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 17, 1993

The Hockey News December 17, 1993

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>Everybody knew the defending national champion University of Maine would have a lot of new players this season. After all, it lost 12 regulars to graduation, pro hockey or the U.S. Olympic Team.What&rsquo;s worse is a rash of injuries and some National Collegiate Atheltic Association sanctions left coach Shawn Walsh scrambling to put together a lineup.Following Maine&rsquo;s 5-4 loss to RPI in the title game at Maine&rsquo;s Dexter Classic Tournament, Walsh was down to only four defensemen. Senior left winger Justin Tomberlin had to be moved to defense for the RPI game.Still, Maine managed to hold down first place in Hockey East with a 6-1-0 conference record.Senior defenseman Jason Weinrich tore a ligament in his right knee, junior defenseman Jacque Rodrigue sustained a hairline fracture in his right tibia and freshman defenseman Jason MansofT sprained a ligament in his left knee. All are likely gone until January.And freshman defenseman Jeff Tory was awaiting word on his eligibility. The NCAA ruled him ineligible, but Maine is appealing.Maine&rsquo;s only four healthy defensemen were veterans Andy Silverman, Dave Maclsaac and Lee Saunders and freshman Leo WlasowAt forward, Cal Ingraham, the nation&rsquo;s leading goalscorer a year ago, continued to serve his 14-game NCAA suspension stemming from a clerical mistake involving his eligibility.Veterans Tomberlin and Wayne Conlan returned from back injuries that sidelined them for two and five games, respectively, and senior center Patrice Tardif is out indefinitely with a a sprained left knee.Maine will lose captain and 1993 Hobey Baker Award candidate Paul Kariya to the Canadian Olympic team Dec. 10.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s crazy right now,&rdquo; Maclsaac said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like this. But we just have to keep playing hard and hope for the best. We used four defensemen in high school, but I don&rsquo;t think I played this much.&rdquo;1,000 STRONG: With their 9-0 win over Army Nov. 28, Boston College became the first Hockey East school to reach 1,000 wins.The Eagles scored 44 goals en route to a 4-3-1 start after only 29 goals at the same stage a year ago. Dave Hymovitz had a six-game scoring streak and Jerry Buckley was at five games.WIN ABROAD: Merrimack&rsquo;s 5-3 win over Western Ontario and 2-1 win over host University of Ottawa gave the Warriors the National Capital Tournament championship Nov. 28.Boston University senior defenseman Dan Donato was moved to left wing due to Jon Pratt&rsquo;s shoulder injury and Bob Lachance&rsquo;s mononucleosis. He responded with a goal and three assists in a 7-3 win over Princeton in his fourth game as a winger. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Depleted defense corps leaves Bears vulnerable

<div class="byline">By Terry Egan</div>Andy Moog signed the big contract, but Darcy Wakaluk has been making the big saves for the Dallas Stars.With Moog struggling in goal and recovering from a minor groin strain, Wakaluk took over as the top goalie in Dallas for most of November.The 27-year-old native of Pincher Creek, Alta., responded with an impressive 3-1-2 record, 2.03 goals-against average and four-game unbeaten streak. He had a. 934 save percentage during the streak (2-0-2).More importantly, Wakaluk proved he is ta clutch performer, whether it comes in relief of Moog or as a starter. Wakaluk came on in relief three times in the Stars&rsquo; first 29 games and twice he turned back the opposition to allow the Stars to come back to win.He was named the first star in consecutive starts, a 2-2 tie with the New York Islanders Nov. 24 and a 2-2 tie with the Calgary Flames Nov. 30.So does Wakaluk feel he deserves to be recognized as the lone star in the Dallas net?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s enough work to go around for two goalies. We both have to be ready whether we&rsquo;re starting or coming in in relief.&ldquo;Everyone wants to play as much as they can. But it&rsquo;s a long year. We&rsquo;re going to need two goalies playing well to make the playoffs.&rdquo;Wakaluk maintains he has made a few mental adjustments that have helped boost his confidence. He is more relaxed, which helps in pressure situations.The former Buffalo Sabre is also enjoying hockey more than ever before in his career.&ldquo;It has been fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Before, I&rsquo;d go to practice and it was just work. I mean I&rsquo;d work hard, but it was not fun. I&rsquo;ve tried to approach things differently this season. I&rsquo;ve always worked hard in practice, but with the wrong attitude. If it&rsquo;s not fun, why do it?&rdquo;JUMPING FOR JOYCE: The Stars signed defenseman Duane Joyce to a contract Dec. 2 on the recommendation of assistant general manager Les Jackson.The 28-year-old is an adept skater who can move the puck well out of his own zone. The Stars figured the NHL minimum of $125,000 was worth the gamble. Joyce has spent four seasons in the minor leagues with the Kalamazoo Wings, Fort Wayne Komets, Muskegon Lum-beijacks and Kansas City Blades. Joyce was playing for the Blades at the time of his recall.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m here until they feel I can&rsquo;t help the club,&rdquo; Joyce said. &ldquo;At any point they can terminate the contract. It&rsquo;s up to me. It&rsquo;s what I make of it.&rdquo;Joyce signed as a free agent with the San Jose Sharks on Aug. 13, 1991, but was released. He worked at a Minnesota golf course in the off season and has had thoughts of quitting the game many times.&ldquo;I finally get my shot at 28,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to make it a good one.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Tough guy Shane Churla was sidelined until late December with a pulled hamstring. The Stars&rsquo; right winger was on pace to set a new NHL record for penalty minutes. He had 118 PIM in 20 games&hellip;After a great start, Mike Modano had cooled off. He had just four goals in 10 games to give him a total of 21.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 2: Duane Joyce, D. recalled from Kansas City (IHL). signed contract. Rob Brown. LW, assigned to Kalamazoo (IHL). Neil Brady, C. recalled from Kalamazoo.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dave Gagner. Neil Brady.LW&ndash;Dean Evason, Mike McPhee, Brent Gilchrist Ulf Dahlen. James Black.RW&ndash;Mike Craig. Paul Broten, Russ Courtnail, Trent Klatt.LD&ndash;Derian Hatcher, Mark Tinordi, Craig Ludwig, Duane JoyceRD&ndash;Paul Cavallini. Grant Ledyard, Jim Johnson, Brad Berry.G&ndash;Andy Moog. Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shane Churla. RW. pulled hamstring. Dec. 20. &#9632;

Wakaluk upstaging Moog

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02409/6340984-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL PLAYERS’ SALARIES

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The way the Kalamazoo Wings see it, they&rsquo;ve already assisted on one title in the 1990s.But this season, the reborn International League powerhouse would like to make a name for itself on the Turner Cup.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the one thing people tend to forget: about what happened to us after the 1990-91 season,&rdquo; said Wings&rsquo; general manager Bill Inglis, referring to the NHL dispersal draft between the Minnesota North Stars and San Jose Sharks that tore apart a Kalamazoo team that had won 52 games.The Wings would win only 66 games and go through three coaches in the next two seasons. Kansas City, which received many of the former Kalamazoo players taken by San Jose, won the Turner Cup in 1991-92.&ldquo;I guess we sort of half won that one,&rdquo; Inglis joked. &ldquo;We knew losing all those players would eventually rear its ugly head and maybe that&rsquo;s what happened to us last year. We didn&rsquo;t have any depth. It took us a year or so to get back.&rdquo;And back they are. The Wings had won seven of 10 games-inc hiding a league-best win streak of six-through Nov. 29 and surged from last place to first in the Atlantic Division.NHL scouts who studied this team in September said the Wings would be a worst-or-first team in 1993-94. But no one thought they&rsquo;d be both in the same season.The Wings opened the season 0-4-0, but added six key players through the first quarter of the season.They include right wingers Jarkko Varvio and Chris Tancill defenseman Tommy Sjodin and forwards Neil Brady, Herb Raglan and Jay Caufield. All either started the season in the NHL or have plenty of major-league experience.Caufield and Raglan were signed by Kalamazoo as free agents in November. Brady was also a signee in the off-season-until he played so well in the Dallas camp he made the NHL team.&ldquo;We signed Brady and negotiated with Tancill as well, and when we lost them (to Dallas) it put us in a difficult situation,&rdquo; Inglis said. &ldquo;But our policy is not to hold back a guy if he has a chance at the NHL. You don&rsquo;t always know what you&rsquo;re going to get from the parent club. You just hope to fill in the blanks.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t make the right move every time.&rdquo;The Wings also picked up Russian right winger Alexandr Andrievski in a trade and got left winger Pat Murray back from a long injury.&ldquo;We could quit today and I&rsquo;d be happy,&rdquo; Inglis said. &ldquo;There are upsides and downsides with every affiliation.&rdquo;READY FOR PRIME TIME: The IHL starts its second season on national cable television with Prime Network when the Indianapolis Ice play the San Diego Gulls at San Diego Dec. 4.Prime Network, which has 37 million subscribers nationwide, will carry nine IHL regular-season games plus three post-season contests.Play-by-play will be handled by John Paul Dellacamera, a former backup on radio for the late St. Louis Blues&rsquo; broadcaster, Dan Kelly.Color analyst will be former St. Louis Blues&rsquo; star center Bernie Federko, who registered 1,130 points in his 14-year NHL career.I-OPENERS: Milwaukee Admirals&rsquo; right winger Brian Dobbin was IHL player of the week for the period ending Nov. 28. He had eight points in three games and led the league in scoring with 20 goals and 35 points in 24 games&hellip;Indianapolis ended a team-record eight-game losing streak Nov. 24 with a 4-3 shootout victory over San Diego.Cleveland Lumberjacks&rsquo; left winger Dave Michayluk, one of the most consistent scorers in IHL history, scored at least one point in 19 of 21 games this season. &#9632;

Kalamazoo flying again after Wings were clipped

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01926/6342221-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Granato Los Angeles Kings</figcaption></div>INSIDE STUFFTeam-by-team NHL payrolls Power forward Keith Primeau Christmas book review special &#9632;

Cover-01

PUMP IT UP

&ldquo;Technically, since they&rsquo;re not referees anymore, can I say how bad they are?&rdquo;&ndash;St. Louis Blue Brett Hull on the replacement referees after the officials&rsquo; strike ended. Page 4.I think you&rsquo;re going to have more video tape in Brian Burke&rsquo;s office than in a Blockbuster Video store.&rdquo;&ndash;Rangers&rsquo; general manager Neil Smith on the league&rsquo;s judicial process. Page 13. &#9632;

QUOTABLE

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06327/6340145-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="384" height="488"></div>My natural inclination is to call the officials&rsquo; strike a tie.But there is an increasingly vocal group of governors in the NHL that will settle for nothing less than victory or defeat. They believe the best way to ensure that is with crowdpleasing, corporate-appeasing shootouts.Things are never so black and white in labor negotiations. Even those involving referees and linesmen.By digging in, the officials believe they got as much as $2.5 million more in benefits (over four years) than if they had accepted the NHL&rsquo;s last proposal.A league source says that figure is closer to $1.5 million.Included is a saw-off point of $400-500,000 this season in the $1.5 million benefits gap that precipitated the strike.Nobody but Gary Bettman really knows how much (if any) of his position he surrendered to achieve peace.Good sense dictates he doesn&rsquo;t reveal that, but it&rsquo;s useful to remember he got a four-year deal (rather than three years as the NHLOA wanted) and held firm on his &ldquo;final-offer&rdquo; salary grid.Mind you, the NHL also absorbed real and hidden costs associated with a strike. The former is the actual bureaucratic cost of going to war with officials and it can be measured in dollars. The other is the impact on the league&rsquo;s image and is more difficult to calculate.The officials believe the 17-day strike resulted in three crucial gains: 1. Increased playoff monies, reflected in universal bonuses; 2. Better pension and severance packages; and 3. Higher wages for minor-league officials under contract to the NHL. (Details of the contract appear on page 4.)Undeniably, the officials profited by taking a strong stand throughout negotiations. They are now in the same pay range as basketball and baseball peers, although the young and old NHL officials fared better than those in the middle of the wage scale.It can be safely assumed the 11 dissidents fell into that group.As for determining a winner?Well, you could start with Ron Hoggarth. The 16-year veteran tendered his resignation at season&rsquo;s start and will get a full pension because the NHLOA insisted the new package kick in this season.Long-time referee Denis Morel&rsquo;s future is also not considered bright.While, the NHL didn&rsquo;t go as far forward as the NHLOA did backward, it&rsquo;s fair to say the two sides settled their dispute somewhere along the road from A(sselstine) to B(ettman).You remember Ron Asselstine?He was among the most strident of strikers and his antagonism towards Bettman illustrated the gulf between the two sides.Now, they are together again and Asselstine is ready to bury the hatchet. &ldquo;The guy would make a helluva referee,&rdquo; Asselstine said. &ldquo;He has got guts and a thick skin.&rdquo;Asselstine, 47, said the strike exacted a heavy emotional toll on him and he was happy to be back at work. &ldquo;We fought the good fight,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and the league gave us a fair and justifiable package.&rdquo;Asselstine had one other thing he wanted to get on the record.He messed up a two-line offside call during the Dec. 5 game between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils.Mark Messier pointed out the mistake and Asselstine didn&rsquo;t argue. Messier seldom criticizes the officials, so when he speaks, they listen.Hey, even contract officials make mistakes. &#9632;

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Do we need shootout to break officials’ tie?

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011577/6340176-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull was one of the most vocal critics of replacement officials.</figcaption></div>The 17 days of replacement refereeing came to an end with a bang and player whimpering.Players bade the substitutes farewell and good riddance Dec. 1 after the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association (NHLOA) ratified a four-year collective bargaining agreement with the league.&ldquo;Technically, since they&rsquo;re not referees anymore, can I say how bad they are?&rdquo; asked St. Louis Blues&rsquo; superstar Brett Hull.Earlier that day, NHLOA members voted 80 percent in favor of the deal, 47-11.&ldquo;You can always want more,&rdquo; said NHLOA president Terry Gregson, &ldquo;but I think we did really well.&rdquo;&ldquo;They may disagree,&rdquo; said commissioner Gary Bettman, &ldquo;but the deal we ended up giving them, they wouldn&rsquo;t have accepted 21/2 weeks ago.&rdquo;Bettman&rsquo;s next job is to negotiate a contract with the players, who have been in a legal position to strike since Sept. 15. A work stoppage is not considered likely.Agent Don Meehan was lead negotiator for the referees and linesmen, whose previous contract left them badly underpaid.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re progressing out of the pothole we were in for five years,&rdquo; said referee Don Koharski.The new deal ended a troublesome period for the league, which insisted the level of replacement officiating was adequate and played no role in a settlement.Ninety-five games were handled by replacement referees and linesmen.Among the last was a cantankerous affair between the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues at Maple Leaf Gardens. An obvious officiating mistake punctuated the strike with an exclamation mark.Toronto winger Glenn Anderson high-sticked St. Louis defenseman Rick Zombo in the face, yet escaped a penalty and actually earned an assist on the play when Dave Andreychuk scored moments later. Referee Luc Lachappelle, considered to be the best of the replacements, did not assess a penalty.One GM, speaking before the new pact was finalized, offered a generous view of the replacements&rsquo; work. &ldquo;Overall, they have been pretty good,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think we can go on forever like this.&rdquo;None of the replacement officials will be hired this season, but the NHL did not rule out doing so in the future. &#9632;

f0004-01

Refs’ strike comes to merciful end

The NHL and NHL Officials&rsquo; Association came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement Nov. 30 in Montreal. One day later, Dec. 1, the agreement was ratified by the NHL board of governors and 58-member NHLOA. In general terms, the new deal brings officials to a pay level commensurate with counterparts in the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. Here are the important elements of the deal:LENGTH OF CONTRACT: Four years, running through 1996-97 season.SALARY GRID: Base salary raised by average of 29 per cent for referees (26 per cent for linesmen) in first year of contract, but officials no longer receive regular-season performance and negotiated bonuses. Officials to be compensated with lump-sum payments that have effect of making deal retroactive. (See listing of officials&rsquo; salaries on right.)PLAYOFF BONUSES: Escalating automatic payments for all full-time NHL officials-$6,000 (first year of deal), $7,500 (second), $8,000 (third) and $11,500 (fourth). Performance bonuses earned by progressing through playoffs. Same for all four years. First round: $9,000 (referees)/$7,000 (linesmen); Second round: $16,000/$13,000; Third round: $22,000/$ 17,000; Fourth round: $29,000/$24,000.PENSION CONTRIBUTION: NHL to contribute 11 per cent of payroll.SEVERANCE PAYMENT: Improved package kicks in this year, topping out at two years&rsquo; salary paid out over 48 months for officials with 16 or more years experience.MINOR-LEAGUE SALARIES: Minimum salary for NHL-contract referees who work primarily in American and International Leagues raised from $25,000 to $43,000 for referees, $22,000 to $35,000 for linesmen. &#9632;

What you need to know about new agreement

Listed is what each NHL official would earn in regularseason pay and guaranteed playoff bonus this season and in the final season of the new four-year deal. Also listed is 1992-93 base salary (not including bonuses), officials&rsquo; age and years of NHL service. Long dashes under years indicate minor-league officials are under contract to the NHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021407/6340231-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="922" height="2415"></div> &#9632;

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HERE’S WHAT EACH OFFICIAL NOW MAKES

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011489/6340269-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="894" height="1530"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Yashin&rsquo;s play for the Ottawa Senators earned him rookie-of-the-month honors for November.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021075/6340262-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="890" height="1528"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Richter&rsquo;s 9-0-1 record in November coincided with the New York Rangers&rsquo; run for first overall.</figcaption></div>Under normal circumstances, Peterborough Petes&rsquo; defenseman Brent Tully would be able to ease his way back into the lineup.But, hey, this is the World Junior Championships.Tully, who had an emergency appendectomy three games into the season, was back playing by early December and will undoubtedly be one of Canada&rsquo;s key players in the 1994 WJC. This year&rsquo;s tournament is scheduled for Dec. 26 to Jan. 4 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.Tully is one of three returning players from last year&rsquo;s gold-medal team in Sweden. The others are defenseman Joel Bouchard of the Quebec League&rsquo;s College Francais and forward Martin Gendron from the Canadian Olympic team.&ldquo;Obviously you have to be in extra good shape to skate with the players in this tournament,&rdquo; Tully said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m working extra hard to get into that kind of condition.&rdquo;Tully, who was a first-team all-star at the 1993 tournament, had five goals and 11 points for the Petes this season. He missed five weeks while recovering from the operation.Tully is one of 32 players who were invited to the Canadian team&rsquo;s final evaluation camp, which is scheduled for Dec. 13 to 18 in Kitchener, Ont.The Canadian team will be coached by Joe Canale of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Beauport Harfangs. Six players trying out are eligible for the 1994 NHL entry draft and one-Day-mond Langkow of the Western League&rsquo;s Tri-City Americans-is eligible in 1995.The medal hopes for the United States suffered a setback when University of Wisconsin goalie Jim Carey-who played for the team last year-declined an invitation to play.Instead, the U.S. will pin its goaltending hopes on Jeff Moen of the University of Minnesota and Aaron Ellis of the Detroit Jr. Wings.&ldquo;The loss of Carey was certainly disappointing,&rdquo; said U.S. coach Dean Blais. &ldquo;But we feel we have enough talent to be in medal contention.&rdquo;A key returning player for the Americans will be Michigan Wolverines&rsquo; left winger Ryan Sittier, who is playing in his third WJC. Sittier was the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; first pick in 1992.Other returnees include WHLers David Wilkie (Kamloops Blazers) and Adam Deadmarsh (Portland Winter Hawks) and John Emmons (Yale University).For full roster listings see page 46.RANGER REBOUND: The New York Rangers have regained their winning form from two seasons ago and goaltender Mike Richter is a main reason why.Richter was undefeated in November, going 9-0-1 with a 2.37 goals-against average and. 917 save percentage. His performance was good enough to earn him NHL player-of-the-month honors.Richter edged St. Louis Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull and Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; left winger Wendel Clark.Ottawa Senators&rsquo; center Alexei Yashin was named the NHL rookie of the month for November. Yashin led all rookies with 21 points in 13 games.NEW LEAGUE: The Canadian Jr. A Hockey League was established as an umbrella non-profit league that will encompass 11 Jr. A leagues and 118 teams.The CJAHL stretches from the Atlantic provinces to British Columbia and will operate within the framework of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.The aim of the CJAHL is to promote Jr. A hockey on a national level. It does not include the three major junior leagues-the Ontario League, WHL and QMJHL-which make up the Canadian Hockey League. &#9632;

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Tully places return on fast-forward for WJC

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s fate with Hockey Canada may be known as early as Dec. 16, but it will take much longer to determine the future of the tournament he created.The 10-member Hockey Canada board will review an internal investigation of Eagleson&rsquo;s dealings at a board meeting in Toronto Dec. 16.Eagleson was Hockey Canada&rsquo;s chief negotiator during his tenure as the executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. Hockey Canada administers all of the country&rsquo;s international programs above the World Junior level.Eagleson&rsquo;s activities have also been the subject of probes by a grand jury in Boston, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Law Society of Upper Canada.The board will decide what action, if any, to take against Eagleson and whether the findings of the investigation will be made public.Eagleson, the founder and key organizer in all five Canada Cup tournaments, stepped down from the board prior to the investigation. His negotiating duties have been assumed by Hockey Canada president Ron Robison.Hockey Canada has secured the rights to the Canada Cup in 1995, but the future of the tournament is in limbo. NHL players such as Wayne Gretzky and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow have expressed little interest in another Canada Cup.The NHL is following through with plans for a second stint on ABC television.Last season, the league broadcast six Sunday afternoon playoff games.The NHL supplied broadcast rights to ESPN, the U.S. cable giant and sister company of ABC. ESPN then bought the time from ABC, handled all the production and sold the advertising.Plans are for six games this season-three late regular-season contests and three playoff games will be aired.Last year&rsquo;s games drew an average rating of 1.7 and were seen in 15.9 million American homes. The U.S. Open drew a 4.7 rating in its final day of play last year and the 1992 Pro Bowling Tour drew a 2.7 rating.The initial sparring continues in the NHLPA&rsquo;s lawsuit against the NHL.Attorneys from both parties met Dec. 2 before Federal Court of New York judge Michael Dowlinger to determine what should be admissible.After the two parties settle on the scope of the evidence, it&rsquo;s up to the league&rsquo;s lawyers to determine whether to apply to have the case thrown out.The players insist league commissioner Gary Bettman was in a conflict of interest when he voided ffee-agent offers sheets to Craig Simpson and Kelly Miller this summer. They also contend he was hired to keep player salaries down.The league is expected to argue Bettman&rsquo;s participation was permitted by the collective bargaining agreement and league by-laws.Player agent Steve Mountain is continuing his dogged campaign to Dan Quinn back into the NHL.Quinn, 28, a late cut of the New York Islanders in training camp, is playing in the German Elite League this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03717/6340300-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="580" height="763"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former NHLer Dan Quinn is playing in the German Elite League.</figcaption></div>Quinn, a one-time 40-goal scorer has played with six NHL teams. He was released by the Minnesota North Stars last season after a Minneapolis woman alleged he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room. Quinn was not charged in the incident.&ldquo;After Christmas he&rsquo;ll have enough games under his belt to be able to come back to the NHL with something to show people,&rdquo; Mountain said. &ldquo;He will play in the NHL.&rdquo;Hockey lovers should pay close attention this Valentine&rsquo;s Day.Canada&rsquo;s federal broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission, will hold a public hearing Feb. 14 in Ottawa for the Hockey Channel, a pay-per-view service being pitched by a consortium of all eight Canadian-based NHL teams.The Hockey Channel would make pay-per view games available in Canada on nights where no other telecast is available. It would guarantee a game is available on every night of the season.If approved, the service could be up and running for the 1993-94 season. &#9632;

f0005-03

Hockey Canada to decide Eagle’s fate

Hockey photo buffs have a wealth of good material from which to select this season.Three books featuring classic pictures are among the noteworthy new titles available. Here&rsquo;s a list of some of the notable books to watch for.Hockey Hall of Fame Legends: The Official Book, by Michael McKinley. Viking Press, 200 pages. $50.Without a doubt, this is the most lavishly photographed and designed hockey book ever. Photographer Derik Murray and designer Ken Koo create a genuine feel of reverence and importance. But only 59 members-one-fifth of the total inductees-get the royal treatment of full-page profiles.Hockey&rsquo;s Golden Era: Stars of the Original Six, Photographs from the Legendary Harold Barkley Archives, by Mike Leonetti. Warwick Publishing, 159The real star is Barkley, whose color, strobed photos were the first ever, freezing the helmetless, maskless action of that time. Darker arenas and strobes mounted on the glass created compelling shadows and give a three-dimensional intimacy.Denis Brodeur: 30 ans de photos de hockey, by Daniel Daignault. Les editions de I&rsquo;Homme, 302 pages.For Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; fans, it&rsquo;s all here from Rocket to Roy, but there&rsquo;s much more. A Forum fixture for three decades. Brodeur and camera have caught both the action at its peak and the humorous set-up shot.Behind the Bench, by Dick Irvin. McClelland & Stewart. Inc., 342 pages. $27.99.No book has ever done this-NHL coaches speaking for themselves about their beginnings, philosophies, the ups and downs of their uncertain profession and why they love it. Irvin&rsquo;s rapport with the subjects brings out their best.New York Rangers, Broadway Blues, by Frank Brown. Sagmore Publishing, 320 pages. $19.40.Brown chronicles the 1993 New York Rangers&rsquo; collapse and demonstrates there&rsquo;s enough blame to go around, but it also quite fair to all participants. The thick day-by-day of the demise sometimes loses continuity. A good book for Rangers&rsquo; fans, if they can bear the price.Bad Boys 2, by Stan Fischler. McGraw Hill-Ryerson, 238 pages. $19.95.Twenty-six of the NHL&rsquo;s toughest guys tell their stories about pugilistic strategies, feelings about what they do, the controversy it causes and the unwritten codes of behavior under which they operate. They are quite articulate. Like it or not, it&rsquo;s impossible to understand hockey today without understanding some of what&rsquo;s in this book. &#9632;

