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.

May 20, 1994

The Hockey News May 20, 1994

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>Let the record show the Washington Capitals won a game in the month of May.By handing the New York Rangers their first loss of the 1994 playoffs-4-2 May 7 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal-the Capitals ended their own run of May mishaps.Washington had never won a game in May-for a record of 0-8-before defeating the Rangers. The Capitals were swept by the Boston Bruins in four May games in the 1990 Wales Conference finals.Two years later, the Capitals lost Game 7 of the Patrick Division semifinal series against the Pittsburgh Penguins on May 1.And this season, the Capitals lost the first three games of the series with the Rangers on May 1,3 and 5.Aside from the fact the Rangers were playing very well, the Capitals lost the first three games in part because of a string of injuries.Left winger Michal Pivonka scored the Capitals&rsquo; first goal in the series, but then sustained a pulled groin muscle to join defenseman Jim Johnson and Calle Johansson in sick bay.Johnson was out with a tom left knee ligament and Johansson went down in the third period of Game 6 against the Penguins in the Eastern semifinal, when Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Shawn McEachern skated up behind the Capitals&rsquo; defenseman and slashed him behind his left knee.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01136/6090480-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="589" height="1204"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Ridley and his teammates would like more support at home.</figcaption></div>Johansson did not sustain bone, ligament or cartilage damage, but he did injure a nerve that cut off some of the feeling in his lower leg. He cannot skate and may have to undergo surgery to repair the damage.McEachern had a hearing scheduled with NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke, who will likely hand out some sort of suspension. The question is, how long? Capitals&rsquo; center Dale Hunter was suspended 21 games and lost $150,000 in salary for running New York Islander center Pierre Turgeon in last season&rsquo;s playoffs.HOME GAME?: Tourism is a big part of the Washington economy, with travelers stopping to see monuments of the founding fathers of the United States.But when visitors make up a good portion of the ticket buyers at Capitals&rsquo; games, it can be disconcerting for the players.Though the Capitals defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs, the Penguins drew well in Landover, Md., often playing before a couple thousand Penguin partisans.And when the Rangers and Capitals played Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at US Air Arena, 30 to 40 per cent of the fans were rooting for the Rangers.&ldquo;We make jokes about that in the locker room,&rdquo; said center Mike Ridley. &ldquo;Little things, like, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s beat them in their own rink&rsquo; and stuff like that&hellip;We&rsquo;d like to see white sweaters on fans, but we don&rsquo;t have much control over that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Capitals&rsquo; win over the Rangers in Game 4 was the 18th playoff victory for goalie Don Beaupre&rsquo;s career. He passed Pete Peeters for the franchise lead&hellip;Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Sylvain Cote had three assists in Game 1 of the series against New York and matched that feat with three more in the fourth game.Backup goalie Rick Tabaracci got the start in Game 2 of the Ranger series after Beaupre strained a groin muscle.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 4: Todd Nelson, D, assigned to Portland (AHU). Jason Woolley. D. recalled from Portland.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Juneau, Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Dave Poulin, Jason Allison.LW-Dimitri Khristich. Randy Burridge, Steve Konowalchuk, Craig Berube.RW-Pat Peake, Keith Jones, KeHy Miller, Todd Krygier, Tim Sergland.LD-Joe Reekie, John Slaney, Jason Woolley.RD-Sylvain Cote, Kevin Hatcher, Shawn Anderson.G-Don Beaupre, Rick Tabaracci, Byron Daloe.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Peter Bondra, RW, bruised shoulder, day-to-day. Calle Johansso, D, damaged nerve in left knee, indefinite. Jim Johnson, D, tom left knee ligament, indefinite. Michal Pivonka, LW, groin pull, indefinite. &#9632;

f0050-01

IN THIS ISSUE

Injuries to key personnel make life in Mav difficult

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>Pavel Bure has dazzled the NHL with his goal-scoring prowess, but he unleashed a new weapon in the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; second-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars.Upset with the mugging he was receiving from the Stars, the Canucks&rsquo; right winger picked on Dallas&rsquo; toughest guy, Shane Churla, and knocked him out with a vicious flying blindside elbow during Game 2 of the series.The hit, which escaped the eye of referee Andy van Hellemond, was so blatant that supervisor of officials John D&rsquo;Amico sent the tape to NHL vice-president Brian Burke.Burke ruled the hit &ldquo;clearly intentional and potentially dangerous&rdquo; and fined Bure $500, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement. There was no suspension.&ldquo;Why should I be suspended if they&rsquo;re not suspended?&rdquo; said a defiant Bure, referring to the Stars who had worked him over.&ldquo;I got a couple of real good crosschecks from behind and if the referees don&rsquo;t call it, I have to protect myself. It&rsquo;s not my style of play, but I had no choice. They&rsquo;re trying to kill me out there. I&rsquo;m lucky I didn&rsquo;t get hurt.&rdquo;Churla was not impressed.&ldquo;You guys perceive it as a good hit and say how tough Bure is, but I don&rsquo;t think a guy has to be brave to sideline a guy when he&rsquo;s not looking,&rdquo; Churla said. &ldquo;That takes no backbone. That&rsquo;s what makes me bitter. It&rsquo;s tough to have any respect for somebody who does that. I&rsquo;ll remember it for the rest of my career. Until I&rsquo;m out of this league, I&rsquo;ll get payback.&rdquo;Vancouver enforcer Shawn Antoski had a few words of rebuttal for Churla.&ldquo;Pavel doesn&rsquo;t have to answer to him,&rdquo; Antoski said.RIDING THE WAIVE: The Canucks&rsquo; stunning elimination of the Calgary Flames and their impressive start against Dallas was a waive they hoped would never end.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011396/6088870-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="576" height="1195"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pavel Bure was fined $500 for a vicious elbow against Dallas.</figcaption></div>Four players plucked off the waiver wire-Martin Gelinas, Brian Glynn, John McIntyre and Tim Hunter-were all contributing members to Vancouver&rsquo;s success.Gelinas especially, caught more than few eyes with his fearless play and timely point production. He scored the winning goal in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal and helped set up Sergio Momesso&rsquo;s overtime winner in Game 4.Not bad for a Quebec Nordique castoff.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice feeling to be here and it was a nice feeling to beat Calgary,&rdquo; Gelinas said. &ldquo;We have a shot to do something here in the playoffs and that&rsquo;s what you want as a hockey player. Vancouver has given me a great opportunity.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Pavel Bure called his double overtime Game 7 winner against the Calgary Flames, &ldquo;the best goal I have ever scored.&rdquo;&hellip;Captain Trevor Linden, who was converted to center for Game 5 of the Calgary series, said his feeling after the elimination of the Flames was one of disbelief. &ldquo;When the puck went in I didn&rsquo;t know where to go, what to do, who to hug,&rdquo; Linden said.Long-time Canuck trainer Larry Ashley is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a recurring cancer problem. Ashley&rsquo;s first bout with the disease occurred during the playoffs two years ago&hellip;Goaltender Kirk McLean won four straight overtime games, a span of 57:19. He stopped 32 of 32 shots in the four overtimes, the first three over Calgary and the fourth over Dallas.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Trevor Linden, Cliff Ronning, Murray Craven, Nathan LaFayette, John McIntyre, Jimmy Carson.LW-Greg Adams, Geoff Courtnail, Sergio Momesso, Shawn Antoski, Gino OdjickRW-Pavel Bure, Martin Gelinas, Tim Hunter, Joe CharbonneauLD-Dave Babych, Bret Hedican, Brian Glynn, Adrien Plavsic.RD-Jeff Brown, Jyrki Lumme, Gerald Diduck, Jiri Slegr.G-Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dana Murzyn, D, sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0011-01

Churla promises ‘payback’ on Bure for vicious elbow

<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, APRIL 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02542/6089858-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="628" height="3095"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03438/6089851-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="588" height="456"></div><h2>TUESDAY, APRIL 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04352/6089844-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="623" height="2961"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05293/6089837-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="584" height="603"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01725/6089830-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="1207" height="1397"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Hannan was Buffalo&rsquo;s triple overtime hero against the Devils. (JIM MCISAAC/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06266/6089823-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="590" height="1368"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07245/6089816-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="587" height="604"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08220/6089809-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="597" height="1462"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09204/6089802-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="591" height="459"></div><h2>THURSDAY, APRIL 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10178/6089795-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="608" height="2958"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02495/6089788-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="584" height="560"></div><h2>FRIDAY, APRIL 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03399/6089781-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="600" height="2117"></div><h2>SATURDAY, APRIL 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04304/6089774-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="589" height="634"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05250/6089767-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="579" height="449"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06218/6089760-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="593" height="1293"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01687/6089753-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="1193" height="1192"><figcaption class="caption-body">Geoff Courtnall&rsquo;s fifth playoff goal helped Vancouver defeat Dallas. (JIM MCISAAC/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>SUNDAY, MAY 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07200/6089746-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="579" height="414"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08185/6089739-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="583" height="448"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09175/6089732-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="593" height="1581"></div><h2>MONDAY, MAY 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10170/6089725-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="578" height="142"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11165/6089718-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="600" height="2196"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MAY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12156/6089711-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="592" height="1219"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13150/6089704-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="583" height="1243"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MAY 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-14142/6089697-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="584" height="2167"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01607/6089690-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="590" height="266"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MAY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02435/6089683-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="607" height="2271"></div><h2>FRIDAY, MAY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03338/6089676-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="601" height="798"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04281/6089669-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="595" height="1872"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MAY 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05250/6089662-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="603" height="1558"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06218/6089655-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="589" height="890"></div><h2>SUNDAY, MAY 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07193/6089648-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="607" height="2530"></div> &#9632;

f0035-02

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02240/6090039-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01304/6090032-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="631" height="3680"></div> &#9632;

f0040-02

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06297/6088395-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="391" height="496"></div>There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with the NHL playoffs that a semblance of order can&rsquo;t improve. What the NHL needs most is what professional sport abhors-predictability.It has been five years since the top-ranked eastern team met the top-ranked western team in the Stanley Cup final.Entering Week 4 of the 1994 playoffs, an east-west matchup featuring No. 1 in conference points (New York Rangers) vs. No. 2 in conference points (Toronto Maple Leafs) remained possible.The Leafs were seeded third because the Pacfic Division-champion Calgary Flames were awarded second spot. Calgary was one of three division champions to lose in the first round. Last year, all four were out by the end of the second round.Some fans may not find upsets upsetting, but they&rsquo;ve lost some of their appeal to me. Ho-hum. Another series victory by an 18-point underdog. There has to be a regular-season difference of at least 25 before my pulse quickens.There isn&rsquo;t much about Major League Baseball I like, but I long for its reassuring pre-1994 playoff format. Over the past five years, only once has a team with a record as bad as third in its league reached the World Series.A third-place conference finish is the best any Stanley Cup finalist has managed the last three years.Top-ranked regular-season teams in the National Football League and National Basketball Association-where a No. 8 seed beat a No. 1 seed for the first time ever this season-are more likely even than Major League Baseball teams to meet in the finals.Then there is the NHL, which suffers from too much of a good thing. Nobody wants the playoffs to be played on paper-No. 1 seed demolishes No. 8, No. 2 slaughters No. 7, etc.-but nobody can convince me the Stanley Cup final wouldn&rsquo;t be a better place this season with the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings meeting at center ice.Blame for that not coming to pass lies with the Red Wings, not the NHL, but maybe the league could make some changes to give regular-season standouts a better chance of standing out during the playoffs.Rangers&rsquo; general manager Neil Smith says he can&rsquo;t imagine a fairer playoff system and his team faced the greatest risk of all during the first round.The Rangers earned 28 more points than their first-round foe, the New York Islanders.But Detroit GM Bryan Murray, shaken by the most unexpected setback of the NHL season, says the league should consider giving division champions five home games out of seven, not just four. Murray doesn&rsquo;t like the 2-3-2 format adopted for Central-Pacific Division showdowns.&ldquo;There is no reward for playing hard in the regular season other than you make the playoffs,&rdquo; Murray says.Larry Murphy of the Pittsburgh Penguins, another division champion and first-round casualty, wonders if reducing the length of the regular season by as few as two games might save top teams from burnout.Murray asks, &ldquo;How are we going to get Calgary to try and win its division and Detroit to try and win its division and Pittsburgh to try and win its division next year when the players know it doesn&rsquo;t mean anything?&rdquo;Don&rsquo;t misunderstand. I have no quarrel with the outcome of first-round series. The Red Wings, Flames and Penguins all got what they deserved, but are NHL fans getting what they deserve?That is, the best entertainment money can buy. With single-game playoff ticket yields closing in on $1 million, it&rsquo;s imperative the game is the equal of the gate. &#9632;

f0002-06

Best versus best in final would be welcome

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>John Druce achieved a measure of immortality in 1990.If he never does another thing in his career, Druce can always look back on the 1990 playoffs when he scored 14 goals in 15 games for the Washington Capitals. That year, Druce was a winner.The playoffs produce winners and sinners-those who rise to the occasion at the most important time of the season and those who don&rsquo;t. The 1994 NHL playoffs are no exception. Here are the winners and sinners so far:Winner: Capitals&rsquo; coach Jim Schoenfeld defies odds, critics and good sense successfully shuffling goalies in first-round action. Sinner: If Pittsburgh Penguins played with as much passion as they party, the two-time Stanley Cup champs would still be in the spring showdown.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011513/6088471-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="368" height="367"></div>Winner: Capitals&rsquo; GM David Poile gets enough out of late acquisitions Joe Juneau and Joe Reekie to solidify his reputation as a shrewd trader and, perhaps, his future in Washington. Sinner: Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; counterpart Bryan Murray needs a playoff-proven goalie, but doesn&rsquo;t pay the price to get one. It may eventually cost him a steeper price-his job.Winner: About 13,000 fans show up to the San Jose Arena to watch the San Jose Sharks defeat the Red Wings on a large screen television in the seventh game of the first round. Sinner: New Jersey fans stay away in droves from the Eastern Conference semifinal opener against the Boston Bruins. The announced crowd is 13,878. Actual attendance is about 11,000.Winner: Hockey fighters decide conflicts one-on-one. Sinner: Baseball and basketball prefer brawls. Imagine, hockey leading the battle to limit violence in sports.Winner: Hockey Night In Canada offers comprehensive first-round coverage, including staying with alternate games until conclusion. Sinner: HNIC&rsquo;s coverage beyond the first round. CBC can&rsquo;t get off the air quick enough to broadcast the news-overtime games in progress and interested viewers be damned.Winner: Coach&rsquo;s Comer with Don Cherry during regular season is sweet stuff. Sinner: Coach&rsquo;s Corner with Don Cherry night after night in the playoffs is overkill.Winner: Rising star Vlastimil Kroupa, a 19-year-old Sharks&rsquo; defenseman, scores the winning goal against the Red Wings. Sinner: Has anybody of influence ever risen and fallen so fast as former Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; majority owner and NHL chairman of the board Bruce McNall? Not counting Gil Stein.Winner: Not that he had anything left to prove, but is there a more courageous player in the NHL than Doug Gilmour of the Toronto Maple Leafs? Sinner: Pierre Turgeon of the New York Islanders needs to take a lesson from Gilmour and inspire those around him to raise the level of their play.Winner: Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; goalie Kirk McLean makes the save of the playoffs, kicking his pads across the crease to rob the Calgary Flame Robert Reichel. Sinner: Detroit&rsquo;s Chris Osgood picks a lousy time to play giveaway-late in Game 7 against San Jose, with his team tied on the scoreboard and in the series.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021359/6088464-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="386" height="545"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Brophy: Vandyke playoff beard-THN style.</figcaption></div>Winner: Theoren Fleury can&rsquo;t be blamed for the Calgary Flames&rsquo; first-round defeat. The little right winger scored six goals (two game-winners) and 10 points in seven games. That&rsquo;s 22 points in his last 13 playoff games. Sinner: The Blue Peters. Nedved scores one point in four games and Stastny is held pointless.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031145/6088457-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="1167" height="1793"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kirk McLean made the save of the playoffs on Robert Reichel.</figcaption></div>Winner: The Buffalo Sabres are eliminated in the first round despite acrobatic goalie Dominik Hasek&rsquo;s brilliant numbers-1.61 goals against average, .950 save percentage, two shutouts. Sinner: Islanders&rsquo; goalie Ron Hextall&rsquo;s sadsack numbers-0-3 record, 6.08 GAA, .800 save percentage.Winner: Hard-working Sharks&rsquo; rookie coach Kevin Constantine proves you don&rsquo;t need six Stanley Cup rings and a roster full of seasoned veterans to be a playoff success. Sinner: Detroit coach Scott Bowman proves six Stanley Cup rings and a roster full of seasoned veterans isn&rsquo;t enough to overcome hungry opposition.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04948/6088450-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="394" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque: Vandyke playoff beard-NHL style.</figcaption></div>Winner: Patrick Roy was only human for the Montreal Canadiens, but he did get out off a hospital bed to perform. Full marks for effort. Sinner: Anyone who criticized Pavel Bure when he scored just once in the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; first four games against Calgary.Winner: Those who stayed awake long enough for all of the Buffalo-New Jersey seven-period, six-hour-and-12-minute marathon. Sinner: I lasted six periods. &#9632;

f0004-01

Poile winner, Murray sinner

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>CANADA-What a year, eh?Canada&rsquo;s dramatic gold-medal win at the World Championships on Mother&rsquo;s Day drove home the obvious: Canada is the mother of all hockey countries.Let&rsquo;s take inventory of Canada&rsquo;s hockey accomplishments in 1994, shall we? Bear with me, this is going to take a while.Okay, first ya got yer three biggies: the World Junior Championship, a silver at the Olympic Games and the world title. Then there&rsquo;s the World Women&rsquo;s Championship and the World Hockey Challenge, the unofficial under-17 world title, which was won by Quebec.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05770/6088502-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="364" height="524"></div>And let&rsquo;s not forget the U.S.-Canada media game which the Canucks won handily for the fifth straight year.About a year ago. THN columnist Al Morganti wrote Canada was losing control of the NHL and hockey. Al, you poor, misguided American person.You may be right, Saskatoon will probably never see the light of day in the NHL. But places such as Saskatoon will continue to produce the greatest players in the world.Take a look at all the rosters in the NHL and pick out the players who are 25 and under. Canada has more top players in that group than any other country by a longshot. When you look at under-20 players, the disparity takes on ridiculous proportions.Canada invented hockey, taught the rest of the world how to play it and will always be in a position of global superiority. We&rsquo;ve learned our lessons well since 1972,Hockey is more than a game here: It is what we are.Canada is Steve Thomas shrugging off a cut on his head and lining up for the next faceoff with blood streaming down his neck. Canada is people watching three hockey games in one day or thinking nothing of booking the ice at midnight for a weeknight pick-up game. Canada is kids playing road hockey on the streets long after the snow has melted.Canada has won when it was supposed to, when it wasn&rsquo;t supposed to, at home and abroad.Bring on the 1995 Canada Cup. At least that will give us something different to win. &#9632;

f0004-05

ODE TO CANADA HOCKEY CENTRAL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011428/6088533-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>Forget the World Championships, the biggest shot in the arm for shootouts occurred in Buffalo April 27.It took the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils seven periods-a total of six hours-to decide an Eastern Conference quarterfinal game before Dave Hannan&rsquo;s goal gave the Sabres a 1-0 win. It was the sixth-longest game in NHL history.The game lasted about three hours longer than it would have taken if the shootout was used.Even if shootouts are accepted in the NHL, they will never be used during the playoffs. But as of April 8, five games advanced beyond the 10-minute mark of overtime, illustrating the fact that a five-minute extra frame is not long enough to decide a tie game.A 10-person committee of general managers and owners is studying the shootout issue. The committee met at the March board of governors meeting, but has no timetable for a recommendation.Other playoff highlights included:&#9633; The New York Rangers won the first seven games of the post-season and outscored their opponents 36-9.&#9633; The Vancouver Canucks won four consecutive overtime games, including three in a row to eliminate the Calgary Flames. Trevor Linden and Pavel Bure stood one-two in playoff goal scoring.&#9633; Chris Terreri came off the Devils&rsquo; bench to replace Martin Brodeur and backstop the team to two wins in the Boston Garden. That tied the Devils-Boston Bruins series 2-2.<h2>STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS &#9632;</h2>

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Time on shootout’s side

<div class="byline">By Jason Kay</div>The day after Canada strutted its hockey superiority by winning gold at the World Championships, its ego took a blow to the mid-section.The NHL announced the finalists for its major awards May 9 and for the first time there are no Canadians in the running for the Hart Trophy. Russian-born Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings, Czech-born Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres and American-born John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers are the contenders for the league&rsquo;s MVP award.Just twice in the modern era-since 1945-has the Hart trophy crossed Canadian lines: Stan Mikita in 1967 and 1968 and Brett Hull in 1991. Mikita was born in Czechoslovakia, but grew up in Canada. Hull was born in Belleville, Ont., but represents USA in international play.The Calder Trophy, meanwhile, may go to a non-Canadian, but it won&rsquo;t be a Russian. Ottawa Senator Alexei Yashin, named best rookie by readers of The Hockey News and runner-up in THN&rsquo;s player survey, isn&rsquo;t a Calder finalist.Winners of the NHL&rsquo;s individual honors will be announced June 16 at the annual awards show in Toronto. The Hart, Norris Selke, Calder and Lady Byng Trophies are voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association. The Vezina is voted on by general managers and the NHL Broadcasters&rsquo; Association selects the Adams Award winner.Norris Trophy (Best defenseman): Ray Bourque, Boston; Al MacInnis, Calgary; Scott Stevens, New Jersey.Selke Trophy (Best defensive forward): Fedorov; Doug Gilmour, Toronto; Brian Skrudland, Florida.Vezina Trophy (Best goalie): Hasek; Patrick Roy, Montreal; Vanbiesbrouck.Calder Trophy (Best rookie): Jason Arnott, Edmonton; Martin Brodeur, New Jersey; Mikael Renberg, Philadelphia.Lady Byng Trophy (Sportsmanship): Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles; Adam Oates, Boston; Pierre Turgeon, Islanders.Jack Adams Award (Best coach): Kevin Constantine, San Jose; Jacques Lemaire, New Jersey; John Muckier, Buffalo. &#9632;

Canada, where’s your Hart?

