSED: Niagara Falls Thunder owner Rick Gay fired coach Larry Marson Nov. 19. General manager Randy Hall took on the coach&rsquo;s role.Marson was hired last season after being an assistant coach with the Oshawa Generals.The Thunder was 6-12-3, last in the Leyden Division, when he was fired. It was fifth last season at 29-30-7.&ldquo;I think Larry would agree we&rsquo;ve tried to be patient,&rdquo; Gay said.&ldquo;You know if you don&rsquo;t start winning, something is going to happen,&rdquo; Marson said.NEW MARKET?: The Newmarket Royals could be off to Sarnia, Ont., home of the team&rsquo;s owners, Robert, Larry and Dino Ciccarelli.The only holdup is the lack of a suitable facility. The Sarnia Arena seats 1,800. But a citizen&rsquo;s committee has recommended the city build a multi-purpose arena. City council has yet to deal with the report.Attendance has been poor in Newmarket with the Royals averaging 1,000 spectators a game.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve spent a considerable amount of money there,&rdquo; said Robert Ciccarelli. who along with his brothers bought the Royals in June. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying to you if I said I was happy with the situation.&rdquo;GOING HOME: Luc Gagne, the Royals&rsquo; first-round pick in this year&rsquo;s draft, has returned home to Sturgeon Falls, Ont.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like life in the OHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Once the fun came out of the game, I didn&rsquo;t like it.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s the second time the 17-year-old Gagne quit the Royals.&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t scoring and he put the pressure on himself,&rdquo; said coach-GM Don Boyd. &ldquo;In his conversation with me and his father, he was playing for the wrong reasons. The first time he came back he wanted to please a lot of people&hellip;his coach, his family, his teammates. But was he playing to please himself?&rdquo;FRAUD CHARGES: Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; owner Ken Burgess and his sons Mark, the team&rsquo;s president, and Miles were charged with fraud and theft Nov. 22 after an 18-month investigation by the RCMP. Police said the charges stem from the closing of two non-hockey related businesses. The family also denied accusations of not paying employees. A Jan. 9 court date in Cambridge, Ont., has been set. &#9632;

Toronto’s Garden party puashed by governors

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The biggest surprise among the scoring leaders in the Quebec League this season is Granby Bisons&rsquo; left winger Alain Cote.The 6-foot, 203-pounder had 19 goals and 46 points in 26 games, which put him ninth in league scoring. The 20-year-old Cote recently completed a six-game suspension for leaving the penalty box to join a fight in a game against the Sherbrooke Faucons Nov. 12.What makes Cote&rsquo;s production such a surprise is in his first four years, he accumulated only 91 points in 239 games with the Shawin-igan Cataractes and Granby. His best season was last year when he had 25 goals and 54 points in 68 games with Granby.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why I&rsquo;m scoring more,&rdquo; Cote said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a combination of experience and confidence. This is my fifth year in the league.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been getting more time on the power play and that helps. It gives me confidence.&rdquo;Granby&rsquo;s rookie coach Blair Mackasey has nothing but praise for his captain.&ldquo;Game in, game out he has been our best player,&rdquo; Mackasey said. &ldquo;He may not be as skilled as a lot of players, but he&rsquo;s a great team leader and captain. He has a great attitude.&rdquo;Another reason for Cote&rsquo;s improved play is that as an undrafted 20-year-old, he knows this is his last chance to impress pro scouts. They&rsquo;re the same scouts, however, who have overlooked him each of the past three drafts.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see him get a chance in the American League,&rdquo; Mackasey said. &ldquo;He may not have the greatest skills, but he has all the intangibles.&rdquo;Cote has never attended a pro camp, but hopes his play this year will change that.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping to get invited to a pro camp,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to play in the American League next year or even the International League.&rdquo;For Cote, seeing his name in the top 10 scoring list is something new and exciting.&ldquo;When you see your name in the paper it&rsquo;s nice.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I keep playing this way and keep being aggressive in the comers I think I can stay there.&rdquo;BLOUIN SIDELINED: Granby center Max-ime Blouin, a top prospect for next year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft, sustained knee ligament damage Nov. 21 against the St-Hyacinthe Laser.The early prognosis is he&rsquo;ll be sidelined for the remainder of the regular season.&ldquo;Right now it doesn&rsquo;t look good.&rdquo; Blair Mackasey said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know yet if he&rsquo;s going to need surgery, but he&rsquo;s going to be out at least until Christmas.&rdquo;If surgery is required it will most likely end Blouin&rsquo;s season. The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder had 13 goals and 30 points in 30 games this season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be hard to replace,&rdquo; Mackasey said.DEFENSE UPGRADE: The St-Jean Lynx tightened up its defense after John Paris took over as coach from Norman Flynn Oct. 30.Under Flynn, the Lynx had a 9-12-0 record and was giving up an average of 3.8 goals per game. In its first 10 games under Paris, the Lynx was 6-4-0 and had cut its goals against down to 2.5 per game.DUBE TOPS: Laval Titan center Yannick Dube is the QMJHL&rsquo;s first segment winner of the Valvoline Top Draft Prospect Award.The award is voted on each month by a media panel in each of the three major junior leagues. Dube, who led the league in scoring with 40 goals and 80 points in 30 games, received 18 of a possible 32 voting points.Following Dube in order were: Vai d&rsquo;Or For-eurs&rsquo; center Stephane Roy tied with Laval left winger Daniel Goneau. Sherbrooke left winger Hugo Turcotte. Granby goalie Steve Plouffe tied with Shawinigan left winger Carl Paradis, Drummondville Voltigeurs&rsquo; defenseman Sebastien Bety and Chicoutimi Sagueneens&rsquo; goalie Eric Fichaud.THE PAINFUL TOOTH: St-Jean&rsquo;s highly touted rookie defenseman Jason Doig had to pay a visit to the dentist after a Nov. 16 game against Shawinigan. The 16-year-old took a puck in the face that resulted in three broken teeth. &#9632;