Picture perfect: classic photography highlighted

<div class="byline">By Stu Hackel</div>Among the fortunate happenings in the cosmos is that the start of the hockey season is closely followed by the holiday season. This means the new hockey books released in October are still fresh come December.But scouting for the right book to give is no easy task. Like a club planning for the draft, the consumer must evaluate the field and match it with his or her needs-the tastes of the recipient.Fortunately, this year&rsquo;s crop of new literature has something for just about everyone.Stephen Smith, book review editor for Quill & Quire, cites a 25 percent increase in the number of new hockey titles available. Quill & Quire is a publishing industry magazine that reviews books released by Canadian publishers.More significant, however, is Smith&rsquo;s belief the books &ldquo;are of a much higher calibre than previous years.&rdquo;Unfortunately for American fans, there are fewer books being released exclusively by U.S. publishers. Our unscientific research found just one-Frank Brown&rsquo;s Broadway Blues-down from four last season.Here are summaries and reviews of three of the more substantive new books-Mario, Road Games and The Defense Never Rests. While each one of the books has its shortcomings, each contains serious and worthwhile information.Mario, by Lawrence Martin. Lester Publishing, 275 pages. $26.95.The image many have of the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; superstar is a composite of contradictions. At once he&rsquo;s: quiet, but outspoken; shy, but outgoing; aloof, but giving; a singularly gifted skater who has both thrived on and bowed to adversity; courageous and mentally mighty in the face of physical adversity, but also pampered.This book reinforces all of those ideas, but in greater detail.Acknowledging the limitations of unauthorized bios, Martin quotes numerous sources close to Lemieux, but never talks to the star himself. Left to ponder the evidence Martin collects, the reader is sometimes frustrated with the contradictions. We end up where we started-with an enigmatic Lemieux.Martin&rsquo;s clearest conclusion is that Lemieux, once thought to be the next Wayne Gretzky, has come to be perceived by many (sometimes unfairly) as the antithesis of Gretzky. Martin embraces that notion by the end of the book.Gretzky is considered cooperative and generous, the ambassador of all that is good in hockey. Lemieux, as the anti-Gretzky, has a history of non-cooperation with the media and sponsors. That, and his alleged outbursts to injustices perpetrated on him, have supposedly turned fans against him.Even in the wake of his startling comeback from Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease, the height of his popularity reached, &ldquo;Mario, being Mario, had to spoil it,&rdquo; writes Martin, by avoiding the media. For such a contradictory personality, that cardboard characterization is dissatisfying.An expert on the former Soviet Union, Martin digs hard and does his best to get the story. But in this case, the story is of a remarkable athlete who is rather unremarkable away from the rink.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011665/6340345-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="423" height="641"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021136/6340338-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="424" height="643"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03721/6340331-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="1462" height="2519"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux is portrayed as a study in contradiction in the unauthorized biography, Mario.</figcaption></div>Road Games, by Roy MacGregor. MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 321 pages. $24.95.Is this Part III of the Great Hockey Trilogy?Part I. The Game, studied the relationship between the individual and the team. Part II, Ken Dryden&rsquo;s and MacGregor&rsquo;s Home Game, examined the relationship between hockey and culture. If this is indeed Part III&mdash;the relationship between hockey and business and its impact-it needs work.Road Games examines many of 1992-93&rsquo;s pivotal events, the first year of the &ldquo;new&rdquo; NHL and efforts to bring hockey forward.MacGregor believes narrow-minded greed holds the game back. He says rules were changed to emphasize skillful stars, but contends that end was never reached because of pressure from owners of less-skilled teams. He says owners felt cheated out of money when a team was relocated from the snowbelt to the sunny south. And of course, he covers the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; alleged game-throwing scandal.MacGregor is a gifted writer, but he could use a decent fact and zeal checker.The errors start small. San Jose Sharks&rsquo; president Art Savage is called Al; and Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; TV rightsholder Prime Ticket is referred to as Prime Time. As for placing Patrick Roy&rsquo;s fee for Disney spots at $100,000, MacGregor isn&rsquo;t even close. Roy received less than half that amount.The book also contains a new version of National Basketball Association history. It says an enlightened David Stem spiced up basketball by introducing the 24-second clock and adding an extra foul. Both happened decades earlier.The errors continue. Jim Schoenfeld pushed Don Koharski down in 1988 (it was never proven conclusively whether Koharski was pushed or fell on his own); the NHL promoted London exhibition matches with violent radio spots (an independent promoter did and the NHL stopped it); neither Tie Domi nor Roger Neilson were suspended in the wake of the Domi-Bob Probert fight (each was suspended two non-game days and fined $500).These may be minor mistakes, but all are key building blocks for important discussions.That&rsquo;s not to say MacGregor&rsquo;s contentions in the book lack merit. In fact, they offer food for thought and he raises some interesting and controversial issues. But he certainly doesn&rsquo;t do himself any favors in the credibility department.Sometimes, such as in the discussion of the relaxation of rule changes, the reader is left wanting more hard evidence of ownership meddling.It&rsquo;s too bad. The book has a handsome cover, effective portraits of Darcy Loewen and Brad Marsh, gives a good feel for the Senators&rsquo; plight and offers interesting views of Gretzky, Lemieux and Eric Lindros.It could have been a contender.The Defense Never Rests, by Bruce Dowbiggin. Harper Collins, 339 pages. S26.95.This is not lighthearted holiday reading. And then again it is.The lawsuit filed by former NHL players to challenge the disbursement of funds from their pension plan-the first round of which they have won and is now under appeal-forms the heart of this book.Sports editor for CBC-TV&rsquo;s Newsworld. Dowbiggin retells the familiar 1960s Toronto Maple Leaf saga, focusing on their core, &ldquo;a central nervous system&rdquo; of defensemen Bob Baun, Carl Brewer, Tim Horton and Allan Stanley.After 180 well-written dewey-eyed pages of their heroics and eccentricities (that&rsquo;s the holiday reading), the book shifts to the players trying to make sense of their lives, their pension and their fights for justice (that&rsquo;s not the holiday reading).Armed with court transcripts and documents from the trial itself, the research of Lawrence Eagle Tribune sports editor Russ Conway, financial documents from Hockey Canada and a few other sources, Dowbiggin bashes frequently bashed targets. They include Alan Eagleson, the NHL (from Conn Smythe to Gil Stein and everyone else in between) and acquiescent players.He draws the now-accepted conclusion that hockey&rsquo;s golden era was most golden for ownership. It became only marginally better for the players after until Eagleson was toppled.The tales of Eagleson spreading himself too thinly and his alleged conflicts of interest are repeated. Eagleson&rsquo;s defense that he never profited from his international dealings is stated, then Dowbiggin uses Hockey Canada and Canada Cup documents to indicate otherwise.In suggesting there was some poetry in the tale of the Leafs&rsquo; quartet, whose struggles ultimately lead to a favorable decision in the pension case, Dowbiggin forces the story. Horton died, one-time leader Baun&rsquo;s interest flagged, iconoclastic Brewer alienated others, leaving the quiet, conservative Stanley as one of the torch bearers.Dowbiggin bestows upon those who have helped his research-particularly Brewer and agent Rich Winter-heroic roles in the drama. In the meantime, others who fought hard (Keith McCreary, Leo Reise, Andy Bathgate and Gordie and Colleen Howe) deserve more attention.Still, the substantive information should disturb the romantic images many hold for the game.<h2>CHAPTER TOO: NEW RELEASES</h2>Trying to get a good read on what books are available this season? Here&rsquo;s a guide.Eagleson: The Fall of a Hockey Czar, by William Houston and David Shoalts. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 216 pages. $27.95.Manon: Alone in Front of the Net, by Manon Rheaume with Chantal Gilbert. Harper Collins. 147 pages. $16.95.Last Minute of Play: Tales of Hockey Grit and Glory, by Ross Brewitt. Stoddart, 239 pages. $16.95.Killer. The Brian Kilrea Story, by James, Davidson. General Store Publishing House, 168 pages. $14.95.More It Happened in Hockey, by Brian McFarlane. Stoddart, 163 pages. $14.95.The Game, 10th Anniversary Edition, by Ken Dryden, MacMillan 256 pages. $14.95. &#9632;

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In hockey’s good books

I was saddened, but not surprised to note the omission of Glenn Anderson from Mike Brophy&rsquo;s list of Hall of Fame candidates (THN, Nov. 19). I fear this oversight may be a harbinger of the future.Anderson has been an under-appreciated star throughout his career, playing in the large shadows of more publicized teammates, but has compiled a formidable list of career accomplishments.The former Canadian Olympian has played on five Stanley Cup and two Canada Cup champions. He has played over 1,000 career games and more than 1,000 points.And his 72 game-winning goals handily lead in an Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; record book otherwise dominated by Wayne Gretzky.Anderson has not met two of Brophy&rsquo;s criteria, namely individual awards and post-season all-star selections. Such recognition is to a certain extent a popularity contest and it is no secret his quirky personality has never made him a media favorite.It is hoped hockey&rsquo;s ultimate allstar team, the Hall of Fame, selects on the basis of on-ice accomplishments. Anderson would be a deserving member.Bruce McCurdy,&nbsp; Edmonton, Alta.<h2>Work overtime</h2>In the Nov. 26 issue of THN, Chris Johnson raises an argument in favor of deciding games by a shootout: The NHL is the only major league that has ties.While this is true, it is an argument in favor of a longer overtime, not shootouts.Other sports continue to play the game the same as regulation time. The idea of basketball having a free-throw contest or placekickers kicking field goals until someone misses is ridiculous. Such a proposal would be dismissed without a second thought.Kenneth Parker, St. Albert, Alta.<h2>More exposure</h2>I am a big fan of the Colonial League and I was wondering why the CHL doesn&rsquo;t get the same play in THN as the other minor professional leagues.The CHL has excellent young minor pro and it doesn&rsquo;t get nearly the attention it deserves.Players such as Jason Firth, Kevin Kerr, Brian Sakic and former NHLers Doug Shedden, Peter Ing Mark La-Forest and Rollie Melanson have played in the CHL the past two seasons.It&rsquo;s time this top-notch developmental league got some coverage.Jason Chickowski, Chatham, Ont.<h2>Canadian content</h2>I know Stan Fischler only writes certain things to get a reaction, but I must take the bait for his column in the Nov. 26 issue.Stan tells us &ldquo;Americans are running Canada&rsquo;s national sport from top to bottom&rdquo; and &ldquo;Canadians are angry&rdquo;How silly. The NHL is a part of our national sport, but not the sum total. Hockey is not run by Americans, the NHL is.But the fact is, hockey will always be ours. Hockey is cold winter mornings and nights of senior and junior, even bantam games, played 10 or 20 years ago.Very few Americans have this, very few want it.Canadians are not angry. Stan. We hardly ever get angry. We see professional bowling gets bigger TV rankings in the U.S. than pro hockey and four pages of NHL football stories bury the only hockey column in most American papers.Stan, I think you are frustrated your nation refuses to embrace this great game. You also have trouble seeing beyond the NHL.Who cares if Americans administer the NHL? It&rsquo;s still in Canada where hockey-not the Professional Bowling Tour-is part of our heritage and our future.Mike Power,&nbsp; Fredericton, N.B<h2>Utter nonsense</h2>I have been following hockey for 40 years and once again the NHL has shown it is run by idiots.I am referring to its decision to suspend Alexei Kovalev of the New York Rangers for the violent crime of tripping.Is the NHL policy now to suspend all players who commit infractions of the rules? Since when is tripping, boarding, kneeing, elbowing, high-sticking, fighting etc., not a deliberate act?If the NHL really wanted to suspend a player, it should suspend Jay Wells for a vicious elbow to an opposing player&rsquo;s head he made in a recent game.I suggest the NHL institute a random drug test procedure for its own executives to see who the misfits are.Barry Selesnow,&nbsp; Suffero, N. Y.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 busi ness phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserve the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Anderson worthy of Hall induction

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011576/6340424-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><h2>Planteing Calder seed</h2>1. Derek Plante. Rookie becoming Buffalo&rsquo;s best player. Scored all goals in 3-0 shutout over Tampa Bay.2. Mike Richter. Ranger goalie-and NHL player of month for November-recorded 12-0-2 string.3. Officials&rsquo; strike over. Now we can concentrate on hockey-until talks with players hit high gear.4. Steve Shields. University of Michigan goalie&rsquo;s 89th career win most in college hockey history.5. Player of week. Jet captain Keith Tkachuk scored six goals, five assists in four games.<h2>Caps&rsquo; snipers hit dry spell</h2>1. Capital trio. Al lafrate, Kevin Hatcher, Sylvain Cote-80 goals last season; had 11 in first 26 games.2. Alexei Kovalev. Ranger winger&rsquo;s cheap shot injured Dale Hunter.3. Winnipeg Jets. Last place in Central Division. Is this team really this bad?4. St. Louis Blues. Team that gives up 40 shots a game blamed losses on replacement officials.5. Updates. Royal York winless (OHA Jr. A 0-24-0); Islander Darius Kasparaitis (no points, 25 games).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021231/6340455-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="575" height="760"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Tkachuk</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011502/6340486-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Los Angeles Kings miss Marty McSorley&rsquo;s toughness.</figcaption></div>The big, hard-hitting, stay-at-home defenseman is no longer an endangered species.A year ago, nearly every NHL team needed a big guy to clear traffic in front of the net and work the corners. But there were few available.The Edmonton Oilers might have missed the boat by hanging on to Dave Manson too long. Although some teams would dearly love to have the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder-or others of his ilk-his value on the trade market was never higher than last season.Now, with goaltending better than ever and scoring on the decline, many teams are looking for offensive help. Here&rsquo;s what each NHL team would love to find under its Christmas tree to strengthen its roster.Anaheim: Scoring. Typical of expansion teams, the Mighty Ducks need help in many areas, but none more than offense. Paul Kariya, who will likely play center for the Ducks after the Olympics, fits the bill (pun intended).Boston: Big players up front. The Bruins have a premier power forward in Cam Neely, but his left leg still troubles him. They need right winger Glen Murray to demonstrate he belongs.Buffalo: Goals from forwards. Though it&rsquo;s highly unlikely they&rsquo;ll be able to find anyone to fill the void left by Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s injury, the Sabres need someone to at least take up the slack. Rookie Derek Plante is giving it his best shot.Calgary: Goals from the wings. Theo Fleury and Gary Roberts are the Flames&rsquo; two most serious threats from the wing. Roberts, however, has been unproductive.Chicago: A scoring left winger. Patrick Poulin was supposed to give the Blackhawks&rsquo; scoring punch from the left side, but he had just one goal in his first 10 games with Chicago.Dallas: A left winger&hellip;or two. Defense-minded Mike McPhee is the Stars&rsquo; only natural left winger. Centers and right wingers have filled in, but a trade for somebody more accustomed to the position is imminent.Detroit: Consistent goaltending. The Red Wings claim to be satisfied with Tim Cheveldae and Chris Osgood. but make no mistake: they won&rsquo;t fly without a consistent stopper.Edmonton: Production from right wing. Through 27 games, Oiler right wingers had combined for seven goals. Rebounding from personal problems, Roman Oksiuta is hitting his stride with the Cape Breton Oilers of the American League and will be summoned soon.Florida: An offensive defenseman. The expansion Panthers need a rushing rearguard to inject speed and creativity into their lame power play. Greg Hawgood provides temporary relief.Hartford: A No. 1 goaltender. With apologies to Jeff Reese, the Whalers need a true starter. Sean Burke, who was supposed to assume the role, doesn&rsquo;t inspire confidence.Los Angeles: Toughness from the defense. Former King Marty has been McSorley missed. The Kings have skill on defense, but miss his toughness and leadership. Brent Thompson isn&rsquo;t the answer.Montreal: Productive forwards. Gilbert Dionne and John LeClair must improve to help the Northeastern Division&rsquo;s weakest offense or the shake-up call will be next. A decent back-up goalie is next in line.New Jersey: A balanced attack. Nobody on the Devils&rsquo; roster is capable of carrying the team for a prolonged stretch, so balance is necessary. Increased production from youngsters Bobby Holik and Bill Guerin is the key.Islanders: Toughness up front. Last season&rsquo;s playoff surprise needs help in many areas. A grinding left winger who works the comers would be a very good place to start.Rangers: Good health. The injury wave that hit so hard last season has avoided Manhattan in 1993-94. Adding depth at center would be a bonus.Ottawa: A young, blossoming defenseman. The Senators could use someone to grow alongside their impressive cast of young star forwards.Philadelphia: Experience on defense. The Flyers have a bounty of skilled young guns at forward, but there&rsquo;s a gap that needs to be filled between their inexperienced defenseman and surprising Garry Galley.Pittsburgh: A healthy Mario Lemieux. It may sound oversimplified, but the Penguins are solid Stanley Cup favorites with Lemieux in the lineup.Quebec: Peace. A quick resolution to the Steve Duchesne fiasco is necessary. If the defenseman goes, his output from the point must be replaced.St. Louis: Second-line production. Injured Denny Felsner was being A counted on for goals, as was a trio of underachieving Russians who have flopped.San Jose: Scoring forwards. The Sharks need scoring up front to ease the pressure on one of the league&rsquo;s finest collections of young defensemen.Tampa Bay: Goals. The Lightning is averaging just over two a game. Denis Savard, Gerard Gallant and former minor-league star Bill McDougall haven&rsquo;t provided much help.Toronto: A scoring forward. Preferably, the Leafs could use a center with an offensive flair to complement overworked Doug Gilmour and defense-minded Peter Zezel.Vancouver: A front-line center. The Canucks miss disgruntled pivot Petr Nedved&rsquo;s output so much, they recalled minor-league center Dan Kesa.Washington: A scoring forward. With Dale Hunter out again, Mike Ridley inherits the job as the No. 1 center. That won&rsquo;t cause sleepless nights for the league&rsquo;s top checkers.Winnipeg: Production from role players and improved work ethic. Sure they need goals from Teemu Selanne and Alexei Zhitnik, but Luciano Borsato (four goals). Kris King (one), Tie Domi (one), Mike Eagles (zero) and Bryan Erickson (zero) need to chip in. &#9632;

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NHL’s Most Wanted

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Mike Brophy</div>Tony Granato is thinking about trying something he has resisted in the past-consulting motivational expert Anthony Robbins.Even though he is just 5-foot-10, Granato wants to Awaken the Giant Within. So do the Los Angels Kings, who need Granato to pick up the pace if they expect to reach the Stanley Cup final again.Best-selling author Robbins worked with several Kings last season. Granato was not among them, but a prolonged scoring slump has him thinking about it.&ldquo;I was saying just last week, T should pick up one of (Robbins&rsquo;) books,&rdquo; said Granato, who had four goals and four assists in 25 games. &ldquo;Actually, I&rsquo;m not panicking yet. I went through a similar slump in my sophomore year so it&rsquo;s not like this is all new to me.&rdquo;Granato was named to the allrookie team in 1988-89, but dipped to 12 goals and 34 points the next season and was traded to Los Angeles. He has averaged 33 goals a season since then and has been an effective two-way pest for the Kings.Last season was his best in the NHL. He scored 37 goals and a career-high 82 points. In the playoffs, he scored six goals and 17 points in 24 games.Granato, 29, is just one of a number of slumping Kings, Only Wayne Gretzky has played consistently well.The Kings have been the NHL&rsquo;s most disappointing team. If the playoffs began Dec. 6, the Kings wouldn&rsquo;t be participating.Granato, meanwhile, was on pace for a 13-goal. 26-point season.&ldquo;We have good personnel and we&rsquo;re working hard,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;It just isn&rsquo;t happening for us. What makes my own slump tougher to swallow is that the team is struggling too. My personal stats wouldn&rsquo;t mean a thing to me if we were winning.&rdquo;Granato said last season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup run was exhausting. But he also realizes that a team can&rsquo;t just turn it on for the playoffs.&ldquo;Perhaps you can&rsquo;t win a Stanley Cup in December, but you could lose one,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;If the team continues to struggle, you have to think changes will come. We don&rsquo;t want that&rdquo; &#9632;

Drought leaves Granato unhappy

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Confidence was one of many English words Viacheslav Butsayev couldn&rsquo;t grasp last season.But that was all right because the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Russian import didn&rsquo;t have much use for the word anyway.The rookie season for Butsayev was a frustrating one. Touted as one of Russia&rsquo;s top young stars, he managed to score only two goals in 52 games. He spent the rest of the year with the Hershey Bears in the American League.Failure to pick up English was part of the problem. In practice, the center would nod his head when told something, but coaches often wondered if the message was getting through.In games, Butsayev just wasn&rsquo;t aggressive enough, especially for someone 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds.The current season, however, has seen a turnaround.New coach Terry Simpson demonstrated a great deal of confidence in the 23-year-old Butsayev by pairing him with rookie sensation Mikael Renberg. The two clicked immediatelyAlso, the Flyers brought back Mike Eaves as an assistant coach this season. Eaves was coach of Hershey last year and spent hours working with Butsayev, getting him to play tougher. The process has continued.Butsayev has responded with 11 goals in 29 games. He enjoyed his most productive night Dec. 2 when he scored his first career hat trick in the Flyers&rsquo; 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s coming along,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gradually taking a bigger part on the team.&rdquo;Eaves said Butsayev still has a lot of work to do. But the Flyers feel Butsayev has made it over the hump and will go on to become a regular.Unlike last season, Butsayev is seeing a lot of ice time and skating with better players. He is forming a good bond with Renberg. &ldquo;He is a perfect winger for me,&rdquo; Butsayev said.Butsayev didn&rsquo;t score his first goal last season until Feb. 27.STILL GOING: At the 28-game mark, Garry Galley stood second only to New York Rangers&rsquo; Brian Leetch in defense scoring.Galley has battled chronic fatigue syndrome since joining the Flyers in early 1992. But he managed to enjoy his best offensive production last season (13 goals and 62 points) and is on pace to beat that in &lsquo;93-94.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s weird that the team that leads the league in goals would have a defenseman high among the defense scorers, said general manager Russ Farwell. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying just anyone can do it-Galley has played well. He has changed roles overnight and hasn&rsquo;t dropped the ball.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The proposed Spectrum II project took a decided turn for the worse when negotiations between Spectacor (the Flyers&rsquo; parent company) and the NBA Philadelphia 76ers broke down. This time Flyers&rsquo; owner Ed Snider pulled out, saying he didn&rsquo;t feel comfortable with the arrangement among his company, the city, a group of banks and the 76ers. No new talks were scheduled.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 30: Greg Hawgood, D. traded to Florida tor future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Viacheslav Butsayev. Pelle Eklund. Dave Tippett.LW&ndash;Mikael Renberg. Josef Beranek, Brent Fedyk.RW&ndash;Mark Recchi, Kevin Dineen. Dave Brown. Al Conroy. Jim Cummins.LD&ndash;Garry Galley. Yves Racine, Jeff Finley, Jason Bowen.RD&ndash;Dimitri Yushkevich. Stewart Malgunas, Rob Ramage.G&ndash;Tommy Soderstrom, Dominic Roussel.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin, LW, left knee surgery, day-to-day. Eric Lindros, C. tom right knee ligament, indefinite. Ryan McGill, D, sprained right wrist, indefinite. &#9632;