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>John Ferguson isn&rsquo;t afraid to use the O-word.In fact, the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; director of player personnel uses it without provocation.&ldquo;I played against Bobby Orr,&rdquo; Ferguson said, &ldquo;and this kid is Bobby Orr.&rdquo;This kid is Oleg Tverdovsky, a gifted 18-year-old-defenseman with the Soviet Wings.Ferguson said the Senators will choose Tverdovsky if he&rsquo;s available when the Senators pick third overall at the NHL entry draft June 28 in Hartford.The Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hold the first and second picks.Tverdovsky is the No. 1 European on the Central Scouting Bureau&rsquo;s final ranking for the 1994 draft. Las Vegas Thunder center Radek Bonk is the top-ranked prospect playing in North America and Jamie Storr of the Owen Sound Platers in the highest-seeded goaltender.The complete CSB list, which was released April 26, appears on page 38.Bonk, the youngest player to ever perform in the International League, collected 42 goals and 87 points and compiled 208 penalty minutes this season.Center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Guelph Storm, defenseman Ed Jovanovski of the Windsor Spitfires, left winger Ryan Smyth of the Moose Jaw Warriors and center Jason Bonsignore of the Niagara Falls Thunder are rated two-through-five among North Americans.Storr was rated the top goalie ahead of Jose Theodore of the St-Jean Lynx and Dan Cloutier of the Soo Greyhounds.Tverdovsky, Swedish defenseman Mattias Ohlund and Russian left winger Alexander Kharlamov are the top-three ranked Europeans.DRAFT DODGING?: For an event that has been reconfigured to accommodate television, broadcast interest in the June 28-29 entry draft in Hartford has been scant.The draft was broken up over two days to make it a prime-time event, but a conflict with a World Cup soccer game June 28 is expected to bump the draft from ESPN to ESPN2. The draft is now scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., June 28. The first two rounds will be held that day, but television coverage likely won&rsquo;t go past 8 p.m.ESPN reaches 63 million households compared to 14 million for ESPN2. ESPN2 isn&rsquo;t expected to cover Rounds 3-11 June 29.The league moved the event out of prime time to accommodate The Sports Network in Canada. TSN has committed its prime time slot to a Toronto Blue Jays&rsquo; game and isn&rsquo;t sure whether it will carry the draft at all.Scheduling problems have followed the 1994 draft since the NHL announced Hartford would be hosting it. A Professional Golfers&rsquo; Association tournament in the Connecticut city prompted the league to alter its original plans.One sure way fans will be able to see the draft at the Civic Center is by attending it. The event is open, free of admission, to the public.REDUCED CHARGE: Extortion suspect Sergei Fomitchev pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for menacing after &ldquo;talking about money&rdquo; with Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; star Alexander Mogilny.The plea was part of a deal worked out between Fomitchev, 31, and the Erie County prosecutors&rsquo; office. Fomitchev admitted to acting State Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. McCarthy he &ldquo;mentioned&rdquo; to Mogilny that he should worry about leg injuries and that he had just purchased a gun.Fomitchev insisted he was referring to leg injuries Mogilny sustained last year in an on-ice incident against the Montreal Canadiens.McCarthy did not sentence Fomitchev immediately, but lowered his bail from $100,000 to $500. He faces up to 90 days in jail on the menacing charge.McCarthy scheduled a May 17 sentencing on the menacing charge.Erie County District Attorney Kevin M. Dillon and Yvonne Vertlieb, the chief prosecutor in the Erie County grand jury investigation, said prosecutors dropped felony charges because of the &ldquo;on-again, off-again&rdquo; relationship between Mogilny and Fomitchev.Fomitchev, who helped Mogilny defect from the former Soviet Union in 1989, had been accused of trying to extort $150,000 from Mogilny. He was originally accused of threatening to shoot Mogilny in the back or stab him in the legs. Fomitchev was arrested March 25 in Memorial Auditorium after Mogilny reported the threats to the Erie County Sheriffs Department.-With a file from Jim Kelley &#9632;

Bonk No. 1 on CSB, but Sens like Russian

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>In the time it took Mika Niemenen&rsquo;s shot to sail into the glass at the Milano Forum, Canada had won the World Championships and Bill Ranford had been delivered.Delivered from the ignominy of a second straight spring outside the NHL playoffs. Delivered from a standing role as the best of a bad lot, one of the league&rsquo;s premier goalies on one of the league&rsquo;s worst teams.Ranford, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Edmonton Oilers and a Canada Cup veteran, jumped like a lottery winner when Niemenen missed. Canada 2, Finland 1. It&rsquo;s a funny way to spell redemption.&ldquo;When you don&rsquo;t make the playoffs it&rsquo;s pretty bleak by the end of the season,&rdquo; Ranford said after Canada&rsquo;s May 8 win in Italy. &ldquo;All of a sudden we&rsquo;re coming home world champions.&rdquo;All of a sudden. The last Canadian team to take home the world title was the 1961 Trail Smoke Eaters. After 33 years. Canadians came home an overnight success.&ldquo;The Stanley Cup. there&rsquo;s nothing to compare that to and the Canada Cup was great,&rdquo; Ranford said. &ldquo;But this might sneak into second, considering it was the first championship in 33 years.&rdquo;Team Canada needed heroics. Philadelphia Flyer Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour scored with about five minutes left to deadlock the game. Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; left winger Luc Robitaille scored the winner in the shootout. But for the Canadians, Ranford-who posted a 1.17 goals-against average and .956 save percentage-was the trump card.&ldquo;We felt a lot more confident we would win (in the shootout) due to the fact we had better goaltending,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said.For Ranford, Arnott, Brind&rsquo;Amour and the rest, relief was the sound of an errant shot hitting the glass, a season that ended not with a whimper, but a bang.&ldquo;It dears your mind.&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;It gives you a sense of accomplishment and sets your mind free of the season you&rsquo;ve had.&rdquo;(For more on World Championships, see page 8). &#9632;

Ranford delivers heroics

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-in-Chief</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011606/6088636-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Gilmour Toronto Maple Leafs (TIM PARKAR)</figcaption></div>NHL superstar Doug Gilmour was the target of a death threat in February.The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; center was harassed by an unidentified woman who issued telephone threats through Gilmour&rsquo;s brother and sister-in-law, Dave and Luanne Gilmour, in Kingston, Ont.&ldquo;I have no idea who this person was,&rdquo; Doug Gilmour said. &ldquo;All of a sudden, my brother started to get phone calls. It was a pay phone, so we had the police trace the calls.&ldquo;It really scared the crap out of me because the girl was saying, &lsquo;Doug&rsquo;s not giving me the time of day and I&rsquo;m going to get him. I&rsquo;m going to kill him.&rsquo;&rdquo;A series of about 10 phone calls to Dave Gilmour&rsquo;s restaurant began Feb. 17.The following day, he received a phone call that was traced to the Toronto train station. The woman said she was on her way to Maple Leaf Gardens to kill Gilmour. Additional calls were placed as she apparently drew closer to the arena.&ldquo;She said, &lsquo;Today&rsquo;s the day he gets it,&rsquo;&rdquo; Dave Gilmour said. &ldquo;And I said, &lsquo;Well, what do you want to get him for?&rsquo; And she goes, &lsquo;Keep pissing me off and you&rsquo;ll be next.&rsquo; &ldquo;Doug Gilmour remained at the Gardens long after practice that day and was followed home by police.&ldquo;I told them, &lsquo;Follow me halfway and then I&rsquo;m going to lose you,&rsquo;&rdquo; Gilmour recalled. &ldquo;I told them the area I was going to be in, so they could drive by a couple of times after. I drove around for 20 minutes to a half-hour and then went home.&rdquo;A spokesman for Metropolitan Toronto Police told the Toronto Star May 9 they were still investigating the case, but had filed no charges.Dave Gilmour said no calls came after Feb. 19. In the meantime, Doug Gilmour said extra security was laid on around Maple Leaf Gardens and the team made sure he got home safely.&ldquo;If you noticed, a couple of games there was extra security behind the bench,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;They waited for me after the game.&rdquo;The woman never threatened Gilmour directly. Gilmour didn&rsquo;t take the threats seriously until Dave&rsquo;s wife, Luanne, told him he shouldn&rsquo;t be taking them lightly.&ldquo;It got scary there for a while,&rdquo; admitted Gilmour, who feared for his family in Kingston and girlfriend, Amy Cable.The 30-year-old center said he found himself looking over his shoulder, but round-the-clock police protection was never deemed necessary.Kingston police were alerted immediately after the calls began and traced them. They were at Gilmour&rsquo;s restaurant by the time a second call was received.Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach Pat Bums, a former policeman, helped Gilmour get through the ordeal.&ldquo;At first, nothing much was being done,&rdquo; Burns recalled. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Wait a minute, this is a lot more serious than it looks.&rsquo; I asked for the police to get involved. I had an occurrence report filed with police.&rdquo;The coach said &ldquo;every possible precaution was taken.&rdquo;&ldquo;Dougie handled it very well,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;It never affected his play, but he needed to be reassured a lot.&rdquo;NHL spokesman Arthur Pincus said the league investigated the situation and was confident all appropriate steps were taken to ensure the player&rsquo;s safety. &#9632;

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Gilmour faced death threat

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-in-Chief</div>Bobby Clarke and Doug Gilmour have more in common than gap-toothed, winning smiles.No less an authority than Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher compares the two gritty centers-one from the past and the other from the present.&ldquo;In a lot of respects,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;(Gilmour is) an awful lot like Bobby Clarke.&rdquo;Feisty. Nasty. Competitive. Talented. Versatile. Imaginative. Inspirational.Clarke, three-time league MVP and legendary Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; captain, was all those things and more during a Hall-of-Fame career.The Florida Panthers&rsquo; GM is regarded as one of the best players in NHL history.Clarke said he is flattered by the comparison.&ldquo;I think it should be the other way around,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a compliment and a half.&rdquo;Clarke is among Gilmour&rsquo;s biggest admirers.&ldquo;Gilmour plays every part of the game every way you want.&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;He has got great intelligence on the ice. he can score and pass and if you want it to be dirty, he can be just as dirty.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone more and more to specialists in our business and it&rsquo;s harder and harder to find guys like (Gilmour).&rdquo;It was suggested Gilmour stood as the playoffs&rsquo; best player with the elimination of such superstars as Mario Lemieux and Sergei Fedorov.&ldquo;(Gilmour) was probably the best player when the playoffs started.&rdquo; Clarke said.&ldquo;The thing about Gilmour is you know before the game what you&rsquo;re going to get. When the playoffs start, you know you&rsquo;re going to get everything Doug Gilmour has to give you. Until the last drop is gone.&rdquo;Good to the last drop of sweat.Gilmour actually copied Clarke&rsquo;s trademark tooth-challenged grin when he was younger.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of ironic because I used to, like every kid growing up, black out my teeth,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;I kind of thought it was funny and wouldn&rsquo;t you know it, years later it happened.&rdquo;Gilmour allowed. &ldquo;It would be nice to have them back in.&rdquo;Despite playing on a gimpy right ankle, Gilmour was leading the playoffs in scoring (415-19 in 10 games). He collected five points during an 8-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series.Gilmour and Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach Pat Bums enjoy a special relationship. Both men bring passion and a feel for the game that is easier to sense than put into words.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t talk too much on the bench,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of eye contact. He gives me a nod when he&rsquo;s okay and sort of puts his head down when he&rsquo;s had too much.&rdquo;Few players maintain high regular-season standards during the low-scoring post-season.Yet. Gilmour has averaged 1.09 points per game during the regular season (936 points in 856 games) and 1.19 during the playoffs (137 in 115).&ldquo;People don&rsquo;t care or remember what you did during the regular season,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;People didn&rsquo;t remember what I did last year during the regular season. They remembered the playoffs.&rdquo; &#9632;

Leafs’ star compared to legend

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>There comes a time in every athlete&rsquo;s life when one moment can define his career, shape his place in the game and brand him forever as the one who made a difference. The moment can be good or bad, but it can never be forgotten.Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; goalie Kirk McLean had been a man seeking such a moment. A two-time Vezina Trophy finalist, he has never been able to make the leap from quality goalie to money goalie. Regular-season excellence was one thing, doing it in the playoffs another.Then finally it happened. On an April 30 night in Calgary&rsquo;s Olympic Saddledome, McLean produced the game of his life when his team needed it most. For 51 minutes and 46 seconds, McLean slammed shut the door on the Calgary Flames in the seventh game of a bitterly contested, highly emotional Western Conference quarterfinal series.The Canucks won it 4-3 on Pavel Bure&rsquo;s goal in double overtime, but they would have had no chance without McLean&rsquo;s phenomenal work.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011453/6088691-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="633" height="443"></div>The Flames scored their final goal of that game-and their season-at 10:34 of the second period. It wasn&rsquo;t a good one as Theoren Fleury beat McLean between the legs from a sharp angle. It gave Calgary a 3-2 lead and had it held up as the series winner, Captain Kirk would have again been swamped with cries of choke artist, or worse.With television sets around North America glued to the Saturday night drama, McLean stoned Al MacInnis, Gary Roberts, German Titov and Robert Reichel, among other wonderful Flame opportunities, to keep his team in it.His save off Reichel was a spectacular, across-the-crease, stack-the pad miracle that should have ended the contest. Reichel, set up by Fleury on a 3-on-l, made no mistake, yet the puck stayed out and the Canucks stayed alive. No one could believe it, not even the trigger-happy goal judge who turned the red light on in error.The stop will live forever in Canucks&rsquo; history.&ldquo;It was the best save I&rsquo;ve ever seen in my life,&rdquo; marvelled Canuck goaltender coach Glen Hanlon.&ldquo;It was a desperation move,&rdquo; McLean admitted. &ldquo;You have to read the play perfectly and the puck is going to hit you if you do it right.&rdquo;McLean&rsquo;s emergence as the series hero, along with goal-scorer Bure, immediately thrust him into the early running for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. In the three consecutive overtime victories against Calgary, McLean was as perfect as it comes, stopping 25 of 25 shots in a combined 46:18. He added a fourth overtime win when the Canucks beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 in Game 4 May 8.He performed supremely in the clutch and rewarded Canuck head coach-general manager Pat Quinn for the faith and trust bestowed upon him. When some pundits were braying for McLean&rsquo;s scalp after Vancouver fell behind 3-1 in games to Calgary, Quinn never wavered. At that point, McLean had lost seven of his last nine playoff starts. The two victories were both by five goals.&ldquo;I never thought of changing netminders,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I was going with Kirk all the way. He&rsquo;s a stubborn guy and he felt maligned and maybe he deserved to be maligned, but he had to forget about those things.&rdquo; McLean has always been Quinn&rsquo;s man. He was acquired from the New Jersey Devils seven years ago in Quinn&rsquo;s first trade as Canuck GM. Forward Greg Adams also came west in the trade for Patrik Sundstrom and a 1988 fourth-round pick.He had a rocky rookie season on a dismal Canuck team, winning just 11 of 41 decisions. After two respectable campaigns and his first Vezina Trophy nomination, McLean backslid to a 10-22-3 record in &rsquo;90-91, injured a wrist and nearly lost the starting job to Troy Gamble.He promptly won it back the next season with a spectacular 38-17-9 mark. He made second all-star, earned his second Vezina nomination and became the Canucks&rsquo; first million-dollar player. But the people wanted more come playoff time and he was failing to deliver. The Canucks were just 2-3 in playoff series when McLean was the goalie of record. McLean, a proud individual, bristled at the talk he couldn&rsquo;t win when it counted.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sick and tired of hearing it,&rdquo; he said during the Calgary series.He then silenced everyone the only way he could, with the best performance of his life. &#9632;

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CONN MAN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02973/6088722-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><h2>Canada sitting on top of world</h2>1. Golden performance. After 33-year drought, Canada finally wins World Championship.2. Lucky Luc. L. A. King Luc Robitaille scores gold-medal winning goal.3. Bench boss. Chris McSorley wins third title in 12 months: two ECHL, one roller hockey.4. Kirk McLean. Overtime save on Robert Reichel of Calgary in Game 7 best in the playoffs.5. Shark attack. San Jose Sharks knock off top-ranked Detroit Red Wings in first round.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03646/6088753-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="572" height="753"><figcaption class="caption-body">Luc Robitaille</figcaption></div><h2>Let OT decide championships</h2>1. Shootouts. Fine for deciding regular-season games, lousy way to conclude a championship.2. Flippin&rsquo; the bird. Habs&rsquo; Guy Carbonneau caught in one-finger salute in Montreal paper.3. Blue it. Peoria Rivermen players miss playoffs because St. Louis messed up paperwork.4. Pavel Bure. Canuck delivers knockout elbow to Dallas Stars&rsquo; Shane Churla.5. Russia. Use third stringer against Canada so they could face U.S., then lose to Americans. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">-Alan Adams</div>MILAN, Italy-Much was made of the fact that Canada had not won a gold medal at the World Championships since 1961.The drought for gold has been one year longer for the United States, but this outfit hasn&rsquo;t won a medal of any color since 1963.The Americans came close this year, but settled for fourth place when they lost 7-2 to Sweden in the bronze-medal game.After beating Russia 3-1 in the quarterfinal, the Americans were optimistic. But then the U.S. lost 80 to Finland in the semifinal.Things started falling apart for the U.S. after the round-robin.Chris Chelios came from Chicago and was ready to play against Russia when a fax arrived from Chicago Blackhawk general manager Bob Fulford saying Chelios would not be able play because of an injured knee.The Americans beat Russia 3-1. but more problems arose.Bill Lindsay of the Florida Panthers was suspended because he failed a drug test. Lindsay, who had been the Americans&rsquo; top scorer, was taking a vitamin supplement which contained a banned substance.With Guy Hebert and Les Kuntar out with injuries, the Americans went with third-string goalie David Littman for the bronze-medal game.Russia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Italy were knocked out of the tournament when they lost their quarterfinal games. Germany and France did not qualify for the playoff and Norway beat Great Britain 7-2 to relegate the British to the B pool next year.<h2>RUSSIANS DOMINATE</h2>Canada rules the world in 1994, but it has a long way to go to catch the former Soviet Union in global titles.Russia has won 23 championships since 1947. Here&rsquo;s how other hockey powers have done in that period:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011533/6088784-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="505" height="518"></div> &#9632;

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Fourth best for the U.S.