Bison Cote blossoms in Year 5

<div class="byline">By Bob Vanstone</div>Goaltending was the Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; biggest concern entering the 1993-94 Western League season.Thanks to Ian Gordon&rsquo;s often flawless play, those concerns vanished. The 18-year-old had four shutouts in 22 games. He tied the team&rsquo;s single-season shutout record set by Henry Durkin in 1971-72.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m shocked,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;If I was told before the season that I&rsquo;d get one shutout. I&rsquo;d have been happy with that. Now 22 games into the season, I&rsquo;ve got four. I&rsquo;m shocked and I&rsquo;m sure everybody in the organization is as well.&rdquo;Gordon entered this season, his second in the WHL, as an unknown commodity.The Yorkton, Sask., native had a 5.10 goals-against average in 10 games last season. He sported a 2.82 GAA so far this season.&ldquo;This is a dream season,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;A lot of people doubted me-and they had a right to. Nobody had really seen me play. But now, I don&rsquo;t think there are too many doubters. I&rsquo;m really happy with the way things have gone.&rdquo;And for good reason.Gordon is the first Broncos&rsquo; goalie to record more than two shutouts in one season since the franchise moved back to Swift Current from Lethbridge in 1986.PRINCELY SUMS: The Prince Albert Raiders are tired of raiding their bank account.The franchise has reserves approaching $600,000, but the Raiders&rsquo; board of directors does not find that overly comforting.Hence, the community-owned team has commissioned a five-person volunteer task force to examine the Raiders&rsquo; future viability. Five prominent Prince Albert businessmen are to deliver a report by mid-1994.&ldquo;We lost $100,000 last season.&rdquo; said Raiders&rsquo; president Wayne Mesenchuk. &ldquo;If the club continues to lose money, the bank account will run dry. This is not a panic situation. We&rsquo;re looking at it as a proactive approach to deal with the future before it&rsquo;s too late.&rdquo;The Raiders averaged only 1,845 spectators during their first 12 home games of 1993-94. The Comuniplex seats 3,105.During their first four seasons in the WHL, the Raiders played to overflow crowds. They won the Memorial Cup in 1985, capping their third major-junior season.Mesenchuk said the Raiders, who play in a community of 35,000, need to average 2,400 fans to break even. Their budget approaches $750,000 per season.&ldquo;If we continue to lose money at this rate, it&rsquo;ll be a critical time in three to five years,&rdquo; Mesenchuk said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be out of money.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping the task force will give us a view of how to deal with the small market we&rsquo;re in. We belong to a very viable league in the WHL, but it is expensive to operate in.&rdquo;KOZUBACK BACK: Rick Kozuback formally returned as the Tri-City Americans&rsquo; coach-general manager Nov. 19.Kozuback signed a one-year deal which expires at the end of this season.He succeeds Bob McCammon, who resigned Nov. 12. Kozuback was offered the position shortly after, but took a few days to contemplate matters.Kozuback was the Americans&rsquo; coach for the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons. He was also the GM for &rsquo;90-91, after which he resigned.The past two seasons, Kozuback was an associate coach with the International League&rsquo;s Phoenix Roadrunners. Phoenix dissolved that position last spring.CENTERPIECES: The Red Deer Rebels traded Mike Barrie, 19, to the Seattle Thunderbirds for 18-year-old Tyler Quiring in a Nov. 20 swap of centers.Red Deer, which began the season with a 913-0 record, also received future considerations.&ldquo;Our team is struggling and it is no one player&rsquo;s fault, but what has been evident is our lack of work ethic,&rdquo; said Red Deer GM Wayne Simpson. &ldquo;Last year we won a lot of games with hard work and dedication and this year we have been missing that spark.&rdquo; &#9632;

Gordon’s goose-eggs talk of town in Swift

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>Colgate junior center Ron Fogarty learned the hard way bigger doesn&rsquo;t always mean better.After suffering through one of his worst seasons ever, a lighter, quicker Fogarty helped the Red Raiders jump out to a 4-0-0 record, its best start in the Eastern College Athletic Conference since 1989.There was never any doubt about Fogarty&rsquo;s offensive potential. In his final season with Sarnia of the Western Ontario Jr. B League, he led the league in scoring with 60 goals and 106 points in 48 games.He had 16 goals in his freshman season, the most by a Colgate rookie since Gerard Waslen scored 24 during the 1982-83 campaign. Fogarty finished fourth in the balloting for ECAC rookie of the year and landed a spot on the league&rsquo;s all-freshman team.But last season was a disaster. He scored just five goals in 34 games.&ldquo;After his freshman year, he felt he needed to put on weight,&rdquo; said second-year Colgate coach Don Vaughan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a real big kid (5-foot-7,180 pounds) and he really felt the grind of the second half of the year.&rdquo;But Fogarty bulked up too much. He came to school nearly 20 pounds heavier than he was as a freshman and the extra weight affected his quickness, one of his best assets.&ldquo;He just got into a rut and couldn&rsquo;t get out of it,&rdquo; Vaughan said.Fogarty is out of his rut and scoring again. He had four goals and 13 points in seven games. His biggest goal came Nov. 19 when he scored in overtime to give the Red Raiders a 6-5 victory over the Brown Bears. The Red Raiders trailed 5-1 with three minutes left in the game, but Fogarty set up Earl Cronan for the gametying goal in the final minute and then scored the game-winner.&ldquo;I never talked to Ron during the summer, but everyone I did talk to said he was in great shape,&rdquo; Vaughan said. &ldquo;He came back in with an attitude that he had something to prove. That seems to be the attitude he has this year.&rdquo;MUSCLE MEN: Dartmouth won nine one-goal games last season, but the Big Green is showing some offensive muscle this year.The Big Green exploded for 11 goals-its largest offensive output in 11 years-to crush the Vermont Catamounts 11-4 Nov. 19.Senior Scott Fraser scored his third career hat trick to help Dartmouth beat Vermont for only the second time in the last 23 meetings of the two teams.By scoring five goals in Dartmouth&rsquo;s first five games, Fraser pushed his career total to 47.BAD NIGHT: How bad was Renssealer Polytechnic Institute&rsquo;s 6-3 loss to the New Hampshire Wildcats Nov. 16? The hometown fans booed the Engineers off the ice after they managed just three shots on goal in the second period. &ldquo;We embarrassed ourselves and embarrassed the program,&rdquo; said RPI captain Ron Pasco. &#9632;