Butsayev finds niche in Year 2

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>The Washington Capitals goalscoring problems mounted when right winger and 1992-93 leading scorer Peter Bondra broke his left hand.Bondra was slashed during the Nov. 26 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. That was the same game Dale Hunter retumed-briefly, it turned out-to the lineup.Bondra and the coaching staff kept thinking it would be better in a day or so. Then it was another day and then another. Finally, after Bondra traveled with the team to New York for two games, but didn&rsquo;t play, he was examined by team physician Stephen Haas Dec. 1. Haas determined there was a break and put Bondra in a cast, which will be removed Dec. 15.Bondra had a team-high 37 goals and 85 points last season and was selected to play in the All-Star Game. He hoped to score 50 goals this season-though with 11 goals in 22 games he was on a pace to score 42. But hands for a scorer are crucial and how his hand heals will have a bearing on how he does when he returns.&ldquo;The doctor said if I was practising, it could be broken worse and it could take longer (to heal),&rdquo; Bondra said.If Bondra is out of action until midDecember, he would miss six games. It was a blow to a team that was 1-6-1 in the eight games before the diagnosis and has had trouble scoring goals. Bondra was tied for third on the team in points with 16 and was second in goals with 11.&ldquo;To lose Peter Bondra from the lineup puts pressure on all the other people who are not getting goals,&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray.General manager David Poile recalled center Kevin Kaminski from the Portland Pirates of the American League to fill in for Bondra.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be more of a gritty player,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;It would be nice if he could score though, because we&rsquo;re looking for anybody and everybody to chip in in that area.&rdquo;BAD SPILL: Dale Hunter&rsquo;s injury-caused by a blindside trip by New York Ranger Alexei Kovalev-was worse than first thought.Hunter, 33, tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee and will be out of action until the new year.Kovalev was suspended five games by NHL vice-president Brian Burke. Hunter, who sat out the first 21 games of the season for a cheap shot on New York Islander Pierre Turgeon, had little to say about the Kovalev sentence.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not paid to think,&rdquo; Hunter said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s their decision.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s right in line with what Brian Burke&rsquo;s administration has been assigning and I have no problem with it,&rdquo; David Poile said. &ldquo;I would love to give Kovalev his five games in order to get Dale Hunter back.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Michal Pivonka, who was expected to lead the team in scoring this season, had his first two-point night Dec. 4 against the Ottawa Senators. After scoring a goal in the second game of the season, Pivonka got his second goal in the 26th game.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 1: Olie Kolzig, G, assigned to Portland (AHL). Dec. 2: Kevin Kaminski. C, recalled from Portland.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Dave Poulin, Kevin Kaminski.LW&ndash;Randy Burridge, Dimitri Khristich, Keith Jones, Craig Berube.RW&ndash;Kelly Miller, Pat Peake. Todd Krygier, Steve Konowalchuk.LD&ndash;Calle Johansson, Al lafrate, Enrico Ciccone.RD&ndash;Kevin Hatcher. Syvlain Cote, Brian Curran.G&ndash;Rick Tabaracci, Don Beaupre<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Anderson. D. chipped bone in hand, day-to-day. Peter Bondra, RW, broken left hand, indefinite. Dale Hunter, C, tom knee ligament, indefinite. Alan May RW. broken left hand, day-to-day. &#9632;

Bondra’s injury crucial blow to sagging offense

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Brian Bradley claims good breaks have played a big part in his goalscoring resurgence, but good health may be playing an even bigger role.After overcoming a series of shoulder injuries that severely limited his effectiveness the first month of the season, Bradley was playing and scoring much like he did a year ago when he collected a team-high 42 goals.The head and shoulder fakes that allowed him to maneuver past defenders are back. The bullish tenacity that permitted him to force his small frame through defensive double teams is back. The player Tampa Bay Lightning fans grew to love last year is back.Bradley scored five goals and assisted on four others in a recent seven-game stretch. That&rsquo;s one more goal than he scored during his first 14 games of the season.&ldquo;The first four or five weeks of the season, my shoulder was just killing me, and you could see it in my play,&rdquo; Bradley said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t going into comers the way I usually do. I wasn&rsquo;t fighting for the puck the way I usually do. I was just very tentative.&ldquo;But these last few games, I&rsquo;ve felt more like my old self again. The shoulder isn&rsquo;t even a concern any more.&rdquo;The Lightning won four of seven games during Bradley&rsquo;s hot streak. Coach Terry Crisp said Bradley&rsquo;s play fueled the drive.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve seen Brian Bradley come back to life, and in turn, you&rsquo;re seeing the Tampa Bay Lightning come back to life,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;Brian Bradley is our leader.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s still the guy everybody looks to. It just seems that when he&rsquo;s going full tilt, the rest of us go that way, too.&rdquo;COLE MINE: Danton Cole&rsquo;s value is on the rise again and so is his ice time.After spending most of the season taking his regular shift and killing penalties, Cole has seen extensive time on the power play in recent games. The results have been impressive.Cole scored three power-play goals in a four-game period, including the winner in 5-4 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings Dec. 4. As a result, Cole has become a permanent fixture on the Lightning&rsquo;s main power-play unit.&ldquo;I have been using Danton on the wrong specialty team,&rdquo; Terry Crisp said. &ldquo;I have been using him just to kill penalties, when all along I should have had him on the power play, too.&rdquo;The Lightning&rsquo;s once-dead power play came alive after Cole&rsquo;s addition. It went five-for-18 after an 0-for-42 slump.&ldquo;Everybody wants a chance to play on the power play and I&rsquo;m no different,&rdquo; Cole said. &ldquo;If they put me there, great. We&rsquo;ve been going pretty well lately, so hopefully we can keep that up and get a winning streak going.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After scoring just six goals through his first 23 games, Petr Klima scored four times in four games. One of them was the game-winner against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Dec. 5&hellip;By defeating the Los Angeles Kings and Ducks, the Lightning continued an incredible run of success in California. Since beginning play last season, the Lightning are 60-0 in games played in the Golden State.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 29: Jason Ruff, LW. assigned to Atlanta (IHL). Jason Lafreniere, C, assigned to Milwaukee (IHL). Dec 2: Bill McDougall, C. assigned to Atlanta.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Bradley, Denis Savard, Chris Gratton, Marc Bureau.LW&ndash;Danton Cole, Adam Creighton. Gerard Gallant, Rob Zamuner.RW&ndash;Petr Klima, Pat Elynuik. Tim Bergland. Rudy Poeschek.LD&ndash;Joe Reekie. Marc Bergevin, Shawn Chambers.HD&ndash;Chris Joseph. Chns LiPuma, Donald Dufresne.G&ndash;Daren Puppa, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mikael Andersson, LW. sprained left wrist, day-to-day. Rob DiMaio, C, broken left leg, indefinite. Roman Hamrlik, D, bruised right shoulder, day-to-day. John Tucker, RW, sprained right knee, indefinite. Wendell Young, G, right shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Bradley’s return has ripple effect

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>The skills have always been there. It was confidence that New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defenseman Scott Niedermayer lacked.Finally, 25 games into what was developing as a disappointing sophomore season, Niedermayer reminded everyone of his talent when he ended an offensive slump and scored his first goal in 20 games.Captain Scott Stevens hoped the goal, which came in a 2-2 tie against the Chicago Blackhawks Dec. 4, was a preview of more.&ldquo;Obviously, Nieds can do a little more. I think he knows it,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;With his speed, he can jump into the play five times a game, as opposed to someone like myself who can do it maybe three times. Of course, it has got to be the right time.&rdquo;Niedermayer, whose last goal was Oct. 16 in the Devils&rsquo; fifth game, agreed.&ldquo;The last couple of games I&rsquo;m playing with a little more confidence,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t too sure of myself at the 10-game mark.&rdquo;Niedermayer was never a burden. His defensive play was, at times, sparkling and always solid. He was plus-11, but with a Norris Trophy predicted for his future, there was the anticipation of what the 20-year-old skater could do offensively.Problem was, Niedermayer wasn&rsquo;t sure how much freedom he had in the system Jacques Lemaire brought with him from Montreal.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been sure of myself with the puck,&rdquo; Niedermayer said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say what (the coaches) specifically want me to do, but I know I can&rsquo;t play a rushing game all the time and be effective. I can&rsquo;t be out of control.&rdquo;Stevens offered a hint.&ldquo;They want us to be up in the play, but not to lead it,&rdquo; he said.Niedermayer was still finding his place in Lemaire&rsquo;s plan, but his confidence has risen.&ldquo;Have I been frustrated? A little bit,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I feel confident in my own zone. That has been one of my goals-to work on my defense. I can play as well as anyone defensively.&rdquo;HOME-ICE DISADVANTAGE: For Jacques Lemaire, a member of the Canadiens&rsquo; team that lost only one home game in 1976-77 at the Montreal Forum, the Devils&rsquo; troubles at home have been perplexing.In the club&rsquo;s first 24 games equally split between home and the road, the Devils were a better team away from Meadowlands Arena.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing looser on the road. We have to push at home while on the road the team glides.&rdquo;In 24 games, the Devils were 7-2-3 on the road with a team-record eight-game unbeaten streak. At home, they were 8-4-0.NOTEBOOK: Viacheslav Fetisov and general manager Lou Lamoriello are co-defendants in Mark Malkovich&rsquo;s $1-million lawsuit. The Rhode Island agent said Lamoriello cut him out of a percentage of Fetisov&rsquo;s last contract&hellip;Bruce Driver sustained a separated left shoulder following a collission with Mike Hudson of the Rangers Dec. 5. The defenseman won&rsquo;t be back until early in the new year.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 28: Peter Sidorkiewicz. G, recalled from Albany (AHL). Dec. 3: Ben Hankinson, RW, assigned to Albany. Dec. 5: Hankinson recalled from Albany. Dec. 6: Jason Smith, D, recalled from Albany.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Corey Millen. Bobby Carpenter. Bobby Holik, Alexander Semak.LW&ndash;Valeri Zelepukin, Stephane Richer, Tom Chorske, Mike Peluso.RW&ndash;Claude Lemieux, Bill Guerin, John MacLean. Randy McKay. Ben Hankinson.LD&ndash;Scott Stevens, Jaroslav Modry, Jason Smith.RD&ndash;Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer. Tommy Al-G&ndash;Chris Terreri, Martin Brodeur, Peter Sidorkiewicz.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bruce Driver, D, separated left shoulder, indefinite. Viacheslav Fetisov, D, strained knee, day-to-day. Bernie Nicholls, C. strained knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Talented Niedermayer struggles on offense

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>Roger Neilson expected Gord Murphy to be one of the anchors of the Florida Panthers&rsquo; defense.The Panthers&rsquo; coach was wrong. Murphy has been more, much more.Murphy was second on the team to Scott Mellanby in goals with seven and was eighth in scoring with 11 points. He also has been a regular on the power play and averaged 30 minutes a game when defensemen Joe Cirella and Keith Brown were injured.&ldquo;We would have hardly expected that kind of output from Gord,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;But Gord has not only been doing that, he has also been playing 30 minutes a game. Offensively and defensively, he has been a big boost.&rdquo;The 26-year-old is not flashy or quick. He&rsquo;s a dependable player who rarely makes mistakes and usually does all the little things right.Murphy has shown he can score in the NHL. While playing for the Philadelphia Flyers from 1988-1991, he averaged 39 points a season.But after the Flyers traded Murphy and Brian Dobbin to the Boston Bruins two years ago, Murphy was injured and his production decreased. He missed 42 games and scored only 36 points the last two seasons while recovering from a broken ankle. Now Murphy seems a cinch to break his career-high total of 14 goals in 1988-89.&ldquo;Obviously, seven goals is something I&rsquo;m very happy with, but I&rsquo;m not going to dwell on it,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;Right now the puck is just going in for me, but I&rsquo;m more concerned with my overall game and playing solid defense.&rdquo;Murphy was left unprotected by Boston in the expansion draft, which may have been the best thing that could have happened to revive his career.&ldquo;I was quite happy to get away from there because they already had their players set,&rdquo; he said of the Bruins.Murphy knows he never would have received this much power-play time in Boston. He was second on the Panthers with four power-play goals.&ldquo;I had to come down here and prove myself all over again, but it has been exciting,&rdquo; he said.HAWGOOD ARRIVES: Gord Murphy lost his title as the team&rsquo;s top-scoring defenseman when the Panthers got Greg Hawgood from the Philadelphia Flyers for future considerations.It&rsquo;s the third trade general manager Bob Clarke has made in an effort to improve a power play that had dropped to 24th in the NHL at 13.6 per cent (19-of-140). Evgeny Davydov and Stu Barnes were involved in the other deals.Hawgood had three goals and 15 points in 19 games with Philadelphia. In his second powerplay shift, the Panthers ended an 0-for-21 streak when Murphy scored.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a quarterback out there and that&rsquo;s what we need on the power play,&rdquo; Clarke said.NOTEBOOK: In six games rookie center Rob Niedermayer has missed with his separated shoulder, the Panthers scored 10 goals&hellip;The Panthers had outscored teams 45-37 in five-on-five situations through 26 games. But they had been outscored 29-1 on power plays and 5-1 on four-on-four.<h2>FLORIDA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 30: Greg Hawgood. D. acquired from Philadelphia for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Skrudland, Jesse Belanger. Tom Fitzgerald, Stu Barnes.LW&ndash;Mike Hough, Evgeny Davydov, Bill Lindsay.RW&ndash;Scott Mellanby. Jody Hull, Andrei Lomakin, Scott Levins, Mike Foligno.LD&ndash;Joe Cirella, Brian Benning, Brent Severyn. Alexander GodynyukRD&ndash;Gord Murphy, Greg Hawgood. Paul Laus. Greg Smyth.G&ndash;John Vantnesbrouck, Mark Fitzpatrick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D, right knee surgery, day-to-day. Dave Lowry, LW, cracked left cheekbone, day-to-day. Rob Niedermayer, C, separated right shoulder, indefinite Stephane Richer, D. shoulder surgery, in-definite. &#9632;

Dependable Murphy quietly getting job done

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>The New York Rangers were infuriated right winger Alexei Kovalev was suspended five games for tripping Washington Capital Dale Hunter.In fact, the Rangers were angry before NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke announced his decision, That Burke suspended Kovalev from a game against the New Jersey Devils before a hearing was conducted raised the team&rsquo;s ire.&ldquo;I do find it rather remarkable that there&rsquo;s no process,&rdquo; said presidentgeneral manager Neil Smith. &ldquo;He was punished before there was any process.&rdquo;Smith also said suspending a player based an injury caused to an opponent is dangerous, precedent-setting territory.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what Burke and (commissioner) Gary Bettman have encouraged,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I think you&rsquo;re going to have more video tape in Brian Burke&rsquo;s office than in Blockbuster Video stores.&rdquo;Smith added that Wally Harris, a supervisor of officials who was at the game, said he felt the Kovalev trip on Hunter was accidental.&ldquo;Suddenly, through the medium of video replay, they&rsquo;re able to see something 18,200 people weren&rsquo;t able to see,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;And that is intent.&rdquo;Rangers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan claims the Capitals exaggerated the extent of the injury sustained by Hunter, and added that Hunter was cut down by his own type of play.&ldquo;If you live by the sword you die by the sword,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to take anything away from Dale Hunter&hellip;but that&rsquo;s the way he has played the game of hockey. He has hurt a lot of people. Maybe that catches up to you.&rdquo;Kovalev is eligible to return Dec. 15 against Hartford.WHO&rsquo;S WORSE?: After the Rangers lost their 12-0-2 streak to the New York Islanders Nov. 27, Brian Leetch and Mark Messier returned to a Broadway restaurant for dinner.&ldquo;We spent a couple of hours telling each other we were the worst players on earth,&rdquo; Leetch said.The one-upmanship (or downs-manship?) went on for some time, each claiming he was far more horrid than the other.In the three games that followed, Messier and Leetch took turns dominating. Messier had three points in a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals Nov. 28. Leetch had two goals in a 31 win at New Jersey Nov. 30, and Messier set up the tying and winning goals in a 4-3 come-from-behind victory at Toronto Dec. 4. The Rangers followed that with a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils Dec. 5 for a four-game winning streak and an impressive 19-game run (16-1-2) that carried them to the top of the NHL standings.NOTEBOOK: Mark Messier got his 800th career assist on Mike Gartner&rsquo;s game-winning goal against Toronto. Brian Leetch got his 400th NHL point in the same game. The next night, Gartner scored the Rangers&rsquo; league-leading 13th shorthanded goal. It was the winner over New Jersey and the 598th goal of Gartner&rsquo;s career.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 2: Alexei Kovalev, RW. suspended five games by NHL. Eligible to return 15.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mark Messier. Sergei Nemchinov. Esa Tikkanen, Mike Hudson.LW&ndash;Adam Graves, Greg Gilbert, Ed Olczyk. Mike Hartman, Nick Kypreos, Phil Bourque.RW&ndash;Steve Larmer, Mike Gartner, Tony Amonte, Joey Kocur.LD&ndash;Brian Leetch, Jay Wells. Kevin Lowe. Peter Andersson.RD&ndash;Jeff Beukeboom, Alexander Karpovtsev, Sergei Zubov, Doug Lidster.G&ndash;Mike Richter, Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Kovalev suspension unreasonable says Smith

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>Coach Al Arbour is crooning the blueline blues, a mournful song befitting the maudlin performance of the New York Islanders.&ldquo;We need leadership from the blueline and we aren&rsquo;t getting It,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Somebody has got to step up and give us stability.&rdquo;Things got so bad Arbour benched sophomore Vladimir Malakhov for most of the third period against the Boston Bruins Dec. 2. Malakhov had made a terrible play at the Boston blueline that led directly to a goal. Arbour has also benched fellow soph-omores Darius Kasparaitis and Scott Lachance this season.The problems lies in the inability of the defense to strike a proper balance between its offensive and defensive roles. Early in the season, the defense was scoring goals, but allowing soft goals. As the defense tightened up in November, the offensive thrust disappeared.When Malakhov scored his first goal of the season Nov. 6, it was expected more would follow. Through Dec. 5, that remained his only goal and in 13 subsequent games, defensemen only scored two goals-flukey ones by Dennis Vaske and Lachance.The Islanders should benefit greatly from the return of veteran Uwe Krupp Dec. 7. Krupp broke his sinus bone Oct. 26 when he was hit by a puck. Surgery was required to repair the break and Krupp missed a total of 17 games.He also broke his toe in the second game of the season and has managed to play just six games. Still he had three goats and provides the leadership Arbour is looking for.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s confidence,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;They have to read the play and react.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s something that hasn&rsquo;t been happening much. Malakhov, the most likely candidate to emerge offensively, has instead concentrated on his defensive role.Wayne McBean could also provide some spark if he stays healthy. He has been restricted to eight games due to a sprained wrist and his balking left knee. But when he has played, he has been effective.Defenseman Tom Kurvers also had three goals early, but broke his thumb Nov. 30.SLUMPING PIERRE: Center Pierre Turgeon was once again on the skids.He was benched for the third period of the Dec. 2 game against Boston-a hint from Al Arbour that his play had not been up to expectations lately.After being chosen NHL player of the week for scoring seven goals in three games against the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadians and Philadelphia Flyers, Turgeon then went five games without a goal through the game against the Bruins.Turgeon went five games only once last season without scoring a goal. That has occurred twice already this season.NOTEBOOK: Ray Ferraro was healthy, but not in the lineup against Boston, having failed to score in eight straight games&hellip;Defenseman Rich Pilon reinjured his separated left shoulder against the Quebec Nordiques Dec. 3 and will be lost to the team until January.Right winger Brad Dalgarno returned to the lineup Dec. 2 against Boston. He had missed 10 games with a hip flexor injury.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 1: Brent Grieve, LW, assigned to Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Travis Green. Keith Acton.LW&ndash;Derek King. David Volek, Benoit Hogue. Marty McInnis. Joe Day.RW&ndash;Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley. Brad Daigamo, Mick Vukota.LD&ndash;Scott Lachance, Darius Kasparaitis. Uwe Krupp, Wayne McBean.RD&ndash;Vladimir Malakhov, Rich PHon, Dennis Vaske, Dean Chynoweth.G&ndash;Ron Hextali. Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tom Kurvers, D, broken left thumb, Dec. 10. Claude Loiselle, torn knee ligament, out for season Rich Pilon, D. left shoulder separation, indefinite. &#9632;

Sagging defensive effort has Arbour singing blues

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011404/6340709-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="384" height="541"></div>The 1993-94 season has just past its quarter point and there are plenty of people who believe it&rsquo;s time to dim the lights and lower the flags to half staff.Top stars such as Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Pat LaFontaine and Steve Yzerman are down with serious injuries; there has been an ugly dispute between the league and its officials; stick fouls are still a serious problem; a hockey game on ESPN2 is about as easy to access as SportsChannel America; and, worst of all, there appears to be an &ldquo;us versus them&rdquo; attitude developing between teams based in Canada and in the United States.But you won&rsquo;t read about any of that here. An amazing number of good things have been happened this season. What follows is a first-quarter update of some of the positive things you might have missed.Up front: Commissioner Gary Bettman&rsquo;s handling of the officials&rsquo; strike is still open to discussion, but he was brilliant in arranging realignment, showed determination and foresight in moving quickly to impose a sense of order in the Dale Hunter-Pierre Turgeon incident and acted responsibly (if not thoroughly) in the Gil Stein-Hall of Fame embarrassment.Bettman&rsquo;s hiring of Brian Burke as his director of hockey operations was also a solid move. Burke has been swift, decisive and, in most cases, unassailable regarding matters of discipline. He weathered a storm of complaints from the general manager&rsquo;s ranks to emerge as a &ldquo;player&rdquo; who can perform under pressure and still maintain a sense of purpose and fair play.The rest of the new officers are still too busy putting out fires to engage in long-range planning and change, but so far the Bettman team has shown itself to be responsive to questions and complaints, informative and hard-working.New players: Wayne Gretzky is atop the scoring race, but look at the rest of the field. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Mark Recchi is in close pursuit and he has played a good part of the year without regular center Lindros.Mike Modano, Sergei Fedorov, and Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour are also new challengers for the Art Ross while Jaromir Jagr, Joe Sakic and Adam Oates are piling up the points despite the fact their teams are without a great finisher or playmaker.Doug Gilmour, meanwhile, is the primary reason the Toronto Maple Leafs have moved from league laughing stock to one of the glory teams.Among defensemen, Brian Leetch has returned from two serious injuries last season to be an early Norris Trophy candidate. Garry Galley, a Boston Bruins&rsquo; castoff, was among the leading rearguard scorers. He&rsquo;s living proof players can better themselves even after they&rsquo;ve reached the NHL.The teams: The New York Rangers, last in the Patrick Division last season, vaulted to the top of the Atlantic. The Rangers might be the most balanced team in the game and already had 11 shorthanded goals. That&rsquo;s more than many teams get in a season.The New Jersey Devils, previously known as Team Chaos, were 7-2-2 in a recent 11-game stretch and were still hanging tough with the Rangers.In one 10-game stretch, the Chicago Blackhawks went 8-1-1 and were still in sitting in the middle of the pack in the ultra-competitive Central Division.The Calgary Flames have quietly retooled under coach Dave King and were the surprise leaders of the Pacific Division, largely on the strength of a solid road record. The San Jose Sharks have gone from hapless to hopeful, collecting more points by December than they did all of last year. The first-year Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are making the Los Angeles Kings nervous and proving that expansion teams can work.The injury-riddled Buffalo Sabres were practically matching the Pittsburgh Penguins goal-for-goal in the Northeast Division and had a win total close to that of the Montreal Canadiens and the Bruins.The new kids: Ottawa Senator Alexei Yashin is a star as advertised and his rookie running mate, Alexandre Daigle, looks pretty good even when he&rsquo;s not in a nursing outfit. Other pleasant rookie surprises include the Flyers&rsquo; Mikael Renberg, the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Jason Arnott and the Sabres&rsquo; Derek Plante.Among new teams, the Florida Panthers this season became the only expansion club ever to win a game in the Montreal Forum. And the Tampa Bay Lightning was averaging more than 20,000 per game at the ThunderDome. A crowd of 21,896 turned out for the Lindros-less Flyers. While that is only the fifth largest crowd in Tampa&rsquo;s brief history, it would be an NHL record anywhere else.All in all not a bad first-quarter&rsquo;s work from a league that has more than its fair share of problems. &#9632;

f0015-01

Cheer up! Things aren’t that bad

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02977/6340740-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg"></div>What&rsquo;s in a name? A lot, at least when it comes to NHL officials. In fact, the league is seriously considering removing names from the backs of referees&rsquo; and linesmen&rsquo;s sweaters next season. The thinking at the NHL&rsquo;s head office is that fans don&rsquo;t pay to see the referee and linesmen, so there&rsquo;s no need to know who they are. &ldquo;The officials,&rdquo; one top-ranking NHL boss told Bluelines, &ldquo;should remain as anonymous as possible.&rdquo; Speaking of anonymity, there wouldn&rsquo;t be any for members of the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association if they were held under the same scrutiny as the replacements during the strike. If they ever were, the newspapers would be overflowing with criticism.<h2>Barnes burner</h2>The steal of the season is Stu Barnes from the Winnipeg Jets to the Florida Panthers for Randy Gilhen. With decent linemates, Barnes someday will be an 80- to 90-point man&hellip;In terms of talent, the Washington Capitals rank with the NHL&rsquo;s elite, but observers say their bete-noire remains an over-dependence on Europeans who simply don&rsquo;t care enough often enough&hellip;Give us a show-cause order why Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; rearguard Garry Galley shouldn&rsquo;t get top consideration for the Norris Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top defenseman&hellip;From the How Times Have Changed Department: The Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; game program features a pair of advertisements for condom companies that are accompanied by photographs that wouldn&rsquo;t get a Grating.<h2>Howe come?</h2>Gordie Howe is an All-Star Game ambassador, but Mr. Hockey continues to tell whoever will listen that the league has not made good use of his persona. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just me,&rdquo; Howe said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t use anyone properly. I hate to say it because it sounds negative, but it&rsquo;s true.&rdquo; On a recent visit to Florida, Howe was told by a reporter that he was the Babe Ruth of hockey. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think so,&rdquo; Howe responded. &ldquo;Babe Ruth never scored a goal.&rdquo;&hellip;Alexei Kovalev of the New York Rangers has rapidly evolved into the dirtiest super-gifted European forward since Tomas Sandstrom. Kovalev&rsquo;s ironic cheapshot against Washington&rsquo;s Dale Hunter should keep the Capitals-Rangers rivalry sizzling all season.<h2>Causing Fitz</h2>Sources in Florida told Bluelines that Roger Neilson&rsquo;s excessive use of John Vanbiesbrouck-at the expense of Mark Fitzpatrick-in the Florida Panthers&rsquo; net has management concerned. Fitzpatrick is a marketable commodity, but not if he rots on the bench&hellip;.Travis Fine, a California filmmaker, is making a movie about 1951 Stanley Cup hero Bill Barilko, the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman who died in a plane crash a couple of months after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal against the Montreal Canadiens. His body wasn&rsquo;t recovered from the Northern Ontario crash site until 11 years later&hellip;The International Ice Hockey Federation is considering use of instant replay for resolving disputed goals at the Olympic Games in February.<h2>Give him a break</h2>Chris Pronger&rsquo;s first two months in the NHL have been disappointing, but it&rsquo;s easy to see why. The kid is 19 years old, he&rsquo;s on a terrible Hartford Whalers&rsquo; team and he&rsquo;s breaking in at defense, which the toughest position. Give him two years and then start yelling&hellip;We&rsquo;re not sure what the league was thinking on the Steve Smith-Denis Savard duel, giving them a each a four-game suspension, but it looked like it was worth 10 games from here&hellip;One Winnipegbased deal being bruited about has Fredrik Olausson and Paul Ysae-bart moving to Quebec for holdout defenseman Steve Duchesne. The hang-up is Winnipeg wants another player from Quebec while the Nordiques prefer to keep it a two-for-one deal.<h2>All Kings&rsquo; men</h2>The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; problems must be shared by both general manager Nick Beverley and coach Barry Melrose. The latter never used Bob Kudelski to his potential. The former blew it on deals for Shawn McEachern and Jimmy Carson&hellip;It would be nice if the league made up its mind and then told us what level of clutching and grabbing is allowable without penalties being called. And while the NHL is at it, why not have goalies sit out minor penalties and have the backup come in for two minutes?<h2>FRESH FACES</h2>Mike RathjeBorn: Mannvilie, AttaAge: 19Team: San Jose Sharks Height: 6-foot-5 Weight: 205 pounds Position: DefenseHow acquired: San Jose&rsquo;s first choice (third overall) in 1992 draft. &#9632;