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021203/6088815-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Luc Robitaille ended 33 years of World Championship frustration with this shootout goal. (CANAPRESS PHOTO)</figcaption></div>MILAN, Italy&mdash;Tell Marc Bergevin the World Championships is a nothing event.Shortly after helping Canada to its first world title in 33 years, the Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman was asked for his feelings. He looked up and a tear rolled down his left cheek. Soon one tear turned to many. Yves Racine was seated next to Bergevin, rubbing his teammate&rsquo;s back. Kelly Buchberger strolled over from the other side of the dressing room and gave Bergevin a hug.There were few dry eyes in Canada&rsquo;s dressing room after the win and no dry hair. Champagne flew around the room as the Canadians unleashed more than three decades of World Championships frustration.&ldquo;You want to party?&rdquo; defenseman Bobby Dollas asked a reporter. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s party now. Come party with the world champions.&rdquo;The Canadians gained that title with a shootout win over Finland after the teams skated to a 1-1 tie after regulation time and a 10-minute overtime period.Luc Robitaille of the Los Angeles Kings faked goalie Jarmo Myllys and tucked the puck into the lower left comer of the net on the decisive goal. And when goalie Bill Ranford forced Mika Nieminen to shoot wide, the Canadians spilled off the bench.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real numb feeling,&rdquo; said Ranford, who has won two Stanley Cups and a Canada Cup.&ldquo;Awesome, just awesome,&rdquo; Dollas said. &ldquo;I had tingles coming down when they sang the anthem. I almost passed out I was so delirious out there.&rdquo;&ldquo;You have no idea how much I am going to cherish this,&rdquo; said Steve Thomas of the New York Islanders.The Canadians, who were undefeated in the tournament, came dangerously close to experiencing another year of frustration.For two periods, neither team gave an inch, but the intensity level was raised a notch in the third when Esa Keskinen scored to put Finland ahead at 6:51.Finland, which had just two current NHLers in its lineup, looked like it was going to hang on for the win until Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour took a cross-ice pass from Robitaille and tied it on the power play at 15:17.During the 10-minute overtime, Paul Kariya broke in on a breakaway, but failed to score, which set the stage for Canada&rsquo;s fate to be determined by a shootout once again.But unlike the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, where Sweden won gold on the exact same circumstances, Canada lived by the shootout.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the law of averages,&rdquo; said Kariya, who took Canada&rsquo;s last shootout shot at the Winter Games and missed on his only shot against Finland. &ldquo;We won. That&rsquo;s all that matters.&rdquo;Especially to those who have seen too few precious victories in their careers. The world title helped make amends for missing the Stanley Cup playoffs or being eliminated in the first round.&ldquo;I am so proud of these guys,&rdquo; said Robitaille. The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; left winger has been criticized in the past for his lack of production in big games, but counted three against Sweden in the semifinals and scored two in the shootout.Just as was the case in Lillehammer, a debate raged over whether a shootout should decide a medal-round game.Canada and Sweden seem to be losing momentum in their quest to have the rules changed to allow for the game to be decided by whomever scores the first goal in sudden-death overtime.&ldquo;I saw what happened at the Olympics and would rather just keep on playing,&rdquo; Robitaille said. &ldquo;It is a team game and it should be decided by a team. But I&rsquo;d rather win it than lose it.&rdquo;The Finns were gracious losers.&ldquo;We had a great team which could have won gold, but we also faced a great team,&rdquo; Jari Kurri said.Sweden won bronze with a 7-2 win over the United States.Kariya had an outstanding tournament, finishing second to Mats Sundin in scoring with five goals and 12 points in eight games. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim prospect was named to the all-star team at left wing, joined by right winger Kurri and center Saku Koivu of Finland. Timo Jutila of Finland and Magnus Svensson of Sweden were the all-star defensemen. Ranford was the first-team goalie.Kariya was named top forward, Ranford top goalie and Svensson top defenseman. &#9632;

f0008-02

GOLDEN BOYS

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>Scoring goals was much easier for San Jose Sharks&rsquo; defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh during the regular season.Ozolinsh ranked second among NHL defensemen with 26 goals during the season, but was blanked after 11 playoff games. That doesn&rsquo;t mean he was invisible in those games, however.Despite admitting he wasn&rsquo;t at the top of his game during a first-round upset of the Detroit Red Wings, Ozolinsh had nine assists in 11 games. He also had been a more physical player, as evidenced by big hits against Toronto Maple Leafs Bill Berg and Peter Zezel.&ldquo;My first few games were bad, but now I&rsquo;m OK,&rdquo; Ozolinsh said. &ldquo;I was playing differently in the first few games against Detroit. I was thinking too much about what I should be doing. But since the fifth game of that series, I have felt more comfortable-more like I did in the season.&rdquo;Ozolinsh played virtually the whole season on the team&rsquo;s top five-man offensive unit, with defense partner Jeff Norton and forwards Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Johan Garpenlov. Ozolinsh said playing with such offense-minded players makes it easy for him to jump into the attack, but that sometimes creates problems when coach Kevin Constantine would rather he stay back.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard when you try to do what both sides are telling you,&rdquo; Ozolinsh said. &ldquo;If they&rsquo;ve got the puck, you know they&rsquo;re going to pass it to you. I don&rsquo;t even see the puck. I just go there because I know they will pass it to me.&ldquo;For me, when they say, &lsquo;You be there,&rsquo; I&rsquo;m going to be there. No question. I don&rsquo;t think they would tell me something wrong. I&rsquo;ve got to listen to what they tell me. I&rsquo;m playing with them on the ice, not Kevin.&rdquo;Despite the long stretch of games without a goal, Constantine said Ozolinsh hasn&rsquo;t altered his game.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say there has been any difference in Sandis between the season and now,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;In the Detroit series, he said he wasn&rsquo;t happy with his play. But I think he has stepped it up since then.&rdquo;CHERRY PICKS: Even well-known Canadian hockey commentator Don Cherry, a former NHL coach who flaunts his disdain for European players, has found it difficult to dislike the Sharks, whose roster has a heavy European flavor.Early in the second-round series against Toronto, Cherry was complimentary toward Russian forwards Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov.&ldquo;I was hoping they&rsquo;d show up wearing Jofa (European-model) helmets with visors,&rdquo; Cherry said. &ldquo;But they&rsquo;re wearing Canadian helmets and no visors. They&rsquo;ve even got me liking them.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After winning Game 7 of their opening-round playoff series at Detroit and gaining a split at Maple Leaf Gardens in the first two games of their second-round series, the Sharks were greeted by about 50 fans and camera crews from six television stations when they arrived at the San Jose Jet Center from Toronto at 3 a.m. May 5. The fans were waving two large Latvian flags in recognition of goalie Arturs Irbe and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh&hellip;Rob Gaudreau sustained a broken nose when he was hit by a puck in Game 4 of the team&rsquo;s first-round upset of Detroit and was forced to play with a full face shield. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to take it off,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pain because it fogs up, but the doctors won&rsquo;t let me get rid of it.&rdquo;<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Igor Larionov, Todd Elik, Jamie Baker, Dale Craigwell, Kip Miller, Viacheslav Butsayev.LW-Johan Garpenlov, Gaetan Duchesne, Ray Whitney, Bob Errey.RW-Sergei Makarov, Ulf Dahlen, Pat Failoon, Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers.LD-Jeff Norton, Shawn Cronin, Vlastimil Kroupa, Mike Rathje.RD-Sandis Ozolinsh, Jay More, Tom Pederson, Michal Sykora.G-Arturs Irbe, Jimmy Waite, Wade Flaherty.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Ozolinsh scoring big with hits and assists

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>On the morning after, Calgary Flames&rsquo; coach Dave King was assessing the damage and he wasn&rsquo;t feeling too good about it.For the fourth time in the past five years, the Flames exited in the opening round of the playoffs as upset victims. They have not won a playoff series in the 1990s- and it&rsquo;s not as if these weren&rsquo;t series the Flames couldn&rsquo;t have won.The Flames were 12 points better than the Vancouver Canucks in 199394 and lost to them just twice in seven regular-season meetings.To make matters worse, the Flames held a 3-1 lead in games. Twice they were in a position to wrap it up at home. Instead, they lost three consecutive games in overtime.&ldquo;When a season ends (like this), the evaluation takes a while,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;You want to give yourself time to think about the complete season.&rdquo;That season included a Pacific Division regular-season title and a sixth place overall finish. King wonders whether striving to attain such lofty regular-season goals is worth it.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re trying to win every game all season long. Maybe that&rsquo;s our problem,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We always go into every game trying to win the damn thing. I look back and think sometimes, &lsquo;Why don&rsquo;t we just relax like some teams appear to do?&rsquo; No, we push, push, push all the time.&ldquo;In the end, I still think that&rsquo;s the way you have to go, but when you don&rsquo;t finish off well in the playoffs sometimes, you begin to wonder.&rdquo;CLOSE CALL: Of all the lost opportunities in the final three games against Vancouver, the most difficult to accept came in overtime of the seventh game when center Robert Reichel had goaltender Kirk McLean at his mercy on a 3-on-l.Reichel took a flip pass from Theo Fleury and rifled it at the net. The goal light came on. Referee Don Koharski wasn&rsquo;t sure, so he called for a video replay. It showed the bad news: McLean kicked his pad out the precise second the puck reached the goal line. It stayed out.&ldquo;He made a great save,&rdquo; Reichel said. &ldquo;Probably, if the puck goes two inches right or left, we would be playing the second round.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Flames&rsquo; left winger Gary Roberts played the entire Canucks&rsquo; series with nerve damage in his arm and shoulder and defenseman Al Maclnnis played the last four games of the series with a broken bone in his left hand. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a damn shame we couldn&rsquo;t play with 20 guys healthy,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not a scapegoat, that&rsquo;s just a bottom-line fact.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 26: Vesa Viitakoski, LW, assigned to Saint John (AHL). April 27: Greg Paslawski, RW, recalled from Peoria (IHL). April 28: Viitakoski recalled from Saint John.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Nieuwendyk, Robert Reichel, Kelly Kisio, Mikael Nylander.LW-Gary Roberts, German Titov, Paul Kruse, Mike Sullivan.RW-Theo Fleury, Ron Stem, Wes Walz, Sandy McCarthy, Greg Paslawski.LD-Zariey Zalapski, Frank Musil, Trent Yawney, Dan Keczmer.RD-AI Maclnnis, James Patrick, Kevin Dahl, Chris Dahlquist, Michel Petit.G-Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joel Otto, C, strained left knee ligaments. &#9632;

King wonders whether team pushed too hard in season

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>Maxim Bets&rsquo; season turned out to be a bit longer than he expected.The 20-year-old forward was planning on going to his off-season home in Russia once the Spokane Chiefs were eliminated from the Western League playoffs.But just before the NHL trading deadline March 21, the St. Louis Blues traded Bets-who was their second-round pick in the 1993 draft-to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for defenseman Alexei Kasatonov and a 1995 sixth-round pick.Ten days later, Bets signed a three-year contract with the Ducks and put on an NHL jersey. By April 8, he was making his NHL debut.&ldquo;He has to be in awe of what really happened in such a quick fashion,&rdquo; said David McNab, director of player personnel for the Ducks. &ldquo;He was going home. Once his season ended, he figured he&rsquo;d be going to Russia. Two or three days after it&rsquo;s over, he&rsquo;s in the NHL.&rdquo;The Ducks wanted him to get the feel of being around an NHL team before coming to training camp next fall. As it turned out, he played in the final four games of the season after the Ducks were hit by injuries.And it didn&rsquo;t stop there. Next he joined Anaheim&rsquo;s minor-league affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, for the International League playoffs. The Gulls upset the Las Vegas Thunder in the first round. Bets had two assists through the Gulls&rsquo; first seven playoff games.Bets will be given a good chance to make Anaheim&rsquo;s roster next season after two great years in the WHL.With Spokane, Bets had 46 goals and 116 points in 63 games, 10th in league scoring. He had 49 goals and 106 points two seasons ago.Though he didn&rsquo;t manage to record a point in his short stint with the Ducks, he showed offensive skills and instincts that impressed the Ducks&rsquo; management.They were less enthused about his defensive play and his play away from the puck. That doesn&rsquo;t mean they&rsquo;re down on him, but they&rsquo;re not convinced he&rsquo;s ready to play in the NHL. However, he&rsquo;s one reason why there are going to be a lot of battles for forward positions.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll fight for a spot, and if he&rsquo;s not ready he&rsquo;ll play in the minors,&rdquo; McNab said. &ldquo;He needs to improve strength-wise and defensively it will take time.&rdquo;ANOTHER GOOD BET: Maxim Bets was one of two top WHL scorers Anaheim managed to add to the fold between drafts.They also signed Mike Maneluk, an undrafted left winger with the Brandon Wheat Kings.Maneluk, 20, had 50 goals and 95 points in 58 games before a strained shoulder sidelined him March 1. He is known for his speed and offensive skills as well as another bonus-he&rsquo;s sound defensively.&ldquo;Mike had a great year,&rdquo; David McNab said. &ldquo;We sort of snuck in and signed him. A lot of others didn&rsquo;t really think about signing him during the season. He&rsquo;s a great skater with a lot of skill. He needs to get stronger too.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a bonus. Since last year&rsquo;s draft, we&rsquo;ve added two highly offensively skilled players. Usually you have to get those players in the draft.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: General manager Jack Ferreira-who was fired by the San Jose Sharks in a front-office power struggle after the team&rsquo;s first season-had this to say on the Sharks&rsquo; success: &ldquo;There are enough players still there that I certainly wish them well, but players only.&rdquo;&hellip;Former Los Angeles King Lonnie Loach, who spent almost the entire season in San Diego and was the Gulls&rsquo; leading scorer, is playing out his option and the Ducks do not plan to offer him another contract. &#9632;

Russia can wait while Bets prepares for big time

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>The media gave him the job months ago. Now if only general manager Glen Sather would do the same thing, George Burnett would have his first NHL coaching position under wraps.Burnett, who took the Cape Breton Oilers to their first American League title in his first season at the helm in 1992-93, is a leading candidate to take over from Sather and become coach of the Edmonton Oilers next season.But he is not the only candidate, as he may have been several months ago when it was all but decided in the Edmonton media he was the natural choice to succeed Sather, who had fired Ted Green and taken the job on an interim basis.Since then, there have been plenty of names and scenarios discussed, but none of them by Sather, the man who will name his successor.All Sather will say is that he has a list of candidates and he hopes &ldquo;to have something done before the draft&rdquo; set for June 28-29 in Hartford.Among the candidates are assistant coach Ron Low and former Canadian Olympic coach Tom Renney, who worked with Team Canada at the World Championships, where Sather was GM.Burnett isn&rsquo;t speculating on his future with the Oilers, other than to say he&rsquo;d love to stay within the organization after his contract expires at the end of May.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident about my ability to get the job done. I&rsquo;ve enjoyed my experience here,&rdquo; Burnett said. &ldquo;The opportunity to be head coach, call your own shots, make mistakes and hopefully correct them, dealing with a veteran club the first year and having success, then with a group of kids and castaways this year; I think being here for two years has been invaluable.&rdquo;Burnett&rsquo;s Oilers were bounced from the playoffs by the St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs in the first round this season, but the team&rsquo;s failure shouldn&rsquo;t reflect poorly on him. He went to war with a young, inexperienced team.Edmonton should have both youth and talent next season and Burnett might be a good fit. He&rsquo;s just 35 and a disciplinarian who can handle youngsters.Low has a wealth of NHL experience as a player and coach. The former goalie&rsquo;s contract is up this season and Sather would hate to see him leave. Low has expressed an interest in the head coaching position and had been rumored as a candidate for the Ottawa Senators before Rick Bowness got the job.NO RECORD: Louie DeBrusk scored a small victory in an Edmonton courtroom April 19.DeBrusk pleaded guilty to public mischief and judge Edward Saddy granted him a conditional discharge, meaning DeBrusk won&rsquo;t have a criminal record, which would have impeded his ability to work in the United States.Instead, he was put on six months probation with 50 hours of community service.The charge stemmed from an incident in which DeBrusk broke a plate-glass window in a store in Edmonton at about 1 a.m. on Feb. 14. He was due to fly with the Oilers to Washington that morning, but missed the flight and within the week was checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for alcohol addiction counselling.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m definitely pleased with the outcome,&rdquo; said DeBrusk, who repaid the store for the $4,000 in damages. &ldquo;The most important part was getting a discharge without a record.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After Bill Ranford, Igor Kravchuk should be Glen Sather&rsquo;s most important free-agent signing. &ldquo;Slats is tough and smart, but I don&rsquo;t want to play for $250,000,&rdquo; Kravchuk said. &ldquo;I hope I&rsquo;ll be back. I like the way the team is playing. We have a big future.&rdquo; &#9632;

Burnett glad for time together, wants more

On July 3, 1994, Okanagan Hockey School Certified Professional Hockey Instructors Program will begin the first of two Apprentice Programs. Each program will run for four weeks. Session I will be held in July, and Session II in August.Okanagan Hockey School is located in the interior of British Columbia and is considered by many to be the finest resort area in Canada. The Okanagan is one of the few regions in North America with a climate that can accommodate the growth of peaches and other soft fruits. It is also an area that cultivates budding young hockey players, through quality instruction and coaching.Experienced 17 and 18-year-old hockey players will participate in a program that will give them the tools to teach the game to young students while working on their own personal skills at the same time.The participants will work with young students both on and off the ice. During this time, they will constantly be monitored by the staff to see that they communicate effectively and relay the correct information to the students.The Apprentice Instructors will have the opportunity to qualify for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association Level I Certification and will begin strides toward the Level II Certification in the second year of the program. In addition, Okanagan Hockey School will certify the participants as Certified Professional Hockey Instructors, assuming they meet all requirements of this program. To compliment the teaching aspect of the program, The APPRENTICE INSTRUCTORS will compete in the PROGRAM OF EXCELLENCE. This is a high level, competitive personal development program with a very impressive alumni, including NHLers such as Rob and Scott Niedermayer, and numerous WHL and college players. The coaches for the PROGRAM OF EXCELLENCE are actively involved in junior hockey coaching, and place some players on rosters in the junior ranks.At the completion of the two year program, Okanagan Hockey School will hire some graduates as full time instructors in the student program.Okanagan Hockey School feels that training instructors in this way will supply the staffing requirements of the school with quality instructors. Many of these apprentices are aspiring players. Some of them will not make the grade in a playing capacity, so this will give them the opportunity to stay in the game in another area. If they do go on as players in a Junior, college, or even pro capacity, the Certification will give them a chance to work during the summer months, while still being involved with the game.For complete details please contact Shawn Dineen, Program Coordinator, Box 201, Penticton, B.C. V2A 6K3 &#9632;

OKANAGAN HOCKEY SCHOOL TRAINS YOUNG INSTRUCTORS AND COACHES IN THE BEAUTIFUL OKANAGAN

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Mounting on-ice losses by the Los Angeles Kings, a mountain of lawsuits, prolonged negotiations to sell the club, the death of friend John Candy and an investigation by a U.S. federal grand jury have taken a toll on Bruce McNall.But, finally, McNall is close to completing his sale of a majority interest in the team.McNall, who cited personal reasons when he resigned as chairman of the NHL board of governors April 29, was closing a $60-million deal with IDB Communications executives Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joseph Cohen that will help him pay off debts.IDB Communications of Culver City, Calif., is the fourth-largest provider of international long-distance service in the U.S. The deal will reduce McNall&rsquo;s ownership in the Kings to 28 per cent, according to a Los Angeles Times report.McNall is expected to supervise the team&rsquo;s day-to-day operations as club president-replacing outgoing Roy Mlakar-and represent the Kings on the board of governors. McNall stepped down as president in 1992 and named Mlakar to succeed him.&ldquo;(McNall) will make the decisions,&rdquo; Cohen said. &ldquo;Bruce is with us to do that. He knows what to do.&rdquo;The sale was announced Dec. 15 and it received league approval in late April. But a snag developed when news surfaced a federal grand jury is looking into whether McNall falsified loan documents, news that scared off Sudikoff&rsquo;s and Cohen&rsquo;s prospective lenders.The deal, which also involves creating a company to build a new arena, was held together when Bank of America agreed to provide the financing for Sudikoff and Cohen. McNall has a $92-million loan from Bank of America, which according to the Times is expected to receive the $60 million in proceeds from the sale. The paper also reported the bank likely will write off the remaining $32 million, but may become a partner in the arena.McNall&rsquo;s star, like his team&rsquo;s, has faded. After marching to the Stanley Cup finals for the only time in their checkered history last season, the Kings plummeted to the fifth-worst record in the league this year (27-45-12) and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1985-86.McNall purchased 25 per cent of the Kings from Jerry Buss, who owns the Forum and the National Basketball Association Los Angeles Lakers, in September, 1986. He became sole owner in March, 1988 and a major player in league circles five months later when he engineered the trade that brought superstar center Wayne Gretzky over from the Edmonton Oilers.McNall&rsquo;s status has been knocked down several pegs by reports his empire-dealing in ancient coins and antiquities, a thoroughbred horse syndicate, a movie-production company and a sports collectibles company-is experiencing financial problems and that selling the Kings was necessary to avoid bankruptcy.The Times reported Sudikoff has spent more than $4 million to cover the Kings&rsquo; payroll and that he purchased the $275,000 Rolls-Royce that was given to Gretzky for breaking Gordie Howe&rsquo;s NHL goals record.McNall is being sued for $28.3 million for allegedly defaulting on a loan to European American Bank in New York; by Twentieth Century Fox Studios for allegedly failing to pay back about $5 million that was advanced for a film; and by the owners of the Century City building where his offices are to recover rent money that allegedly is owed.NOTEBOOK: President Roy Mlakar left May 4 to serve as chief executive officer of Pittsburgh Sports Associates. The company oversees the operations of several professional teams in Pittsburgh, including the NHL&rsquo;s Penguins&hellip;Several Kings will be involved in contract negotiations this summer, including Rob Blake, who played out his option in 1993-94. Others entering their option years: Kelly Hrudey, Charlie Huddy. Tim Watters. Pat Conacher. Robert Lang, Mike Donnelly and Jari Kurri.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 4: Roy Mlakar, president, leaves organization, Bruce McNall, majority owner-governor, becomes president. &#9632;