Small fry Fogarty big shot

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The Northeastern Huskies appear ready to vacate the doghouse for the penthouse.For the past two seasons, coach Ben Smith&rsquo;s team has frequented the lower echelons of Hockey East, finishing seventh in 1991-92 and eighth last season.But Northeastern jumped out to a 2-1-1 mark in league play (5-1-1 overall), including a 5-4 win over mighty Boston University and a win and a tie against the Merrimack Warriors.&ldquo;You always hope to get out of the gate fast because this conference is so demanding,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve received nice goaltending from Todd Reynolds and Mike Veisor. Our scoring has been spread out and our defense has played well.&rdquo;The addition of former U.S. Olympic hero Jim Craig as goaltender coach has paid dividends.Craig worked extensively with Reynolds and the junior from Campbellville, Ont., responded with a 2-0-0 record, 3.05 goals-against average and.923 save percentage.Reynolds has been plagued by a disc-nerve problem in his back throughout his career but is pain-free this season.&ldquo;He has spent a lot of time in rehabilitation and is educating himself about his situation,&rdquo; Smith said.The Huskies&rsquo; offense is much-improved. The No. 1 line of senior center Mike Taylor, senior left winger Tom O&rsquo;Connor and junior right winger J.F. Aube is one of the most productive in the league and the second unit of freshman center Hart Webb, sophomore left winger Jordon Shields and freshman right winger Eric Petersen provides balance.Smith&rsquo;s biggest challenge is getting consistency from his defense corps, which is led by juniors Darryl MacNair, Francois Bouchard and Jason Kelly. Only the Merrimack Warriors allowed more goals than the Huskies last season.FOND OF ALFOND: The Boston University Terriers love to play the Maine Black Bears on the road.The Terriers beat the Bears 5-3 Nov. 20 at Alfond Arena in Orono, Me. It was just the second time in the past 76 games the Bears had lost on home ice. The Terriers beat the Bears 7-6 in overtime at Alfond last season.The Bears won 5-1 the next night, avoiding their first two-game losing streak since 1990. Maine has gone 118 games without back-to-back losses.NOT QUITE: The New Hampshire Wildcats&rsquo; bid to tie the school record for wins at the start of a season fell short when the Boston College Eagles scored six straight times to beat UNH 8-3 Nov. 19. The Wildcats won their first seven games&hellip;The UMass-Lowell Chiefs killed 38 of 40 penalties while the Providence Friars scored just twice in 28 power-play attempts through the first seven games. &#9632;

Lean times thing of past for resurgent Huskies

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>The Michigan Wolverines&rsquo; rookie class is living up to lofty expectations.Center Brendan Morrison and left winger Jason Botterill were among the top players in the league through the first month of the Central Collegiate Athletic Association season.Botterill led all freshmen with 10 goals and 15 points in eight games, while Morrison had five goals and 14 points in eight games.Both were factors in the Wolverines&rsquo; rise to first place.&ldquo;Morrison is a skilled center and a nice addition,&rdquo; said Michigan coach Red Berenson. &ldquo;We knew he could be an impact player. It&rsquo;s nice to see a high profile kid come in and play well right away.Morrison, 18, isn&rsquo;t big-5-foot-10, 170 pounds-but he is a highly skilled playmaker and swift skater. He was selected 39th overall in last June&rsquo;s NHL entry draft by the New Jersey Devils and was recruited by at least a dozen Division I programs.Berenson calls Botterill&rsquo;s success a &ldquo;surprise.&rdquo; The 17-year-old played at St. Paul&rsquo;s Prep School in Concord, N.H., last season and skipped his senior year to join the Wolverines. He is the son of New York Rangers&rsquo; team psychologist Cal Botterill.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anyone realized Jason would make the impact he has coming out of high school,&rdquo; Berenson said. &ldquo;He sees the ice well, has good hands, skates well, is a good team player and is coachable.&rdquo;Botterill is eligible for the 1994 entry draft.NO HOLE IN GOAL: When Lake Superior State junior goaltender Blaine Lacher went down with a pulled hamstring in the fourth game of the season, the Lakers could have run aground.Lacher finished with a 24-5-3 record and 2.70 goals-against average and helped Lake State reach the National Collegiate Athletic Association final last season.But the Lakers still got off to a 7-3-0 start, thanks to strong netminding from freshmen Paul Sass and Sean Kulick.Sass and Kulick ranked one-two in GAA with 2.21 and 2.24 marks, respectively.&ldquo;Both have had their strong moments and their bad games,&rdquo; said coach Jeff Jackson. &ldquo;But how can you be disappointed when they have the best goal-against averages in the league?&rdquo;Lacher is sidelined until the first week of December.FIGHT IS BACK: The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame beat the Lakers 5-4 in overtime Nov. 19. It was the first time Notre Dame had defeated Lake Superior since Jan. 7,1983&hellip;The Irish got off to a 4-4-1 start overall and 3-4-1 mark in the CCHA, setting them up to improve on their 1992-93 overall record of 7-27-2 and league mark of 5-23-2. &#9632;