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League pushes for no-name officials in 1994-95

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>Year 7 of Pat Quinn&rsquo;s regime in Vancouver is beginning to resemble years one through four, when times were lean and fans were restless.After a franchise best 7-1-0 start, the Canucks tumbled to a 7-11-0 mark in their next 18 games, losing six of those 11 at home where they were almost unbeatable last season.A number of factors have contributed to the decline. Their forward ranks have been hit by a seemingly endless stream of injuries, the most notable to Pavel Bure. The Russian Rocket missed eight games with a groin problem and hasn&rsquo;t been the same kind of player since. In 10 postinjury games, Bure had three goals and one dominating performance.Their power play, which reached as high as second overall Nov. 13, went on a 4-for-52 skid while a number of their skill forwards (Bure, Dixon Ward, Murray Craven) simply weren&rsquo;t producing.But the biggest problem, according to coach-general manager Quinn, was the team&rsquo;s play without the puck.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the worst I&rsquo;ve seen in my memory here,&rdquo; said Quinn, referring to defensemen caught out of position and forwards not backchecking and picking up their men.Quinn deserves his share of the blame, too. He has been unable to solve the Petr Nedved fiasco ana has made some strange coaching decisions, especially with his goalies.On three occasions, he has inserted backup Kay Whitmore after No. 1 man Kirk McLean had played a brilliant game. The Canucks lost all three by identical 6-3 scores with Whitmore surrendering a number of questionable goals.&ldquo;We have two goaltenders on this team and Kay Whitmore deserves to share in any success we might have,&rdquo; Quinn said.Whitmore&rsquo;s stats, after eight starts, were a 4.38 goals-against average and. 833 save percentage.&ldquo;I know I can play in this league,&rdquo; Whitmore said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely frustrated.&rdquo;NEDVED WATCH: George Kingston, chief recruiter for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic hockey team, would dearly love to get his hands on unsigned Canuck free agent Petr Nedved.He insists, however, on having Vancouver&rsquo;s blessing, despite the fact Pat Quinn has said he can&rsquo;t stop Nedved from joining the Olympians.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very clear on this,&rdquo; said Kingston. &ldquo;Hockey Canada wants to stay in business. It is our desire to maintain a long-term relationship with them. We want to work this out so it is a win-win situation with Vancouver. We&rsquo;d be delighted if the situation with Petr Nedved unfolded.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The price tag on the new downtown arena project has been increased to $145 million. The figure factors in the purchase of land and other &ldquo;soft costs&rdquo; such as financing, architectural fees and infrastructure around the site. The basic building, with 88 corporate boxes and 3,000 club seats, will cost $110 million&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; offense after 26 games was down 32 goals over last year (116 to 84). Their goals against was down (84 to 82) and their point total decreased from 32 to 28.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 2: Rick Girard, C, recalled from Swift Current (WHL). Dec. 3: Girard returned to Swift Current. Dec. 5: Neil Eisenhut, C. assigned to Hamilton (AHL). Dec. 6: Mike Peca. C, recalled from Ottawa (OHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Cliff Ronning, Greg Adams, Murray Craven, Mike Peca.LW&ndash;Geoff Courtnall. Dixon Ward. Gino Odjick, Shawn Antoski.RW&ndash;Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden. Dan Kesa, Tim HunterLD&ndash;Dana Murzyn. Dave Babych, Robert Dirk, Adrien Plavsic.RD&ndash;Gerald Diduck. Jyrki Lumme. Jiri Slegr.G&ndash;Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jose Charbonneau, RW. sore back, day-to-day. John McIntyre, C. fractured left foot, indefinite Sergio Momesso, LW, sprained left knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Quinn seeks out answers durina seventh-year ache

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011302/6340802-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div>Ron Mason believes you can teach any player how to kill penalties as long as they have the skating skills to do the job.But he adds the days when fourth line-players become shorthanded specialists by default are long gone.The Michigan State coach says quickness is an essential component of successful penalty killing.&ldquo;You have to be able to react quickly,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Some kid that is a fast skater, up and down the ice, isn&rsquo;t as quick on his edges as far as reacting laterally to the puck from the inside zone.&rdquo;Mason believes it goes without saying that good penalty killers are very unselfish.&ldquo;You have to be able to sacrifice your body to block a shot,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Players that are good shotblockers are the kind of people you want and players that are strong in one-on-one situations. These are the best players because so often in shorthanded situations there are going to be one-on-one confrontations around a loose puck and if you&rsquo;ve got a kid who is really strong on the puck, he&rsquo;s going to be able to get it and shoot it down the ice.&rdquo;Mason has the most career wins of any National Collegiate Athletic Association coach. He advises coaches to keep it simple when introducing penalty killing techniques to young players.&ldquo;I would start with very slow, passive-type movement in the zone, defending against a couple different types of power-play formations so the kids can start reacting to what the opposition is trying to do,&rdquo; he says.Mason maintains the four-player box, which easily adapts to a four-player diamond, is the simplest format for youth hockey*teams.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t just stand around in a stationary box anymore,&rdquo; he says. &lsquo;The box has to move a bit, from side to side and out and back. It&rsquo;s probably the easiest way to defend and is easily taught.&rdquo;Mason added that players must read whether a team is playing an umbrella formation (with one trigger-man high at the point) or in an overload (with players concentrated to one side), or in a setup utilizing the area behind the net.&rdquo;Mason says coaches have a responsibility to know the enemy in order to stop them.&ldquo;Is there one player who dominates their power play?&rdquo; Mason asked.It&rsquo;s also imperative to teach penalty killers to keep their sticks on the ice at all times to protect passing lanes and the area near passing lanes.College and pro teams spend hours perfecting special teams. Don&rsquo;t expect miracles if you only have one half hour ice-time each week to devote to them.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021014/6340795-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="562" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Mason</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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COACHING TIP OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>Steven King was the first forward the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim selected at the expansion draft in June.But there were times this season when he wasn&rsquo;t among the top 12 players who dressed for games.The 24-year-old former New York Ranger prospect got off to a slow start and spent as much time watching as getting involved.&ldquo;I learned all I need to know about sitting in the press box,&rdquo; he said.King had 12 points in 24 games with the Rangers last season and another 68 points in 53 games with Binghamton of the American League.He came to life in late November with three goals in a five-game stretch after only one in 23 games.His resurgence coincided with the arrival of a new pair of contact lenses and though King won&rsquo;t blame his bad start on bad vision, he thinks his sight has improved his game.&ldquo;My hands miraculously came back after I got the new contacts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not all the contacts. But they just make you feel more confident.&ldquo;Things are more clear. You don&rsquo;t realize until you get the new ones what you were missing.&rdquo;FIT TO BE TIED: On the eve of the first meeting between southern California&rsquo;s two NHL teams, Anaheim pulled itself into a fourth-place tie with the Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division.The Ducks had been around only 27 games and last season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup finalists have 27 years of history. But both teams had 20 points before the Kings&rsquo; 3-2 victory at the Great Western Forum Dec. 2.&ldquo;If you had told me at the start of the season we&rsquo;d be tied with L.A. the first time we played them, I&rsquo;d have said you were nuts,&rdquo; said Ducks&rsquo; coach Ron Wilson.NOTEBOOK: The linesmen for the Dec. 9 Kings-Mighty Ducks celebrity game to benefit southern California fire victims were scheduled to be Brian Burke, NHL senior vicepresident, and Bob Goodenow, NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director. Others who agreed to play include Manon Rheaume and the actors who played the Hanson Brothers in the movie Slap Shot&hellip;Defenseman David Williams was on recall from the San Diego Gulls of the International League when his wife, Pam, went into labor with the couple&rsquo;s son, Christopher Ryan, who was bom Dec. 1. Not only did the couple have to find a new doctor in Anaheim, but the hotel room where they were staying wouldn&rsquo;t allow a newborn. Troy Loney took them in until the team moved them into a residence hotel.<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 27: Mikhail Shtalenkov, G, recalled from San Diego (IHL). Dec. 1: Anatoli Fedotov, D, recalled from San Diego. Dec. 3: Fedotov assigned to San Diego. Dec. 6: David Williams, D, assigned to San Diego<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Anatoli Semenov, Bob Corkum, Shaun Van Allen, Patrik CambackLW&ndash;Garry Valk, Joe Sacco, Tim Sweeney, Stu Grlmson, Troy Loney.RW&ndash;Peter Douns, Todd Ewen, Terry Yake. Steven King, Jim Thomson, Robin BawaLD&ndash;Bill Houlder, Randy Ladouceur, Mark Ferner.RD&ndash;Alexei Kasatonov. Sean Hill, Bobby Dollas. Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G&ndash;Ron Tugnutt. Guy Hebert, Mikhail Shtalenkov.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Troy Loney. LW, right knee surgery, day-to-day. &#9632;

King makes more contact after getting new lenses

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>At 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, with quickness, great hands and a mean streak, center Jason Arnott can be an intimidating presence on the ice.But the tables were turned on the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; 19-year-old rookie for the first quarter of the season and it was tough for him to digest. He needed help from Shayne Corson.&ldquo;I look up to Shayne a lot and I had to talk about it with somebody,&rdquo; Arnott said. &ldquo;I told him I was having trouble being on the same ice as the big names like Wayne Gretzky and Raymond Bourque.&ldquo;I admitted I was in awe. And I felt it was holding me back. It&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s hard to talk about for a rookie. It&rsquo;s hard to explain. But when you are on the same ice as guys you&rsquo;ve been watching on TV for 10 or 11 years&hellip;&rdquo;Corson had been there of course. Nine years before the Oilers made Arnott the seventh choice in the 1993 NHL entry draft, Corson was taken eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 1984. He didn&rsquo;t play regularly for Montreal for two years.Arnott jumped right into a starring role and it hasn&rsquo;t always been easy. He had 11 goals and 22 points in 26 games, second only to Corson&rsquo;s 13 goals and 24 points.&ldquo;He told me he felt a little intimidated by all the great names he was playing against,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;I told him I felt the same way when I came into the league and to look at the faces and not the names and tell himself he is going to be a big name just like those guys.&rdquo;RETURN OF RICE: Coach-general manager Glen Sather said Steven Rice was never in the doghouse. So why did the 22-year-old right winger feel like he&rsquo;d been let out on good behavior?Rice returned to the lineup in a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars Dec. 5 after a four-game stint on the sidelines.&ldquo;The one thing (Sather) did say while I was out was they needed more goals from the right side,&rdquo; Rice said. &ldquo;At that time there was only seven goals from the right side. The only thing I had trouble understanding was, I had four of them.&rdquo;As meagre as they were, Rice&rsquo;s numbers were the best on that wing. He had four goals and seven points in 23 games. But he was yanked from the lineup by former coach Ted Green, who slipped Russian defenseman Ilya By akin into Rice&rsquo;s right wing spot in a desperation move for more offense. It was Green&rsquo;s last game as coach.Sather took over and let Rice sit for three games, saying it doesn&rsquo;t hurt young players to occasionally miss a few games.&ldquo;He has got to be more tenacious,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;He has got to stick his nose in wherever possible.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Fred Brathwaite has done a decent job as the Oilers&rsquo; backup goalie, but needs more playing time. He had appeared in only six of 27 games and had a 4.07 goals-against average and. 880 save percentage. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to send Fred to the Cape (Breton Oilers of the American League) to play some games,&rdquo; Glen Sather said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to have to get a string of games in. Billy (Ran-ford) is playing great and he&rsquo;s going to play a lot. If he keeps playing like he has been, nobody else will play.&rdquo;<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 3: Dean McAmmond. C/RW and Ian Herbers, D. assigned to Cape Breton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jason Arnott, Doug Weight, Peter White, Craig MacTavish.LW&ndash;Shayne Corson, Scott Pearson, Scott Thornton, Louie DeBrusk.RW&ndash;Zdeno Ciger. Steven Rice, Kirk Maltby, Kelly Buchberger, Vladimir Vujtek. Shjon Podein.LD&ndash;Dave Manson. Igor Kravchuk, i Geoff Smith.RD&ndash;Luke Richardson, Adam Bennett, Bob Beers, Ilya Byakin.G&ndash;Bill Ranford, Fred Brathwaite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Arnott adjusting to big-league life

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The San Jose Sharks have shown signs of awakening a dormant power play by giving their No. 1 line less ice time in extra-man situations.Although Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Johan Garpenlov have comprised the team&rsquo;s most effective offensive line, the Sharks struggled on the power play until coach Kevin Constantine started to give another line more playing time during man-power advantages.The Sharks ranked at or near the bottom of the NHL in power-play efficiency all season, but connected for six power-play goals in 29 chances during a five-games Stretch.Much of the damage was done by the line of Todd Elik, Pat Falloon and Bob Errey. At least one of those players had a hand in five of the six power-play goals the Sharks scored during those five games.&ldquo;Elik&rsquo;s group has been as effective as a power-play unit should be,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t been exceptional, but they have been satisfactory. With Larionov&rsquo;s group, it couldn&rsquo;t get much worse.&rdquo;The difference between the powerplay lines stems from a difference in style among the players.Makarov leads the Sharks in scoring, but he and his linemates prefer passing and puck-control, so they tend to pass up shots waiting for the perfect chance. They also are less willing to create scoring chances by getting involved in physical play.&ldquo;Personally, I&rsquo;m embarrassed to take a slapshot because I think my slapshot is so bad,&rdquo; Larionov said. &ldquo;I know I should take more shots, but I&rsquo;m more used to setting up the goals. It&rsquo;s hard to change.&rdquo;The Elik line, on the other hand, doesn&rsquo;t hesitate to shoot.&ldquo;If we have the shot, we&rsquo;re going to take it,&rdquo; Elik said. &ldquo;When we get shots, we can crash the net and get rebounds.&rdquo;Crashing the net is one of Errey&rsquo;s primary strengths and he isn&rsquo;t afraid to take a beating.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re fair game there,&rdquo; said Errey, who normally skates with Dale Craigwell and Rob Gaudreau in evenstrength situations, but steps in for Gaetan Duchesne at left wing on the Elik line during power plays.OZOLINSH HOT: After collecting a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers Dec. 5, defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh had six goals in a 10-game stretch and seven points in the last seven games.Not coincidentally, Ozolinsh&rsquo;s production picked up after he stopped worrying about his left knee, which required surgery last season to repair a tom ligament.&ldquo;For the first 15 games of the season, I was thinking about that,&rdquo; Ozolinsh said. &ldquo;When I had the puck and somebody was coming at me, my knee was always the first thing I thought about.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Sharks are gaining world-wide recognition because of their top forward line of Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Johan Garpenlov. The team recently received an interview request from Pro Hockey Magazine of Oslo, Norway, because author Stein Batilsrud wanted to talk to Garpenlov about the new &ldquo;GLM Super Line.&rdquo;The 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers Dec. 5 established a franchiserecord five-game (4-0-1) unbeaten streak. The victory also left the Sharks with an impressive 11-5-4 record in 20 names that followed their 08-1 start.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 29: Michal Sykora. D. assigned to Kansas City (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;lgor Larionov, Todd Elik. Dale Craigwell. Jamie Baker, Mike Sullivan.LW&ndash;Johan Garpenlov. Gaetan Duchesne. Bob Errey. Mike Sullivan. Dave Maley. Shawn Cronin.RW&ndash;Sergei Makarov, Pat Falloon, Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers.LD&ndash;Jeff Norton. Doug Zmolek. Rob Zettler.RD&ndash;Sandis Ozolinsh. Tom Pederson. Mike RathjeG&ndash;Arturs Irbe, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jay More, D, broken right wrist, indefinite. Mike Lalor, D, tom right knee ligament, indefinite. Ray Whitney, LW, strained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Crashers replace passers and cash in on power play

<div class="byline">By Eric Ouhatschek</div>Sandy McCarthy spent three years anticipating what would be the toughest fight of his career-the first time he bumped into Gino Odjick.McCarthy knew their meeting would be inevitable. After all, he plays for Calgary Flames; Odjick for the Vancouver Canucks.The two got the matter out of their systems right away-in a September pre-season game. For fighting purists, it was a memorable toe-to-toe clash. Afterwards, the old friends celebrated by going out for dinner together.McCarthy and Odjick played together on the same line with the Laval Titan of the Quebec League for one season. &ldquo;We were probably one of the best third or fourth lines in the league because when we not on ice. had so much room,&rdquo; McCarthy said. &ldquo;Nobody would come near us.&ldquo;Then if somebody did fight one of us, he wouldn&rsquo;t only have to go with the one, he&rsquo;d have to go with the both of us. We&rsquo;re best of friends and we&rsquo;ll probably stay that way.&rdquo;McCarthy was asked: &ldquo;How do you separate the professional side of yourself from the personal side?&rdquo;&ldquo;I have a family to support,&rdquo; he replied, &ldquo;and if I don&rsquo;t do that job, they&rsquo;ll find someone else who will. I want to be here-and I&rsquo;ll do what it takes to be here. If it means fighting good friends, well.McCarthy&rsquo;s adjustment to the NHL has gone fairly well. In coach Dave King&rsquo;s system, McCarthy plays right wing on the fourth line.Freewheeling is not McCarthy&rsquo;s strong suit. If there&rsquo;s a flaw in his game, it is his lack of quickness. But he does show a surprisingly deft touch around the net.He could evolve into a decent scorer, especially if King decides to use him on the power play.TALKS STALL: Discussions between the Flames and the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede board over a new lease have broken off, leading to speculation the team could end up constructing its own building.The Flames have eight-and-a-half years remaining on a lease they signed in 1983. They apparently have offered to buy out the time remaining on the lease in order to manage the Saddledome themselves.Part-owner Norm Kwong said the two sides are &ldquo;millions&rdquo; apart.As it stands, the Flames get no parking or concession revenues from the building and only half the revenue from luxury seating.NOTEBOOK: Trent Yawney&rsquo;s first action of the season involved more ice time than even he expected. He played the left point of the power play-Gary Suter&rsquo;s normal position-to try to shake a team slump. The Flames then went 1-for-10 on the power play in two games.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 1: Brad Schlegel, D. assigned to Saint John (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Joel Otto. Robert Reichet. Kelly Kisio.LW&mdash;Gary Roberis, German Titov, Paul Ranheim, Paul Kruse.RW&ndash;Theo Fleury, Ron Stem, Ted Drury, Sandy McCarthy.LD&ndash;Frank Musil, Chris Dahlquist. Trent Yawney. Dan Keczmer. Lee Norwood.RD&ndash;AI Maclnnis. Michel Petit. Kevin Dahl.G&ndash;Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Paslawski, RW, strained left knee ligaments, indefinite Gary Suter, D. tom left knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

McCarthy prepared to tangle with friend or foe to survive

<div class="byline">By Bick Sadowski</div>The Los Angeles Kings were the talk of the NHL at this time a year ago, when they were steamrolling one opponent after another despite the absence of Wayne Gretzky.People are talking about the Kings again, only the things they are saying are far from complimentary.A 5-4 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Dec. 4 was the team&rsquo;s seventh loss in eight games and its ninth setback in 11 games during a four-week period.The Kings&rsquo; record was 10-14-2, their worst start since 1987-88, the year before Gretzky&rsquo;s arrival. It was a 14-point drop from the 17-7-2 start of last season when they advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.At their present clip, the Kings won&rsquo;t make the playoffs this season.&ldquo;We have great players who aren&rsquo;t giving us the effort.&rdquo; said coach Barry Melrose. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t want to be criticized by me, they don&rsquo;t want to sit out and they don&rsquo;t want to be criticized by the papers, but they don&rsquo;t give anything in return.&rdquo;For the most part, the Kings have been getting off to terrible starts in games, which constantly forces them to play from behind.More often than not, furious rallies have put them in position to win, then they inevitably collapse in the third period of games.The Kings gave up the first goal in 16 of the first 26 games and won only five of those games. The opponent took a lead of 2-0 or better in nine of those 16 games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to play hard and angry from the start,&rdquo; Mike Donnelly said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t get down a couple of goals and then decide to play hard. Last year, we played hard every night. We&rsquo;ve got to get back to playing like that.&rdquo;MELROSE FINED: The NHL came down hard on Barry Melrose, fining him $5,000 for making critical remarks about the substitute officials during the officials&rsquo; strike.Melrose, who apparently is not even allowed to acknowledge he has been fined, was warned by general manager Nick Beverley and NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke after he criticized the officials who worked the Nov. 21 Kings-Dallas Stars game in Dallas.Melrose didn&rsquo;t endear himself to the NHL hierarchy Nov. 28 in Montreal. With 54 seconds remaining in the Kings&rsquo; 4-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. he appeared to take a deliberate delay-of-game penalty and then defied replacement referee George McCorry&rsquo;s order to send a player to the penalty box to serve his penalty.NOTEBOOK: Center Jimmy Carson was scratched for two consecutive games after spending all but two brief shifts in the final two periods on the bench Nov. 30 against the Winnipeg Jets. Carson was scratched five times in 30 games. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think this situation with Jimmy has been good for anyone,&rdquo; said Carson&rsquo;s agent Ron Salcer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s earning a major salary ($1 million this year) and they&rsquo;re getting very little use out of him as a player. Quite frankly, I don&rsquo;t understand it.&rdquo; Salcer has asked the Kings to play Carson or trade him.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 29: Dominic Lavoie. D. and Keith Redmond, LW. recalled from Phoenix (IHL). Dec. 1: Redmond assigned to Phoenix.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Wayne Gretzky. Shawn McEachern. Jan Kurd, Jimmy Carson.LW&ndash;Warren Rychel, Mike Donnelly, Luc Robitaille, Phil Crowe.RW&ndash;Tony Granato. Gary Shuchuk, Dave Taylor, Tomas Sandstrom. John Druce.LD&ndash;Alex Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor. Brent Thompson, Dominic Lavoie.RD&ndash;Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy. Doug Houda. Tim Watters.G&ndash;Kelly Hrudey, Rick Knickle.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pat Conacher, C, lower back strain, day-to-day. &#9632;