Troubled owner McNall to sell majority interest

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011264/6089028-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="388" height="548"></div>The shot is right there to see. No one hits a puck harder, faster than Al lafrate. And his skating. What&rsquo;s there to say about the way he skates? If lafrate weren&rsquo;t 6-feet-3 and nearly 230 pounds, we would focus only on how fast his feet move, how he flies around the ice, one part Russ Courtnall, one part Elvis Stojko, one part Man o&rsquo; War.He&rsquo;s big, Big Al lafrate, and when he skates, it&rsquo;s as if some huge 1,200 horsepower cigarette boat is cutting its ferocious, frothy wake through a calm lake. In Game 2 of the Boston Bruins-New Jersey Devils playoff series, Big Al revved up the engines and went coast-to-coast for a goal.From behind his own net, up through center ice, down the left wing. Untouched. Too bad if you were out there paddling in your canoe.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02990/6089021-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="580" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al lafrate</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The way I can skate, the way I can get it cranked up,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;no way should I go unchecked until I&rsquo;m at center ice. That shouldn&rsquo;t happen, not the way I can motor.&rdquo;Big with his shot, fast with his skates, right from the hip with his lip. Little is kept concealed with Iafrate, who came to the Bruins at the March trading deadline for the more stylish, smoother, less bold Joe Juneau.Iafrate is raw and obvious, he is heavy metal, which, not surprisingly, is also his preference (taste is open to debate) in music. The louder, the greater the listening pleasure. No chance the delicate touch of a violin can be heard in the background. Spare the eardrums? Forget it. Pump up the volume.&ldquo;Guess we&rsquo;ll always know when Al&rsquo;s around,&rdquo; said Ken Fleger, the Equipment Doctor (E.Q. M.D.) of the Bruins&rsquo; dressing room.He smokes cigarettes, and even that is obvious, bold, Paul Bunyanesque. Want a butt? Need a light? Sure. Big Al has both at the ready. The crowning touch is the blow torch that he hauls off the equipment table as the lighter. No sense in fussing with a match.His chosen mode of transportation is a motorcycle, Harley Davidson the preferred make.&ldquo;An attitude more than anything,&rdquo; Iafrate says of his love of bikes. &ldquo;(They&rsquo;re) like a big steal horse.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s a sharp dresser, good fabrics, nicely tailored. Socks, though, usually aren&rsquo;t part of the deal. It&rsquo;s a look: a $300 pair of black loafers slipped snugly over two slabs of bare feet. If only the little shoemaker in Italy knew his fine leather would be treated like bedroom slippers.&ldquo;The guy doesn&rsquo;t give a crap,&rdquo; said Iafrate&rsquo;s new coach, Brian Sutter.He&rsquo;s all out there, like him or leave him. The same night he went coast-to-coast against the Devils, Iafrate later made a huge mistake-what, you expected a minor offense?-when he attempted to skate the puck out of his own end in the final seconds of regulation. The Devils had their goalie out, an extra attacker to clog the offensive zone, and Iafrate opted for the cigarette boat approach.Result: puck picked off, shot on net, Bruce Driver&rsquo;s tying goal behind Jon Casey with 3.5 seconds to play. The Bruins needed Don Sweeney&rsquo;s overtime goal to win.All considered, would he make the same choice and skate for daylight rather than make the simple clearing shot off the glass to end it?&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; he said, his light hazel eyes pensive, &ldquo;I would.&rdquo;You get what you get with Big Al. Big play one minute, huge mistake the next, both of them punctuated with that yeah-so-what shrug. You could bet your house he&rsquo;s the guy who opens the fridge, grabs the milk, drinks straight from the carton and puts it back on the shelf for the next cold swig. Keep your glass. He was your best friend as a kid and your mother hated him.Take his tattoos. He has that big Indian in head dress, Crazy Horse, neatly inked high up on his left arm. His other tattoo, on his left calf, is an arrow pointing toward a rainbow. He used his own hand to etch that one. The spirit moved him. It took about 20 minutes, which, as rainbows go, is virtually an eternity. And like most everything in Big Al&rsquo;s life, as obvious as it is, no one knows where it leads. &#9632;

f0016-01

lafrate lights up Bruins’ playoffs

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>They debated behind the dressing room door and gently bantered through the media.Kevin Constantine, the American coach from International Falls, Minn., and Igor Larionov, the international superstar from Voskrensensk, Russia had a slight difference of opinion.When Constantine, a 34-year-old rookie NHL coach, implemented a rigid defensive system with the San Jose Sharks, he insisted it go team-wide. Larionov, a new member of the team, said no.Somewhere along the way they agreed to meet halfway and Larionov did whatever he wanted.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really hard to change me and Sergei (Makarov),&rdquo; Larionov said. &ldquo;We produced goals and the coach left us alone. If it works, let us go&rdquo;Larionov, right winger Makarov and left winger Johan Garpenlov as well as defensemen Jeff Norton and Sandis Ozolinsh, are a team within a team. Unlike almost all of their teammates, each member of the five-man unit is able to control the puck and do something interesting with it.Hockey chemistry lesson No. 1: Conflict, polite or otherwise, is only bad when you lose.And with the 33-year-old Larionov, a free-agent signee, the Sharks don&rsquo;t lose as often or as badly. The deft playmaker helped San Jose rise 57 points in the standings over 1992-93, the greatest improvement in NHL history.Larionov was also leading the team&rsquo;s charge in the post-season. He had two goals and 10 points as the Sharks stunned the Detroit Red Wings in a seven-game Western Conference quarterfinal. He was among the playoff scoring leaders early in the second round.Through the regular season, the Sharks were 30-20-10 (.583 winning percentage) with Larionov in the lineup and 3-15-6 (.250) without him. Larionov scored 18 goals in 60 regular-season games, three short of his career high.If his play isn&rsquo;t better than when he arrived in the NHL as 28-year-old rookie with the Vancouver Canucks in 1989, it is more productive. His 56 points gave him a .933 points-per-game average, the best of his four-year NHL career.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03736/6089059-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="977" height="2097"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Igor Larionov is leading the San Jose Sharks by example. (JIM LEARY/BBS)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;With Larionov, you get a guy who has a great picture of the game,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; director of pro scouting Murray Oliver. &ldquo;He makes more backhand passes in one night than a lot of teams do in a whole season.&rdquo;Larionov&rsquo;s and Makarov&rsquo;s refusal to toe the line represented the first threat to Constantine&rsquo;s authority. By acquiescing, the coach passed with flying colors.&ldquo;You start out a season 0-8-1, you&rsquo;d better keep looking for solutions to try to get better,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the things that evolved, letting those guys play to their strengths.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s one of the things Kevin has had to adjust to,&rdquo; said &#2404; Sharks&rsquo; director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi. &ldquo;How do you get the most out of world class talent? Until you get to the NHL, you can&rsquo;t experience that. Kevin came in with a certain idea and he had to adjust.&rdquo;Larionov, a member of the first wave of players to leave the former Soviet Union for the NHL, was well-liked in Vancouver and still has a home there.&ldquo;If either of my sons grows up to be anything like him, I&rsquo;d consider myself to be a success as a parent,&rdquo; said NHL director of hockey operations Brian Burke, a Canucks&rsquo; executive during Larionov&rsquo;s term.But when Larionov learned the Russian hockey authorities would receive a sum equal to whatever he earned for re-signing with Vancouver, he bolted to Switzerland. The Sharks picked up his rights in the 1992 waiver draft.Larionov earned more in Europe, but liked it less. &ldquo;I missed the league a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was 32 years old so I decided to come back as soon as I could.&rdquo;His impact has been pronounced. Larionov has emerged as the Sharks&rsquo; backbone.&ldquo;Ninety per cent of what I have done this year is because of Igor,&rdquo; said Ozolinsh, a 26-goal scorer in his sophomore year. &ldquo;He gives a great pass and he&rsquo;s unbelievable the way he sees the ice. Off the ice, he&rsquo;s like a godfather to me.&rdquo;&ldquo;I just try to keep young players confident,&rdquo; Larionov said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the playoffs, and especially young players get very excited in the playoffs. I keep things calm and try to help them out.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-03

Rebel with jaws

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>The days of consistent ice time, special-teams assignments and anything resembling a featured role are long since over for Gord Roberts, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean he can&rsquo;t still be an effective player.The 36-year-old Boston Bruin defenseman, who played in a career-low 59 games this year, proved that in the first two rounds of the playoffs.After playing only three of Boston&rsquo;s last six regular-season games, Roberts was returned to the lineup by coach Brian Sutter for the postseason and played regularly in the Bruins&rsquo; first 11 playoff games.&ldquo;There are different reasons Gordie wasn&rsquo;t playing as much at the end of the season,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;Maybe he wasn&rsquo;t playing as well as he could, maybe we wanted to get him a little rest, maybe we liked what some other people were doing.&rdquo;Roberts, a 15-year NHL veteran and one of the last survivors of the World Hockey Association, got the nod in the playoffs over 25-year-old Glen Featherstone and John Gruden, who played seven games at the end of the season after finishing his career at Ferris State University.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to have the experience to fall back on,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;Then again, at other times I wish I had Al lafrate&rsquo;s body and was still 28 years old.&rdquo;The key to Roberts&rsquo; game is simplicity.&ldquo;When he&rsquo;s playing a smart, simple game, he can be as effective as anybody,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;There have been games where he has been our most consistent defenseman.&rdquo;Roberts understands his role with the Bruins at this point in his career.&ldquo;On every team you&rsquo;ve got your top 10 players who&rsquo;ll be out there every night, getting all the ice time they can handle,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;Then there are another 10 or 12 role players who have to try to fit in where they&rsquo;re needed. That&rsquo;s my situation here. If I&rsquo;m used right and don&rsquo;t play too much, I can play a pretty steady game.&rdquo;SWEENEY REBOUNDS: Don Sweeney, frustrated by missing a playoff game for the first time since 1990, got over it immediately.Sweeney won Game 2 of Boston&rsquo;s second-round series with the New Jersey Devils on an overtime goal.&ldquo;Any time you score a goal it&rsquo;s exciting, and to get one in the playoffs in overtime makes it even more so,&rdquo; said Sweeney, who played 66 consecutive playoff games before missing Game 1 against the Devils. &ldquo;To be honest, though, I was really just happy to have the opportunity to play in the first place.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Brent Hughes, who went unclaimed in October&rsquo;s waiver draft and started the season in the minors, was the Bruins&rsquo; first-line left winger by Game 4 of the second round. Hughes scored a goal in his first game playing with Adam Oates, while Oates&rsquo; new right winger, Glen Murray, scored twice&hellip;Glen Wesley, who has never missed a playoff game, played his 100th in a row in the first game of the Devils&rsquo; series.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Adam Oates, Bryan Smoiinskr, Jozef Stumpel, Fred Knipscheer, Andrew McKim.LW-Brent Hughes, Ted Donato, Dave Reid, Cam Stewart, Dmitri Kvartalnov.RW-Glen Murray, Steve Heinze, Mariusz Czerkawski, Daniel Marois, Steve Leach.LD-Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Gord Roberts, Glen Featherstone, John Gruden.RD-Ray Bourque, David Shaw, Al lafrate, Jamie Huscroft, Jon Rohloff, Paul Stanton.G-Jon Casey, Vincent Riendeau, John Blue.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Gritty veteran Roberts big asset in post-season

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>The warning signs were there all along, but the Montreal Canadiens ignored them. So now, the defending Stanley Cup champions are on the outside looking in.The Canadiens were eliminated from the playoffs in the opening round with a sevengame loss to the Boston Bruins. It marked the first time since Serge Savard became Montreal&rsquo;s general manager in 1983 that the team failed to get beyond the first round.Particularly distressing for the Canadiens was their inability to put the Bruins away after taking a 3-2 lead in the series with Game 6 in Montreal.Two wins in Boston Garden gave Montreal a 3-2 lead in the series heading home for Game 6. But the Canadiens lost 3-2 at the Forum and were 5-3 losers in the series finale.Savard and coach Jacques Demers charged the players with a lack of commitment, saying they didn&rsquo;t have the same hunger as last season.&ldquo;There were players who thought they were better than they are,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s normal, but they forgot what it was they did to win.&rdquo;Changes are inevitable, although neither Savard nor Demers blamed any particular player. Nor would they speculate on which players might not return.Forwards Brian Bellows and Vincent Damphousse, expected to carry the offensive load for the Canadiens, were each held to one goal. It&rsquo;s almost certain one of them, likely Bellows who was scratched for one game, will be traded.Defensively, Patrice Brisebois and Kevin Haller struggled. Brisebois was ordered to remain in the dressing room by Demers after the first period of Game 4.All management would say was the Canadiens will get bigger players next season.BAD MEDICINE: The president of the Quebec Association of Surgeons charged the Can-adiens with practising &ldquo;bush medicine&rdquo; in their treatment of goaltender Patrick Roy.Roy was hospitalized for three days with appendicitis, missing the third game of the Boston series, but returned for Game 4 when antibiotics controlled the inflammation. Roy had his appendix removed four days after the Canadiens were eliminated.&ldquo;Patrick Roy is receiving very risky treatment,&rdquo; said Dr. Michel Talbot. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s bush medicine. Is a Stanley Cup more important than health?&rdquo;Jacques Demers rejected Talbot&rsquo;s charge. The Canadiens played Roy on the advice of their own team doctor, D.G. Kinnear.&ldquo;We wouldn&rsquo;t mortgage (the future on) one of the greatest players in the NHL,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;We have the man to think about. He has three kids. We&rsquo;re not going to do that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Captain Guy Carbonneau&rsquo;s days in Montreal could be nearing an end. The free agent didn&rsquo;t help his cause when a picture of him on a golf course giving a newspaper photographer the finger appeared on the front page of Le Journal de Montreal. The 34-year-old center, who apologized for the incident, is reportedly seeking a $l-million-a-year contract&hellip;Defenseman Lyle Odelein, who received two pain-killer injections during each game of the first round, may have off-season surgery to repair his right rotator cuff.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Kirk Muller, Paul DiPietro, Guy Carbonneau, Ron Wilson, Brian Savage, Jim Campbell,LW-John LeClair, Vincent Damphousse, Benoit Brunet, Gilbert Dionne, Pierre Sevigny, Gerry Fleming, Donald Brashear.RW-Mike Keane, Oleg Petrov, Brian Bellows, Ed Ronan, Turner Stevenson, Gary Leeman,LD-Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Peter Popovic, Kevin Haller.RD-Eric Desjardins, Lyle Odelein, Patrice Basebois, Bryan FogartyG-Patrick Roy, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mario Roberge, LW, fractured left ankle. Mathieu Schneider, D, stretched right knee ligaments. &#9632;

Changes to come after early exit

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>The Buffalo Sabres should be used to not getting past the first round, but this year it was especially tough to take.Buffalo lost 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils in Game 7 of the first round series. Coming on the heels of one of the greatest wins in franchise history-the 1-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils in the marathon Game 6-made for bitter disappointment.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; said Dale Hawerchuk. &ldquo;It was so close every game. With a break here or there, it could have gone our way.&rdquo;The Sabres staved off elimination by winning Game 6 in a seven-period contest in which goalie Dominik Hasek made 70 saves. That was a record performance for a Sabres goalie and it is thought to be a NHL record as well.&ldquo;That almost certainly would be the case,&rdquo; said NHL information officer Greg Inglis. &ldquo;But I cannot give you hard evidence of that.&rdquo;Inglis noted that not all teams kept shots-on-goal records until the 1950s.Still, the game was one for the books. Dave Hannan scored at the 5:43 mark of the fourth overtime period-and the 125:43 mark of the game-to give the Sabres the win. It was the sixth longest game in NHL history and the second longest in 50 years. The New York Islanders&rsquo; playoff victory over the Washington Capitals in 1987 was three minutes longer.DARNED FIRST ROUND: The loss marked the second time in three years the Sabres exited in the first round. They beat the Boston Bruins in last season, ending a decade in which they either lost in the first round or didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs.&ldquo;We gave it our best and came up a little short,&rdquo; said coach John Muckier. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud of this team. We played a great series.&rdquo;But the Sabres came up lacking in the offensive department. Buffalo was 0-18-2 in games in which it trailed after two periods. After this series that record was extended to 0-21-2.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Doug Bodger blamed himself for the Game 7 loss. Bodger passed the puck up along the boards and it was intercepted by Bruce Driver for New Jersey&rsquo;s first goal. He was called for tripping Stephane Richer on a play that set up Claude Lemieux&rsquo;s winning goal. Lemieux scored two seconds after Bodger&rsquo;s penalty expired, but the puck went into the net before Bodger could re-enter the play. &ldquo;One person doesn&rsquo;t lose it,&rdquo; said teammate Wayne Presley. &ldquo;The fact is we gave what we had and it wasn&rsquo;t enough. For what we were up against I thought we gave a hell of an effort.&rdquo;The Sabres dressed Pat LaFontaine for the pre-game warmup in Game 7, but it was just for moral support. LaFontaine, out with a knee injury, wanted the team to know he was with them emotionally&hellip;The Sabres were outshot 4816 in Game 7.Dominik Hasek allowed 13 goals on 261 shots, a save percentage of .950 and still lost four games&hellip;The Sabres have now lost all three seven-game series in their history-twice to Boston (1983 and 1992) and now to the Devils.Center Bob Sweeney returned from stretched right knee ligaments for Game 7 after missing the previous six games. Defenseman Peter Svoboda did not return after going out in Game 3 with a strained left knee.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Dale Hawerchuk, Derek Plante, Dave Hannan, Randy Wood, Bob Sweeney, Todd Simon, Doug Macdonald.LW-Yuri Khmylev, Brad May, Rob Ray, Jason Dawe, Jason Young.RW-Alexander Mogilny, Donald Audette, Wayne Presley.LD-Doug Bodger, Philippe Boucher, Ken Sutton, RD-Craig Muni, Randy Moller, Richard Smehlik, Denis Tsygurov.G-Dominrk Hasek, Grant Fuhr, Markus Ketterer.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pat LaFontaine, C, right knee surgery, Craig Simpson, LW, back pain Petr Svoboda, D, strained left knee. &#9632;

Deciding game setback overshadows marathon

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>The Ottawa Senators and the agent for rookie Alexei Yashin look like they&rsquo;re in for a long, hot summer.Mark Gandler, Yashin&rsquo;s representative, said he is planing to ask Senators&rsquo; general manager Randy Sexton to renegotiate his client&rsquo;s contract shortly after this year&rsquo;s draft.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not looking at a little bit of a raise. There&rsquo;s no point having to do this every year,&rdquo; said Gandler. &ldquo;If you ask me if he deserves to get more, I&rsquo;d say so.&rdquo;Yashin made $400,000 (U.S.) in base salary this past season, but with signing and reporting bonuses, Sexton said it tops out at about $750,000 (U.S.).Yashin is entering the second of a five-year contract. He&rsquo;s due for about a $100,000 raise in base salary.While Gandler would not comment on what he and his client would like in terms of a new salary, there&rsquo;s no doubt they&rsquo;re casting a longing eye in the direction of the $1.96 million fellow rookie Alexandre Daigle received this past season.Given Yashin&rsquo;s team-leading 79 points and the fact he was far and away the club&rsquo;s best player, it&rsquo;s not out of the question Gandler could ask the Senators to double the $500,000 (U.S.) salary Yashin is due to make next year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d prefer not to comment on our dirty laundry in the press,&rdquo; Gandler said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the Senators will say no. He was the Senators&rsquo; only bright light in a dismal season.&ldquo;If he had had some support, he would have tom the league apart. It was hard for him to get a pass in the neutral zone. How many shifts did he have to play without the puck?&rdquo;Sexton repeated the club&rsquo;s policy is not to renegotiate contracts.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pleased with the job Alexei has done and we believe he&rsquo;s going to be a great player for us for years to come,&rdquo; Sexton said.QUINN DEAL CLOSE: Winger Dan Quinn and the Senators might not be quite on the same page when it comes to a new contract for the sniper, but at least the two sides are in the same book.Randy Sexton and Quinn&rsquo;s Ottawa-based lawyer, Larry Kelly, have been working on a new contract for the 28-year-old and the chances are good Quinn will be back with the Senators.Quinn returned to the NHL with Ottawa in March after spending 16 months in Europe. He played parts of 10 seasons with six other NHL teams before bottoming out in Minnesota. The North Stars released him in 1992 after Quinn was accused of, but not charged with, sexually assaulting a woman.All Quinn asked for was another chance and he made the most of it.His signing gave Ottawa the finisher it had been lacking since Bob Kudelski was traded to the Florida Panthers in early January. Quinn had seven goals, including three game winners, in 13 games.Just as important, he helped pick up the play of Alexei Yashin.Under the terms of the agreement which brought Quinn to the Senators in March from Bern of the Swiss league, the Senators had until April 29 to sign him.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re co-operating. It&rsquo;s past the deadline, but we&rsquo;re not looking elsewhere,&rdquo; Kelly said.One stumbling block is the remaining year Quinn has left on his contract with Bern, a deal that would pay him $200,000 (U.S.) and supply him with an apartment and a car.The Senators must get his release from Bern and Sexton has had discussions with the Swiss club to that end, but had little luck dealing with the Bern officials.&ldquo;Somebody over there thinks they&rsquo;ve won the lottery and they&rsquo;re trying to take it out of our hide,&rdquo; Sexton said.Quinn is likely looking for a three-year deal starting at about $500,000 per season.NOTEBOOK: There still has been no start to construction on the Palladium as lawyers continue to wade through closing the complex financing for the $192-million project. &#9632;

Yashin looking to cash in

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>Peter Forsberg&rsquo;s decision to forego the World Championships and acclimatize himself to North America surprised many hockey observers. In Sweden, a couple of high-profile columnists resorted to calling the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; top prospect a traitor.Forsberg couldn&rsquo;t care less.&ldquo;The press, the fans, they can say what they like,&rdquo; said the hero of Sweden&rsquo;s gold-medal win at the 1994 Winter Olympics. &ldquo;They have their opinion on my situation, but most of them really don&rsquo;t know what they are talking about.&rdquo;The same people who are questioning Forsberg&rsquo;s patriotism were critical of Mats Sundin in 1990. The Nordiques&rsquo; center was labeled a turncoat when he left Djurgarden of the Swedish Elite League amid contractual controversy to join Quebec.&ldquo;I have to laugh at all the commotion,&rdquo; Forsberg said. &ldquo;I have no reason to feel guilty. I gave it my best shot at the Olympics and I think I did everything for my country then. Now, I&rsquo;m tired. I want to rest a little.&rdquo;And watch some NHL playoff hockey. Forsberg and his father Kent, who was also his coach with MoDo, spent 11 days in North America during the first round of the playoffs. They watched nine games in Toronto, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis, New York and Montreal.&ldquo;People have to understand that hockey in Sweden is now a thing of the past for me,&rdquo; Forsberg said. &ldquo;I wanted to see as many games as possible in North America. I wanted to see firsthand how hockey is played over here. As soon as my season ended with my MoDo team, I became a full-time member of the Quebec Nordiques, a North American professional.&rdquo;The 20-year-old said if he had played in the World Championships, his summer training schedule would have been set back by a month. By not going to Italy, he was able to start working out in the first week of May.&ldquo;I know hockey fans in North America will be asking questions,&rdquo; Forsberg said. &ldquo;They will probably say that I won&rsquo;t be much good over here if I am so tired at the beginning of April. How will I be in shape for the playoffs?&ldquo;Well I can tell them right now not to worry. My situation this season was very unusual. I played more than 90 games since last summer with my MoDo team, with the national team and with the Olympic team. That&rsquo;s a lot of hockey with a lot of teams.&ldquo;Next year, I&rsquo;ll be playing with one team and one team only, the Nordiques. I&rsquo;ll be in top shape when the playoffs come around. And we&rsquo;ll make them.&rdquo;PAGE ADMIRER: Claude Lapointe, one of the few Nordiques who lives year-round in Quebec, said coach and general manager Pierre Page should remain behind the Nordiques&rsquo; bench.&ldquo;I like Pierre a lot,&rdquo; Lapointe said. &ldquo;He really knows his hockey and he knows how to take care of his players. Nobody works harder than he does. And he&rsquo;s the one who gave me the chance to play in the NHL. I can&rsquo;t forget that.&rdquo;Lapointe believes Page shouldn&rsquo;t shoulder all the blame for the Nordiques&rsquo; disappointing season.&ldquo;Everything went sour at the same time,&rdquo; Lapointe said. &ldquo;It would not be fair to force Pierre out of his job because we dropped so dramatically.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Valeri Kamensky is denying rumors he has requested a trade. Kamensky admits he was disappointed with the ice time he received, but said he is happy in Quebec and hopes the Nordiques will sign him to a contract extension before his option year next season&hellip;There&rsquo;s a good possibility Martin Rucinsky will test the free-agent market this summer. He said he&rsquo;d like to come back to Quebec, but doesn&rsquo;t want to be benched like he was this season. The left winger said his preference is to stay in the NHL as opposed to playing in Europe. &#9632;