Wolverines’ fab frosh boost team to top spot

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01269/6338469-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="386" height="538"></div>Pertinent questions and impertinent answers:What have we learned from the officials&rsquo; strike?1. Nobody is indispensible, not even Paul Stewart. 2. Under difficult circumstances-heavy pressure and closer scrutiny than the regulars get-replacements did better than expected. 3. Before they walked out, the regulars had become complacent and arrogant. 4. The height of hypocrisy was striking refs beefing about the NHL&rsquo;s gag rule. They didn&rsquo;t seem to mind it when it was protecting them from criticism.Can the Toronto Maple Leafs win their first Stanley Cup since 1967?No way. Pat Bums&rsquo; club couldn&rsquo;t beat the mediocre Los Angeles Kings last spring so why should we expect any more this time around? Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark will be burned out by March and enemy forwards will have solved Felix Potvin. (It takes at least a year to figure new goalies.) Besides, in the crunch Toronto&rsquo;s plodding defense will fail.Who is the best all-around player in the NHL?It&rsquo;s not Eric Lindros, Mario Lemieux or Steve Yzerman because they&rsquo;re not playing very much these days. On some nights Wayne Gretzky might be the best one-way player. Which leaves us with the winner, Jeremy Roenick. Forget about points, this Chicago Blackhawk is the closest thing to a latter-day Gordie Howe than any contemporary. He hits, digs, scores and carries a club with virtually no other significant scorer.What&rsquo;s with the Pierre-Page Jacques Demers feud?Page made the mistake of talking cross-eyed about Patrick Roy. Demers will never allow anyone to mess with his bread and butter and nobody knows how important Roy is to the Montreal Canadiens more than Demers.Page&rsquo;s problem is he&rsquo;s arguing from weakness. The Quebec Nordiques have won diddly despite the Lindros deal and all the first-rounders and Europeans they&rsquo;ve signed. Besides, Page has yet to prove he can effectively do doubleduty as coach and general manager.Was that a typographical error? Gino Odjick with seven goals?No. And why are you surprised? A character named Warren Young once scored 40 goals skating alongside Mario Lemieux. Yet Young disappeared faster than you can say BritSelby, so anything is possible. Besides, Odjick always had some skill and a good shot. Skating alongside his pal, Pavel Bure, hasn&rsquo;t hurt and the fact Shawn Antoski is doing all the fighting for the Vancouver Canucks has allowed Odjick to concentrate on playing his position.Does hockey still have a media problem in parts of the U.S.?You bet your computer it does. Consider this sad story: On Nov. 23, the Canadiens were playing the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This was a huge game. The Blueshirts came in unbeaten in 12 games and were facing off against the champs. Yet the New York Post didn&rsquo;t have a single line about the game that day.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02166/6338462-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="579" height="845"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hawerchuk</figcaption></div>Will the Buffalo Sabres fade without Pat LaFontaine?Not as long as Dale Hawerchuk stays healthy. Hawerchuk has always felt like a man on a mission and never enjoyed playing second fiddle. With LaFontaine out, Hawerchuk will lead in the dressing room and on the ice. Giving Alexander Mogilny the captain&rsquo;s &lsquo;C&rsquo; was a mistake. Hawerchuk will run the team and do it well.Who are the five sexiest/most marketable NHLers?Yzerman, Lindros, Kirk Muller, Keith Tkachuk and Brett Hull.Why are the Detroit Red Wings struggling?They&rsquo;re overrated. Their goaltending and defense is average and the prima donnas up front have been spoiled by owner Mike Hitch. Scotty Bowman may have an Yzerman, but he doesn&rsquo;t have a Lemieux, a Ron Francis, a Rick Tocchet or a Kevin Stevens. If Bowman gets them out of the first round, he&rsquo;ll be lucky. &#9632;