Woeful struggle continues

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>The Pittsburgh Penguins are paying a high price for success.Pittsburgh has the league&rsquo;s highest payroll, according to figures compiled by the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. The two-time Stanley Cup champs will pay out at least $18.3 million (U.S.) this season.In reality, their payroll will surpass the $20-million mark.Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s contract has apparently not been registered with the league. He is expected to make $5 million this season, but only stands at $3 million on the NHLPA list.Several other contract updates are not included.Many other factors, most prominent among them the difference in value between the U.S. and Canadian dollar, make assessing team payrolls a tricky business.The Hockey News calculated all 26 NHL team payrolls by adding player salaries contained in the recent NHLPA salary survey. For the sake of consistency, only the top 23 salaries were included-the minimum number of players listed on each team.The THN ranking is not 100 percent representative of the league&rsquo;s salary situation, but a useful guide to the NHL money market.Team payrolls are listed in the currency of their countries. If all monies were converted to U.S., only two Canadian payrolls would top $10 million (U.S.).As it is, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s payroll is about twice as much as the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; ($9.5 million Cdn.). It would almost triple the Senators&rsquo; total if the latter were converted to U.S. dollars.Canadian-based players paid in U.S. dollars had their salaries converted at a rate of $1.25 Cdn. per U.S. dollar to maintain all-Canadian dollars.<h2>TEAM PAYROLLS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01759/6340953-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="545" height="1019"></div>The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim have the lowest payroll in the league at $7.9 million (U.S.). It would be at least $1 million higher if Paul Kariya had signed. The University of Maine standout has joined the Canadian Olympic team.About 70 players will earn at least $1 million this season, including center Doug Gilmour of the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose contract had not yet been registered. He is slated to earn $3 million this season, but is listed at $1 million.Another player who will soon hit the seven-figure stratosphere is center Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings. He is earning $295,000, but is negotiating a new deal.The Penguins and Kings are each paying a league-high six players $1 million or more. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning don&rsquo;t have any millionaires.The Stanley Cup-champion Montreal Canadiens have two millionaires-goalie Patrick Roy and left winger Vincent Damphousse. They are eighth on the payroll list at $14.2 million (Cdn.).Fedorov is captain of the THN AllUnderpaid Team. Joining him at forward are Rob Pearson ($130,000), Toronto and Joe Juneau ($250,000), Boston Bruins. On defense are Garry Galley ($478,132), Philadelphia Flyers and Vladimir Malakhov ($392,500), New York Islanders. Daren Puppa ($562,500), Tampa Bay, is the goalie.Members of the All-Overpaid Team are: forwards Kelly Miller ($1,800,000), Washington Capitals, Ed Olczyk ($850,000), New York Rangers and Jimmy Carson ($1,000,000), Los Angeles. On defense are Steve Konroyd ($700,000), Detroit, and Chris Pronger ($1,600,000), Hartford Whalers. In goal is Grant Fuhr ($1,600,000), Buffalo Sabres. &#9632;

f0021-01

Pittsburgh payroll ranks first in NHL

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>The nightmare continues for Patrice Brisebois.The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman will be sidelined until early January with a cracked bone in his ankle.Brisebois sustained the injury in an 8-1 win over the Boston Bruins Dec. 4 when he was struck by a shot from Bruin Dave Reid.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to think.&rdquo; said a disconsolate Brisebois. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe this has happened to me.&rdquo;Brisebois&rsquo; injury occurred just four games after he recovered from a sprained knee that sidelined him for 10 games. He played in just 16 of Montreal&rsquo;s first 26 games.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s three or four years that I didn&rsquo;t have a serious injury and now this happens.&rdquo; he said.Canadiens&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers empathized with the 22-year-old.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s down because he just came off a serious injury. But he&rsquo;s young,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He worked his way back once and he will again. The most important thing for him is not to lose confidence.&rdquo;With Peter Popovic still recovering from stretched knee ligaments and Rob Ramage having been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Canadiens were forced to play at least one game with five defensemen. Demers said he had no plans to recall a defenseman from Montreal&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Fredericton.PLAN WORKS: The ultimatum worked and Jacques Demers looked pretty good in the process.The Canadiens&rsquo; coach gave Vincent Damphousse two games to produce or else the left winger was going to be banished to the press box.Damphousse was held without a point in a 2-2 tie against the Washington Capitals Dec. 3, but broke out of his slump the following night in Boston, scoring twice and adding two assists in the 8-1 win.&ldquo;We needed to talk,&rdquo; said Damphousse, who has a history of starting slowly. &ldquo;Luckily, Jacques is the kind of coach you can talk to.&rdquo;Damphousse had five goals and 16 points in 12 games in October but dropped off sharply in November, when he had two goals and four assists in 11 games. He led the team with nine goals and 24 points in 26 games.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Eric Desjardins and backup goal tender Andre Racicot signed three- and two-year contracts respectively. The total value of Desjardins&rsquo; deal is about $2.6 million while Racicot will receive $400,000 each season.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 30: Eiic Desjardins. D. signed three-year contract. Andre Racicot, G. signed two-year contract, Dec. 2: Craig Ferguson, C, and Oleg Petrov, RW, recalled from Fredericton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kirk Muller. Paul DiPietro. Craig Ferguson, Guy Cartionneau. Ron WilsonLW&ndash;Gilbert Dionne, Vincent Damphousse, John LeClair, Pierre Sevigrty. Mario Roberge.RW&ndash;Mike Keane, Oleg Petrov. Benoit Brunet, Ed Ronan. Gary LeemanLD&ndash;Kevin Haller. Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Mathieu Schneider.RD&ndash;End Desjardins, Lyte Odelein.G&ndash;Patrick Roy, Andre Racicot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Bellows, RW, bruised ribs, day-to-day Patrice Brisebois, D, fractured left ankle, indefinite Stephan Lebeau, C. sprained right ankle, day-to-day. Peter Popovic, D, strained right knee ligaments, day-to-day. &#9632;

Brisebois returns to lineup in time to get injured again

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>The hottest goalie in the NHL in early December was playing for the Buffalo Sabres.And he isn&rsquo;t named Grant Fuhr.Dominik Hasek emerged from the shadows to lead his team on an impressive run. Buffalo was 4-1-1 through the six games Fuhr missed with a reoccurence of a left knee problem that first surfaced while he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs.Hasek did not give up more than two goals in any of those games and allowed just four in a four-game run that included back-to-back 3-0 shutouts Nov. 29 at Toronto and Dec. 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Hasek was beaten 2-1 in overtime the next night by the Florida Panthers, but bounced back to lead the Sabres to a 31 win over the Boston Bruins Dec. 5.Hasek vaulted to the top of two key goaltending categories. He lowered his goals-against average to 2.04 and raised his save percentage to. 929.&ldquo;I feel much more comfortable than the first couple of games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important for a goalie to feel comfortable and now I feel that and I&rsquo;m more confident.&ldquo;We are playing much better defensively than at the start of the season. In the last couple of games we&rsquo;ve been averaging 25 shots, maybe 30, but no more. At the start of the season it was 35 or 40 shots.&rdquo;With the loss of Pat LaFontaine, who underwent successful knee surgery Dec 3, Buffalo still has goalscorers in Dale Hawerchuk and Alex Mogilny and was getting unexpected offense from the Kid Line of Derek Plante, Brad May and Donald Audette. But the club has also changed to a careful, conservative, game that has brought the goals against down and the win total up.SURGERY A SUCCESS: Pat LaFontaine emerged from what his doctor said was successful surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.New-York based orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Minkoff said the chances for a full recovery are excellent.LaFontaine underwent the knee surgery in New York&rsquo;s Lenox Hill Hospital.NOTEBOOK: Rookie Derek Plante registered his first NHL hat trick in the 3-0 win at Tampa Bay. His continual rise in the rookie scoring race has left doubt as to whether or not he will rejoin Team USA for the Olympics. Plante is said to have a clause in his contract allowing him to do so, but he remains evasive. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With Patty (LaFontaine) out, it&rsquo;s a tough decision.&rdquo;&hellip;Sabres&rsquo; captain Alexander Mogilny bypassed the team&rsquo;s charter flight from Ottawa to Toronto Nov. 28. Mogilny, who has had bouts with a fear of flying, decided to drive to Toronto. Last year during the playoffs, he once drove home from a game in Boston. The occasional reoc-curences seem to crop up whenever there are weather problems or news reports of planes going down. A recent Northwest Airlines&rsquo; commuter plane crash may have had an effect on Mogilny.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Dale Hawerchuk. Derek Plante. Bob Sweeney. Dave Hannan.LW&ndash;Yuri Khymlev. Randy Wood, Brad May. Rob RayRW&ndash;Alexander Mogilny. Donald Audette. Wayne Presley. Scott Thomas.LD&ndash;Doug Bodger. Richard Smehlik, Petr Svoboda. Randy MollerRD&ndash;Ken Sutton, Craig Muni, Gord Donnelly. Philippe Boucher.G&ndash;Dominik Hasek, Markus Ketterer.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Grant Fuhr, G, sore left knee, day-to-day. Pat LaFontaine, C, right knee surgery, out for season Sergei Petrenko, RW. strained groin, day-to-day. Denis Tsygurov, D. severe Charley horse, indefinite. &#9632;

Once-forgotten goalie Hasek holding hot hand

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>In his best NHL season, Hartford Whalers&rsquo; right winger Robert Kron scored 14 goals. The book on him was simple: great speed, excellent puck-handling ability, can&rsquo;t finish.But Kron is rewriting that book. Through 26 games, he had 11 goals and was on a pace for more than 30. In a 10-game span from Nov. 13 through Dec. 4, Kron had 10 goals. In two of those games he scored twice. The streak raised Kron&rsquo;s season points total to 19, good for fourth place on the team behind Geoff Sanderson, Pat Verbeek and Andrew Cassels.&ldquo;I was getting chances all year,&rdquo; said Kron, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks with Jim Sandlak for Murray Craven last season. &ldquo;If you get chances, it&rsquo;s good. You put them in the net, it&rsquo;s even better. I&rsquo;m getting some breaks now. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m doing anything different.&rdquo;Yet if Kron had done that all season, there&rsquo;s no telling how many goals he would have by now.&ldquo;He probably should have 20, 25 goals,&rdquo; coach Pierre McGuire said.Said Kron: &ldquo;You always get what you get. Could have, would have doesn&rsquo;t mean anything. I&rsquo;ve had lots of chances. I could have had 20 by now. I could have, but I don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Not yet, anyway.Kron, 26, is playing on a line with center Michael Nylander (two goals, 10 points in a five-game span), and left winger Jim Storm (scored his first two NHL goals). That line was the Whalers&rsquo; best in recent games and was taking much of the pressure off Sanderson, Verbeek and Cassels.RED INK: Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon informed the NHL that his team lost $8.26 million last season and will lose $12 million this season if it draws an average of 9,500 fans a game. The Whalers drew an average of 10,377 through 14 games.He advised the league of his intent to move the franchise. But according to the 20-year lease at the Civic Center, the state of Connecticut would have first option to buy the team should Gordon decide to sell.A source in Hartford city government said Gordon is seeking investors to acquire all or part of the team and could be looking out of state. Gordon, who owns 75 percent of the team, declined to comment on that and speculation he is considering a move to Houston, Atlanta or Phoenix.NOTEBOOK: The Whalers were relieved to find out Andrew Cassels was not seriously injured when he was hit from behind into the boards by Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Ulf Samuelsson Dec. 4.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 3: Mike Lenarduzzl. G, assigned to Springfield (AHL). Dec. 6: Igor Chibirev, C, recalled from Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Andrew Cassels. Michael Nylander. Darren Turcotte, Mark Janssens, Igor Chibirev.LW&ndash;Geoff Sanderson. Jim Storm, Brian Propp. Randy Cunneyworth. Jim McKenzie.RW&ndash;Mark Greig, Robert Kron, Pat Verbeek. Marc Potvin.LD&ndash;Adam Burt, Bryan Marchment, Chris Pronger.RD&ndash;Zarley Zalapski, James Patrick, Brad McCammon. Bob McGill.G&ndash;Sean Burke, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mario Gosselin, G. left knee surgery, out for season Frank Pietrangelo, G. back strain, day-to-day. Jim Sandlak, RW, broken right foot, day-to-day. &#9632;

Kron cashes in on chances, but could have more goals

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>Dave Reid is waiting for some luck.Make that good luck.He has had plenty of luck this season-all of it bad.After collecting a career-high 20 goals in a defensive role last season, Reid hadn&rsquo;t scored through the Boston Bruins&rsquo; first 27 games. That left him waiting either for the break that would get him started or a break in the club&rsquo;s patience.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; Reid said. &ldquo;You keep thinking, &lsquo;It has got to come soon,&rsquo; but then again, I&rsquo;ve been thinking that for a few weeks now.&rdquo;The 29-year-old left winger hasn&rsquo;t played poorly. Though nobody was happy with his production, Reid&rsquo;s plus-five rating and solid defensive work kept him in the lineup.Reid admitted, however, to wondering how long coach Brian Sutter would let him play. He was particularly edgy Nov. 30, when wingers Cam Neely-who rejoined the club after attending his father&rsquo;s funeral- and Cam Stewart-cleared to play after fracturing a finger-returned to the lineup.&ldquo;Sure, (getting scratched) goes through your mind at times like this,&rdquo; Reid said. &ldquo;It has to.&ldquo;It&rsquo;d be one thing if I was killing penalties, playing well defensively and getting other things done. That&rsquo;d be fine. But if I&rsquo;m not scoring and the team&rsquo;s not scoring, then they&rsquo;ve got to leave guys in the lineup who&rsquo;ve shown a bit of scoring touch.&rdquo;Reid survived his scare in Quebec when Sutter, who had an extra forward there for a 5-2 victory over the Nordiques, scratched Jozef Stumpel. Reid assisted on Cam Neely&rsquo;s third-period winning goal and set up a critical Ted Donato goal early in the third period of a 7-3 triumph over the New York Islanders two nights later.But as Boston&rsquo;s penalty-killing units sagged in losses to the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres-the Bruins surrendered five goals in 12 shorthanded situations-Reid&rsquo;s worries were renewed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been getting good chances lately&hellip;actually the whole season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just need to get better at everything, drive the net better, work harder to reach rebounds, get one to go in off my head or something to get the ball rolling.&ldquo;The other parts of my game are okay, but if I don&rsquo;t produce, I&rsquo;m not going to play very long. They&rsquo;ve been very patient with me-more patient than I&rsquo;ve ever seen an organization be with a player.&rdquo;JOLTED JOE: The writing was on the wall for Jozef Stumpel.The rookie center&rsquo;s ice time was diminishing to the point where he was of little use to the team. So the Bruins demoted him to Providence of the American League Dec. 3.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like he was very involved in what was going on here,&rdquo; Brian Sutter said.Sutter has said young players not making an impact won&rsquo;t stay at the NHL level, but will be sent to Providence to play full-time roles. Stumpel made the club out of camp and was the No. 2 center during portions of October. He was stuck at three goals and eight points in 24 games.NOTEBOOK: Cam Neely returned to continue an uncanny knack for scoring big goals. His goal at Quebec was his fifth winner. It was also his 15th goal in 14 games&hellip;A 3-1 loss at Buffalo Dec. 6 marked the eighth time Boston was held to one goal in 27 games. The Bruins were 0-4-4 in those contests.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 2: Mark Krys, D. traded to Buffalo for future considerations. Jon Rohloff. D, assigned to Providence (AHL). Dec. 3: Jozef Stumpel, C, assigned to Providence. Dec. 5: Sergei Zholtok. C, recalled from Providence.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Adam Oates. Ted Donato. Bryan Smolinski. Sergei Zholtok.LW&ndash;Joe Juneau, Dave Reid. Cam Stewart. Brent Hughes.RW&ndash;Cam Neely. Steve Leach. Steve Heinze, Glen Murray, Dmitri Kvartalnov.LD&ndash;Don Sweeney. Glen Wesley. Glen Featherstone. Gord Roberts.RD&ndash;Ray Bourque. David Shaw, PaulG&ndash;Jon Casey. John Blue.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Cam Neely. RW. sore left knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Scoreless winger getting desperate

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>When last season ended, Craig Billington finally felt he had made it.After an eight-year struggle in the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; organization, the 27-year-old was coming off his best season ever with the Devils-career highs in games played (42) and wins (21) and a trip to the All-Star Game.But the course of his career changed June 20. He was traded, along with Troy Mallette and a fourth-round draft choice, to the Ottawa Senators for goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz and future considerations.Billington has struggled-on and off the ice-to pull things back together ever since.&ldquo;It has been a big adjustment, both playing and on the living side of it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It has been tough for my wife, Susan. I have the hockey team, but what has she got? There are the other wives, but it takes a while to make friends.&rdquo;The trade left Billington numb. The Devils&rsquo; second pick in the 1984 entry draft felt he had a solid future in New Jersey.&ldquo;The emotion was not one of happiness or sadness. I had a real feeling of emptiness,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was the realization a team didn&rsquo;t want you. I&rsquo;d been up and down, sometimes a dog and sometimes a hero and I knew everybody there and everybody knew me. It took eight years, but I got respect from the players and management.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I want to build here. I&rsquo;m sure for the fans, the media and the players (in Ottawa) it has been frustrating. They don&rsquo;t know how I did in New Jersey. I&rsquo;m trying to re-establish that respect.&rdquo;Billington realizes respect must be earned and he hasn&rsquo;t earned it this season. He had a 4.79 goals-against average, 4-11-1 record and. 855 save percentage in 19 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve let myself down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought I could come in here and be an impact player right away. In New Jersey, it took eight years.&rdquo;PALLADIUM CLOSER: Construction on the Ottawa Palladium, the long-awaited future home of the Ottawa Senators, could begin before the new year.Private financing for the $188 million project fell into place Nov. 29 when the Senators&rsquo; 69 limited partners approved a new management agreement with Ogden Corp., which is providing most of the financing and will run the proposed 18,500-seat facility.All that&rsquo;s left now is for the province of Ontario to approve a $27 million loan for the construction of an interchange off the freeway and other infrastructure to service the site in suburban Kanata.That loan was expected to be approved in early December.The federal government has already pledged a $6 million grant to the project.NOTEBOOK: The limited partners balked at a plan to pay former governor and team founder Bruce Firestone a six-figure yearly salary for life. They struck a committee to look into the matter&hellip;Rookie center Alexei Yashin gave the Senators a sweep of the first two rookie-of-the-month awards when he was named the NHL&rsquo;s top freshman for November. Teammate Alexandre Daigle copped the honor in October. Yashin totalled seven goals and 14 assists in 13 games.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 30: Andy Schneider. LW, assigned to P.E.I (AHL). Dmitri Filimonov, D, recalled from P.E.I<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexandre Daigle, Alexei Yashin, Mark Lamb.LW&ndash;Vladimir Ruzicka. Dave McLIwain, Troy Mallette, Darcy Loewen.RW&ndash;Bob Kudelski, Bill Huard, Jarmo Kekalamen. Graeme Townshend. Pavol Demitra.LD&ndash;Norm Maciver, Radek Hamr, Hank Lammens. Dmitri Filimonov.RD&ndash;Brad Shaw, Brian Glynn, Goto Dineen.G&ndash;Darrin Madeley, Craig Billington.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Archibald, RW. separated left shoulder, Dec. 22. Darren Rumble, bruised left thigh, day-to-day. Sylvain Turgeon, LW, broken left arm. indefinite. Dennis Vial, D. broken toe. Dec. 22. &#9632;

Billington’s struggles continue

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>The New York Islanders were snowed in Dec. 3. Goalie Garth Snow showed a lot of poise in his NHL debut, backstopping the Quebec Nordiques to a 3-2 win.Talk about rapid progression. In a matter of weeks, Snow left the U.S. Olympic squad, signed his first pro contract, won two games with the Cornwall Aces of the American League and was recalled by the Nordiques.General manager Pierre Page was in Cornwall to witness Snow&rsquo;s second win Dec. 1. A few hours later, they were on a plane bound for Long Island.Snow finished off a great college career last season by helping the Maine Black Bears to the National Collegiate Athletic Association title. He didn&rsquo;t lose a single game with the Bears and posted a 21-0-1 record and 2.08 goals-against average.Snow had just graduated from Mount St. Charles High School when the Nordiques drafted him the sixth round of the 1987 entry draft. Six years later, he didn&rsquo;t report to training camp because of contract squabbles. Snow had been playing with the U.S. Olympic team and there&rsquo;s a possibility he might retum-unless he impresses enough to push aside the goalies in Quebec.&ldquo;Everything we&rsquo;ve heard about Garth has been great,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;s here so fast, it&rsquo;s because he has something to show. He reminds you of Ron Hextali. He moves the same, is a stand-up goaltender, challenges the shots and moves the puck very nicely.&rdquo;Snow, 24, is remaining calm through his whirlwind rise.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking things one day at a time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m in a groove now. I&rsquo;m in Quebec to get to know the team, the organization. And to let the team and organization get to know me.&rdquo;CROWED CREASE: So what about young Jocelyn Thibault now?The 18-year-old first-round pick is having a good start in the pros. But with Garth Snow in the picture and Stephane Fiset close to returning from a back injury and veteran Jacques Cloutier still around, what will happen to Thibault?One thing is for sure, Canadian national junior team coach Joe Canale is set on getting Thibault for the World Junior Championships set for the end of December in the Czech Republic. Canale has left an open spot on his ROSTER for Thibault.But Thibault wants to spend the Christmas holidays in Quebec, not overseas.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a pro now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the one who decides, but if they ask me, I want to stay with the Nordiques.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Pierre Page is monitoring the progress of Rene Corbet of the Cornwall Aces. Page doesn&rsquo;t want to rush him, but Corbet has been exceptional for Cornwall with 18 goals and 34 points in 23 games&hellip;After a humiliating 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins Nov. 30-their only loss in an eight-game span-the players were called in for a 7:30 a.m. practice the next morning.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 2: Garth Snow, G, recalled from Cornwall (AHL). Dec. 4: Chris Lindberg, RW, recalled from Cornwall.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, lain Fraser.LW&ndash;Andrei Kovalenko, Valeri Kamensky. Claude Lapointe, Martin Rucinsky, Tony Twist.RW&ndash;Ed Ward, David Karpa, Chris Simon, Scott Young, Chris Lindberg.LD&ndash;Steven Finn. Curtis Leschyshyn. Craig Wol-anin.RD&ndash;Alexei Gusarov, Adam Foote. Mike McKee. Kerry Huffman.G&ndash;Jacques Cloutier, Garth Snow, Jocelyn Thibault.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Fiset, G, herniated disc, indefinite. Martin Gelinas, LW, separated left shoulder, indefinite Paul MacDermid, RW, lumbar sprain, day-to-day. Owen Nolan, RW. left shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Page’s search for goalie has Snow-balling effect

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; coach Eddie Johnston has a tendency to get excited, but no one was accusing him of getting carried away while discussing left winger Kevin Stevens&rsquo; potential.&ldquo;You can pencil that guy in for 40 or 50 (goals),&rdquo; Johnston said. He meant for the season, although Johnston could have been forgiven if &ldquo;40 or 50&rdquo; was his prediction of what Stevens would produce in, say, December.Stevens has broken out of his early-season slump in a big way and has been burying pucks at a dizzying rate. He had a five-game goalstreak and a run of 12 goals in 13 games.That&rsquo;s quite a turnaround from early in the season, when Stevens needed seven games to get his first goal and had four after 14 games. After being on that fairly anemic pace, Stevens has given himself a good shot at outdoing his career-best total of 55 goals from 1992-93.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to tell you how many I think I can score,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I always expect to do better than I did the year before. I still think that&rsquo;s possible.&rdquo;The odds on Stevens getting 55- or more-would be even better if his usual center, Mario Lemieux, was playing. Stevens had six goals and two assists in the three-plus games in which Lemieux appeared this season.&ldquo;He makes me 10 times a better player,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;I think I can still play without him and still score some goals. But obviously, we had something good together.&rdquo;Stevens stated the obvious-&rdquo;when you can&rsquo;t play with the greatest player in the world, it&rsquo;s tough&rdquo;-but said he doesn&rsquo;t feel sorry for himself because Lemieux is out.BACK ON ICE: Mario Lemieux, who has not played since Nov. 7 because of back and conditioning problems, is scheduled to resume skating in mid-December.No date has been set for his return, although Lemieux is expected to play sometime around the all-star break.Lemieux was in Florida for what the Penguins called a &ldquo;period of rest&rdquo; through the latter part of November, but has returned to Pittsburgh and is to resume a rehabilitation program that emphasizes aerobics, improving his conditioning and strengthening his back.Coach Ed Johnston saw Lemieux shortly after he got back to Pittsburgh and said he was encouraged. &ldquo;He looked very refreshed,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;He had a lot of bounce, looked healthy. He looked like he dropped a few pounds. He has that little gleam in his eye.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 7-6 overtime victory in Hartford Dec. 4 snapped a streak of three consecutive ties-one shy of the team record-but only after the Penguins squandered a three-goal lead. &ldquo;You start thinking, &lsquo;Here we go again. Four straight ties,&rsquo;&rdquo; center Ron Francis said&hellip;The Penguins attracted capacity crowds of 17,537 to just three of their first 12 home games, although their average attendance during that span was a robust 16,909.The Penguins have added a facet to their merchandising-authenticated memorabilia. Each item being sold goes through a process that includes having a senior member of a national accounting firm watch a player autograph the item.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Bryan Trottier, Mike Stapleton.LW&ndash;Kevin Stevens, Markus Naslund, Jeff Daniels.RW&ndash;Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen. Doug Brown.LD&ndash;Ulf Samuelsson, Jim Paek. Mike Ramsey. Grant Jennings.RD&ndash;Larry Murphy. Kjell Samuelsson. Patrick Neaton, Peter Taglianetti.G&ndash;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. Rick Tocchet, RW. back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Red-hot Stevens shifts offense into highest gear