Forsberg isn’t concerned Swedes say he’s turncoat

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Howard Baldwin called the incident disappointing and frustrating, but some reporters weren&rsquo;t satisfied.They sparred with the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; chairman verbally, jabbing him with questions until he countered with a wonderfully dry one-liner.The bar-room incident that led to arrest warrants being issued for three members of his organization, Baldwin said, &ldquo;isn&rsquo;t something you want to put in your season-ticket brochure.&rdquo;Obviously not. But the incident was, in some ways, a fitting punctuation to Pittsburgh&rsquo;s aborted playoff run, when a team many expected to contend for the Stanley Cup found itself overmatched against the seventh-seeded Washington Capitals in the first round.The incident occurred after the team&rsquo;s breakup party at Froggy&rsquo;s, a popular downtown bar.According to police reports, defenseman Peter Taglianetti repeatedly bumped into David Ninness, 34, of suburban Bethel Park before sucker-punching him in the face.John Welday, the team&rsquo;s conditioning coach, then is alleged to have head-butted Ninness, breaking his nose, and threatened to kill him.The report also said that, after police had been summoned but before they arrived, goalie Tom Barrasso had a conversation with Ninness, during which he said: &ldquo;What&rsquo;s it going to be like with broken knees? I&rsquo;m not kidding.&rdquo;Taglianetti was charged with aggravated assault, a felony. Welday was charged with aggravated assault and making terroristic threats, a misdemeanor. Barrasso was charged with terroristic threats.Taglianetti declined to discuss the incident. Neither Barrasso nor Welday could be reached for comment.Barrasso&rsquo;s agent Tom Reich said, &ldquo;we take these matters seriously, but we&rsquo;re very confident he&rsquo;ll be exonerated.&rdquo;The Penguins issued a terse, three-sentence statement which said the team &ldquo;will co-operate with the National Hockey League and local authorities who may investigate the incident.&rdquo;&ldquo;I would ask that none of us pre-judge, pre-indict, pre-acquit,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;Let the legal process run its course. All the facts will come out, and when they do, we&rsquo;ll know about them.&rdquo;SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER?: After the Penguins were knocked out of the playoffs, Mario Lemieux said he might not decide whether to return for an 11th season until September.Howard Baldwin said May 4 he is &ldquo;100 per cent certain Mario will be back,&rdquo; while general manager Craig Patrick said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very optimistic he&rsquo;ll be back.&rdquo;Steve Reich, one of Lemieux&rsquo;s representatives, cautioned no decision has been made.NOTEBOOK: The Penguins added a layer of management when Roy Mlakar. former president of the Los Angeles Kings, was named chief operating officer. He ranks above Craig Patrick and team president Jack Kelley. &ldquo;(Mlakar) is the man in charge,&rdquo; Howard Baldwin said. &ldquo;Everybody reports to Roy.&rdquo;Some fans and media members called for coach Ed Johnston to be replaced after the Penguins lost to Washington, but Patrick said, &ldquo;I love the job he did and I&rsquo;d love to have him back.&rdquo; Johnston promptly said he wants to return.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 4: Roy Mlakar named chief operating officer.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Shawn McEachern, Bryan Trottier.LW-Kevin Stevens, Tomas Sandstrom, Doug Brown, Jim McKenzie, Markus Naslund, Larry DePalma.RW-Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen, Ed Patterson.LD-Ulf Samuefsson, Grant Jennings, Greg Hawgood, Mike Ramsey, Chris Tamer.RD-Larry Murphy, Kjell Samuelsson, Peter Taglianetti, Greg Brown.G-Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget, Rob Dopson.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Barrasso, Taglianetti charged after bar incident

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>Paul Holmgren returned to his job as Hartford Whalers&rsquo; general manager nearly four weeks after entering the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for treatment of alcoholism.For Holmgren, the recovery period is just beginning.&ldquo;My life had become unmanageable,&rdquo; said Holmgren, who was arrested for drunk driving and evading responsibility following an accident in Simsbury, Conn., March 31. He entered the Betty Ford Center April 1 and left April 27.&ldquo;Going to the Betty Ford was probably the most important thing I&rsquo;ve done in my life. I realize you&rsquo;re not cured by going there. The way they phrase it: &lsquo;You&rsquo;re in discovery. And when you leave, you&rsquo;re in recovery.&rsquo;&ldquo;You discover about the disease and how it could destroy you. It&rsquo;s my choice now. I&rsquo;m not proud of the fact it has come to this, but I&rsquo;ve got to live up to it. I can do it.As part of the program, it is recommended Holmgren attend one Alcoholics Anonymous meeting per day in the 90 days following his release from Betty Ford.Holmgren, who was convicted of drunk driving in New Jersey in 1992, had attended A.A. meetings there, but gave them up when he became Whalers&rsquo; coach in 1992-93.He said his problems with alcohol became acute in the last four or five months and he contemplated going for treatment after the season.Holmgren has applied for special probation that could clear the charges from his record. Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon has not indicated Holmgren&rsquo;s job is in jeopardy and Holmgren said he wants to continue.&ldquo;I was in treatment thinking, &lsquo;I could lose my job. I could lose my wife, my family,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Five days in, I realized, it&rsquo;s up to me. If I don&rsquo;t get better, I won&rsquo;t have anything anyway. I plan on being GM. I want to be GM.&rdquo;MCGUIRE&rsquo;S JOB SAFE: Coach Pierre McGuire received a vote of confidence from Paul Holmgren following a three-hour meeting April 28.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m 100 per cent behind Pierre,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;Pierre is willing to try to get these guys and meet with them in the next few weeks.&rdquo;Many members of the organization-players and non-players-questioned the leadership of McGuire and said he lost their respect and trust.&ldquo;There are a number of players unhappy with Pierre,&rdquo; said goalie Sean Burke. &ldquo;For us to be successful, we&rsquo;re going to have to clear up problems. There is a general sense among the team that they need to be more confident Pierre is going to be there to back them up. The best example is the Buffalo incident where a lot of the guys felt he wasn&rsquo;t in our court.&rdquo;Six players and an assistant coach were arrested outside a nightclub March 24 following a brawl. McGuire and captain Pat Verbeek, among those arrested, disputed whether there was a curfew that night.&ldquo;Those things are correctable and reconcilable,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;Every coach is going to have problems with certain players. You have to do your best to mend the fences.&rdquo;McGuire said he was happy with the job he did in his first year. The Whalers were 23-37-7 after he took over from Holmgren Nov. 16.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very prepared for every game and no coach is going to outwit me as far as strategy goes,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Chris Pronger was sentenced to three days in jail and fined $483 April 18 after pleading no contest to driving under the influence of alcohol and erratic driving in Ohio. It was the fourth alcohol-related incident involving the Whalers in a one-month span, the second involving Pronger. The 19-year-old defenseman also received three years probation and had his driver&rsquo;s license suspended from April 18 to May 3. The three-day jail sentence, which includes watching films and listening to speakers about alcohol, will be served in May. Although the drinking age in Ohio is 21 years old, Pronger, who was visiting his brother Sean at Bowling Green State University, was not charged with underage drinking. &#9632;

‘I can do it,’ Holmgren says after return from Betty Ford

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>The 1993-94 season was a memorable one for what happened on the ice. Wayne Gretzky became the NHL&rsquo;s scoring King, the San Jose Sharks posted one of the biggest upsets in playoff history and Sweden won its first-ever Olympic gold medal in dramatic fashion with a shootout win over Canada.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01957/6089272-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="579" height="806"><figcaption class="caption-body">Garry Valk&rsquo;s card showed emotion-something others lacked.</figcaption></div>There may not have been as many exciting moments in the card industry, but one thing there was no shortage of this season was product. Thanks to NHL expansion, collectors were inundated with more cards than ever before.Here is this observer&rsquo;s completely subjective sampling of the best, worst and wackiest in hockey cards this season:Best card: Upper Deck&rsquo;s Garry Valk. In a year when static shots reigned, Valk is pictured on his card jumping into the arms of a teammate after a goal.Worst card: The Jeff O&rsquo;Neill illustration card in the 1993 Classic Hockey Draft set.Best set: Leafs first attempt at hockey gets a slight edge over the traditional favorite, Upper Deck. Leaf&rsquo;s card backs were the deciding factor.Worst set: Fleer&rsquo;s PowerPlay set was the perfect example of a great idea, terrible execution. Making a tall boys set was a brilliant concept, but the horizontal and outdated photos made it a bust.Worst decision: Score released its issue two weeks before training camp and 57 players in the set had already changed teams by the time the season began.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02634/6089265-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="580" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Classic was the first company to get Radek Bonk on a card.</figcaption></div>Best card backs: Anything in the Leaf set and the Chris Drury and Dan Plante cards in the Classic Hockey Draft set.Worst collation: Take your pick. Upper Deck, Parkhurst, Leaf and Topps Stadium Club were all terrible.Best innovations: 1. Classic including almost every first-round prospect for the 1994 entry draft in its Class of &rsquo;94 subset. 2. Donruss delaying its update set to get all the players traded at the March 21 deadline in their new uniforms. 3. Parkhurst&rsquo;s Missing Link set from 1956-57.Worst blunders: 1. Upper Deck comparing Mikael Nylander to Wayne Gretzky in its Next in Line subset. 2. Topps Stadium Club giving Guy Carbonneau a rating of 4.0 out of 10 for his defensive-zone coverage.Best subsets: Leafs Gold Leaf rookie set. 2. The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association Program of Excellence subset by Upper Deck.Unluckiest break: Score went to the trouble to sign first overall draft pick Alexandre Daigle and made a Daigle redemption card in its set, only to find that other companies who released their sets later had Daigle and all the other top rookies in uniform.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03424/6089258-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="582" height="807"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leaf&rsquo;s card backs gave it the edge as best set this season.</figcaption></div>Biggest disappointment: That the Canadian Hockey League couldn&rsquo;t reach an agreement with a card company in time to put out a league-wide major junior set. &#9632;

f0020-01

Good, bad and the weird from 1993-94 season

<div class="byline">By THN Staff</div>Although the NHL Players&rsquo; Association will not go into specifics, it has good news for the beleaguered hockey card industry.NHLPA associate licensing director Chris Malone said the industry has has experienced &ldquo;modest growth&rdquo; in 1993-94 over the previous season.&ldquo;The signs are there that we have turned the comer,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;In 1992-93 we were down substantially, but to this point we are in a position to expect some growth over last year.&rdquo;Whether that will change anything in terms of the joint licenses issued by the NHL and NHLPA is too early to tell. Malone said there have been inquiries about licenses for next season, but the two bodies have yet to even settle on a process for deciding whether or not to add any more card companies.The NHL and NHLPA grant licenses for between three and five years and no licenses are up for renewal next season, meaning Fleer, Leaf, Score, Topps and Upper Deck will all be back in the fold in 199495.Concerned with the amount of product in the marketplace, the NHLPA and NHL decreed last year that each company is allowed to produce just two brands. Malone said that controversial policy may be reviewed, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s far too early to tell right now.&rdquo;NO SET: After going without a card set for the third straight season, fans of major junior hockey will not have a Memorial Cup set this season, either.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01719/6089303-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="580" height="819"><figcaption class="caption-body">Will Score be allowed more than two brands next season?</figcaption></div>There had been hopes that there would be a set featuring players from the teams in the tournament, but apparently it was scuttled by the fact that the Ontario League doesn&rsquo;t have imaging rights over most players who are not rookies.The Western League and Quebec League have a standard player&rsquo;s contract for each player which surrenders the imaging rights to the league. But the OHL, which established a standard player&rsquo;s contract this season, was mostly able to only get first-year players on board.All of which came as bad news to Dan Graham, owner of Slapshot Ventures of Kitchener, Ont. Graham&rsquo;s company had done team sets for most of the teams in the OHL and several QMJHL entries and Graham was hopeful of doing the Memorial Cup set.Graham said he had a distributor on board and the project was ready to go until OHL commissioner David Branch told him the CHL turned down his proposal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very disappointing,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;We offered them what we thought was a great deal of money for doing nothing.&rdquo;Branch could not be reached for comment.NATIONAL SET TO GO: The National Sports Collectors Convention, recognized as North America&rsquo;s sports memorabilia&rsquo;s showcase event, is set for Aug. 4-7 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.The 1994 National will feature a sneak preview day Aug. 4 and will then be followed by the three-day show. &#9632;

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Card industry has ‘turned the corner’

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Alexandre Daigle claims he doesn&rsquo;t even like doing card shows. Try telling that to the kid with the cap and the oversized Ottawa Senators&rsquo; jersey.Daigle was recently at large show in Toronto signing autographs when he noticed a young boy outside the barricade, unable to see his hero because he got there too late.We can&rsquo;t have that, Daigle thought to himself. He summoned the child over and signed while the boy&rsquo;s father furiously clicked off picture after picture.But this kid was resilient. He stayed and stared right through the session. After he finished signing, Daigle put his arm around the boy and said &ldquo;Hey buddy, how about lunch?&rdquo;They ate their hot dogs, drank their pop and Daigle offered tips on stickhandling and proper moussing. By this time, Dad had gone through another roll of film.As they parted, the youngster told Daigle he took an awful lot of heat for his allegiance to Daigle and the Senators this season.&ldquo;Not as much as we took,&rdquo; Daigle responded with a pat on the boy&rsquo;s head.Not long after, Daigle was on the way to have his Nissan 300ZX cleaned and he was talking on his car phone. They are the two luxuries he has afforded himself, although he can afford many others.He is talking about his rookie season in the NHL. Only one problem, where does he start? Consider the Senators were fined $100,000 for comments made by previous owner Bruce Firestone that led to suspicion the Senators were prepared to lose to land Daigle; that he became the league&rsquo;s sixth-highest paid player before even stepping on the ice; and that he didn&rsquo;t live up to the lofty expectations that almost everybody had for him.&ldquo;It was my dream to play in the NHL and I did it this year,&rdquo; Daigle said. &ldquo;I look at the guys playing in the playoffs and I say to myself, &lsquo;I played against those guys.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s cool.&ldquo;But we went 40 games and we didn&rsquo;t win. That was really, really hard.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01851/6089341-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="586" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexander Daigle&rsquo;s World Junior rookie card sells for $8.</figcaption></div>That wasn&rsquo;t all that was hard. The first overall pick in the 1993 draft found out very quickly that things would not come easily to him in the NHL. Although he did score 20 goals and 51 points-respectable numbers for a first-year player-there will be no need to get outfitted for a tuxedo to wear at the NHL awards. Forget about the best rookie in the league, Daigle wasn&rsquo;t even the best rookie on the worst team in the league this season.He wasn&rsquo;t even the best Alex on the Senators.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s insignificant to us,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness. &ldquo;We set a standard for Alexandre this season and we&rsquo;re pleased with the way he developed. Considering everything he faced this season, we thought he handled things extremely well.&rdquo;Daigle not only faced the music this season, he hummed to it with a smile on his face. It was that charisma the Senators banked on when they signed him to a five-year $12.5 million contract. Quick, enjoy this kid before he gets jaded.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m having lots of fun and I&rsquo;m positive for me and the team next season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now that&rsquo;s a great expose, eh?&rdquo;When Daigle signed his contract, the same people in the NHL who pay players $500,000 a season to sit in the press box publicly wondered whether the Senators had taken leave of their senses.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01756/6089334-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="588" height="807"><figcaption class="caption-body">Classic Cards did a 10-card Daigle subset this season.</figcaption></div>Daigle, incited more controversy when he appeared in an advertisement for Score hockey cards wearing a female nurse&rsquo;s uniform. Somehow it&rsquo;s all right for basketball players to impersonate their grandmothers in sneaker ads, but Daigle was vilified for what he did. Daigle admits he would think twice before doing that again, but he&rsquo;s also mindful of the fact that Score pays him about $200,000 to promote its product.On the ice, Daigle silenced many of his doubters when he scored six goals and 14 points in October to earn rookie-of-the-month honors. But Daigle lost a steadying influence when linemate Dave Archibald was injured in November.Without Archibald to cover up for Daigle defensively, more flaws started to show up in his game. While the effort was always there, Daigle also had trouble with the mental preparation and focus that are so important to the game&rsquo;s consistent players.Some nights he was one of the best players on the ice, others you wouldn&rsquo;t notice him if not for his odd choice of jersey numbers.Meanwhile, fellow rookie Alexei Yashin was shining. The two are very different and the feeling in Ottawa is that Yashin makes players around him better, but Daigle will excel when he is surrounded by better players.And while he occasionally beat opponents to the outside with his speed, Daigle rarely exhibited the one-on-one skills that made him a huge star in the Quebec League.But don&rsquo;t forget, just three years ago, Daigle was playing midget hockey.&ldquo;Oh yeah, to be focussed all the time, that&rsquo;s the big point,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In junior hockey I could do whatever I wanted playing at about 50 or 55 per cent. Here it&rsquo;s so much different. It&rsquo;s a long season and you have to be focussed every night, but losing so much makes it tough to do that sometimes.&rdquo;Off the ice, Daigle made a sizeable impact in the collectibles market, especially in Ottawa. His Upper Deck rookie card sells for about $8 and Classic did a 10-card Daigle subset.&ldquo;Any Senators&rsquo; stuff sells extremely well because they have Daigle and Yashin,&rdquo; said Dave Bullis of the Ottawa Sports Gallery. &ldquo;From that standpoint, they did the right thing by taking him. Anything with those guys is out of here right away.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Phenom Daigle plays to mixed reviews as rookie ‘To be focussed all the time, that’s the big point’

<div class="byline">By Kevin Allen</div>NHL players have been captured out of uniform in new hockey card set that has sparked a war of words between the league and its Players&rsquo; Association.Steve Solomon, the NHL&rsquo;s chief operating officer, said league officials are unhappy its trading card partners had opted to issue the 45-card Be-A-Player boxed set in late April without NHL involvement.&ldquo;I have expressed to them that I was disappointed they chose to do this unilaterally,&rdquo; Solomon said. &ldquo;Clearly, this kind of set could have been done on a joint basis.&rdquo;The Be-A-Player set, produced by Upper Deck, features players in leisure activities, such as Detroit Red Wing center Sergei Fedorov playing soccer, Ottawa Senator center Alexandre Daigle shooting pool and Toronto Maple Leaf center Doug Gilmour sitting on his motorcycle.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a great idea,&rdquo; said Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Dave Ellett, who is included in the set. &ldquo;This gives fans a chance to see us in a different light. And it gives us a chance to give something back to retired players.&rdquo;The Be-A-Player proceeds go directly to the retired players&rsquo; fund. A box sells for between $20 and $25.Upper Deck set itself up for angry phone calls from the NHL with its decision to produce the set for the NHL-PA. Upper Deck has a joint license with both the NHL and NHLPA.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01826/6089379-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="587" height="818"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Verbeek tends to his farm chores in the Be A Player set.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I have expressed my concern to Upper Deck,&rdquo; Solomon said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not entirely sure what their motivation was.&rdquo;With the product limited to 25,000 numbered and boxed sets, the NHLPA predicts a sellout. But no one is sure how well the product will sell through to the consumers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an attractive looking set,&rdquo; said dealer Daniel Naiman of Sports Collector&rsquo;s Heaven in Toronto. &ldquo;But I have my doubts about how well it will sell. I don&rsquo;t know if collectors will go crazy over seeing Doug Gilmour on a Harley or seeing Pavel Bure in a towel. I think they would rather see Patrick Roy making a splits save.&rdquo;NHLPA associate licensing director Chris Malone said their experience at card shows suggests dealer resistance is being altered by collector response.&ldquo;Once the collectors get the cards in their hands they like them,&rdquo; Malone said.Some of the photography for the set is exceptional. Famous sports photographer Walter Iooss was responsible for 18 of the cards, including the shots of Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan.But the picture most collectors remember is not one of the Iooss Collection. It&rsquo;s the shot of Bure wrapped only in a towel while sitting in the sauna.Malone admits he has received mixed reviews about the decision to allow the shot into the set.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t intended to be a beefcake shot,&rdquo; he said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02557/6089372-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="577" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pavel Bure&rsquo;s sauna shot is a hot item for the card set.</figcaption></div>NHLPA director of licensing Ted Saskin said the shot was allowed because Bure was comfortable with the idea and enjoyed being part of something different. &ldquo;A sauna is part of his image,&rdquo; Saskin said. &ldquo;We know whether the player is comfortable or not with the shot.&rdquo;By contrast, Malone said, the original Iooss shot of a dripping wet Rob Niedermayer at Key Biscayne beach was edited because it showed Niedermayer bare-chested.&ldquo;Rob is a quiet, conservative guy and we wanted to show that,&rdquo; Malone said. The Neidermayer card now shows just his face.Encouraged by the initial response. Saskin said he has already scheduled to meet with the Upper Deck company to discuss next year&rsquo;s plan. Among the things being considered is an expanded set issued in foil packs. &#9632;