f0044-01

Roenick NHL’s best player

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>When the San Jose Sharks made Pat Falloon their first pick in their first ever entry draft in 1991, he instantly became a franchise player. That was an inescapable circumstance.Now will his play allow him to remain one?While the Sharks make their first tentative steps toward respectability in the NHL, the third-year Falloon isn&rsquo;t racing to immortality.After 27 games. Falloon had nine goals and stood as the Sharks&rsquo; leading goalscorer. He has improved defensively and the Sharks&rsquo; management is generally pleased with his game.But is he a franchise player? Certainly not yet. Will he ever be one? It may be too early to tell, but it doesn&rsquo;t look that way.Falloon is only 21 and until this September, he wasn&rsquo;t old enough to legally sip a beer in California.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget,&rdquo; said Dean Lombardi, the club&rsquo;s director of hockey operations,&rdquo;if he was a football player, he&rsquo;d still be hanging around a fraternity house somewhere.&rdquo;Falloon&rsquo;s 25 goals as a rookie was an excellent freshman result. With 14 goals in 41 games last season, he was on pace to match the total before a shoulder injury ended his campaign.But there&rsquo;s this second overall thing. Eric Lindros was the only player drafted ahead of Falloon in the 1991 entry draft. That&rsquo;s not Falloon&rsquo;s fault, but it does create expectations of dominance.Many who watched him help Canada to the gold medal in the 1991 World Junior Championship and lead his Spokane Chiefs to the Memorial Cup that year were predicting great things.Falloon seldom grabs a game and turns it upside down. But he can give it a jolt.You can make a beguiling argument the Sharks drafted as wisely as they could, although the lottery did include defenseman Scott Nieder-mayer (New Jersey Devils), Alexei Kovalev (New York Rangers) and highly touted Peter Forsberg (Philadelphia Flyers, then traded to Quebec Nordiques).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03115/6338500-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="971" height="2608"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Falloon San Jose Sharks</figcaption></div>The draft could produce two franchise players-Lindros and Fors-berg-and possibly a third in Niedermayer, but the Sharks didn&rsquo;t choose one that day in Buffalo.What the Sharks did get was a small and powerful player with excellent hands and scoring touch. Falloon is neither an exceptional playmaker nor a premier skater.He maxes out as a very productive offensive player who, through hard work, can avoid being a defensive liability. His hard work often results in manufactured scoring opportunities and Falloon competes as hard in front of the net as he does in the periphery.But if the word cornerstone does not jump to mind, it&rsquo;s because the above description would also fit a player such as Ray Sheppard.Sharks&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine, whose rigid insistence on defensive play has helped carry the Sharks into competitiveness, fudges his praise for Falloon.&ldquo;I think happy and content and satisfied are bad words to describe how you feel about a player,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s improving, he&rsquo;s doing a good job within the context of improvement.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s taking the body, he&rsquo;s initiating contact, he&rsquo;s fighting through checks,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;Plus what he has got, you can&rsquo;t teach, you have to draft, and that&rsquo;s goal-scoring ability.&rdquo;The emergence of Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Johan Garp-enlov as the Sharks&rsquo; top offensive line has freed Falloon from the shadowing of the opposition&rsquo;s top checkers.What has not followed is a corresponding surge in Falloon&rsquo;s scoring totals and Falloon is well aware of it.&ldquo;I think the other three lines have to produce more,&rdquo; Falloon said. &ldquo;You should be able to count on our line for at least a goal a game.&rdquo;That Falloon, who has played most recently with Todd Elik and Gaeten Duchesne, has not been able to make that happen goes a long way in explaining why the Sharks&rsquo; offense was the least productive in the league at the quarter pole.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy,&rdquo; Lombardi said,&rdquo;but we&rsquo;d like to see him also take the next step as a professional and get quicker and stronger.&rdquo;<h2>FIRST AND FOREMOST</h2>Pat Falloon scored 25 goals as a 19-year-old rookie.Here&rsquo;s a look at how his goal total ranks up against some of the game&rsquo;s top forwards in their first year of NHL eligibility: &#9632;

f0044-03

Looking out for No. 2

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>When Cliff Fletcher took over as general manager-president of the Toronto Maple Leafs in June, 1991, his highest-paid player was Dave Ellett at $700,000 per season.Fletcher demonstrated how much has changed with the NHL Nov. 26 when he signed Doug Gilmour to a five-year, $15-million contract, putting Gilmour behind only Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Patrick Roy on the salary lists of the eight Canadian NHL clubs.The Leafs now have four $1-million or more players including Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Dave Andreychuk and Felix Potvin.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m fortunate the way things have worked out,&rdquo; said Gilmour, who came to the Leafs from the Calgary Flames Jan. 2, 1992, in a 10-player swap. Part of the reason the Flames traded Gilmour was because they didn&rsquo;t want to pay him a seven-figure salary.In 169 regular-season games with Toronto, Gilmour had 63 goals and 246 points. The Flames, meanwhile, have only defenseman Michel Petit left for their end of the trade.The Leafs and Gilmour agreed to terms weeks earlier, but had to negotiate some issues of deferred payments and marketing rights.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing guaranteed in this game,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;I have to work hard and hopefully that will give me the chance to finish my career as a Maple Leaf.&rdquo;GILL STIFLED: The news wasn&rsquo;t good for Todd Gill, but it wasn&rsquo;t a worst-case scenario.The defenseman flew to Vancouver Nov. 26 to have specialist Ross Davidson examine his injured groin and abdominal muscles. Davidson has done surgery on several NHL players with similar injuries, but Gill went in knowing surgery might finish him for the season.Davidson said surgery would not be required and Gill will try to heal the injured areas with rest and specialized exercises. It&rsquo;s not clear when he might return, but it could be January.Gill had been practising with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Newmarket Royals.&ldquo;Something is not right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can go 75 per cent, but if I push it further, the pain starts.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Rob Pearson returned to action Nov. 22 against the Vancouver Canucks after missing 13 games with a sprained right knee&hellip;Glenn Anderson played his 1,000th career regular-season game Nov. 24 in Calgary.Eric Lacroix separated his right shoulder Nov. 27 against the Boston Bruins and is out until mid-December&hellip;Given the choice of Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk and Wendel Clark for a penalty shot in Calgary, coach Pat Burns chose Clark, who scored his 22nd goal of the season on his first penalty shot.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Doug Gilmour, C, signed five-year contract. Yanic Perreault, C. assigned to St. John&rsquo;s (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Doug Gilmour, John Cullen, Mike Krushelny-ski, Mike Eastwood.LW&mdash;Wendel Clark, Ken Baumgartner, Chris Govedaris.RW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Glenn Anderson, Rob Pearson, Bill Berg, Kent Mandervllle.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett. Sylvain Lefebvre, Jamie Macoun.RD&mdash;Drake Berehowsky, Bob Rouse, Dmitri Mironov.G&mdash;Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Nikolai Borschevsky, RW. spleen surgery, indefinite Todd Gill, D, groin strain, indefinite. Eric Lacroix, LW. separated right shoulder. Dec. 12. Mark Osborne, LW/RW. strained rib muscle, Dec. 9 Peter Zezel, C. back disc problems, indefinite. &#9632;