<div class="byline">By Kevin Allen</div>When Dr. Brian Price hears about his reputation for business savvy, he responds with a laugh.Back in 1953, when he was six years old, Price would forage for pop bottles at construction sites. When his wagon was filled, he headed for the store where he transformed his bottle refund money into Parkhurst cards. Unlike most kids, he put away at least one set in mint condition before he started flipping cards with his buddies.&ldquo;That was probably (shrewd),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I also used to pop that gum in my mouth and shoot the wrappers into the basket. Those are the same wrappers I&rsquo;m paying $800 and $900 for today. So how shrewd was I?&rdquo;Price was shrewd enough to buy the Parkhurst logo in 1991. The company hadn&rsquo;t manufactured cards since 1964, but remained very popular with collectors. Now it produces some of the best premium cards in the industry.Price&rsquo;s love for hockey cards, combined with his business savvy, are a perfect marriage in his role as the head of Parkhurst. A practising dentist until 1982, Price picked up much of his business acumen when he helped establish an empire of 107 dental franchises across Canada.But how does a guy go from making dental crowns to becoming the king of his own card empire?&ldquo;I practised for 10 years and then I just felt like I wanted a change,&rdquo; said the 46-year-old native of Toronto. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m going to be looking to change careers every 10 years, so they&rsquo;ll be looking for a new leader of Parkhurst in the Year 2000.&rdquo; Then he paused. &ldquo;Maybe they won&rsquo;t because I really enjoy what I&rsquo;m doing now.&rdquo;Price has also forged an impressive legal career. After he broke his lease of the Parkhurst name with Pro Set-when Pro Set lost its NHL license-he was taken to court and won.But his biggest triumph in court occurred in 1990 and changed the legal landscape for professionals in Canada. Until then, lawyers, doctors and dentists weren&rsquo;t allowed to advertise. But Price and his business associates fought the law to the Supreme Court of Canada and won their case.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01788/6341183-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="574" height="813"><figcaption class="caption-body">Parkhurst president Brian Price has revitalized the company.</figcaption></div>After successfully ridding his company of Pro Set, Price set about the task of obtaining a license for this season. He eventually leased the Parkhurst name to Upper Deck and Parkhurst by the Upper Deck Company should be available by mid-December. There is also talk that Parkhurst will lend its name to Upper Deck&rsquo;s other sports cards.Price is seen by those in the industry as a tough, but fair businessman who is very good at what he does.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very good businessman,&rdquo; said Ilene Kent, the NHL&rsquo;s director of licensing and marketing. &ldquo;He has done a great job of revitalizing the Parkhurst name.&rdquo;&ldquo;We have nothing but a positive relationship with Brian,&rdquo; said Ted Saskin, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association licensing director. &ldquo;It was Brian, not Pro Set, that made Parkhurst successful.&rdquo;One of the best business moves Price ever made was one that he avoided. In 1991, a business partner asked him to investigate the feasibility of franchising card shops. Price left no stone unturned. &ldquo;Then I told him to forget it,&rdquo; he said.He determined franchising wouldn&rsquo;t work in an industry driven by a pursuit of getting a product cheaper than the guy next door.&ldquo;Then Big Bob&rsquo;s in Connecticut tried it and was unsuccessful,&rdquo; Price said.Price hopes to find success with a new venture known as Parkhurst Ice Authenticated, which features signed card enlargements, sweaters, sticks and pucks.The obsession with collecting hasn&rsquo;t left Price. His Parkhurst collection is among the best. &ldquo;My set is beyond grading,&rdquo; he said.He recently purchased a 1951-52 unopened pack of Parkie Color Comic Cards. He also has unopened wax packs from 1951-52 and 195253, plus a complete set of wrappers. He is currently building a collection of wax boxes of Topps baseball and O-Pee-Chee hockey. He has baseball wax packs back as early as 1965. In his spare time, he has been collecting Toronto Blue Jays&rsquo; game-worn jerseys.&ldquo;I like what I&rsquo;m doing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I make a couple of bucks it&rsquo;s a bonus.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Price just what doctor ordered for Parkhurst

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>While Pro Set works at getting its financial books in order, it will likely be a long time before it gets back in the good books of the NHL and NHL Players&rsquo; Association.The beleaguered card company, which produced NHL sets from 1990 to 1993, has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy for more than a year. But it has filed a plan of reorganization and hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year.Pro Set president John Grigsby said the company would like to get back into the hockey business. But there&rsquo;s the matter of the $4 million owed to the NHL and NHLPA that resulted in Pro Set not having its license renewed this season.The reorganization plan must still be approved by the company&rsquo;s creditors and the courts. In any event, Grigsby said the league and players association will recover only &ldquo;a very, very small percentage of their royalties.&rdquo;But there&rsquo;s little doubt that Pro Set-the hobby&rsquo;s equivalent to Gil Stein-would have to pay back the full sum before it would even be considered for a license in the future.&ldquo;I suspect if I ever called (NHLPA director of licensing Ted Saskin) and said, &lsquo;Ted can I talk to you about a license?&rsquo; the first thing he would say is, &lsquo;Come prepared to talk about the rest of the money you owe that we never got,&rsquo;&rdquo; Grigsby said.Saskin and NHL Enterprises licensing and marketing director Dene Kent said they would consider Pro Set if the debt was repaid in full, but there are no plans to expand.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re committed to the 10 brands and five companies we&rsquo;re working with,&rdquo; Saskin said. &ldquo;Right now we&rsquo;re not in the licensing mode.&rdquo;Regardless, Grigsby said a new and improved Pro Set will emerge.&ldquo;Pro Set will become a small-niche player that produces high-quality, limited production cards,&rdquo; Grigsby said. &ldquo;It will never again be the Pro Set that (former owner) Lud Denny owned and operated. We will no longer be in the business of making thousands and thousands of cases of cards.&rdquo;FRAUD CHARGES: Metro Toronto Police have charged two dealers with several counts of fraud and more charges may be coming after officers seized about 200 pieces of signed memorabilia from a business in nearby Woodbridge, Ont.Paul Marin and Kathryn Mintz of Sports Autographs and Memorabilia were charged Dec. 2 with uttering forged documents, defrauding the public and possession of proceeds from crime. Marin was also charged with breach of probation.Police seized a number of bats, balls, sweaters, photos and letters of authenticity.&ldquo;We have reason to believe there are thousands of pieces out there,&rdquo; said Det. Jim Downs. &ldquo;Our big concern is that is being sold through dealers to the public. With Christmas coming a lot of people would want that kind of stuff.&rdquo;Marin and Mintz answered to the charges Dec. 6. Sports Autographs and Memorabilia also deals in hockey.CLASSIC MAN: The man who spearheaded Classic Cards&rsquo; hockey coverage is leaving the company.Steve Cherendoff, the director of special projects for Classic, is leaving the company in January to pursue private endevours.Cherendoff, 30, joined Classic in 1991 and developed draft pick and prospect hockey sets for the company. Despite the fact it doesn&rsquo;t have an NHL license, Classic has been a staple with collectors. Its agreements with international hockey bodies, the Canadian Hockey League, Hockey Canada and the minor leagues has allowed it to make cards of top prospects before they could appear in a licensed set. &#9632;

New, improved Pro Set tries to set record straight

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Bob Kudelski has struggled to gain respect all of his NHL career, so it&rsquo;s no surprise his rookie card gets almost no respect in the hobby.Despite the fact Kudelski was having a monster season, scoring 22 goals in the Ottawa Senators first 24 games, collectors would have to shell out more money for bus fare then they would for his 1990-91 Upper Deck rookie card.But Kudelski isn&rsquo;t alone among players who got off to fast starts this season. With the exception of Wendel Clark of the Toronto Maple Leafs, rising goal totals have not translated into increasing prices for rookie cards.&#9633; Kudelski may be the Senators&rsquo; leading scorer, but Ottawa-based collectors are more interested in Alexandre Daigle and Alexei Yashin cards.Kudelski&rsquo;s card doesn&rsquo;t fetch much more than a quarter.&ldquo;Nobody cares about Kudelski,&rdquo; said Ottawa-based dealer Dave Bullis. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s 29 years old he&rsquo;s leaving after this year. Even if he got 84 goals in 84 games, his card would still be worth 25 cents.&rdquo;Kudelski, who is playing out his option with the Senators, will likely be dealt before the end of the season.&#9633; Mark Recchi of the Philadelphia Flyers was within striking distance of Wayne Gretzky for the NHL scoring lead in early December, but his rookie card wasn&rsquo;t even close.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01805/6341238-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="576" height="814"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trevor Linden&rsquo;s rookie card hasn&rsquo;t taken off like he has.</figcaption></div>The biggest problem is Recchi debuted in the 1990-91 Upper Deck set. That was the first year of the card boom among collectors.&ldquo;People who wanted his card probably already have it,&rdquo; said Philadelphiabased dealer Greg Petrino. &ldquo;Because of that, not a lot of people are interested. Most people have been asking for (Flyer rookie) Mikael Renberg.Recchi&rsquo;s card sells in the Philadelphia area for about $5, but even Eric Lindros&rsquo; rookie card has been stagnant because the supply exceeds the demand.&#9633; Trevor Linden of the Vancouver Canucks was off to the best start of his six-year career, but his 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee card has remained steady at about $3.That&rsquo;s because there is even more of that set out there than people realized and although the number of star rookies is high, the set is watered down.&ldquo;The company did a third printing that summer because of the demand in the United States and that killed it,&rdquo; said Vancouver-based dealer Ed Smith.But Linden&rsquo;s Topps card from that year, which is in much shorter supply, is going for about $6,&#9633; One player who has bucked the trend is Clark. Clark&rsquo;s goal-a-game pace-and the fact his 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee card is in shorter supply-has sent the price of his rookie card skyrocketing.&ldquo;At the beginning of the season his card was about $8 and you couldn&rsquo;t give it away,&rdquo; said Toronto-based dealer Ted Jinx. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m getting $25 for it. A lot of guides say it&rsquo;s worth $12, but you can forget that in Toronto.Another popular card in Toronto is the 1984-85 Doug Gilmour O-Pee-Chee rookie. It was at about $12 last season and quickly jumped to $40. It continued to escalate over the summer and has recently levelled off at about $60. &#9632;

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Players put up big numbers, but their rookie cards don’t

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>And now for something completely different&hellip;You won&rsquo;t find Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux in the Classic &lsquo;93 Hockey Draft set, but you might find the next Gretzky or Lemieux. Therein lies the biggest strength of Classic, the little company that could despite the fact it doesn&rsquo;t have a license from the NHL or NHL Players&rsquo; Association.But Classic has managed to secure deals with the Canadian Hockey League, Hockey Canada, the Finnish and Russian hockey federations and the minor pro leagues to produce a topnotch draft and prospect set.For collectors who covet true rookie cards-or those who just can&rsquo;t live without this year&rsquo;s Nikolai Zavaukhin card-the Classic set is an essential. Although there&rsquo;s way too much of a good thing in this set (exactly when did Andrei Sapozhnikov become such a hot prospect?) the group of future NHLers Classic has assembled is impressive indeed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01726/6341269-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="580" height="812"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre Daigle is featured on eight Classic cards this season.</figcaption></div>All of which is no easy feat, since the company not only has to negotiate with federations, but with many of the players it features. For example, 1994 draft prospect Jeff O&rsquo;Neill stands to make hundreds of thousands of dollars if he is chosen first overall and meets certain performance bonuses.The Classic set features 44 cards of players who were chosen in the 1993 draft, including each player in the top 10. And even though Alexandre Daigle has an exclusive deal with Score, Classic simply used its license with the CHL to include Daigle and make eight cards featuring the first overall pick in 1993.But with a keen eye to the future, Classic also has a subset called Class of &lsquo;94 which features 14 players who are eligible for the 1994 entry draft. Although the plan is to cover the bases and get as many top picks as possible, the plan may backfire if a non-Classic prospect such as Brett Lindros or Ed Jovanovski goes first overall.The photography in the set is superb, especially the photo of Paul Kariya which originally appeared in THN&rsquo;s Draft Preview. Despite the fact Todd Bertuzzi and Mike Wilson were having extremely bad hair days, the card backs are of high quality.Chris Drury, who pitched his team to a Little League World Series in 1989, is shown being carried off the field by his teammates. Dan Plante, a champion logroller, is shown doing his stuff on the back of his card.One aspect of the set that is truly laughable is a four-card series of illustrations featuring Daigle, Kariya, Manon Rheaume and O&rsquo;Neill. After seeing their likenesses, the four may want to consider suing the artist for defamation of caricature.The beauty of this set is truly in the eye of the beholder. If you&rsquo;re looking for an early line on future NHLers it&rsquo;s a great set. But the acetate chase cards are nothing to get too excited about. Neither are the cards that were used to fill out the set-old cards of players such as Doug Gilmour, Mike Bossy or Pavel Bure. &#9632;

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Classic gets jump with premier prospects set

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>The Canadian Hockey League is working against player resistance and time in its efforts to produce a major junior card set this season.With no major card company signed on to produce the set and without commitments from many of the Ontario League&rsquo;s top players, the possibility of the project being scrapped grew larger with each passing day in early December.&ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t get image rights we won&rsquo;t be doing a card program this year,&rdquo; said OHL commissioner David Branch. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s as simple as that.&rdquo;Score had been in the running for the set, but dropped out Dec. 6 because it could not secure licensing rights for the OHL&rsquo;s non-rookie players.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the only reason we didn&rsquo;t do it,&rdquo; said Score spokesman Roy Whitehead. &ldquo;We wanted to do the set and we thought it would have been a great set, but you have to get the licensing.&rdquo;That leaves Classic, since it currently has about 20 OHL players already under contract. But staring down the barrel of a deadline of March 1&mdash;the latest a company would want to ship a set for this season-time is clearly running out.&ldquo;If they came to us in two or three weeks and said, &lsquo;The license is yours,&rsquo; we&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;We don&rsquo;t want it,&rsquo;&rdquo; Steve Charendoff, Classic&rsquo;s director of special projects said Nov. 30. &ldquo;Something has to happen soon or nothing will happen.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01814/6341300-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="581" height="817"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jamie Langenbrunner is part of a Peterborough Petes&rsquo; card set.</figcaption></div>The delay has to do with the fact that the OHL doesn&rsquo;t own the rights to the likenesses of its non-rookie players. The Quebec and Western Leagues require all of their players to sign a standard player&rsquo;s contract that surrenders that right, but only rookies in the OHL have signed the contract, which the league introduced amid a swirl of controversy this season.The league sent out a consent form to some of the players, but agents for many of the players advised them not to sign it. The OHL sent the forms to the teams on the afternoon of Nov. 24 and required them to be signed and returned by noon the next day.Player agent Anton Thun, who led the charge against the standard player&rsquo;s contract and the consent form, said he doesn&rsquo;t want the CHL making money on the backs of its best players. The league intends to only use three or four players per team in the set.Thun said if he knew the particulars of the deal and where the revenues were going, he&rsquo;d be more inclined to advise his clients to sign. He said Branch verbally assured him that the money would be earmarked for education, but he wants something more concrete.&ldquo;What they&rsquo;re saying is, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re going to do a card set and we&rsquo;re going to take the money,&rsquo;&rdquo; Thun said. &ldquo;But where is the money going? If the players as a whole aren&rsquo;t going to benefit, why should they participate?&rdquo;&ldquo;If Anton Thun doesn&rsquo;t believe Dave Branch, that&rsquo;s his prerogative,&rdquo; Branch said.Meanwhile, fans of some teams will be able to collect team sets this season.Slap Shot, a Kitchener, Ont.-based company has produced team sets for the Sudbury Wolves and Peterborough Petes of the OHL and the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the QMJHL and will be making sets for several other teams later this season. &#9632;

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CHL set hits roadblocks, time running out for deal

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01731/6341352-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01655/6341345-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3096" height="3687"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01729/6341338-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3081" height="3682"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01693/6341331-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="3111" height="3061"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

HOCKEY THE WAY YOU WANT TO PLAY IT.

<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. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01398/6341516-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="602" height="3086"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02259/6341509-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="601" height="1750"></div><h2>TUESDAY, NOV. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03186/6341502-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="589" height="1668"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04152/6341495-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="617" height="3510"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05129/6341488-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="605" height="1480"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06114/6341481-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="592" height="1940"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-07103/6341474-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="607" height="3506"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01339/6341467-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="603" height="2378"></div><h2>THURSDAY, DEC. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02214/6341460-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="591" height="1069"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03157/6341453-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="615" height="3535"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04132/6341446-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="616" height="3533"></div><h2>FRIDAY, DEC. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05119/6341439-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="614" height="3437"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06110/6341432-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="598" height="1770"></div><h2>SATURDAY, DEC. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0797/6341425-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="594" height="1665"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01349/6341418-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="614" height="3518"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02242/6341411-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="619" height="3528"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03184/6341404-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="607" height="2953"></div><h2>SUNDAY, DEC. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04143/6341397-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="588" height="474"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-05126/6341390-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="618" height="3523"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-06114/6341383-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="610" height="3528"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01362/6341561-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01270/6341554-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="1846" height="3674"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01219/6341547-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="1838" height="3669"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

SCOREBOARD

<h2>CWUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01219/6341613-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="592" height="456"></div><h2>OUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02148/6341606-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="590" height="472"></div><h2>AUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-03102/6341599-1-eng-US/f0046-032.jpg" title="f0046-03" width="587" height="681"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0483/6341592-1-eng-US/f0046-042.jpg" title="f0046-04" width="2469" height="3672"></div> &#9632;

f0046-01

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

The selection camp for Canada&rsquo;s World Junior Championship team is being held Dec. 13-18 in Kitchener, Ont. The American team for the Dec. 26-Jan.4 tournament in Ostrava Czech Republic has already been formed. Here are those ROSTERs.<h2>Team Canada</h2>Goaltenders-Emmanuel Fernandez, Laval (QMJHL); Norm Maracle, Saskatoon (WHL); Jamie Storr, Owen Sound (OHL).Defenceman-Chris Armstrong, Moose Jaw (WHL); Drew Bannister, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL); Patrick Boileau, Laval (QMJHL); Joel Bouchard, Verdun (QMJHL); Bryan McCabe, Spokane (WHL); Shayne McCosh, Windsor (OHL); Craig Rivet, Kingston (OHL); Lee Sorochan, Lethbridge (WHL); Nick Stajduhar, London (OHL); Brent Tully, Peterborough (OHL); Brendan Witt, Seattle (WHL).Forwards-Jason Allison, London (OHL); Jason Botterill, Michigan (CCHA); Curtis Bowen, Ottawa (OHL); Anson Carter, Michigan State (CCHA); Brandon Convery, Niagara Falls (OHL); Shean Donovan, Ottawa (OHL); Yanick Dube, Laval (QMJHL); Jeff Friesen, Regina (WHL); Aaron Gavey, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL); Martin Gendron, Canadian Olympic Team - Hull (QMJHL); Rick Girard, Swift Current (WHL); Daniel Guerard, Verdun (QMJHL); Todd Harvey, Detroit (OHL); Daymond Langkow, Tri-City (WHL); Eric Lecompte, Hull (QMJHL); Marty Murray, Brandon (WHL); Mike Peca, Ottawa (OHL); Steve Sullivan, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL).<h2>Team U.S.A.</h2>Goaltenders-Jeff Moen, Minnesota (WCHA); Aaron Ellis, Detroit (OHL).Defensemen-David Wilkie, Kamloops (WHL); Jason McBain, Portland (WHL); Ashlin Halfnight, Harvard (ECAC); Blake Sloan, Michigan (CCHA); Jon Coleman, Boston U. (HE); Deron Quint, Seattle (WHL); Chris O&rsquo;Sullivan, Boston U. (HE).Forwards-Kevin Hilton, Michigan (CCHA); John Emmons, Yale (ECAC); Andy Brink, Minnesota (WCHA); Jamie Langenbrunner, Peterborough (OHL); Richard Park, Belleville (OHL); Adam Deadmarsh, Portland (WHL); Jason Bonsignore, Niagara Falls (OHL); Ryan Sittier, Michigan (CCHA); Jason Karmanos, Harvard (ECAC); Jay Pandolfo, Boston U. (HE); John Varga, Tacoma (WHL); Landon Wilson, North Dakota (WCHA); Bob Lachance, Boston U. (HE). &#9632;

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01249/6341668-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0047-01

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01169/6341706-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="390" height="547"></div>Kelly Kisio has played on both sides of the NHI, &rsquo;s continental divide,For five seasons, he was with the New York Rangers in the league&rsquo;s commuter division which, barring traffic on the Long Island Expressway, made for sweet travel.Then he transferred to the San Jose Sharks for two years, where even the closest opponent, the Los Angeles Kings, could not be reached by Greyhound. Every Sharks&rsquo; road trip-even the single-game swings into Vancouver-was a major ordeal. As is every Canucks&rsquo; road trip, every Flames&rsquo; road trip and every Kings&rsquo; road trip.The NHL&rsquo;s Pacific Division is home to the geographically challenged. Flames&rsquo; coach Dave King believes the arduous travel contributed to the second-half declines of not only his team last season, but L.A. and Vancouver, too. All three teams were quick out of the gate. All ran out of gas after Christmas.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02109/6341699-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="585" height="900"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Maclnnis</figcaption></div>&ldquo;What happens to all three is that travel starts to mount and then fatigue sets in,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s part of the reason we were not as effective in the second half. That&rsquo;s not an excuse. That&rsquo;s part of the reason.&rdquo;And with fatigue comes injuries. Tired players are not always alert players and thus do not always protect themselves as well they should.So don&rsquo;t ask King about that soft life in the Pacific Division, home to two expansion teams and one that may as well be. In his mind, the travel more than makes up for the breaks in the schedule-a point of view shared by Kisio.&ldquo;In New York, where most of the guys lived, we were actually closer to the Island or even New Jersey than we were to Madison Square Garden,&rdquo; Kisio said. &ldquo;For those games, you&rsquo;d take the bus over and you&rsquo;d be home by 11:15 or 11:30. You play in their building four or five times a year, that&rsquo;s almost like 10 extra home games.&rdquo;Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Jamie Macoun, a former Flame, provides one upside to playing in the west: the schedule is all in blocks.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re on the road for seven to 10 days and then you&rsquo;re home for 10 or 12. That gives the players a chance to get home and take care of business. In Toronto, we&rsquo;re home a lot more days. We fly to St. Louis. We fly home. We fly to Detroit, We fly home. But that means coming in at 1:30 or two o&rsquo;clock in the morning all the time. There&rsquo;s a lot of in-and-out, in-and-out. To be honest, I&rsquo;m not too sure which I like better.&rdquo;Another consideration about the league&rsquo;s geographical debate is publicity or whatever you want to call that quality that makes a player more marketable off the ice. There&rsquo;s no question players in New York, Montreal or Toronto always receive their due on the publicity front.This may not be an east-west issue, but a big market-small market one.For years, the Calgary&rsquo;s Al Maclnnis has been one of the NHL&rsquo;s top defensemen. Yet he has never won the Norris Trophy. Maclnnis finished second three times, but in the years Ray Bourque didn&rsquo;t win, someone else sneaked in ahead of him.In 1990, Maclnnis finished the season with 25 goals, 103 points, plus-42 on the NHL&rsquo;s No. 4 team and was routed by Bourque in the voting. The next year, the Rangers&rsquo; Brian Leetch put up similar numbers-22 goals, 102 points, plus-25 on the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 team and was conceded the Norris by all right-thinking voters. How could you argue with Leetch&rsquo;s numbers?Macoun was Maclnnis&rsquo; defense partner in Calgary for years. He was also Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s teammate in Calgary and now again in Toronto. Gilmour had an exceptional year for the St. Louis Blues in 1986-87. He was also a pivotal element in the Flames&rsquo; 1988-89 Stanley Cup win.In St. Louis and in Calgary, Gilmour was highly regarded. In Toronto, he&rsquo;s one of the league&rsquo;s marquee players. Did he really get that much better?No, said Macoun.&ldquo;Doug is playing outstanding, unbelievable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if he was playing that good in Calgary, you wouldn&rsquo;t hear about it to the degree that you do here.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0048-01