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NHL, Players’ Association at odds over ‘Be A Player’

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01730/6089410-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sergei Fedorov was the biggest star on a Detroit team full of stars. (DAN HAMILTON)</figcaption></div>Sergei Fedorov has an ability to close his eyes and transport himself back in time and place. One moment, he is joking with teammates in the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; dressing room, and in the blink of an eye he is a little boy on a pair of skates enjoying what he calls &ldquo;the big winters&rdquo; of Russia&rsquo;s far north.&ldquo;Every year when I was a kid we skated on a river and there was a plant that would freeze in the middle of the water,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;It was a green plant with a white flower. I can still see it, because part of it would stick up above the ice. We used to skate around this plant, looking at it. It was good exercise.&rdquo;Four years into his NHL career, life has changed more than the young Fedorov ever could have imagined, but he hasn&rsquo;t stopped pausing to appreciate the flowers in his path. His emergence as the star on a talented team in Detroit, the All-Star Game in New York, the scoring race and a blossoming friendship with Wayne Gretzky were some of the fragrances he inhaled along the way in a remarkable season that now includes his selections as The Hockey News/Mennen MVP and THN/Louisville Player of the Year.The MVP award was voted on by THN correspondents, who chose Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres second and John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers third. The player award was voted on by THN readers. Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings and Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins finished second and third.THN winners in the Major Junior Player of the Year, U.S. College Player of the Year, Minor Pro Prospect of the Year and Minor Pro coach of the Year categories will be announced in the Draft Preview issue.Winners in The Hockey News NHL Coach of the Year, NHL Executive of the Year and THN/Sherwood MVP of the playoffs categories will be announced in the Stanley Cup issue.Fedorov was flattered to learn of his awards.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great honor,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited. The Hockey News is a very important newspaper. Everybody reads (it).&rdquo;The statistics Fedorov compiled speak favorably on his behalf: 56 goals, 120 points, plus-48 with 10 game-winning goals in 82 games.But his numbers during the absence of teammate and captain Steve Yzerman speak volumes. When Yzerman missed 26 games with a herniated disc, Fedorov raised his game and scored 17 goals and 45 points while the Wings went 16-8-2.&ldquo;Somebody had to step up and be a leader when Steve got injured,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I think I did my best.It was during Yzerman&rsquo;s absence that Fedorov got involved in a couple of scoring races. He and Gretzky were neck-and-neck all season in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. He and Pavel Bure went to the wire for the goal-scoring title. Fedorov finished second and third in those categories.A concussion suffered near the end of the season may have cost Fedorov both titles. He collided with teammate Shawn Burr in a game April 5 and missed the next two games. He returned for a game, then took a punch in the head in the season finale against the Dallas Stars that aggravated the concussion.A week after the Wings had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the San Jose Sharks, he was still feeling disoriented, though he played all seven games of the postseason and led his team in scoring.&ldquo;Things never came back to me. I was still feeling a little bit fuzzy,&rdquo; said Fedorov, who believes that if he played the final five games of the season he would have at least caught up with Bure and his 60 goals.Fedorov doesn&rsquo;t dwell on history. He enjoys it. In the blink of an eye, he is a boy again on a rink in Russia, lying on his back. He jumps up and skates hard to the blueline. Now he is on his knees, jumping up and skating to the other blueline.&ldquo;Training secret,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;My father told me the first five steps are the most important.&rdquo;Fedorov has taken the most important steps towards perennial stardom in the NHL and with it, financial security. But he still finds himself in awe of his new life. He remembers how miserable it can be where he left. Something as simple as a money machine he finds remarkable.&ldquo;I went, &lsquo;Wow!&rsquo; In Russia with money like it is today, sometimes you have to carry around a bag of money just to buy a meal,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;We did not have credit cards. Here I get money from a machine. I have to tell myself not to get excited about each thing because I&rsquo;d spend all day going, &lsquo;wow, wow, wow!&rsquo;&rdquo;That job is now left to his many admirers.<h2>THN AWARDS</h2>THN/MENNEN MOST VALUABLE PLAYERSergei Fedorov, DetroitTHN/LOUISVILLE PLAYER OF THE YEARSergei Fedorov, DetroitTHE HOCKEY NEWS DEFENSEMAN OF THE YEARRay Bourque, BostonTHN/UPPER DECK GOALIE OF THE YEARDominik Hasek, BuffaloTHN/GILLETTE ROOKIE OF THE YEARAlexei Yashin, OttawaTHN/ITECH KING CLANCY AWARDTommy IvanTHN/STARTER MINOR HOCKEYPLAYERS OF THE YEARDustin Rousseau (Canada)Zachary Mulder (United States) &#9632;

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FLOWER POWER II

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01794/6089441-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BRIAN WINKLER/BBS)</figcaption></div>Leave any conception of reality at the door when you go to see Dominik Hasek play. Pick it up on your way out. You won&rsquo;t need it while you&rsquo;re there.Hasek did this season what every other goalie for the last 20 years has found impossible. What he did the night of April 27 and the early morning hours of April 28 was even harder.Hasek, voted The Hockey News/Upper Deck Goaltender of the Year by THN readers, put an exclamation mark on an unforgettable season when he stopped 70 shots in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the New Jersey Devils. A goal by Dave Hannan with just over six minutes gone in the fourth overtime period gave the Sabres a 1-0 victory and ended the sixth-longest game in NHL history.The Sabres ultimately lost the series in seven games, but Hasek stopped more shots than any other goalie in the first round.The vote reflected Hasek&rsquo;s startling regular-season statistics. His 1.95 goals-against average was the best since Bernie Parent of the Philadelphia Flyers turned in a 1.89 GAA in 1973-74. Hasek&rsquo;s .930 save percentage was the best since the league began keeping track. (See accompanying chart).&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a wonderful feeling,&rdquo; Hasek said. &ldquo;I had a wonderful season. I can&rsquo;t believe it still. To be under 2.00, you have to be a good goalie, but you have to have a good team and you have to be a little lucky.&rdquo;John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers and Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens finished second and third in voting.Hasek had a better season than Roy, even though Roy, this era&rsquo;s best goalie, enjoyed what he considered his finest season.Hasek&rsquo;s Game 5 win over New Jersey underscored that fact. Roy set what seemed an unattainable standard when he stopped 60 shots as the Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins 2-1 April 25. Hasek bettered it by recording what amounted to two shutouts against the Devils.&ldquo;His performance has to rate with what Bill Ranford did in Edmonton in 1990 when we won the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;He has been phenomenal.&rdquo;And a phenomenal surprise.Hasek, 29, arrived in the NHL in 1990 with the Chicago Blackhawks accompanied by gleaming credentials. He was a five-time goaltender of the year in the Czechoslovakian Elite League, but was never able to challenge Ed Belfour for the No. 1 job.He did time with the Indianapolis Ice, Chicago&rsquo;s International League affiliate, during both of his seasons in the Hawks&rsquo; organization.Hasek&rsquo;s style does not engender immediate confidence. He charges out of his net to get at shoot-ins-his teammates call him The Gambler because of his daring forays-and likes to drop his stick and pick up pucks with his blocker hand. Sometimes he will bust a breakdancing move and whirl on his back to stack the pads.He had respectable numbers, a 2.60 GAA in 20 games with the Hawks in 1991-92, but there were no cries of outrage when Hasek was dispatched to the Sabres for Stephane Beauregard and future considerations in the summer of 1992.Hasek proved his worth last season-he racked up an 11-10-4 record with a 3.15 GAA-but the acquisition of Grant Fuhr relegated him to the bench.When Fuhr left the lineup to have bone chips removed from his left knee in November, Hasek got another chance.He first flirted with the 2.00 standard around Christmas and broke the plateau for good Feb. 18. Fuhr returned, but couldn&rsquo;t regain his No. 1 status.Perhaps the most unlikely element of the season&rsquo;s most unlikely story is how Hasek has dealt with his sudden standing among the league&rsquo;s elite.For Hasek, who had to wait seven years after being drafted to leave Czechoslovakia, this season should be one of sweet vindication. But he is open in his desire for approval.&ldquo;For me, it&rsquo;s very important that I feel people like me here,&rdquo; Hasek said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s why I play so well, because the players, coaches, the people in the stadium, believe in me.&rdquo;Hasek has begun to elicit the type of worshipful bows St. Louis Blues&rsquo; fans bestowed on Curtis Joseph last season. He even has a pair of nicknames, The Dominator and, in reference to his seven shutouts, the Blank Czech.&ldquo;Last year, when he got here he was a little more shy, he didn&rsquo;t speak much,&rdquo; Hannan said. &ldquo;We welcomed him with open arms and he has given us a world of confidence.&rdquo;&ldquo;Every time (the other team) shoots the puck,&rdquo; Muckier said, &ldquo;you think he&rsquo;s going to stop it.&rdquo;After surrendering seven goals in his first start, Hasek went the rest of the way squeezing wins out of low-scoring games. The Sabres averaged just over three goals a game in Hasek&rsquo;s starts, yet he still posted a 30-win season.While consistency has pushed him into the upper echelon of the game&rsquo;s goalies, Hasek&rsquo;s stock and trade remains the spectacular. His hands aren&rsquo;t the fastest-Ranford, for example, has a quicker glove-but Hasek&rsquo;s game is built from the skates up to the waist. No one moves across the net faster.During practices in Chicago, some Blackhawks liked to test Hasek by hammering rapid-fire low shots from the slot that he would take with his skates. Hasek was all but unbeatable in the drill.&ldquo;I call it fast and flexible,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; goaltending coach Mitch Korn. &ldquo;It means being able to move your whole package across the net. Dominik is the greatest I&rsquo;ve ever seen at that. He gets there early.&rdquo;Unfortunately for NHL shooters, he also stays until the job is done.<h2>DOMINATOR DOMINATES</h2>Dominik Hasek crushed the save percentage standard this season with a .930 mark. Below are the save percentage leaders of No. 1 goalies since 1982-83, the year the NHL began recording the statistic. &#9632;

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THE BLANK CZECH

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>Chicago Stadium wasn&rsquo;t exactly &lsquo;The House that Ivan built,&rsquo; but Tommy Ivan did have a big hand in its maintenance.A member of the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; organization since the 1950s, Ivan helped resuscitate a floundering franchise and create the mystique that developed for the Madhouse on Madison.Naturally, the team&rsquo;s 83-year-old vice-president was sentimental after the final game played there, a 1-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs April 28. Still, he did the gentlemanly thing and popped into the Toronto dressing room to wish the victors well. It was typical of the class he has displayed throughout his career.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not as active as I once was,&rdquo; Ivan said, &ldquo;but I enjoy my involvement with hockey as much as ever. I love the game and I try to find ways to repay it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01777/6089472-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="583" height="986"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tommy Ivan enjoyed working with plumbers as much as stars.</figcaption></div>For his long and continued service to the game, Ivan is this year&rsquo;s winner of The Hockey News/Itech King Clancy Memorial Award.At a point in life where most people are long retired, Ivan has maintained an office at the Stadium. He&rsquo;ll have a new one at the United Center.While he no longer keeps a 9-to-5 work schedule, Ivan has been there to assist the Hawks, as well as the Hockey Hall of Fame and USA Hockey.The Toronto native has more than 50 years of hockey experience. He began his career in the 1940s as a minor league coach in the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; organization. From 1947 to 1954, he piloted the Wings and led them to three Stanley Cups. His most memorable triumph came in &rsquo;52 when his team went 8-0 in the playoffs.In 1954-55, Ivan left Detroit to take over as general manager of the Hawks, who had finished last six of the previous eight seasons.Ivan rebuilt the Blackhawks and their crumbling network of minor pro and sponsored junior teams. Among the players he brought into the organization were Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Glenn Hall, and Pierre Pilote.Chicago captured the Cup in 1961 and remained an exciting, colorful team throughout the &rsquo;60s.&ldquo;Players like Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita are great guys and I enjoyed working with them,&rdquo; Ivan said. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t just enjoy working with great hockey players, I enjoyed working with mediocre players and even some who weren&rsquo;t mediocre. Hockey players in general are great guys.&rdquo;Ivan stepped down as the Hawks&rsquo; GM in 1977. He remained part of the organization and, to team owner Bill Wirtz, part of the Hawks&rsquo; &ldquo;family.&rdquo;&ldquo;They treat me pretty well,&rdquo; said Ivan, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still connected and still on call for anything. I enjoy it all very much and if I&rsquo;ve contributed anything, well, that&rsquo;s fine.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-01

Ivan contributed to Chicago Stadium mystique

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>Alexei Yashin has learned a lot of new words since coming from Russia to play for the Ottawa Senators.&ldquo;Team&rdquo; is perhaps the one he uses most.Getting him to talk about himself is like trying to get the puck away from the big rookie.Yashin, voted The Hockey News/Gillette Rookie of the Year, is coy when asked to evaluate his first year in the NHL in individual terms. Jason Arnott of the Edmonton Oilers and Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils finished second and third in voting.It&rsquo;s not that Yashin has anything of which to be ashamed.Playing on the last-place club in the NHL, the league&rsquo;s worst offensive and defensive team, the 20-year-old center led Ottawa in scoring with 79 points this season and was second among NHL rookie scorers behind Mikael Renberg of the Philadelphia Flyers.The only rookie to play in the All-Star Game, he scored two goals, including the winner for the Eastern Conference.&ldquo;(My season) was okay,&rdquo; Yashin said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be more happy if the Senators played better and had a higher place in the standings. I try to do everything I can for the Senators.&rdquo;He did allow that receiving the honor from THN readers is an important distinction.&ldquo;This makes me so happy. It is an important (award) for me because it is from the people who watch hockey,&rdquo; said Yashin from Italy where he was playing for Russia in the World Championships. &ldquo;I play on the ice for the Senators and for those fans who come to hockey games.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s outstanding,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; general manager Randy Sexton when told of Yashin&rsquo;s honor. &ldquo;It shows the impact Alexei made not just on our hometown fans, but on the fans in every other NHL city.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01677/6089503-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="581" height="1067"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Yashin was the only rookie in the 1994 All-Star Game.</figcaption></div>Yashin had his ups and downs this year, getting off to a quick start and earning league rookie-of-the-month honors in November.His production slowed through February and early March before rebounding in the final month of the season. He was bolstered by the addition of winger Dan Quinn, who was signed as a free agent late in the year.Yashin entered the league as a bit of an unknown, but quickly earned a reputation as one of the best stickhandlers in the NHL with an array of dazzling moves.He prefers to do his work in traffic, excelling along the boards and in the middle of the ice in the offensive zone.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not the skater most Europeans are and the smaller ice surface helps him,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; head coach Rick Bowness. &ldquo;Plus he&rsquo;s big and strong and protects the puck well.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0029-01

Yashin was dazzling bright light for lowly Senators

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Dustin Rousseau is such an unselfish hockey player, he has five consecutive individual trophies to prove it.The 13-year-old resident of Wawa, Ont., continued his run of Most Assist Awards while playing for the peewee Wawa Raiders this season. He was also named the team&rsquo;s MVP.Rousseau was selected The Hockey News/Starter Minor Hockey Showcase&rsquo;s Player of the Year in Canada. The U.S. winner was Zachary Mulder from Pompano Beach, Fla.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01771/6089541-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="580" height="837"><figcaption class="caption-body">Figure skating helped Dustin Rousseau with his agility.</figcaption></div>Dustin started on figure skates at three before switching over to hockey at six. It&rsquo;s no surprise then that he has become a smooth, effortless skater. His 17-year-old sister Brandi-Lee trains under renowned figure-skating coach Doug Leigh in Barrie, Ont., and hopes to compete in the 1998 Winter Olympics.In the summer, Dustin likes to golf and organize roller hockey tournaments. He even has a computer program that designs a schedule and prize money distribution.Dustin says his most memorable moment in hockey is getting a face full of snow courtesy of a Gordie Howe prank. The two met while at a hockey camp last year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02525/6089534-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="575" height="837"><figcaption class="caption-body">Zachary Mulder got started in hockey by selling candy bars.</figcaption></div>Seven-year-old Zachary is a model of persistence. Inspired to play hockey after watching the movie The Mighty Ducks, Zachary took matters into his own hands.He sold almost 700 chocolate bars at a school function, established a Kool-Aid stand in the neighborhood and raised enough money to buy equipment for his first season.&ldquo;Being a single mom, I told him the only way we could afford to get him started in hockey was for him to prove his dedication,&rdquo; Kyndra Mulder said. &ldquo;He has sacrificed having other toys, going to movies and Disney-World so he can pay for hockey.&rdquo;Zachary is so proud of his new skates that he shines the blades after each skating session.His next objective is to save enough money to attend a hockey camp. A long-term goal is to meet Wayne Gretzky.Starter has presented all weekly winners with prize packages this season. Dustin and Zachary receive additional prizes as players of the year. &#9632;

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Dustin, Zachary win honors for minor hockey

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>A knee injury forced Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Ray Bourque to miss the last 11 games of 1993-94 and a chance at the first 100-point season of his brilliant 15-year career.That&rsquo;s about all it cost him, though. He led all NHL defensemen with 91 points, completed the year as a favorite to win his fifth Norris Trophy and was voted the The Hockey News Defenseman of the Year by readers.Scott Stevens of the New Jersey Devils and Chris Chelios of the Chicago Blackhawks finished second and third in voting. This is the first year for the award.The THN honor was another memorable moment in a season filled with them.&ldquo;Raymond is incomparable,&rdquo; said Harry Sinden, Bruins&rsquo; president and general manager. &ldquo;Nobody played the way Raymond played this year. People probably don&rsquo;t realize it, but he played 50 brilliant games in a row at one point.&rdquo;Bourque started the season in a contract dispute, which ended when he lost an arbitration case. Sinden, however, doubled Bourque&rsquo;s salary, pushing him to about $2.5 million annually in a deal that virtually assures the 33-year-old Montreal native will finish his career in Boston.Bourque went on to record a number of milestones. He played his 1,100th game, scored his 300th goal and 1,100th point, and in April became the Bruins&rsquo; all-time leader in playoff games played.&ldquo;The thing so impressive about Raymond is after all these years, he never seems to fall off,&rdquo; said Hall of Famer Denis Potvin. &ldquo;He can still control a game.&rdquo;Before he left with his knee injury March 22 against the Quebec Nordiques, Bourque had been on the ice for 175 of Boston&rsquo;s 249 goals (70.3 percent) and had figured in more than half of the goals the Bruins scored when he was on the ice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01712/6089572-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="579" height="1064"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque hit a number of milestones this season.</figcaption></div>He was also on the ice for 79 of the 80 power-play goals Boston scored before he got hurt. In a two-game span in early January, he figured in nine straight Bruin goals, scoring one and assisting on eight.On March 9 at Boston Garden, with the Bruins trailing the New Jersey Devils 6-5, coach Brian Sutter chose Bourque instead of a forward to take a penalty shot. Bourque calmly skated in, deked Chris Terreri and fired a backhander into the top corner.On March 22 at Quebec, Sutter used Bourque at right wing on the power play in place of the injured Cam Neely. Bourque responded with three power-play assists before sustaining the injury that ended his regular season.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t imagine us without him,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even like to think of it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0031-01

Bourque still amazing after all these years

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01762/6089617-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Dowd of New Jresey had seven points in 10 playoff games</figcaption></div><h2>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS</h2>Statistics provided by National Hockey League; No.-uniform number; GP-games played; G-goals; A-assists; P-points; +/-plus/minus; PIM-penalties in minutes; PP-power-play goals; SH-short-hand goals; GW-game-winning goals; OT-overtime goals; S-shots on goal; Pct-shooting percentage. Players indicated by an asterisk (*) are eligible for the Calder Trophy.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01678/6089610-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3104" height="3683"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rangers&rsquo; Stephane Matteau found success on Broadway</figcaption></div><h2>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS</h2>Statistics provided by National Hockey League; No.-uniform number; GP-games played; Min-minutes played; GAA-goals-against average; W-wins; L-losses; ENG-empty-net goals; SO-shutouts; GA-goals against; SA-shots against; SV%-save percentage. Players indicated by an asterisk (*) are eligible for the Calder Trophy.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01765/6089603-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3079" height="3038"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Errey and the San Jose Sharks knocked off Detroit.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY THE WAY YOU WAHT TO PLAY IT.