Gilmour signs on for career

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Goaltender Jeff Hackett was hoping he didn&rsquo;t have to wait as long for his next victory for the Chicago Blackhawks as he did for his first.Hackett got his first Hawks&rsquo; win Nov. 26 when he made 40 saves in a 6-3 victory at Calgary. It was only his third start of the season and first since Oct. 30.Such is the life as backup to Vezina Trophy winner Ed Belfour, who has averaged 65 appearances a season over the past three years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never sat this long except when I was injured,&rdquo; Hackett said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to stay part of things when you&rsquo;re not playing, but you&rsquo;ve got to try.&rdquo;It was hard for coach Darryl Sutter to find starts for Hackett during a six-game winning streak when Belfour was playing so well after coming out of his early-season slump.&ldquo;I have a lot of confidence in Jeff Hackett,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t a Jeff Hackett issue. It&rsquo;s an Eddie Belfour issue. I understand what (Hackett) is going through, but to me we have a clear-cut No. I goaltender.&rdquo;Hackett&rsquo;s teammates rallied around him at Calgary in a gesture of appreciation for how he has handled the situation.&ldquo;Hack&rsquo;s had to bide his time, but nobody works harder than he does in practice,&rdquo; said Neil Wilkinson, who came to the Hawks with Hackett from San Jose in last summer&rsquo;s trade for Jimmy Waite. &ldquo;He has accepted his role behind Eddie and that makes him work twice as hard.&rdquo;NO COMMENT: Steve Smith chose not to say much after the NHL suspended him four-games for his role in a stick-swinging incident with Denis Savard of the Tampa Bay Lightning.&ldquo;I have no comment,&rdquo; said an obviously annoyed Smith. &ldquo;Anything I say would only get me in more trouble.&rdquo;Smith, who earns $950,000, will lose close to $54,000 in salary during the suspension. He is eligible to return Dec. 7 against the St. Louis Blues. On further reflection, however, Smith did have something to say on the pay he&rsquo;d lose.&ldquo;It would be cheaper to beat the daylights out of him in a bar and pay your lawyer to settle out of court,&rdquo; Smith said.NOTEBOOK: Chris Chelios&rsquo; new four-year $12,275 contract that won&rsquo;t begin until next year, includes an immediate payment of $1.1 million for a non-exclusive joint marketing arrangement with the Hawks. That brings Chelios&rsquo; 1993-94 salary to $2.2 million. &ldquo;Never in a million years did I think anyone would ever pay me $1 million for this face,&rdquo; said Chelios, who under the non-exclusive agreement can continue securing endorsements on his own.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Karl Dykhuis, D. recalled from Indianapolis (IHL) Nov. 26: Steve Smith, D. suspended four games by NHL. Eligible to return Dec. 7.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick. Brent Sutter. Jeff Shantz, Jocelyn Lemieux, Troy Murray.LW&mdash;Stephane Matteau, Patrick Poulin, Michel Goulet, Rich Sutter, Dave Christian.RW&mdash;Joe Murphy. Dirk Graham, Brian Noonan, Darin Kimble.LD&mdash;Eric Weinrich, Frank Kucera. Keith Carney. Karl Dykhuis.RD&mdash;Neil Wilkinson, Chns Chelios, Cam Russell.G&mdash;Ed Belfour. Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Christian Ruuttu, C, broken right ankle, indefinite. Kevin Todd. C, sprained right knee, Indefinite. &#9632;

It’s hard for Hackett to fly when Eagle keeps soaring

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>After three years playing in the shadow of Steve Yzerman, Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; center Sergei Fedorov is emerging as an NHL star.The 23-year-old Russian plays a similar style as Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; center Doug Gilmour, but is bigger, faster and younger.But only lately has the Wings&rsquo; fourth pick in the 1989 entry draft begun to show the consistency that make Yzerman and Gilmour among the most respected players in the league.Fedorov has been thrust into prominence because of an injury to Yzerman. The Wings&rsquo; captain sustained a herniated disc in his back Oct. 21 and is not expected to return until after the New Year.The Wings were 9-5-2 after Yzerman was injured and were climbing back into the race for the Central Division crown.Fedorov was brilliant during a 4-11 stretch involving games in six cities in nine nights.He scored two game-winning goals in the final three games: one in a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks Nov. 24. the other on his own rebound in a 4-1 win Nov. 28 against the New York Islanders.That ended a 13-game stretch in which he had eight goals and 20 points to push his season totals to 17 goals and 36 points in 23 games.Coach Scotty Bowman attributed his team&rsquo;s surge to a team-wide adherence to his demand for reasonable shifts.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re starting to get the message,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;Even Sergei. The line changes have been good.&rdquo;One of the bad habits Fedorov picked up from Yzerman was overextending his shifts. Fedorov concedes Bowman&rsquo;s way is the right way.&ldquo;With short shifts, everybody works harder,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You give your best for 45-50 seconds and then you&rsquo;re off the ice. It helps keep your focus. It is perfect for this team.&rdquo;Another factor in Fedorov&rsquo;s success was being united with countryman Slava Kozlov, who was playing well after struggling to make the lineup early in the season. Kozlov assisted on Fedorov&rsquo;s goal against the Islanders, to give him eight goals and 14 points in 16 games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard for the other team to play against that line,&rdquo; said defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t know which guy to try and stop.&rdquo;CHEVY RUNNING: Goaltender Tim Cheveldae returned to form in the game against the Islanders, stopping all but one of 27 shots in the 4-1 win.It was his best effort in three starts after returning from a serious knee injury. The only goal Cheveldae allowed was a fluke. He knocked the puck over the goal line with his arm after making a glove save.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the best I&rsquo;ve seen him play since I&rsquo;ve been in Detroit,&rdquo; Scotty Bowman said.Cheveldae was pleased to see his game round into form.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just nice to go out and contribute to the team&rsquo;s success, to feel a part of the team again,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Terry Carkner was plus-5 in a 10-4 win over the Dallas Stars Nov. 27, the only game in a string of nine at Joe Louis Arena. But Carkner was more excited about the goal he scored in the game. &ldquo;Now I can quit for the rest of the season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to have a goose egg going into March.&rdquo; Carkner led the Wings at plus-15, despite having just four points in 22 games.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Sergei Fedorov, Mike Sillinger, Greg Johnson, Micah Aivazoff.LW&mdash;Slava Kozlov, Dallas Drake, Keith Primeau, Shawn Burr.RW&mdash;Martin Lapointe, Ray Sheppard. Dino Ciccarelli, Darren McCarty.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Mark Howe, Steve Chiasson, Steve Konroyd.RD&mdash;Nick Lidstrom, Terry Carkner, Vladimir Konstantinov. Bob Halkidis.G&mdash;Chris Osgood, Tim Cheveldae. Vince Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Sheldon Kennedy. RW, bruised ribs, day-to-day. Bob Probert, LW. bruised tailbone, day-to-day. Steve Yzerman, C. herniated disc in back, indefinite. &#9632;