Western woes no flights of fancy

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>The call came out of the blue nearly three years ago. At one end was Denver University coach Frank Serratorc At the other was Joe Tracy, a former player under Serratore who was living in Stockholm.Tracy, who played for Serratore in the United States Jr. League, was wondering if his old coach would be interested in a talented local player who wanted to come to the U.S. and play Division I hockey.&ldquo;We had a scholarship left over,&rdquo; Serratore said. &ldquo;So it worked out.&rdquo;The player turned out to be 6-foot-3, 210-pound Erik Andersson, who arrived in Denver last year. Serratore was impressed enough with what he saw that he later dispatched recruiting coordinator Mike Gibbons to Europe to see what he could find.The result was four more Scandinavian recruits-Swedish forward Anders Bjork, along with forwards Anti Laak-sonen and Petri Gunther and goaltender Sinuhe Wallinheimo of Finland.Denver, which ordinarily focuses on western Canada, pioneered the first big assault by an American school on a largely untapped recruiting source. Denver&rsquo;s five Europeans represents the largest contingent in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, but Bjork is sitting out this season because he played last year in the Swedish Elite League.&ldquo;You get to a point that you look over there,&rdquo; Serratorre said, &ldquo;because the (North American) talent pool is not as big as it once was.&rdquo;Yale Bulldogs&rsquo; recruiting director Dave Beecher, whose lineup also has four Europeans this season, agrees.&ldquo;Recruiting is getting more and more difficult in general, so everyone is searching farther and wider,&rdquo; Beecher said. &ldquo;So many of us, we have to go places we haven&rsquo;t been to previously.&rdquo;The talent pool in the college ranks has shrunk in recent years because prohibitive National Collegiate Athletic Association rules have put schools at a disadvantage for recruiting Canadian talent and Canadian major junior teams are now aggressively pursuing and signing the best young American players.As a result, Europe has become the target of some U.S. colleges and more are expected to follow suit. This season there are 25 European-born players on the ROSTERs of U.S. programs.While none of the Europeans can be found among the top 10 scorers in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, Hockey East, Eastern College Athletic Conference or Central Collegiate Hockey Association, most of the 25 are playing regularly. The best of the bunch at this point is probably. junior defensemen Kaj Linna, a second team all-star at Boston University last season. Junior center Marko Tuominen is an integral part of Clarkson&rsquo;s offense and second-year defenseman Ulvis Katlaps, the only Latvian in the NCAA, led Wisconsin rookies in scoring last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0371/6341744-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg" title="f0048-03" width="577" height="1061"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wisconsin&rsquo;s Ulvis Katlaps is the only Latvian in the NCAA.</figcaption></div>Wallinheimo is the Pioneers&rsquo; No. 1 goalie and was among the leading goaltenders in the WCHA.The most imposing challenge relating to European players is determining their amateur status. It is not as easy as it seems, which has led to more than one complaint from the college coaching fraternity.Steve Mallonee, director of legislative services for the NCAA, said the key is determining whether or not European teams on which these.Oruits compete are professionally sponsored.The Swedish and Finnish Elite Leagues are definitely pro leagues, but elite leagues in Russia and the Czech Republic have claimed to be amateur until recent years.&ldquo;It is an area that is very difficult to ascertain,&rdquo; Mallonee said. &ldquo;It is hard to get information from some of those organizations. It is harder to characterize if they do have a pro team or a pro league.&rdquo;Andersson had to sit out a year at Denver because he played for AIK in Sweden. Laaksonen and Wallinheimo had to sit out the first two games of the WCHA season for short stints on their Finnish Elite League clubs.The argument from college coaches is that if major junior players in Canada must sit out at least a year before gaining eligibility for college competition, so, too, should all elite league recruits from Europe.What is to be made of this trend? For one thing, it will catch on among college coaches.&ldquo;I think it will increase,&rdquo; said Beecher, who has at least one European-based scout. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure it will get to a point where you have 10 or so on each team, but most will have three or four.&rdquo;Denver leads the NCAA with five European-born players. The others:Alaska-Anchorage: Mika Rautakallio, Petri Tuomisto (Finland).Alaska-Fairbanks: Dima Kul-manovsky (Russia).Boston University: Kaj Linna (Finland).Brown: Pasi Vantinnen (Finland).Clarkson: Marko Tuomainen (Finland).Cornell: Jiri Kloboucek (Czech).Dartmouth: Pavol Liska (Czech).Harvard: Michel Breistroff (France).Michigan: Anton Fedorov (Russia).Minn.-Duluth: Sergei Petrov (Russia).Northeastern: Tomas Persson (Sweden).Providence: Stefan Brannare (Sweden).Vermont: Pavel Navrat (Czech).Western Michigan: Misha Lapin (Russia).Wisconsin: Ulvis Katlaps (Latvia).Yale: Pelle Bildsten, Dan Nyberg (Sweden); Zoran Kozic (Yugoslavia); Sani Silvennoinen (Finland).<h2>FOREIGN CONTENT</h2>When U.S. colleges boost their ROSTERs with European talent, most recruiters look to Finland. Thirty-six per cent of the 25 Europeans playing this season arc Finns. Listed below are the numbers of Europeans and country of origin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0454/6341737-1-eng-US/f0048-042.jpg" title="f0048-04" width="507" height="344"></div> &#9632;

f0048-03

European invasion

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>Someone obviously forgot to tell Eric Perrin and Martin St-Louis it takes time for freshmen to adjust to college hockey.Perrin and St-Louis, the Vermont Catamounts&rsquo; French Connection, were on a roll in the first nine games.Perrin scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season in a 4-1 win over the UMass-Lowell Chiefs Nov. 28. St-Louis added two assists.St-Louis was Vermont&rsquo;s leading scorer with four goals and 16 points while Perrin had nine goals and 15 points.It&rsquo;s no surprise Perrin and St-Louis, both natives of Laval, Que., are playing well together. They played on the same line with the Hawkesbury Hawks of the Central Ontario Jr. League last season. Perrin had 31 goals and 90 points while St. Louis had 30 goals and 87 points in 30 games.&ldquo;We had been watching those two for a couple of years,&rdquo; said Vermont coach Mike Gilligan. &ldquo;Eric is actually a year younger, and we tried to get Martin the year before. But he stayed in school for another year to wait for his pal and we got them as a package.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re like brothers. They room together, do everything together and I think they&rsquo;ve been playing on the same line since bantam. I&rsquo;ve seen them play for three years and their sense of where the other one is on the ice is unbelievable.&rdquo;Gilligan&rsquo;s biggest problem has been finding a left winger to play with them. He has tried a number of different combinations, but the one he likes most features junior Rob Pattison-who sat out last year-on the left side.&ldquo;I really liked what I saw with Pattison,&rdquo; Gilligan said. &ldquo;He has similar is style and when those three guys are together, they can really tic-tac-toe it around.&rdquo;STREAK ENDS: St. Lawrence Saints&rsquo; senior goalie Paul Spagnoletti finally broke the Connecticut jinx.Spagnoletti, a native of Waterbury, Conn., got his first win in his home state by making 29 saves to help the Saints defeat the Yale Bulldogs 5-4 Nov. 19. The victory also gave the St. Lawrence seniors the distinction of winning at least one game in every ECAC rink during their careers.TOP DOGS: The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers enhanced their reputation as one of the top teams in the nation Nov. 27, defeating the Maine Black Bears 5-4 in the championship game of the Dexter Hockey Classic at Maine.Engineers&rsquo; senior goalie Neil Little of Medicine Hat, Alta., was named the tournament MVP after stopping 83 shots in two nights. The Bears were the defending Dexter and national champions.TOUGH BREAK: Colgate Red Raiders&rsquo; freshman left winger Dave Debusschere is gone for the season after having surgery to repair an anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. The native of Stoughton, Sask., had a goal and four points in nine games. &#9632;

French connecting in Vermont

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>It&rsquo;s not easy to overlook Western Michigan sophomore Chris Brooks these days.The Broncos&rsquo; left winger led all scorers in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association with eight goals and 25 points in 13 games.Not bad for someone who wasn&rsquo;t sure he&rsquo;d be playing college hockey in the first place. As recently as April, 1992, the 21-year-old Stratford, Ont., native was wondering if he&rsquo;d get a scholarship offer from a CCHA school.Brooks thought he was headed for Bowling Green. He caught the attention of Falcons&rsquo; recruiters while playing for the Jr. B Stratford Cullitonsin 1990-91.The Falcons had previously plucked top players from Stratford, including Nelson Emerson and Rob Blake.But the Falcons didn&rsquo;t offer a scholarship to Brooks after his 1990-91 season.&ldquo;I thought I was supposed to go,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but they decided not to take me. They just told me to go back to Stratford.&rdquo;The 5-foot-9, 175 pounder played for the Cullitons the next season, scoring 44 goals and 167 points. Several college recruiters approached him and he visited several schools. He didn&rsquo;t receive a firm deal until April.&ldquo;Then I got three offers-from Bowling Green, Alaska-Anchorage and Western Michigan-on the same day,&rdquo; he said.Brooks choose the Broncos.&ldquo;I liked coach (Bill) Wilkinson&rsquo;s approach,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, I wouldn&rsquo;t want to be playing anywhere else.&rdquo;Brooks led the Broncos in scoring last season as a freshman with 46 points in 38 games. The undrafted winger is now on the team&rsquo;s best offensive line with senior right winger Colin Ward and freshman center Shawn Zimmerman.BOLTING UPWARD: The Kent State Golden Flashes have more balance this season and it&rsquo;s showing up in the standings.Kent State finished with a 10-19-1 league record as a first-year member last season. The Flashes were 3-2-1 in the CCHA this time around.&ldquo;Now we might have three lines that can do a good job,&rdquo; said Kent State coach Bill Switaj.In addition to the top trio of Claude Morin, Dean Sylvester and sophomore David Dartsch, the Flashes have a dangerous second line in freshman Mark Kotary, senior Bob Krotsky and sophomore Jim Mitchell.TOUGH BATTLE: The CCHA and Western Collegiate Hockey Association played to a standoff in the first College Hockey Showcase at the Palace of Auburn Hills Nov. 26-27. The Michigan Wolverines lost their first game of the season, 5-3 to the Wisconsin Badgers Nov. 27. But the Wolverines ripped the Minnesota Golden Gophers 6-0 the night before. The other CCHA team in the tournament, the Michigan State Spartans, beat Wisconsin 4-2 Nov. 26. The Spartans lost 6-5 to the Gophers Nov. 27. No winner is declared in the showcase. &#9632;

Brooks running roughshod

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Greg Shepherd had to deal with plenty of harsh testimony when he decided to work as an NHL official during the officials&rsquo; strike.Said Tie Domi of the Winnipeg Jets: &ldquo;Those clowns didn&rsquo;t belong here.&rdquo; Added veteran NHL linesman Ron Asselstine: &ldquo;They sold their souls for $500 a game.&rdquo;But Shepherd, a veteran Western Collegiate Hockey Association referee, never let the criticism bother him. His aspirations were strictly short-term. The 44-year-old welcomed the end of the strike Nov. 30.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t trying to take somebody&rsquo;s job,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This was something I&rsquo;ve always wanted to do. I just wanted to fulfill a dream.Shepherd worked six NHL games. His last came Dec. 1 in Anaheim when the Mighty Ducks played the Winnipeg Jets. He then made his way back to Houghton, Mich., for a WCHA series involving the Michigan Tech Huskies and North Dakota Fighting Sioux.That kind of grind, even with the $800 pergame paycheck provided by the NHL, is the primary reason why Shepherd preferred to see his three-sided life end. A WCHA referee for 16 years, he also is a training and safety consultant for Northern States Power in St. Paul, Minn.Unlike most replacement officials. Shepherd did not have to audition at a camp in Indianapolis when replacement referees were being chosen. He said he was called directly by the NHL &ldquo;because somebody recommended me, but I&rsquo;m not sure who,&rdquo; he said.The man who has worked six National Collegiate Athletic Association championship games learned quickly he was involved in the game at a higher level.&ldquo;I thought college was quick, where a lot of things happen in a hurry,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But these guys were bigger, stronger and quicker.&rdquo;Another big difference is college hockey has a two-referee, one-linesman format. There is one referee and two linesmen in the NHL. In other words, the pro referee has to see and call everything himself.Shepherd was involved in one controversial situation during his tenure. He waved off a goal by St. Louis Blue Brett Hull after viewing a video replay.&ldquo;Hull was pretty irate,&rdquo; Shepherd said. &ldquo;But (the tape) showed he kicked it in.&rdquo;REALITY CHECK: Three WCHA coaches-Colorado&rsquo;s Don Lucia, Denver&rsquo;s Frank Serratore and Michigan Tech&rsquo;s Bob Manci-ni-were not bom the last time Colorado College swept a series at North Dakota. Prior to 5-3 and 5-2 triumphs Nov. 26-27, the Tigers had not taken four points in a series at Grand Forks since 1950-51.FUTURE PLANS: The Colorado Springs City Council has approved $1.95 million towards the construction of a new arena/civic center project that would replace the Broadmoor World Arena, home of the Tigers. &#9632;

Officiating at highest level fulfilled Shepherd’s dream

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>Mike O&rsquo;Neill thought he needed a look at hockey from a new locale and the Moncton Hawks thought they could survive without their standout goalie of a year ago. Both were wrong.After starting the season with the Fort Wayne Komets of the International League, O&rsquo;Neill returned to Moncton and Hawks&rsquo; coach Rob Laird hopes he can help turn the team around.O&rsquo;Neill was superb in his American League debut, a 3-2 win at Rochester Dec. 1.&ldquo;Mike is one of the better goalies in the AHL,&rdquo; Laird said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s here to get us back on track and to get him back to where he was last year, because he finished the year in Winnipeg.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Neill. 26, was 30-13-10 with a 3.20 goals-against average, earning a promotion to the Jets where he had a tie and 4.93 GAA in two games.When he learned he would be in the minors this season, O&rsquo;Neill asked to go to Fort Wayne, where he played briefly in 1990-91 and &lsquo;91-92.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d been in Moncton a couple years and I thought a change of scenery would be good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I wasn&rsquo;t playing as much as I wanted to and (the Hawks) were having problems.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Neill was splitting time with Dave Gagnon-a Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; farmhand-in Fort Wayne.The Hawks, meanwhile, were giving up goals in bushels. Sean Gauthier was 3-5-1 with a 3.99 GAA and Mark Richards was 3-9-0 with a 5.30 average.&ldquo;My playing time concerned me and it also concerned Winnipeg,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill said. &ldquo;They have a pretty good team in Fort Wayne and I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;ll miss me too much.&rdquo;STAYING PUT: The Hamilton Canucks&rsquo; financial problems have been eased, thanks to the parent Vancouver Canucks.Ten days after the AHL dissolved the finan-cially-trouble Hamilton franchise owned by Double Hitch Enterprises Ltd., Vancouver came to the rescue with a $1-million investment.The franchise was owned by a group of five investors from the Toronto area. They said it wasn&rsquo;t financially feasible to operate after learning of large debts they inherited when they purchased the team in August.Double Hitch closed team offices Nov. 1, but the team continued to play after Vancouver gave assurances it would operate the team for the rest of this season if no new owner was found.REDUCED ROLE: Two weeks after becoming the third player in AHL history to reach 1,000 points, Rochester Americans&rsquo; winger Jody Gage found himself with a new role.Head coach John Van Boxmeer believes young right wingers-Scott Thomas, Mikhail Volkov, Jason Dawe and Brett Marietti-must play often. So Gage, at 34 the AHL&rsquo;s oldest player, will sit out several games and work behind the bench as a coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to say Jody can&rsquo;t play anymore,&rdquo; Van Boxmeer said. &ldquo;But some of these guys needs to play. I don&rsquo;t think Jody can do it every night like he used to. I still think he can score, but I don&rsquo;t think he can grind it out for 80 games and I don&rsquo;t think Jody thinks he can.&rdquo;The 15th-year right winger had nine goals and 20 points in 20 games. He is coming off consecutive 40-goal, 80-point seasons.&ldquo;Part of me wants to be in coaching and part of me wants to play,&rdquo; Gage said. &ldquo;These young guys aren&rsquo;t going to get better by sitting.&rdquo;CHEWING THE FAT: After having his broken jaw wired shut for five weeks, Binghamton Rangers&rsquo; left winger Mike McLaughlin finally got to put away the blender after having the wires removed Nov. 29.Not being able to eat solid foods, he became a regular at a local ice cream shop.&ldquo;They started to call me Norm.&rdquo; he said, referring to the Cheers&rsquo; sit-com character. &ldquo;The sherbet cooler, the milk shakes, I know all those things.&rdquo; &#9632;

O’Neill would rather play than enjoy new scenery

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Richard Pollak</div>Roydon Gunn once thought it would take an outstanding NHL career to gain recognition in the Hockey Hall of Fame. As it turned out, all it took was a simple dot.The Memphis RiverKings&rsquo; rookie goalie wears number &lsquo;.45&rsquo;-as in, 45-calibre Gunn-which was recognized by the Hall of Fame as the first decimal number in pro hockey. Memphis trainer J.C. Ihrig came up with the idea.Since becoming the RiverKings&rsquo; No. 1 goalie after Antoine Mindjimba was recalled to the San Diego Gulls of the International League, Gunn has compiled a 4-4-1 record, 2.66 goals-against average and. 925 save percentage. The latter two figures are best in the Central League.Gunn, 27, spent three years in the New York Islanders&rsquo; system before pursuing his masters degree in sports physchology at the University of Saskatchewan.BACK HOME: Last season&rsquo;s goalie of the year Tony Martino returned to the Tulsa Oilers after starting the season with Vai Di Fassa of the Italian first division&hellip;Fort Worth Fire center Jason Brosseau led the CHL with a 30.3 shooting percentage. &#9632;

Shooters stymied by Gunn

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Vic Posa and a group of local investors have given the Huntsville Blast a new lease on life.Since Posa took over as coach and the eightperson group entered into a management/purchase-option agreement with former owner Larry Revo, the Blast won four of five games to move into fourth place in the West Division.Attendance also is on the upswing. A crowd of 2,405 watched Huntsville beat the Huntington Blizzard 4-1 Nov. 21. Crowds have been consistently better in the past few games than the team&rsquo;s league-low average (1,341).&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone back to the basics,&rdquo; said Posa, a player-assistant until Steve Gatzos resigned.Joe Ritch, an attorney who was the coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville when the program was inaugurated in 1978, heads the Blast&rsquo;s new direction off the ice.Others in the group are attorneys Rod Steakley, a former Alabama football player. George Royer and Wanda McNeil, investment banker Phil Dotts, baseball card and memorabilia dealer Donn Jennings, wholesale grocer Ed Ragland and cable TV executive Tommy Hill. Ritch believes the Blast can be a profitable organization.&ldquo;Not only are we going to be prepared, we&rsquo;re going to have an entertaining evening, something the family can enjoy,&rdquo; Posa said.FINGER SNACKS: Greensboro Monarchs&rsquo; winger Sebastien Laplante was slapped with a one-game suspension by East Coast League commissioner Pat Kelly.Laplante received the suspension for his role in two fights during a 6-1 victory over the Richmond Renegades Nov. 26.Initial word was Laplante, who received a game misconduct, bit a linesman trying to pull him out of the hold of Richmond&rsquo;s Peter Allen.&ldquo;His hand grazed my teeth,&rdquo; Laplante said. &ldquo;It was no bite.&rdquo;SET-UP MAN: Richmond center Brendan Flynn isn&rsquo;t too worried about his mysterious goalscoring slump.Flynn was tied for third in the league with 25 assists in 17 games, but had just two goals.&ldquo;As long as we win, I don&rsquo;t care if I never score a goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some of the guys are goalscorers and other guys set them up. As long as I&rsquo;ve got like Darren Colbourne (leagueleading 23 goals) on my wing, I&rsquo;m going to give it to him and let him take the shot.&rdquo;WEDDING BELLS: The Huntington Blizzard received national publicity when 25-year-old Alan Gianettino proposed to his fiancee during a game at the Huntington Civic Center against the Birmingham Bulls.Christy Stubblefield, 21, was randomly selected to ride the Zamboni during the second intermission. Gianettino came out on the ice, dropped to one knee and proposed to Christy, who accepted. A wedding is planned for June. &#9632;

Hockey becoming a Blast again in Huntsville

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Quebec League is planning to add an expansion team for the second straight year.The city of Rimouski, located about 250 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, is on the verge of being accepted for 1994-95. The Vai d&rsquo;Or Foreurs became the 13th team this season.Insurance magnate Jacques Mercier heads the Rimouski group which is prepared to pay the $500,000 expansion fee.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not official yet,&rdquo; said league president Gilles Courteau Nov. 29. &ldquo;We have to decide if Rimouski meets the criteria in our handbook as an expansion franchise.&rdquo;The expansion committee of Courteau, Marcel Robert, Claude Lemieux, Jacques Lafond and Georges Morissette will study the Rimouski situation and league governors will vote Dec. 16. The Rimouski bid must be approved by nine of the 13 league governors.Courteau would love to see Rimouski join the league and is also hoping to expand to the Maritimes in the near future. He has already held meetings with representatives of Moosehead Breweries about the possibility of expanding east of the province.Some coaches say they don&rsquo;t believe there&rsquo;s enough talent in Quebec to support more teams. Vai d&rsquo;Or got off to a 10-25-0 start this year, while the Beauport Harfangs, which joined in 1990-91, have yet to make the playoffs. Courteau disagrees.&ldquo;We have proved we have good players in Quebec,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;(Expansion) is good for development. The NHL has 26 teams now and is going to need more players in the future.&rdquo;As the QMJHL grows, it&rsquo;s also expanding in attendance. A total of 206,677 fans attended games during the first two months of the season, 38,808 more than the same period last year. The expansion Foreurs led the way with 23,667 fans. College Francais had the lowest attendance, with only 11,079 fans.Attendance in the QMJHL has increased each of the past three seasons.A pre-season game in Rimouski between the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Beauport Harfangs attracted a sellout crowd of 5,000.WELL REPRESENTED: Thirteen of the 17 QMJHL 16-year-old players were named to the Quebec team for the under-17 World Hockey Challenge Dec. 29 to Jan. 4 in Abitibi-Tem-iscamingue, Que.The goalies are College Francais&rsquo; Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Val d&rsquo;Or&rsquo;s Francis Larivee. The defensemen are Laval Titan&rsquo;s Frederic Jobin, Granby Bisons&rsquo; Louis-Philippe Sevigny, St-Jean Lynx&rsquo; Jason Doig, Beauport&rsquo;s Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and Shawinigan Cataractes&rsquo; Stephane Robidas. The forwards are Chicoutimi&rsquo;s Daniel Bienvenue, Beauport&rsquo;s Marc Chouinard, Sherbrooke Faucons&rsquo; Christian Dube, Granby&rsquo;s Xavier Delisle, College Francais&rsquo; Jonathan Delisle and Drummondville Voltigeurs&rsquo; Francois Sasseville.The seven other spots on the team are made up of players from the Quebec midget league. They are: defensemen Dominic Auger of Ste-Foy and Philippe Roy of Montreal-Bourassa; and forwards Sebastien Demers and Carl Latulippe of Ste-Foy, Philippe Audet of Trois-Rivieres, Daniel Briere of Gatineau, and Christian Neveu of Abitibi-Temiscamingue.The team&rsquo;s coach will be Jeannot Gilbert of the midget Ste-Foy Gouvemeurs.The tournament is recognized as the unofficial world under-17 championship. It features five teams from Canada-Quebec, Ontario, Pacific (British Columbia and Alberta), Western (Saskatchewan and Manitoba) and Atlantic (Maritime provinces)-as well as under-17 teams from Russia, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and United States.In the last World Hockey Challenge, which was held in 1992 in Sudbury, Ont., the Quebec representatives lost to Ontario in the championship final. &#9632;

Eyes look north to Rimouski as possible 14th team

<div class="byline">By Gregg Drinnan</div>The NHL and the Canadian Hockey League have a lot of work to do before the 1994 entry draft in June.That&rsquo;s because the working agreement between the two leagues expired in June and they aren&rsquo;t close to a new deal.An agreement with the CHL can&rsquo;t be too high on the NHL&rsquo;s priority list with the Officials&rsquo; Association strike in November and the Players&rsquo; Association negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement.&ldquo;Our talks are on hold,&rdquo; said CHL/Westem League president Ed Chynoweth. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had preliminary discussions and they will continue, but we&rsquo;ve had nothing in a formal manner.&ldquo;It would be nice to have the other things out of the way, but we always seem to be in this position. Once they get the officials out of the way, you know what&rsquo;s next-and that&rsquo;s fine.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying we want to be any higher than the next guy. We&rsquo;d just like to get it on the table and go from there.&rdquo;The entry draft is scheduled for June 28 and 29 in Hartford.THE SPIN ON MARTY: When the Brandon Wheat Kings were overloaded with 20-year-olds. they were forced to trade captain Jeff Hoad to the Moose Jaw Warriors.The question then became: On whom to pin the &lsquo;C&rsquo;? The Wheat Kings evidently made the right choice.New captain Marty Murray scored 16 goals and 38 points in 17 games with the &lsquo;C&rsquo;. Prior to that, he had three goals and 13 points in 10 games. The Calgary Flames&rsquo; draft pick said the captaincy hasn&rsquo;t had much to do with his production.&ldquo;The chances were there at the start of the year, too,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was just a matter of bearing down. As captain, I just try to help the young guys out. I was 16 once and I know it can be a tough adjustment.&rdquo;The Brandon organization has a reputation for producing firepower and 18-year-old Murray fits in. He picked up his 200th career point Nov. 23 in a 5-3 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders&rdquo; becoming the fifth-youngest player in team history to get to that plateau.The others, with their point totals at the end of their 18-year-old season: Ray Allison, 323; Brian Propp. 317; Ron Chipperfield. 308; Bill Derlago, 285; and, Laurie Boschman, 249.Murray is on pace to finish this season with 144 points, hiking his career total of 294.NICE TRI, GUYS: Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings and businessman Bill Comrie, who owns the International League&rsquo;s San Diego Gulls and Canadian Football League&rsquo;s B.C. Lions, had hoped to purchase the Tri-City Americans from Ron Toigo.Gretzky and Comrie also hoped to purchase the Tri-City Coliseum from former Americans&rsquo; owner Ron Dixon.Both deals, however, have apparently fallen apart and one of the results is Bob McCammon no longer is with the team. Had Gretzky and Comrie been successful, McCammon would have been a central figure of their organization.As it turned out, McCammon resigned as coach-general manager and president Nov. 12, shortly after the talks stalled. Gretzky&rsquo;s brother, Keith, is an assistant coach with the Americans.PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES: The Regina Pats&rsquo; trip to the west coast could not have gotten off to a better start. The Pats started the trip on a four-game unbeaten streak, then arrived in Spokane.Their troubles began Nov. 23 when they were unable to practise because there was a basketball tournament in the Spokane Coliseum. Then the team was awakened at 4:30 a.m., when the fire alarm went off in their hotel and all guests were evacuated. It was a false alarm.That night they went out to play the Chiefs and found themselves trailing 6-1 after one period. The Chiefs went on to an 8-2 victory.Bill Hicke, the Pats&rsquo; co-coach/GM/owner, returned that game after a four-game absence due to pneumonia. He didn&rsquo;t ride the bus to Spokane, but perhaps he wished he had. A two-flight excursion turned into a five-flight connector. &#9632;