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-08" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08160/6090001-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01690/6089994-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3094" height="3668"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01654/6089987-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="634" height="3393"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02456/6089980-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="584" height="812"></div><h2>MONDAY, APRIL 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03346/6089973-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="604" height="1399"></div><h2>TUESDAY, APRIL 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04281/6089966-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="594" height="705"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05231/6089959-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="584" height="243"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06197/6089952-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="590" height="498"></div><h2>THURSDAY, APRIL 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07177/6089945-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="599" height="1462"></div><h2>SATURDAY, APRIL 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08158/6089938-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="603" height="1272"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-09139/6089931-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="593" height="286"></div><h2>MONDAY, MAY 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-10123/6089924-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="601" height="1535"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MAY 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-11107/6089917-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="590" height="677"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MAY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1298/6089910-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="590" height="653"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MAY 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1388/6089903-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="598" height="1449"></div><h2>SUNDAY, MAY 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1483/6089896-1-eng-US/f0039-142.jpg" title="f0039-14" width="603" height="1765"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01363/6089889-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="1858" height="3678"></div> &#9632;

f0037-08

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02196/6090070-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01317/6090101-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Will the Kings pay a king&rsquo;s ransom for goaltender Bill Ranford? (TIM PARKAR)</figcaption></div>Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach-general manager John Muckler continues to tell anyone who&rsquo;ll listen, &ldquo;I offered (Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; GM) Bryan Murray the Stanley Cup, but he wouldn&rsquo;t take it.&rdquo; Translation: Muckler twice offered the Wings Grant Fuhr, but wanted Chris Osgood included in any deal and Murray simply wouldn&rsquo;t part with the young goalie. There&rsquo;s no guarantee, of course, that Fuhr would have delivered a Stanley Cup to the Wings&hellip;If Brett Hull continues to sport a bluenote next season, he likely won&rsquo;t be wearing a &lsquo;C&rsquo; along with it. A source with the St. Louis Blues told Bluelines the team is contemplating trading its superstar after a disastrous playoff. The source said Hull comes up short in the leadership department and the club would be better served with a young defenseman. One problem is that Hull is a charismatic player who is being counted on to sell tickets at the new Kiel Center. If Hull remains in St. Louis, chances are he&rsquo;ll be replaced as captain by Brendan Shanahan, who commands total respect from teammates&hellip;If the Los Angeles Kings ever get their finances and ownership straightened out, they&rsquo;ll try to sign free-agent goalie Bill Ranford.<h2>Wanted: players</h2>Several Quebec Nordique players have blasted the team in the off-season. Andrei Kovalenko said during the season there were only &ldquo;seven or eight players&rdquo; who gave full efforts. Craig Wolanin, the Nordiques&rsquo; best defenseman said, &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the personnel to play NHL style hockey.&rdquo;&hellip;Pierre Turgeon did a double-take recently when he received a package in the mail containing an autographed peewee jersey. The youngster who dispatched the uniform to the New York Zander added a note: &ldquo;Now that I have sent you my jersey, I would really appreciate it if you would return the favor.&rdquo;<h2>Now hear this</h2>Bob Wilson handled the Boston Bruins&rsquo; radio broadcasts for 28 years without missing an assignment until he was sidelined for Game 6 of the first round series with the Montreal Canadiens. Flu symptoms brought an end to Wilson&rsquo;s string, which is estimated at more than 3,000 games, including exhibitions and playoffs. Wilson points out that times have changed since he last missed a broadcast in 1964. &ldquo;In those days,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;if you missed a game, you weren&rsquo;t paid. That&rsquo;s why we were so healthy.&rdquo;&hellip;New York Rangers&rsquo; assistant coach Colin Campbell, who has worked under Jacques Demers. Roger Neilson and now Mike Keenan, said he&rsquo;s ready for an NHL head coaching job&hellip;As much as he is delighted playing for the Washington Capitals, Joe Reekie regrets having been dealt by the Tampa Bay Lightning. &ldquo;I would have liked to have been around when Tampa Bay made the playoffs,&rdquo; he said.<h2>Musical chairs</h2>With Bruce McNall&rsquo;s resignation as the chairman of the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors, jockeying for the job has begun. Canadiens&rsquo; boss Ron Corey, who was rejected two years ago, is a candidate, but will likely be rejected this time around as well. A long-shot possibility would be former board chairman and Chicago Black-hawks&rsquo; owner Bill Wirtz, who is said to covet the role again. He would face heavy opposition. Another possibility is Bruins&rsquo; boss Jeremy Jacobs. It&rsquo;s also possible the position could be merged with the commissionership&hellip;It&rsquo;s absurd for teams to spend a bundle promoting players for post-season awards. If anyone should do the hyping, it should be agents.<h2>Hey, where&rsquo;s Al?</h2>Islanders&rsquo; coach Al Arbour was conspicuous by his absence when he shunned his team&rsquo;s break-up party after the season. One insider told Bluelines the veteran coach was concerned about what he might say to a couple of players who most disappointed him. Nobody expects Arbour to return next season, which makes Lorne Henning the heir apparent behind the bench&hellip;One reason why Scotty Bowman was so happy to leave the Pittsburgh Penguins, according to friends, was he felt the team was uncoachable, something that was underlined again this spring&hellip;Don&rsquo;t know why so many voters are so quick to concede the Bill Masterton Trophy to Cam Neely when Mark Fitzpatrick rates the prize for his comeback from often-fatal Eosinophilia Mylagia Syndrome. &#9632;

f0042-01

Muckler claims he offered Fuhr to Red Wings

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>No. 7 didn&rsquo;t prove to be any luckier for Gilles Courteau than one through six. He&rsquo;s hoping he doesn&rsquo;t have to wait around long enough to prove 13 isn&rsquo;t unlucky.Courteau has attended seven Memorial Cup tournaments as president of the Quebec League and has yet to see his league win.The QMJHL hasn&rsquo;t won the national junior championship since 1981 when the Ontario-based Cornwall Royals captured their second straight title. QMJHL teams have been in the final just four times since.In fact, no Quebec-based team has won the title since Guy Lafleur led the Quebec Remparts to the Memorial Cup in 1971.There is no clear cut reason why, but there are several theories. The most popular one is that the QMJHL plays a more wide-open style and is less disciplined defensively. But this season, QMJHL teams averaged 297 goals, compared to 288 for the Ontario League and 304 for the Western League.Another is that while the best QMJHL players are on par with any others in Canada, the league seriously lacks depth. Just 10 Triple-A midget teams in the province feed the 13-team QMJHL.This year&rsquo;s tournament will be played in Laval May 14-22 and will feature the host Titan and Chicoutimi Sagueneens from the QMJHL. The OHL will be represented by either the North Bay Centennials or Detroit Jr. Red Wings; the WHL by the Kamloops Blazers.The league-champion Titan is the stronger of the Quebec entries. Featuring goalie Dallas Stars&rsquo; prospect Manny Fernandez, who led the league in shutouts with five, skilled forwards Yanick Dube and Marc Beaucage and tough guys Dany Dupont and Sylvain Blouin, Laval can play any style of game. Dube, a speedy 5-foot-8 and 165-pound center, led the league in scoring with 66 goals and 141 points in 64 games; the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Blouin was the league&rsquo;s penalty king with 492 minutes.Chicoutimi depends heavily on the top line of Michel St-Jacques, Dany Beauregard and Russian import Alexei Lojkin. The trio finished 1-23 in team scoring accounting for 137 goals and 354 points.Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman Patrice Brisebois knows all about Memorial Cup disappointment. He played for Laval in the 1989 and 1990 tournaments and for the Drummondville Voltigeurs at the 1991 tournament.His teammates who graduated from the OHL and WHL often tease him about the QMJHL&rsquo;s futility. Would he rub it in to them if Laval or Chicoutimi ended the drought this season?&ldquo;Ooh, yeah!&rdquo; &#9632;

Quebec League hopes to end futility at home

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>He&rsquo;s big, tough, a good skater and has some offensive skills.He&rsquo;s defenseman Jeff Brown and he&rsquo;s the top-rated player for the Ontario League&rsquo;s draft, June 4 in Belleville.The No. 1 pick belongs to the Sarnia Sting (formerly the Newmarket Royals) and although Sting coach-general manager Don Boyd hasn&rsquo;t committed to going with Brown, Boyd said &ldquo;he can play in the league right now.&rdquo;Brown played with the Thornhill Islanders in the Metro Toronto Jr. League this season. He&rsquo;s 6-foot-2, 212 pounds and recently turned 16.Three of the top five players on OHL central scouting&rsquo;s confidential ratings list are defensemen.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re leaning toward (Brown), but nothing is finalized,&rdquo; said Boyd, whose team finished last in the overall standings. &ldquo;Jeff has the playing experience in a good league, he has some offensive skills, imagination and creativity.&rdquo;The top-rated goalie is Eion (pronounced Owen) McInerney, who played Jr. B in London.LURE OF LIRE: Oshawa Generals&rsquo; coach Rick Cornacchia has resigned to take a job in Italy.Cornacchia, 43, was an assistant coach in Oshawa from 1986 to 1989 before taking over as head coach. He won the Memorial Cup in his first season.Cornacchia had a 179-119-32 record in five seasons. Prior to joining Oshawa, he coached the Kingston Canadians for two years.SHUFFLING OFF: Dave Allison said when he joined the Kingston Frontenacs as coach-GM in 1992, he planned to be in the OHL for only two seasons.Allison, 35, kept his word as he resigned to pursue a job in the minors. It&rsquo;s rumored he&rsquo;s being considered for American League jobs with the St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs, where Marc Crawford is expected to move on, and the Cape Breton Oilers, where George Burnett might leave to join the Edmonton Oilers.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01330/6090156-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="917" height="498"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

Top prospect Brown to get stung at draft

<div class="byline">By Roll Vanstone</div>Ryan Smyth is the top-ranked Western League prospect for the 1994 NHL entry draft.The Moose Jaw Warriors&rsquo; left winger was fourth in final rankings of North American-based skaters issued by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau. The draft is June 28-29 in Hartford.Regina Pats&rsquo; left winger Jeff Friesen was sixth overall. Friesen was the top-ranked WHL prospect in CSB&rsquo;s mid-term report and was fourth in January-one spot ahead of Smyth.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to move up in the top five,&rdquo; Smyth said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised to move ahead of Jeff. There was a lot of talk about him at the start of the season. I thought he played well throughout the season. He never quit. He got 118 points and he did his job.&rdquo;Smyth had 50 goals and 105 points in 72 games. Friesen, who had 51 goals in 66 games, is still strong first-round material.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little disappointed, but sixth isn&rsquo;t bad,&rdquo; Friesen said. &ldquo;Who knows what will happen between now and draft day?&rdquo;BABCOCK HIRED: Mike Babcock is back in the WHL after a one-year hiatus. The former Moose Jaw Warriors&rsquo; bench boss was named the Spokane Chiefs&rsquo; coach April 25.Babcock, 31, signed a three-year contract. He succeeds Mike Fedorko, who was Spokane&rsquo;s interim coach after Bryan Maxwell resigned Jan. 22. This past season, Babcock guided the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns to the national title. Lethbridge offered Babcock a three-year contract extension.&ldquo;I went through quite a process to make the decision,&rdquo; Babcock said. &ldquo;There are a lot of positive things in Lethbridge. But there are positive things in Spokane. There&rsquo;s a lot of upside.&rdquo;DONE DEAL: The WHL&rsquo;s board of governors has given final clearance for the Victoria Cougars to move to Prince George, B.C. The 16 governors unanimously approved Cougars owner Rick Brodsky&rsquo;s lease agreement April 25.The Prince George Cougars will play in the 1,852-seat Coliseum until midway through the 1995-96 season, when a 5,300-seat, community-owned facility is scheduled to open.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02242/6090187-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="913" height="493"></div> &#9632;

f0043-02

Smyth unseats Friesen as top draft prospect

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Quebec League added one team and lost another for next season. The league&rsquo;s board of governors officially accepted Halifax&rsquo;s bid for an expansion franchise, while Verdun&rsquo;s College Francais announced it will not be renewing its franchise.&ldquo;College Francais&rsquo; decision was a surprise,&rdquo; said QMJHL president Gilles Courteau. &ldquo;But after meeting with (team governor) Claude Bigras I understand why they came to their decision. College Francais is a private school and their first obligation is to take care of their students.&rdquo;Bigras told Courteau that College Francais could no longer justify the high cost of running a junior hockey team. The school attempted to get a better deal at the Verdun Auditorium, in which it would play in the arena rent-free while retaining most-if not all-revenue generated from the concessions. The city of Verdun turned down the proposal.College Francais spent six seasons in the QMJHL, the first three in Longueuil. The team&rsquo;s highlight came in 1992 when it won the QMJHL title and went to the Memorial Cup.The league&rsquo;s board of governors purchased the College Francais team for $400,000 and will hold a dispersal draft for its players. Coach Alain Rajotte. considered one of the top young coaches in the league, is sure to land a job with another team.&ldquo;We are all surprised,&rdquo; Rajotte said. &ldquo;It was a shock. I had to call all the players and tell them. They were very disappointed.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Moosehead Breweries will own 55 per cent of the Halifax expansion franchise, which was purchased for $500,000. The remaining 45 per cent will be split evenly among nine investors, including Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Wendel Young and Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Cam Russell.Clement Jodoin, 42, has been hired as coach and general manager. He spent the last four seasons in the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; organization, the first two as coach and GM of their Halifax American League team and the last two as an assistant coach in Quebec.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03205/6090218-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="923" height="491"></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

School’s out, Maritimes in next season

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The Peoria Rivermen and Las Vegas Thunder were supposed to be the two teams in the International League Turner Cup championship.Instead, the regular-season high rollers share a more infamous fate. The Huber Trophy-winning Thunder&rsquo;s 115-point season hit a dead end in a first-round playoff upset loss against the San Diego Gulls.The Rivermen soon followed, seeing their 108-point effort end in a first-round loss to the eighth-seeded Fort Wayne Komets.Their ouster marked just the fourth time in IHL playoff history the league&rsquo;s top two regular-season teams were eliminated in the first round.It was a particularly bitter fate for the Rivermen, who lost star centers Tony Hrkac and David Roberts to NHL recalls by the St. Louis Blues two days before their series opener.Peoria, expecting to get Hrkac, Roberts, team captain Dave Mackey and winger Vitali Karamnov back from the Blues when the NHL team was eliminated, hung on to force a sixth game.But the parent club botched the care package, sending all four players back to Peoria in time for Game 6, but without having done the procedural paperwork at the NHL level.Roberts and Mackey were declared ineligible just hours before the game and Peoria lost 7-6.&ldquo;I was all pumped up to play,&rdquo; said Mackey, who had the same thing happen to him when the Blues failed to complete the same paperwork two years ago. &ldquo;The playoffs are my kind of hockey and I didn&rsquo;t want the season to end like this-sitting in the press box.&rdquo;Just as big a factor in Peoria&rsquo;s demise was a top-ranked power play that managed just one goal in the first five games of the series.&ldquo;You need superior goaltending, power play and penalty-killing units in the playoffs,&rdquo; said coach Paul MacLean. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get that.&rdquo;STRAIGHT AERO: The IHL expansion Houston Aeros, scheduled to begin play next season, hired Terry Ruskowski as coach.Ruskowski, 39, was a member of Houston&rsquo;s World Hockey Association Avco Cup champions in 1974-75.He coached the last three seasons with the Columbus Chill of the East Coast League.Peter Dineen, will be the team&rsquo;s director of player personnel.&ldquo;The main thing when putting together a team is you need guys with character, quality players and quality goalies,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;Terry and I know you need toughness to go along with skill.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: Fort Wayne center Colin Chin has won the Ironman Award as the league&rsquo;s most durable player this season. Chin&rsquo;s 81-game regular-season effort included 36 goals and 100 points along with a spot in the All-Star Game&hellip;The Atlanta Knights ran their unbeaten playoff streak to eight games, enjoying brilliant goaltending from Mike Greenlay, who filled in when J.C. Bergeron was recalled briefly to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bergeron-the league&rsquo;s third-ranked goalie during the season-is healthy now, but Greenlay has the post-season job.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01234/6090249-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="797" height="254"></div>PLAYOFF HIGHLIGHTS (APRIL 25 TO MAY 8): Cincinnati prevented elimination with home-ice wins of 4-0 and 7-1 over Fort Wayne. Len Barrie had a goal and nine points for the Cyclones, who lost the first three games. John Purves had four goals and nine points for the Komets&hellip;Atlanta completed a second-round sweep of San Diego, outscoring the Gulls 20-6. Stan Drulia led the Knights with six goals and 10 points and goalie Mike Greenlay posted eight straight wins. &#9632;

f0044-01

Best laid plans evaporate for Rivermen and Thunder

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>The Diesel has reason to toot his horn.Mark Deazeley sored the game&rsquo;s last four &ldquo;goals to rally Toledo to a wild 7-6 victory over the Raleigh IceCaps and give the Storm the East Coast League championship.The Storm won the best-of-seven final 4-1 to retain the Riley Cup. Toledo beat the Wheeling Thunderbirds in 1993.&ldquo;This is sweeter,&rdquo; said Toledo coach Chris McSorley. &ldquo;Once you win, there is tremendous pressure to repeat. Anything less than another championship would have been a failure.&rdquo;Toledo left no doubt about its superiority. The Storm won 24 of its last 28 games and was unbeaten (8-0) at home to push its post-season winning streak at the Sports Arena to 15.&ldquo;I kept telling everyone this was a better club than last year,&rdquo; McSorley said. &ldquo;Every player was capable of finishing his check or making a play.&rdquo;At the top of the list was Deazeley. He scored 16 playoff goals to tie the ECHL record and added 10 assists to edge teammate Greg Puhalski 26-25 for the scoring title.&ldquo;Luckily, Diesel did everything for us,&rdquo; said Storm goalie Dave Gagnon.Not exactly. Gagnon was a post-season workhorse. He played in all 14 games and posted a record-tying 12 wins and 2.70 goals-against average. Unlike 1991, when Gagnon was selected co-MVP for the champion Hampton Roads Admirals, he didn&rsquo;t have to share the award this time. But he could have.Puhalski&rsquo;s goal in the second overtime gave Toledo a 4-3 victory in the critical opener. Toledo beat Raleigh 4-3 in Game 2 with Deazeley scoring the winner in overtime.The Toledo foursome of captain Alex Hicks, Rick Judson, Iain Duncan and Rick Corriveau played supporting roles.&ldquo;There was tremendous leadership,&rdquo; McSorley said. &ldquo;I found the older players brought along the kids. Come playoff time, our kids became the backbone of our club.&rdquo;Credit McSorley for sticking with Gagnon over Nick Vitucci, another veteran with an armload of experience.&ldquo;It was fate,&rdquo; McSorley said. &ldquo;Nick was recalled for our first-round series and Dave was our only goalie. Dave&rsquo;s play was so strong, I didn&rsquo;t dare change.&rdquo;But off-season change is imminent for the Storm.McSorley, who has won three titles in 12 months-he led the Anaheim Bullfrogs to the Roller Hockey International crown last summer-probably won&rsquo;t return. At least two International League teams are talking with McSorley.Puhalski, a player-assistant, figures to receive serious consideration if McSorley moves on. Former Cincinnati Cyclones&rsquo; coach Dennis Desrosiers is another possibility.McSorley is believed to earn $85,000 annually and would consider a pay cut to move up.He could also make a lateral move. There is a vacancy in Nashville, where he has an off-season home. He has made no secret he&rsquo;d like to be coaching closer to home.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02149/6090280-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="793" height="547"></div> &#9632;

f0044-02

Powerhouse Storm blows away IceCaps for crown

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03104/6090311-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg"></div>Where Chris Lindberg plays next season will be determined by how well he does in the Calder Cup playoffs this season.Based on his first-round production, he may be getting another crack at the NHL.The speedy left winger scored eight goals as the Cornwall Aces swept the Hamilton Canucks in the Southern Division semifinals. He didn&rsquo;t score in the first three games of the second round series against the Hershey Bears, but scored a pair in Game 4, including one 1:03 into overtime.&ldquo;When I got sent down (by the Quebec Nordiques) I didn&rsquo;t come down on a mission, but I knew I had to do as much as I could to help myself and the team,&rdquo; he said.Lindberg, 27, signed a termination contract with Quebec in August, after his contract with the Calgary Flames expired. But he played only 37 games in Quebec, scoring six goals and 14 points. In 23 AHL games, he scored 14 goals and 27 points.&ldquo;I signed a one-year deal and was happy to get it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have a job until late in the summer. But the Nordiques have too many players like me. The team is talented, but they may need some plumbers. If I do get another chance, it may be with a team that&rsquo;s hurting.&rdquo;Lindberg showed against Hamilton that he may be able to provide offensive spark for someone.&ldquo;I told myself that I wanted to get five shots a game, something I&rsquo;ve never done,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have a decent shot, but I never shoot enough.&rdquo;CRUNCH TIME: The Vancouver Canucks made it official, selling their AHL franchise to a group from Syracuse, N.Y. The Canucks, who operated in Hamilton the past two seasons, will be the parent team for the Syracuse Crunch next season.Vancouver bought the Hamilton franchise in November after debts prompted the previous ownership group to dissolve.The Canucks didn&rsquo;t want to be minor-league franchise owners and the Syracuse Hockey Ownership Team spent a year trying to secure a team.The nickname could create a great corporate rivalry between Nestle and Hershey, two giants in the chocolate industry. The Hershey Bears operate in the home of Hershey chocolate. Nestle, meanwhile, is a major sponsor of the Crunch.SPRINGFIELD ALIVE: While the Springfield Indians franchise has been sold and will move 47 miles east to Worcester, Mass., Springfield will remain a member of the league.Bruce Landon, the Indians&rsquo; general manager, has put together an ownership group that has bought a $1 million expansion franchise to operate in the Springfield Civic Center.The Indians will continue to be the primary affiliate for the NHL&rsquo;s Hartford Whalers.Attendance for Indians&rsquo; games has declined 20 per cent in five years. But Landon believes the 52-year-old team can be successful.&ldquo;I just think the city has too much tradition in hockey,&rdquo; Landon said. &ldquo;There needs to be support from the political community and I think there is a wave of support coming.&rdquo;<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2>PLAYOFF HIGHLIGHTS (APRIL 25 TO MAY 8): Ken Gernander and Craig Fisher each scored twice and Stephane Beauregard made 34 saves as the Moncton Hawks blanked the regular-season champion St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs 5-0 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead&hellip;Hershey avoided elimination with a 4-3 victory in Game 6. Third-period goals by Clayton Norris and Aris Brimanis were the difference. Overtime goals by Chris Lindberg in Game 4 and Paul Willett in Game 5 gave Cornwall a 3-2 series lead&hellip;Mike Boback led the offense with a league-high nine goals and 19 points as Portland took a 3-2 series lead over Adirondack. &#9632;