Slick Fedorov shines in Yzerman’s absence

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>It was a milestone St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman Phil Housley would like to forget.When the Blues played the New Jersey Devils Nov. 26, Housley missed his fourth consecutive game with back spasms. It marked the ninth game he sat out this season, the most games he has missed in a single year. Housley had missed only 44 games in 11 seasons prior to this year, playing 840 of 884 games.But Housley missed 10 of 23 games through Nov. 29 with no end in sight to back spasms caused by a bulging disc in his lower back.Housley was listed as day-to-day, but Blues&rsquo; orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jerome Gilden said the defenseman could be out until the second week of December.Housley has been bothered by back pain since last summer when he hurt his back lifting weights.The Blues are concerned. They signed Housley to a three-year, $6.2million contract after acquiring the rights of the free agent from the Winnipeg Jets for Nelson Emerson and Stephane Quintal Sept. 25.Gilden said Housley&rsquo;s problems aren&rsquo;t as severe as those sustained by Detroit Red Wing Steve Yzerman and Pittsburgh Penguin Mario Lemieux.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no surgery required,&rdquo; Gilden said. &ldquo;He just needs time.&rdquo;While the Blues were in Washington playing the Capitals Nov. 24, Gilden sent Housley to see Dr. Keith Bridwell, a spine specialist at Washington University.&ldquo;I wanted to see if there was another direction we should be following,&rdquo; Gilden said. &ldquo;I wanted to get a second opinion. He was firm surgery wasn&rsquo;t needed. We&rsquo;re working on it with a lot of physical therapy and general strengthening.&rdquo;INJURY WOES: Phil Housley wasn&rsquo;t the only Blue in on the injury list.Center Craig Janney, the Blues&rsquo; leader with 20 assists in 22 games, sustained a compression cut on his shin in the Blues&rsquo; 6-6 tie against the Devils. He sat out a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets Nov. 28.Winger Kevin Miller also missed two games with the recurrence of a groin injury that sidelined him for two games earlier in the November.Miller has not been the same since. He led the Blues with 10 goals and 19 points at the time of the injury, but had just two assists in his next seven games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not serious, but we need to get him better,&rdquo; said Dr. Jerome Gilden.The Blues were forced to make two emergency recalls because of the injuries. Veteran defenseman Doug Crossman was recalled from the Peoria Rivermen of the International League Nov. 26 and center Jim Montgomery was recalled two days later.NOTEBOOK: Backup goaltender Jim Hrivnak handled 38 shots in his return to Washington Nov. 24, but still ended up a 5-2 loser. The former Capital was 1-2-0 in five games and had not faced fewer than 40 shots in any of his three starts.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Doug Crossman, D. recalled from Peoria (IHL). Nov. 28: Jim Montgomery, RW. recalled from Peoria.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Sutter, Tony Hrkac. Bob Bas-sen, Kevin Miehm.LW&mdash;Philippe Bozon, Brendan Shanahan, Igor Korolev, Basil McRae.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Vitali Karamnov, Kelly Chase. Jim Montgomery.LD&mdash;Murray Baron, Jeff Brown. Doug Crossman.RD&mdash;Rick Zombo, Garth Butcher. Tom Tilley.G&mdash;Curtis Joseph, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bret Hedican, D, strained shoulder, day-to-day. Phil Housley, D. back spasms, indefinite. Craig Janney, C, compression cut on shin, day-to-day. Kevin Miller, RW. pulled groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