Agreement with NHL on back burner

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>The once-ugly duckling has spread its wings and is now among the most graceful players in the Ontario League.London Knights&rsquo; coach Gary Agnew said center Jason Allison has become a premier player. The statistics speak for themselves.The 1993 first-round pick of the Washington Capitals had 25 goals and 50 points in 21 games. He was on a nine-game goal and 14-game point streak. During his points streak, he had 23 goals and 42 points.There&rsquo;s no telling where Allison might be had he not struggled with two goals in seven games after returning from Washington.The Knights&rsquo; captain led his team to within striking distance of first place in the Emms Division. London was on a six-game winning streak, the second longest in the OHL this season behind the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.Allison was selected the OHL&rsquo;s player of the month for November. His performance also earned him an invitation to the Canadian team&rsquo;s final camp for the World Junior Championship.&ldquo;If he can&rsquo;t play, who the heck can?&rdquo; said Sheldon Ferguson, scouting director for the Canadian junior team.The 6-foot-3, 200 pounder is in his third OHL season. Because of his size, he has looked awkward at times, but he is rounding out nicely.&ldquo;He deserves the recognition he&rsquo;s getting,&rdquo; Agnew said of London&rsquo;s first pick in the 1991 draft. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the best offensive threat in the OHL and maybe Canadian junior hockey. He sees the ice and he has patience. And he can play left wing, right wing and center. A guy like that is invaluable to the national junior team.&rdquo;Agnew wasn&rsquo;t worried when Allison stalled upon his return from Washington&rsquo;s camp.&ldquo;There were a few factors,&rdquo; Agnew said. &ldquo;He skated all summer with the big boys and his timing was off. In the NHL, you give-and-go and get it back. But here, sometimes Jason was giving it and not getting it back. Consequently, he slowed his game down. He picked it up again and it forced everyone else to pick up theirs.&rdquo;Allison is no longer shying away from shooting. He put on a spectacular performance by scoring four goals in a 6-5 victory over the Owen Sound Platers Nov. 24.ALMOST A PLATER: Owen Sound threw a momentary scare into the rest of the league with word that last season&rsquo;s OHL scoring champion, Andrew Brunette, was considering a return for an overage year.But Brunette decided instead to accept a demotion to the Hampton Roads Admirals of the East Coast League from the Portland Pirates of the American League.The seventh-round draft choice of Washington in 1993 left the affiliated Pirates halfway through a 25-game tryout, upset over ice time. He went home to Sudbury to consider his future.Brunette reported to the ECHL Admirals. He will be a free agent next June if Washington does not make him a contract offer.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s making up my mind or having it made for me,&rdquo; said Brunette, who had 62 goals and 162 points last season.REBUILDING PHASE: The defending OHL champion and Memorial Cup finalist Peterborough Petes have set out to build for the future. They&rsquo;ve been mired near the bottom of the Leyden Division standings all season. The result has been trades, something the Petes rarely do.The Petes traded right winger Chad Grills, 18, to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Nov. 25 for two sixth-round midget picks. Grills had five goals and 23 points in 20 games.Earlier, Peterborough sent center Darryl Moxam, 17, to the Oshawa Generals for a fourth-round choice in 1994.Petes&rsquo; overage center Mike Harding became the team&rsquo;s all-time points scorer. He&rsquo;s at 340, and counting, breaking the previous mark set by Jason Dawe. Harding had 20 goals and 48 points in 26 games this season.STRONG SUPPORT: The Detroit Jr. Red Wings drew 15,089 fans at Joe Louis Arena for a 4-2 win over Peterborough Nov. 26. It was the fourth-largest crowd in team history. &#9632;

Allison piling up points, praise with great play

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Keith Primeau is on top of the world.But he&rsquo;s not celebrating. He knows it might be a short stay.After three largely unproductive seasons as a pro, the 22-year-old Detroit Red Wing is producing points and becoming a bona fide NHL power forward. However Primeau claims there is no mystery to the success which has seen him score nine goals and 21 points in 25 games this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing better because I&rsquo;m playing more,&rdquo; Primeau said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m finally getting the chance to show what I can do.&rdquo;More importantly, he&rsquo;s doing it at his natural position.The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Primeau is a natural center. He had never played left wing before he was drafted third overall by the Red Wings in 1990. But a glut of quality pivots in the organization has put him on the port side for much of his career.However, with Steve Yzerman out of the Red Wings&rsquo; lineup with a herniated disc in his back, the Wings moved Primeau to center on a successful line with left winger Dallas Drake and right winger Ray Sheppard.Primeau joined the Wings the same season as Sergei Fedorov. With Yzerman firmly entrenched as the Red Wings&rsquo; No. 1 center, Primeau and Fedorov were left to battle it out for the No. 2 job.Nobody in their right mind would argue the Wings erred in going with Fedorov. The Russian is arguably the NHL&rsquo;s best two-way player and has averaged 32 goals a season.Primeau, meanwhile, is only beginning to live up to the lofty expectations. He was on pace to easily eclipse his career high of 15 goals and 32 points, which he posted last year in his first full season of NHL duty.&ldquo;I guess they figured because I&rsquo;m big I could make an easy transition to the wing,&rdquo; Primeau said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve played center all my life. It&rsquo;s difficult to learn a new position in the NHL. Wingers skate up and down in a straight line with lots of stopping and starting. That&rsquo;s not my game. I need room to crank it up and I&rsquo;m better when I can free wheel.&rdquo;Primeau made the jump to the NHL directly from the Niagara Falls Thunder juniors after leading the Ontario League in scoring with 57 goals and 127 points. He scored just three goals and 15 points as a rookie and finished the 1990-91 season in the minors.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01137/6342039-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="973" height="1945"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Primeau was on pace for career-high totals this season.</figcaption></div>It was the same story the following season, although he admits helping Detroit&rsquo;s farm team-the Adirondack Red Wings of the American League-capture the Calder Cup was a boost to his confidence.The Red Wings and Primeau have faced constant criticism-the Wings for drafting him so high and Primeau for slow development.If the Red Wings erred in selecting Primeau over Mike Ricci, Jaromir Jagr, Keith Tkachuk or Darryl Sydor, they weren&rsquo;t the only team to blow it at the draft table. The 1990 draft has produced a motherlode of talent. Geoff Sanderson was picked 36th and has become a star with the Hartford Whalers. The Toronto Maple Leafs made the best pick that year when they chose goalie Felix Potvin 31st, a year after he was overlooked completely.The Red Wings have demonstrated patience with Primeau, but even they admit he was rushed along too quickly.&ldquo;In hindsight we made a mistake keeping him as an 18-year-old,&rdquo; said general manager Bryan Murray. &ldquo;At times he has been compared to other players from that draft and unfairly criticized. His circumstances with our team were different than other players who got an opportunity to play on the top line.&rdquo;Primeau remains the subject of constant trade rumors. If the Red Wings can&rsquo;t find room for him at center, other teams say they will. Murray claims Primeau is not available.&ldquo;There were a couple of times when we could have traded him to fill other needs,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We fielded some interesting offers for him. But teams are always looking for a guy with his size and toughness. I think we&rsquo;ll be rewarded for keeping him. If he has 10 productive seasons starting now, then we&rsquo;ve made the right decision.&rdquo;With Yzerman preparing to return to the lineup in January, Primeau knows he&rsquo;s almost certainly headed back to the wing.But that doesn&rsquo;t mean he has to like it. He loves Detroit and wants to stay, but feels he&rsquo;s not being used properly.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a Catch-22 situation for me,&rdquo; Primeau said. &ldquo;If I want to play some nights, it means playing left wing. And of course I want to play. But if they want me to be at my most productive, then I&rsquo;m better off at center.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0054-01

Pivotal Primeau

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Cam Russell used to arrive at the rink on game nights wondering whether he was going to play. Now Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Darryl Sutter wouldn&rsquo;t think of going into battle without the rugged defenseman.On a team loaded with veteran leaders such as Dirk Graham, Chris Chelios, Steve Smith and Brent Sutter, the 24-year-old Russell has emerged as one of the club&rsquo;s youthful leaders.Moreover, Russell&rsquo;s play has improved to the point where Sutter doesn&rsquo;t hesitate to use him in any situation.&ldquo;In the last 10 games, Chris Chelios and Eric Weinrich have been solid, but Cam has been outstanding,&rdquo; Sutter said after the Hawks won eight of those games. &ldquo;He has become a character guy and leader, where before his was a support role. He has become one of the guys who has something to say before games.&rdquo;It hardly seems Russell would be the rah-rah type based on his quiet off-ice demeanor. He dresses at a stall in the comer of the dressing room and often slips in and out unnoticed.&ldquo;Away from the rink I&rsquo;m a lazy, relaxed guy, but I&rsquo;m someone who changes his personality when I come to the rink,&rdquo; Russell said. &ldquo;I have to be intense to contribute.&rdquo;To Russell&rsquo;s credit, he noticed early in the season that missing in the dressing room was the kind of guy who could talk it up before games and get his teammates mentally ready to play. So he stepped into that role.&ldquo;Guys like Keith Brown and Stu Grimson, real vocal guys, were gone and we missed that,&rdquo; Russell said. &ldquo;I felt that the type of player I was and with the role I play, it was my responsibility. It wasn&rsquo;t that I felt I had to do it, but it just felt right.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t long ago Sutter paid Russell the highest of compliments.&ldquo;I asked the assistant coaches when was the last time I sat Cam out and told them to make sure I never do it again,&rdquo; Sutter said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01129/6342070-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="571" height="722"><figcaption class="caption-body">Regular duty has done wonders for Cam Russell&rsquo;s confidence.</figcaption></div>Russell said knowing he&rsquo;s going to play every night makes it easier to fulfill all his roles.&ldquo;I feel more a part of the team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Last year I spent the season wondering if I was going to be sent down or get scratched and that made it tough. Knowing you&rsquo;re going to be in the lineup makes it easier to prepare for a game instead of having in the back of your mind you might be preparing to go ride the bike.&rdquo;Russell was prepared this season to put his past behind him, which included what has happened off the ice. It has been almost two years since Russell went through the tragedy of having his wife commit suicide while he was playing with the Blackhawks&rsquo; affiliate, the Indianapolis Ice of the International League.&ldquo;It has been over a year and a half now and I&rsquo;ve tried to turn over a new leaf and start getting on with my life,&rdquo; Russell said. &ldquo;Feeling more a part of the team has helped. I don&rsquo;t have time to think about things and worry like I did when I was sitting out.&rdquo;RUUTTU CLOSE: Christian Ru-uttu, who broke his right ankle on the first day of training camp, was hoping to return to the lineup Dec. 12.The Hawks will have a crowd at center when Ruuttu and Kevin Todd return from injuries. They&rsquo;ll join Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Jeff Shantz and Troy Murray.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with a little competition,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said.Ruuttu may be used at left wing, but he prefers center.NOTEBOOK: Here&rsquo;s how Chris Chelios&rsquo; four-year, $12.175-million contract extension breaks down. Chelios will earn $2,650 million next year, $2,725 million in 1995-96, $2.8 million in 1996-97 and $3 million in 1997-98. He gets an extra $1.1 million this year for a joint marketing arrangement with the club.Michel Goulet hadn&rsquo;t seen The Hockey News article that didn&rsquo;t list him as a sure bet to make the Hockey Hall of Fame. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll have to score 600 goals,&rdquo; joked Goulet, who ranked 12th on the all-time list with 536 goals.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 30: Kart Dykhuis, D. assigned to Indianapolis (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter. Jeff Shantz. Jocelyn Lemieux, Troy Murray.LW&ndash;Stephane Matteau, Patrick Poulin, Michel Goulet Rich Sutter, Dave Christian.RW&ndash;Joe Murphy, Dirk Graham. Brian Noonan. Darin Kimble.LD&ndash;Steve Smith, Eric Weinrich, Frank Kucera. Keith Carney.RD&ndash;Neil Wilkinson. Chris Chelios, Cam Russell.G&ndash;Ed Belfour, Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Christian Ruuttu, C, broken right ankle, Dec. 12. Kevin Todd, C, sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0055-01

Quiet rearguard Russell emerges as vocal leader

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>The St. Louis Blues were among the biggest supporters of the NHL&rsquo;s striking officials.And with good reason.They felt they were among the biggest losers while the replacement officials were on the job.The Blues were 11-3-2 when the NHL officials went on strike Nov. 15. When the strike ended 17 days later, they were 12-7-5. They were 1-4-3 with the NHL&rsquo;s substitute teachers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fantastic,&rdquo; said Brett Hull of the Dec. 2 return of the regular officials.The Blues&rsquo; captain had been one of the replacements&rsquo; most outspoken critics, calling them &ldquo;sickening&rdquo; at one point. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if (the officials) got everything they wanted, but I&rsquo;m happy for them and I&rsquo;m happy for the game.&rdquo;Said coach Bob Berry: &ldquo;Everybody is pleased.&rdquo;Winger Brendan Shanahan said the strike affected every team, but suggested it hurt the Blues more than most.&ldquo;I think a couple of our losses were due directly to that,&rdquo; he said.Other than Shanahan and defenseman Murray Baron, the Blues don&rsquo;t have large players, so they were easily outmuscled and bounced around in the games. There was no one to protect skilled players Hull, Craig Janney and Jeff Brown.&ldquo;It created a disadvantage for the better players,&rdquo; assistant coach Ted Sator said. &ldquo;Once the players smelled blood&hellip;believe me, they smelled blood.&rdquo;SHELL SHOCKED: Goalie Curtis Joseph was starting to show signs of overwork.A nagging groin injury sidelined him for a Dec. 4 match against the Dallas Stars and he sat out the Blues&rsquo; skills competition the next day.Joseph, who faced a league-high 750 shots through Dec. 5, allowed 19 goals in his previous four starts before the Dallas game. He started 22 of 26 games.Backup Jim Hrivnak made 37 stops in the Blues&rsquo; 4-3 victory over Dallas, only his fourth start of the season.&ldquo;Curtis thrives on work, but he&rsquo;s not the Lone Ranger,&rdquo; Bob Berry said. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s the best in the league. He has been a big part of our success.&rdquo;But Berry said the Blues must play better defensively. He agreed to a suggestion they might be lax defensively because the players know Joseph can save them.&ldquo;That might be a possibility, but it&rsquo;s not acceptable,&rdquo; Berry said.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Phil Housley started skating Dec. 2. He missed eight consecutive games through Dec. 5 and 13 overall with a bulging disc in his lower back. He was expected to return Dec. 11 against the Los Angeles Kings&hellip;Jim Hrivnak faced at least 40 shots in each of his first four starts. The Blues&rsquo; backup goaltender had a 2-2-0 record and 3.64 goals-against average in those games.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 1: Jim Montgomery, C. assigned to Peoria (IHL). Dec. 4: Dan Laperriere, D, and Nathan Lafayette, RW, recalled from Peoria.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Craig Janney. Ron Sutter, Bob Bassen, Tony Hrkac. Kevin Miehm.LW&ndash;Brendan Shanahan. Igor Korolev. Philippe Bozon. Basil McRae.RW&ndash;Brett Hull, Kevin Miller, Nathan Lafayette, Kelly Chase, Vitali Karamnov.LD&ndash;Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican, Dan Laperriere.RD&ndash;Garth Butcher. Rick Zombo, Doug Crossman.G&ndash;Curtis Joseph, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Murray Baron, D, groin pull, day-to-day. Phil Housley, back spasms, day-to-day. Tom Tilley, D, groin pull, day-to-day. &#9632;

Hull & Co. thrilled to have regular officials back

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>It was a deal that was apparently cooked up before the season, but that doesn&rsquo;t make it any less strange.Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; winger Glenn Anderson, who as of early December was on the right side of the club&rsquo;s No. 1 line with Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk, has been given permission to join the Canadian Olympic team for the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.The 33-year-old Anderson agreed to come back to Toronto last spring, apparently after general manager Cliff Fletcher assented to the Olympic idea.&ldquo;It was the main motivation for him to come back,&rdquo; Fletcher said.Anderson played on the 1980 Canadian Olympic team that finished sixth in the Lake Placid Olympics.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always liked representing my country and I&rsquo;ve always Eked international hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our (1980) team didn&rsquo;t fare as well as it could have. This is a second chance.&rdquo;The Leafs have loaned players to the Olympic team before, including Ken Yaremchuk in 1988 and Dave Hannan in 1992, but Anderson would be the highest profile NHLer ever to be loaned to the Olympic squad in the middle of an NHL campaign.He has not been a dangerous forward for the Leafs, scoring just four goals in 29 games, including two in one game. He received criticism from coach Pat Bums in November and has yet to supply the calibre of play the Leafs were looking for when they brought him back this year.IN THE CRUNCH: Twice this season the Maple Leafs have gone into a game ranked as the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 team against the club with the second best record and twice they have lost.They dropped a 5-3 decision to the Calgary Flames Nov. 24, who at the time owned the NHL&rsquo;s second-best record behind Toronto.The Leafs lost 4-3 at home to the New York Rangers Dec. 4. The Leafs entered that game in first place overall with 42 points, while the Rangers were second with 38 points.In both cases, the Leafs pointed to extenuating circumstances that caused them to lose third-period leads.Against the Flames, the Leafs were at the end of a nine-day, five game western road trip. Against New York, the Leafs were playing their third game in four nights and their fourth in six.NOTEBOOK: The Leafs were one of a few teams that held skills competitions this year. Before a sold-out audience at Maple Leaf Gardens Dec. 5, Wendel Clark won the hardest shot contest with a drive of 92.8 miles per hour, and also won the accuracy shooting contest. Kent Manderviile was the fastest skater&hellip;Guy Larose was recalled from the St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs of the American League minors Dec. 1 when it was feared Doug Gilmour would not be able to suit up for a home game against the St. Louis Blues Dec. 2. Gilmour ended up playing.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 1: Guy Larose. LW. recalled from St. John&rsquo;s (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Doug Gilmour, John Cullen, Mike Krushelnyskl, Mike Eastwood.LW&ndash;Wendel Clark, Ken Baumgartner. Chris Govedaris. Guy Larose.RW&ndash;Dave Andreychuk, Glenn Anderson. Rob Pearson. Bill Berg, Kent Manderviile.LD&ndash;Dave Ellett. Sylvain Lefebvre. Jamie Macoun.RD&ndash;Drake Berehowsky, Bob Rouse, Dmitri Mironov,G&ndash;Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Nikolai Borschevsky, RW, removed spleen, indefinite. Todd Gill, D, groin strain, indefinite. Eric Lacroix, LW. separated right shoulder, day-to-day. Mark Osborne, LW. strained rib muscle, day-to-day. Peter Zezel, C, back disc problems, indefinite. &#9632;

Olympic option appeals to slumping Anderson

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith fumed quietly for a few days before firing back at critics.&ldquo;In pro sports there is a tendency to point fingers and place blame when expectations are not reached,&rdquo; he said in response to the criticism.Among the barbs was a front-page headline in the Nov. 27 Winnipeg Sun that said &ldquo;&lsquo;Dump Smith,&rsquo; Jets&rsquo; Fans Cry.&rdquo;&ldquo;No one likes to be castigated publicly,&rdquo; Smith said, &ldquo;but some of those pressures come with the job.&rdquo;The Jets were stumbling along at the bottom of the Central Division, having gone through a 2-10-2 stretch in November and were 11-14-4 overall and in last place in the Central Division. The European content-eight ROSTER players-was the subject of much of the criticism. Smith said the attacks aimed at him and the players had become personal.&ldquo;What I do not agree with is the bigotry shown towards our European players,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I believe there&rsquo;s a segment of the Canadian hockey population that prefers only Canadians to play the game.&ldquo;In Winnipeg, that segment of the population is over-represented in the Winnipeg media. It disturbs myself, the players on the team and everyone else involved with the Winnipeg Jets.&rdquo;Jets&rsquo; president Barry Shenkarow defended his GM and agreed with his charge that &ldquo;racist&rdquo; comments are being aimed at the club.&ldquo;To say our problems are because we have too many Russians is not valid criticism and it&rsquo;s racist,&rdquo; Shenkarow said. &ldquo;We have players who haven&rsquo;t performed up to their abilities. But if Bob Essensa isn&rsquo;t at the top of his game, is that because he&rsquo;s Canadian?&rdquo;Smith assembled the team Nov. 29 in Los Angeles and told them he&rsquo;s not going anywhere, coach John Paddock is not going anywhere and the players should not let the controversy affect their performances.&ldquo;The criticism aimed towards the team this early is very premature,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We believe we&rsquo;re still in a growing-up phase and we recognize the expectations of our fans leads everyone to disappointment&hellip;But to turn on the hockey team in November is wrong.&rdquo;STAYING PUT: Owner Barry Shenkarow is irritated by stories circulating that the Jets are planning to leave Winnipeg.The allegation was made that the Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and Hartford Whalers would be allowed to move by the league at the end of the current season without filing for a franchise-transfer by the Nov. 15 deadline.&ldquo;Look, I don&rsquo;t know what the commissioner (Gary Bettman) said to (Nordiques&rsquo; president) Marcel Aubut but we have no intention of moving,&rdquo; Shenkarow said. &ldquo;We have an agreement we signed a couple of years ago and we&rsquo;re now in the process to see if a new building can be built. The agreement also says we&rsquo;ll keep the team (in Winnipeg) until at least 1997. What else do you want me to say?&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Keith Tkachuk was hot heading into December. He had a six-game goal-scoring streak and 14 points through a Dec. 5, home-ice win over the Detroit Red Wings. He led the Jets with 18 goals in 29 games.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexei Zhamnov, Thomas Steen, Nelson Emerson, Randy Gilhen. Mike Eagles, Dave Tomlinson.LW&ndash;Keith Tkachuk. Darrin Shannon. Luciano Borsato, Kris King.RW&ndash;Teemu Selanne, Paul Ysebaert. Tie Domi, Bryan Erickson.LD&ndash;Teppo Numminen. Sergei Bautin, Igor LHanov.RD&ndash;Stephane Quintal, Boris Mironov. Dean Kennedy. Frednk Olausson.G&ndash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Smith lambastes critics who scorn Europeans

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>Some teams should be so lucky, but the Detroit Red Wings are beginning to worry exactly how Steve Yzerman will fit into the lineup once he&rsquo;s healthy and cleared to play.Sidelined since Oct. 21 with a herniated disc in his upper back, Yzerman began skating in light workouts by himself in late November and hopes to return to the lineup as soon as Dec. 15. His prognosis was optimistic; the Wings say it&rsquo;s more likely he will return about Jan. 1.But when Yzerman accompanied his team for a Dec. 5 game at Winnipeg, it prompted some discussion among teammates how their roles will change when one of the NHL&rsquo;s premier centers returns to action.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re starting to hear whispers around the dressing room: &lsquo;What are we going to do when Stevie gets back?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Keith Primeau, who as the team&rsquo;s second-line center may be among those players most affected.Coach Scotty Bowman acknowledged some concern about getting some key players ice time when Yzerman returns.Another player who has thrived is Sergei Fedorov, who ranked among the league leaders in scoring with 18 goals and 42 points in 26 games. That&rsquo;s a pace that would give him 57 goals and 135 points over an 84-game season.The key for Bowman is to keep Fedorov playing at such a consistently high level while working Yzerman into the scheme of things slowly, then get Fedorov a bit of rest so both players are at the top of their games when the playoffs begin.GRADUAL COMEBACK: When Steve Yzerman does return, Scotty Bowman emphasized he will be brought along slowly.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way he&rsquo;s going to be in game condition,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t be looking at getting 24 minutes a game from him for two or three months down the road.&rdquo;Yzerman skated by himself Dec. 3. And he seemed to be enjoying the camraderie of his teammates, even if it meant coming to the coldest stop on the NHL schedule-Winnipeg. The temperatures were well below freezing and snow was piled up around the team&rsquo;s hotel when it arrived.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d never pass up a chance to come to Winnipeg,&rdquo; Yzerman said with a laugh. &ldquo;Actually, I misread the schedule. I thought we were going to San Jose.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Shawn Burr was scheduled to undergo surgery to reattach a severed tendon over his right thumb, the result of an injury that occurred when he bent his hand awkwardly in a game against the New York Islanders Nov. 28. He continued to play, but the tendon snapped a week later when he was tying his skates. &ldquo;He could continue to play if we taped it up,&rdquo; said general manager Bryan Murray, &ldquo;but there&rsquo;s no sense in playing with an injury like that unless it&rsquo;s the playoffs.&rdquo; Burr will be out until late January.Murray had numerous discussions with rival GMs in an attempt to honor goalie Vince Riendeau&rsquo;s request to be traded. In a conversation with Murray, Riendeau was left with the impression something could happen soon. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think this will go on for a month or two,&rdquo; he said.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Sergei Fedorov, Keith Primeau, Mike SHiinger, Greg Johnson.LW&ndash;Slava Kozlov. Dallas Drake. Bob Probert, Micah Aivazoff, Sheldon Kennedy.RW&ndash;Martin Lapointe, Ray Sheppard. Dino Ciccarelli, Darren McCarty.LD&ndash;Paul Coffey. Mark Howe, Steve Chiasson, Steve Konroyd.RD&ndash;Nick Lidstrom, Terry Carkner. Vladimir Konstantinov, Bob Halkidis.G&ndash;Chris Osgood. Tim Cheveldae, Vince Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Burr, LW, severed tendon above right thumb, indefinite. Steve Yzerman. C, herniated disc, indefinite. &#9632;

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December 17, 1993

Depleted defense corps leaves Bears vulnerable

Wakaluk upstaging Moog

NHL PLAYERS’ SALARIES

Kalamazoo flying again after Wings were clipped