Back pain bothering Housley

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Reacting to pressure to get his stumbling team going, Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith cashed in his chips on Stu Barnes.Smith dealt the fourth overall pick in the 1989 entry draft to the Florida Panthers Nov. 26 for center Randy Gilhen and future considerations.Ironically, on the day he picked Bames at the draft, Smith dealt Gilhen to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a multi-player trade that was No. 6 in his GM tenure.The return of the 30-year-old center was deal No. 70 in Smith&rsquo;s 60th month running the team.The deal was panned early in Winnipeg, with many fans angry that the team seemed to give up on the 23-year-old Bames. But Smith and coach John Paddock have decided a skilled player who&rsquo;s a bit on the small side (5-foot-11, 180 pounds) will not exceed the abilities of their first two centers, Alexei Zhamnov and Thomas Steen.The Jets&rsquo; last-place standing in the Central Division on the day of the trade was another factor for the Jets.&ldquo;For me, the fact (Gilhen) has a (Stanley Cup) ring and will provide grit and leadership has a lot to do with (the trade),&rdquo; Paddock said.Gilhen played 79 games for the Jets in his previous stay, 64 of those in 1988-89, which was his first full year in the NHL. The 12th-year pro has played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida. He won a Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 1990-91.BORIS BACK: After issuing regrets and apologies and forking over a couple of days&rsquo; pay, defenseman Boris Mironov returned to the Jets Nov. 26.The 21-year-old rookie went AWOL Nov. 21 while the team was on its way home through Toronto and didn&rsquo;t return until late the next night. He spent the better part of two days at his brother Dmitri&rsquo;s home. Dmitri plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs.The team and Mironov called it a personal matter and Mironov denied a report-fueled by comments from his brother-that he didn&rsquo;t like playing in Winnipeg.&ldquo;Those are just my brother&rsquo;s words and he doesn&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; Boris responded to his brother&rsquo;s claim.NOTEBOOK: Teemu Selanne had points in four straight games through Nov. 28, matching his best stretch of the season. The Finnish Flash said he has decided it&rsquo;s time to get aggressive in an attempt to return to his stellar play of last season. &ldquo;I have decided to play more physical,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I can get my confidence back that way.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 25: Dave Tomlinson, C. recalled from Moncton (AHL). Arto Blomsten, D. assigned to Moncton. Nov. 26: Stu Bames. C. traded to Florida for Randy Gilhen, C, and fourth-round draft pick<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Alexei Zhamnov. Thomas Steen, Nelson Emerson. Randy Gilhen, Mike Eagles, Dave TomlinsonLW&mdash;Keith Tkachuk. Darrin Shannon, Luciano Borsato, Kris King.RW&mdash;Teemu Selanne. Paul Ysebaert, Tie Domi, Bryan Erickson.LD&mdash;Teppo Numminen, Sergei Bautin, Igor Ulanov.RD&mdash;Stephane Quintal, Boris Mironov. Dean Kennedy. Fredrik Olausson.G&mdash;Bob Essensa. Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Smith opts for grit over skill in dealing Barnes for Gilhen

<div class="byline">By Terry Egan</div>The &ldquo;Dallas shuffle&rdquo; is starting to drive Bob Gainey crazy.The Dallas Stars&rsquo; coach-general manager is generally satisfied with his team&rsquo;s play, but isn&rsquo;t thrilled that several of his top players are playing out of position.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not comfortable with the team because we don&rsquo;t have everyone playing where they belong,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have people playing out of position and they&rsquo;re not as good as when they play where they should be playing.&rdquo;The most glaring problem is at left wing, where veteran Mike McPhee is the only true left winger.Ulf Dahlen, Brent Gilchrist and Dave Barr are all playing on the left side, but none seem comfortable with the assignment.&ldquo;Ulfie should be on the right side,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;He knows that and I know it. Brent Gilchrist plays there, but he&rsquo;s a natural center. Dave Barr, I suppose, is in that spot, too.&rdquo;Gainey is eager to trade for a competent left winger to fill the void, but the right deal hasn&rsquo;t come along. The Stars also recalled left winger Rob Brown from the Kalamzoo Wings of the International League. Brown was leading the IHL in scoring.DEFENSIVE WOES: Bob Gainey was concerned about how the team&rsquo;s defense was playing as November came to a close.The Stars surrendered 86 goals in 25 games, the second most allowed by a Central Division team. The defense was particularly weak in a 10-4 lambasting by the Detroit Red Wings Nov. 27 in Detroit.Gainey blamed much of the team&rsquo;s defensive woes on Jim Johnson and Craig Ludwig, who are usually the team&rsquo;s most dependable defensive defensemen.&ldquo;It is surprising because you come to expect a certain level of play from those two guys,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;To see them off their game for more than just a glitch takes away from our stability.&rdquo;GOAL-DEN TOUCH: Every time he touches the puck, Mike Mo-dano expects to score.He scored his 20th goal of the season Nov. 24 against the New York Islanders in his 24th game. It is by far the best start of his career.His previous fastest 20-goal total came in his rookie season (1989-90), when he scored 20 in 49 games.What&rsquo;s the secret behind his success?The 23-year-old says he is working harder to get free in close range, a place he was easily bumped out of earlier in his career.&ldquo;I used to score most of my goals from the perirfieter,&rdquo; Modano said. &ldquo;Now, I know it&rsquo;s important to work for space in front of the goalie.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: When goaltender Andy Moog allowed 10 goals on 38 shots against Detroit, his goals-against average jumped from 3.22 to 3.61&hellip;Moog needed two wins to pass Dan Bouchard for 12th place on the all-time NHL wins list. Moog had 285.Dave Barr played in his 600th career game Nov. 24 in a 2-2 tie with the New York Islanders&hellip;Dean Evason picked up his 200th career assist on an Ulf Dahlen goal in a 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 26: Rob Brawn, LW. recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dave Gagner. Dean Evason.LW&mdash;Ulf Dahlen, Mike McPhee, Rob Brown, Dave Barr.RW&mdash;Russ Courtnail, Paul Broten, Mike Craig, James Black, Trent Klatt.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Derian Hatcher. Craig Ludwig, Brad Berry.RD&mdash;Grant Ledyard, Paul Cavallmi. Jim Johnson.G&mdash;Andy Moog, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shane Churla, RW. surgery on hamstring, indefinite Brent Gilchrist, LW, groin pull, day-to-day. &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

December 10, 1993

NHL GMs had better read this column

THE DRAW

NHL SUMMARIES

Minnesota plight not hopeless