f0044-03

Lindberg hopes playoff bonanza helps his stock

<div class="byline">By Tom McMillan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01222/6090356-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="390" height="510"></div>PITTSBURGH-Six days after his team was deep-sixed by the mediocre Washington Capitals, Howard Baldwin sprung back into action. He hired a new front-office executive, announced plans for a new practice complex and hosted an upscale luncheon with the media at the Civic Arena&rsquo;s Igloo Club.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m rarin&rsquo; to go,&rdquo; said the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to put together a hell of a team and have a hell of a year next year.&rdquo; If nothing else, you&rsquo;ve got to admire Baldwin&rsquo;s drive, his verve, his optimism. Because at the same time, in many other places around this gruff, hard-bitten and routinely spoiled sports town, bar patrons and talk-show callers were writing the Penguins&rsquo; sad obituary and bemoaning the passing of an era.&ldquo;Too old, too slow&hellip;they&rsquo;re done,&rdquo; came one voice crackling over the airwaves. &ldquo;Forget it. And at those ticket prices, I think you&rsquo;re going to see a lot more empty seats next year.&rdquo;Funny, but it was only a matter of weeks ago that The Hockey News installed the Penguins as 3:1 favorites to win the Stanley Cup for the third time in four years.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03128/6090349-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="1174" height="1970"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Yzerman (TIM PARKAR)</figcaption></div>But by the time the Caps had skated away with a 4-2 series victory, holding the Penguins to just 12 goals in six games, short-circuiting the top line centered by an ailing Mario Lemieux, perspectives had changed.The Penguins&rsquo; defense was exposed for being too old, too immobile and too reliant on Larry Murphy.Coach Eddie Johnston said a game plan wasn&rsquo;t much use if the players didn&rsquo;t listen, which raised eyebrows in the front office and stands.And the Penguins&rsquo; potential dynasty bottomed out in Round. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t sit here and say we should&rsquo;ve won the series because we shouldn&rsquo;t have,&rdquo; Kevin Stevens said. &ldquo;They outplayed us. We couldn&rsquo;t score.&rdquo; Even the players expect changes because the Penguins have faced early playoff exits the past two years despite having the NHL&rsquo;s highest payroll (roughly $18 million).But Baldwin denies suggestions the team will be dismantled and insists he and his staff will do &ldquo;whatever it takes&rdquo; to return the Cup to Pittsburgh.On the ice, the challenge for the Penguins is to get younger and faster while regaining the balance of skill and grit that served them so well in the Cup years.Role players such as Troy Loney, Bob Errey, Phil Bourque and Randy Gilhen have been lost through trades, free agency or the expansion draft over the past few years and general manager Craig Patrick failed to replace them.Don&rsquo;t expect Tomas Sandstrom and his $1.3 million salary to be back. The Penguins also can trim a few hundred thousand dollars by dismissing veteran defenseman Mike Ramsey and turning Bryan Trottier into a full-time assistant coach.But you can look for Patrick to revamp the roster by trading at least one of his big-name veterans-Stevens? Murphy? Rick Tocchet?-in exchange for a batch of younger players. It would be especially painful to trade Stevens (and it says here they should not), but the Penguins are entering an important transitional phase and they have to consider all options.Not to be overlooked is Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s playing status. Limited to 22 games in the regular season, unable to perform at anywhere near full strength during the playoffs, he said he would use the off-season to ponder his futureMeanwhile, the Penguins are pondering theirs. Roy Mlakar was hired from the Los Angeles Kings as chief operating officer. He&rsquo;ll have a new practice rink ready to go in December (with Lemieux as part of the ownership group).Even after two Cups, three division titles, two 100-point seasons and a Presidents&rsquo; Trophy in the past four years, Baldwin and Patrick continue to talk openly about their lofty goals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re driven to get more Stanley Cups,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what this organization is all about.&rdquo;Tom McMillan is the managing editor of Penguins Report.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02161/6090342-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="1341" height="1948"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0047-01

Penguins need to get younger and grittier

<div class="byline">by Keith Gave</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0486/6090387-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="392" height="512"></div>DETROIT-Scotty Bowman is seeking changes to the Detroit Red Wings after the team&rsquo;s shocking first-round loss to the San Jose Sharks. It&rsquo;s not because the Wings&rsquo; coach is unhappy with his players. It&rsquo;s because without a major turnover he could face a mutiny. Owner Mike Hitch will conduct his own post-mortem on a team that died a premature death. But this is a simple autopsy: The body rejected the brain. In layman&rsquo;s terms, the Wings couldn&rsquo;t, or wouldn&rsquo;t, play for Bowman just as the Pittsburgh Penguins didn&rsquo;t the year before. What the winningest coach in NHL history has proven beyond a reasonable doubt is that he couldn&rsquo;t win in the playoffs with two of the NHL&rsquo;s most talent-laden lineups. It&rsquo;s clear that he must be replaced. There will be much whispering around the NHL in the weeks ahead that Bowman wasn&rsquo;t successful because he didn&rsquo;t have the players he wanted or needed. Much of that misinformation will be planted by Bowman. The fact is, Bowman had no complaints about his roster.He wanted to trade his goalie, but concurred with management the prices being asked for top netminders was too high.But goaltending wasn&rsquo;t Detroit&rsquo;s problem in the playoffs. Nor was the defense, which allowed 21 goals in seven games.It was offense. The three top forwards were less than 100 per cent after sustaining injuries in the final game of the season. Bowman, meanwhile, was so concerned about defense-that he held the reins on his offense. With key players injured, the Wings tried to beat the Sharks at their own game and couldn&rsquo;t.Whatever confidence the Wings had in Bowman was blown in the season finale against the Dallas Stars. General manager Bryan Murray urged Bowman to rest key players. Bowman refused. In a pre-game speech, the coach told his players this would be their most important game of the season, that a win would ensure that they would have home-ice against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Cup finals.So the Wings played hard in a loss. Worse, Sergei Fedorov, who had sustained a concussion a week earlier, took a bump in the head in the first period and didn&rsquo;t return. Keith Primeau injured his left shoulder in a second-period fight. And Steve Yzerman hurt the medial collateral ligament in his left knee. Yzerman didn&rsquo;t return until Game 5 against the Sharks. Primeau and Fedorov were less effective.All three were scoreless in the 3-2 loss in Game 7.By attaching unreasonable importance to a meaningless game, Bowman jeopardized his team&rsquo;s chances to win when it counted. Suddenly, he has a long list of players he wants to unload. He wants major changes and is likely to get them.&ldquo;Scotty Bowman is Scotty Bowman,&rdquo; captain Steve Yzerman said, knowing he is one of the players on Bowman&rsquo;s snit list. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to change him.&rdquo;And if Hitch decides not to change Bowman, then Detroit will be Trade Central in the off-season.They&rsquo;ll also likely go after free agents such as Scott Stevens and Bob Rouse.Murray is taking some heat, too, but all he did was transform a playoff wallflower into a regular-season powerhouse that can&rsquo;t win in the playoffs.The 1993-94 Red Wings were bigger, faster, more talented with arguably better goaltending than they had the year before and regressed. The coach must be accountable.Only three times since 1980 has Bowman advanced his team past the second round of the playoffs. Perhaps we should conclude the architect of Bowman&rsquo;s coaching genius was a guy in goal named Ken Dryden.Keith Gave covers the Red Wings for the Detroit Free Press. &#9632;

f0047-04

Bowman must take fall for Red Wings’ disaster

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>Many teams would have cut it out, highlighted it, posted it on the bulletin board and used it as motivation.Not the New York Rangers. Perhaps they are too old to get angry when somebody calls them old.That&rsquo;s what Peter Bondra of the Washington Capitals did in a newspaper story the day of Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.The truth is, most of them didn&rsquo;t even know about it. Those who knew didn&rsquo;t really care.&ldquo;We are a bit elderly,&rdquo; said 35-year-old Craig MacTavish.Bondra, perhaps, could have used better judgement than to poke a team when it led a series 2-0: That night it became 3-0 with a 3-0 Rangers&rsquo; win.Bondra said in the Washington Times story, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to win both games at home&hellip;The Rangers are not that good, they are not unbeatable. Who do they have, maybe (Alexei) Kovalev? They have all these names from the past. They&rsquo;re past their times.&rdquo;He was talking about the ex-Edmonton Oilers, particularly Mark Messier, 33, who scored his sixth playoff goal that night.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t really affect me,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;A series is won on the ice, not in the papers.&rdquo;The stuff in the papers, however, can make things interesting.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01152/6090418-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="600" height="819"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Messier is one of several seasoned ex-Edmonton Oilers.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Last time I looked, you had to do it on the ice,&rdquo; MacTavish said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t throw your birth certificates out there and the youngest team wins. We are the older team, there&rsquo;s no way around that, no doubt about it.&rdquo;&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter if a player is 19, 25, 30 or 40,&rdquo; said Jeff Beukeboom. &ldquo;Besides, one of their best players in the Pittsburgh series was one of their oldest, Dave Poulin.&rdquo;Perhaps Bondra also forgot about some other Rangers who may just be hitting their prime-such as goalie Mike Richter and Brian Leetch, two of the Rangers&rsquo; top players in the post-season. Not to mention the team&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer, Adam Graves, and leading point-getter Sergei Zubov.&ldquo;SUBTLE WARNING: The Rangers claimed a linesmen in Game 1 of the Washington series came to their bench and warned them of the Capitals&rsquo; intentions to go after defenseman Sergei Zubov.&ldquo;He said, &lsquo;Get him off the ice,&rsquo;&rdquo; Rangers&rsquo; associate coach Colin Campbell said. Campbell preferred not to say whether it was linseman Kevin Collins or Dan Schachte. Campbell inferred the warning was meant as protection for Zubov.&ldquo;After that scrum at the end of the game, he said, &lsquo;See, I told you.&rsquo; &ldquo;The scrum at the end of the game had Dale Hunter chasing Zubov after the buzzer. Earlier in the period, Zubov had his face raked by the stick of Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Kevin Hatcher.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s happening too often,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tactic that hasn&rsquo;t changed in 30 years: If you&rsquo;re going to go out, make a dent. If you can rattle an offensive guy, maybe a Brian Leetch or a Sergei Zubov will make a pass quicker next time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Mark Messier praised coach Mike Keenan for adjustments he made in Game 2 after the Capitals dominated the first period. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s experience,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not only focussing on what&rsquo;s going on on the ice, what players are going on, what players are coming up, but also reading what (the Capitals) are doing. He is probably the best coach I&rsquo;ve ever played under. He really reads a situation like that. He&rsquo;s got a great ability to read a game from a lot of different perspectives.&rdquo;The comical point of the series came when Esa Tikkanen and Keith Jones, two agitators who have gone face-to-face many times, got together again. Tikkanen ticked off Jones by kissing him on the nose. Rangers&rsquo; TV analyst John Davidson quipped afterward, &ldquo;See what happens if you take fighting out of the game?&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mark Messier, Alexei Kovalev, Craig MacTavish, Sergei Nemchinov, Mike Hudson, Ed Olczyk.LW-Adam Graves, Stephane Matteau, Esa Tikkanen, Greg Gilbert, Mike Hartman.RW-Glenn Anderson, Steve Larmer, Brian Noonan, Joey Kocur, Nick Kypreos.LD-Brian Leetch, Kevin Lowe, Jay Wells, Mattias Noretrom.RD-Jeff Beukeboom, Sergei Zubov, Alexander Karpovtsev, Doug Lidster, Joby Messier.G-Mike Richter, Glenn Healy, Corey Hirsch.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0048-01

Over-the-hill reference doesn’t faze veterans

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>On the ice, it is a team on the rise.But off the ice, the New Jersey Devils are in trouble.After a 106-point regular season, the best in franchise history, the Devils failed to sell out one of six home playoff games at Meadowlands Arena. That prompted speculation about the team&rsquo;s future from its players.&ldquo;The way I look at it, this owner here has done a lot for New Jersey as far as bringing the franchise here. At least they could give him a little support.&rdquo; said center Bernie Nicholls.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go on losing money. It&rsquo;s obvious if you can&rsquo;t sell out during the playoffs, it&rsquo;s not going to work. It would be a smart business decision to move the team to a city that would appreciate the team. With the team we have here and the year we had, any city would go crazy.&rdquo;For instance? Phoenix, Atlanta or Charlotte for starters.NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the Devils could not move in the near future no matter what problems they face.&ldquo;There is absolutely no possibility the Devils will move for next season,&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;There is an NHL by-law that teams must apply for franchise relocation by Nov. 15 of the season preceding the desired move.&ldquo;And while the board can vote to override that provision, I will not permit it in this circumstance. What I would expect is that after the playoffs conclude, if Dr. (John) McMullen and Lou Lamoriello perceive a problem, we will analyze it with them.&rdquo;The Devils averaged paid crowds of 15,897 for the four games of the opening round of the playoffs against the Buffalo Sabres. However, the actual attendance was some 2,000 fewer per night.When the second round began against the Boston Bruins, the Devils announced 13,878 for Game 1. Actually, fewer than 11,000 showed up.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01134/6090449-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="586" height="948"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Terreri was superb when called upon against Boston.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious this city, or New Jersey, won&rsquo;t support its team because it&rsquo;s Ranger-oriented,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s probably where the other 4,000 or 5,000 people were the other day. I&rsquo;m not cutting up the 12,000 fans we have. We&rsquo;ve had great support from 12,000 people all year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always said this team is too close to New York. New Jersey is in a bad location for a hockey franchise. It&rsquo;s not going to get the support you&rsquo;d get in another city. You can&rsquo;t expect the people who watched the Rangers to jump ship for a new team when all they have to do is drive 20 minutes.&rdquo;McMullen admitted he is unhappy about the attendance, but avoided criticizing the fans.&ldquo;Is it disappointing? The answer is yes,&rdquo; said McMullen, who brought the team from Colorado in 1982. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it.&rdquo;The Devils believe eliminating 4,000 upper level seats to install luxury boxes would assure more sellouts and bring in more revenue.GOALIE CHANGE: In an effort to overcome losses in the first two games against Boston, Devils&rsquo; coach Jacques Lemaire replaced rookie goalie Martin Brodeur with veteran Chris Terreri.The move worked when Terreri posted back-to-back victories at Boston Garden to even the series. Brodeur had played the first nine playoff games for the Devils.&ldquo;I made the change because I looked over the first two games and I talked to (goalie coach) Jacques Caron,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;We thought Brodeur was starting to get a little tired. Also, we looked in the past at what happened. Martin had a tough time with the Bruins and maybe a lack of confidence.&rdquo;Terreri played with confidence.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an experienced veteran with a lot of feistiness,&rdquo; Ken Daneyko said. &ldquo;He showed some of that feistiness. He did the job for us. We needed some spark and he gave it to us.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Ken Daneyko. Bruce Driver and John MacLean were the only Devils remaining from the 1988 team that faced the Bruins in the conference finals&hellip;Rookie Ben Hankinson scored a goal in his first Stanley Cup appearance.Stephane Richer, who scored an overtime goal at Boston Garden in the 1991 playoffs for the Montreal Canadiens, did it on May 7 for the Devils.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 7: Ben Hankinson, RW, recalled from Albany (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jim Dowd, Bernie Nicholls, Corey Millen, Bobby Carpenter, Bobby Holik, Alexander Semak.LW-Valeri Zelepukin, Claude Lemieux, Tom Chorske, Mike PelusoRW-Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Randy McKay, Ben Hankinson.LD-Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Tommy Albelin, Viacheslav Fetisov.RD-Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Jason Smith, Jaroslav Modry.G-Martin Brodeur, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bill Guerin, RW, bruised right ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0049-01

Dismal playoff attendance leaves that empty feeling

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Since there are no playoffs to worry about again this spring, Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; fans are keeping themselves entertained playing a game called, &ldquo;Guess the Next President.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s easy and fun for the whole family.The game begins with team owner Ed Snider telling everyone he has three candidates in mind for the team presidency, left vacant after son, Jay, resigned last season.Need hints? All three, according to Snider, are active in hockey. But Florida Panthers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke (according to Clarke) isn&rsquo;t likely to be one of them, popular rumors to the contrary.And Snider claims the new boss won&rsquo;t be assuming the duties of GM because Russ Farwell will be back for a fifth season.Fans are considering candidates, mostly ones from the Flyers&rsquo; past, since this organization loves to bring back old favorites.Clarke&rsquo;s sense of duty to the Panthers-and a contract the expansion team is reluctant to let him out of-is the sticking point for any notion of a third tour of duty in Philadelphia.Ditto for Mike Keenan and Pat Quinn. Both had successful tenures as coaches with the Flyers in the 1980s, but have contracts with the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks.Snider said the new president will be in place before the June 28 NHL draft, so contestants are watching their calendars closely.When the Flyers did another spring swoon, Clarke&rsquo;s possible return as either president, GM or both became a hot topic. But Clarke said he plans to stay put.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a contract with Florida and I&rsquo;m going to be the GM there next season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a contract and I intend to stay and build on what we&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;The Flyers did not ask permission from Panthers&rsquo; owner Wayne Huizenga to talk with Clarke, but all the speculation was enough to get Panthers&rsquo; president Bill Torrey on the telephone with commissioner Gary Bettman to voice his displeasure.Torrey did talk to Snider about Clarke, but would not confirm if the Flyers asked permission to negotiate.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned,&rdquo; Torrey said, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s a closed issue.&rdquo;GOALIE ROULETTE: Although the Flyers&rsquo; defense corps received most of the criticism for the team&rsquo;s inability to keep the puck out of its net this past season, goaltending also played a major role in the problem.Dominic Roussel and Tommy Soderstrom experienced difficult second seasons and the Flyers may be looking at acquiring a veteran goalie during the off-season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01128/6090511-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="582" height="732"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tommy Soderstrom&rsquo;s summer habits disappoint the Flyers.</figcaption></div>Ed Snider realized goaltending was a shortcoming, but there was a reason for not addressing that need in the stretch run.&ldquo;We could have made a move at the trading deadline that would have assured us of making the playoffs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We could have acquired a good veteran goalie and at that time, both our goalies were looking awful.&ldquo;We could have made the move and made the playoffs. But we would have had to give up one of our core players and what would have happened in the long run?&ldquo;That veteran goalie would not be around in 1997. Or he wouldn&rsquo;t be at the level he&rsquo;s at now. And we would have been minus one of our core players, a guy who is going to help us get a Stanley Cup.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Russ Farwell hasn&rsquo;t ruled out making a large cash offer to a big-name free-agent defenseman such as New Jersey Devil Scott Stevens or the Calgary Flame Al Maclnnis, They might throw out a lucrative offer and hope New Jersey or Calgary won&rsquo;t gamble on trying to match the offer and then trade the big contract, the way the Los Angeles Kings did with Marty McSorley last season.The Flyers say they apparently have sold enough premium seating to satisfy a private principal lender for the proposed Spectrum EL Spectacor was hoping to begin construction June 1, but the city of Philadelphia still has some paperwork to clear, which might delay that date. Spectacor is still planning for a autumn, 1996 opening date.The Flyers are disappointed Tommy Soderstrom is going to spend the summer in his native Sweden. They were hoping he would spend more time in Philadelphia so his conditioning could be monitored. Soderstrom did not come to camp in good shape last year and finished with a 6-18-4 mark, a 4.01 goals-against average and two shutouts. He was 20-17-6, with 3.42 GAA and five shutouts in his rookie year. &#9632;

f0051-01

Past hero Clarke opts to stay with Panthers

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>Rick Tocchet&rsquo;s skate did more than slice through John Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s right thumb on a breakaway attempt Feb. 1. It probably knocked the Florida Panthers out of the playoffs.Vanbiesbrouck never was the same after the injury and neither were the Panthers.Prior to the injury, Vanbiesbrouck was second among NHL goaltenders with a 2.31 goals-against average, first in save percentage (.933) and had a 16-13-8 record-solid numbers for any goalie, but remarkable ones for one on an expansion team.But Vanbiesbrouck was on the sidelines for the 17 days it took for the cut hand to heal. After the injury, his record was 5-12-3, his GAA was 2.95 and his save percentage was .906. Nothing to cry about, but still not what Panther watchers or the coaching staff were used to or had come to expect.Still, Vanbiesbrouck had a good enough season to be a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player. The other finalists are Sergei Fedorov of the Buffalo Sabres and Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres.&ldquo;He was so great during the first part of the season,&rdquo; said coach Roger Neilson. &ldquo;Then he became a mortal.&rdquo;Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s season took its biggest nosedive April 12 when he was pulled in the second period after allowing three goals on 12 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Quebec Nordiques-a game that cost the Panthers a playoff spot. It was the first time Vanbiesbrouck had been pulled all season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a humbling game,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said at the time. &ldquo;I feel like I let everyone down.&rdquo;Neilson allowed Vanbiesbrouck a chance to wipe away some frustration by starting the season-ending 4-1 win over the New York Islanders.Following the game, Vanbiesbrouck and his teammates went back on the ice to throw souvenirs to the crowd in appreciation of their support.&ldquo;It was a very special night,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said. &ldquo;We beat the team that beat us out of the playoffs and we were able to thank our fans. I think the only way you could duplicate that feeling is to go back out there with a Stanley Cup.&rdquo;The frustration of just missing the playoffs had been tempered by the realization of what this team had accomplished.Personally, Vanbiesbrouck said last season may have been better than when he won the Vezina Trophy in 1986.&ldquo;In some cases, it was better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In other cases, it wasn&rsquo;t as good because we didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs. The opportunity was there. But I would have to put it up there with one of my best seasons.&rdquo;Vanbiesbrouck may not have been rewarded with a playoff spot or a Hart Trophy, but there are other ways he&rsquo;ll benefit from last season&rsquo;s brilliant performance, besides his first All-Star Game appearance.For one thing, he&rsquo;s in his option year and stands to have his $950,000 salary double with a new long-term deal. For another, this is his first off-season since 1987 when he doesn&rsquo;t have to worry about being traded.Contrary to rumor, Panthers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke said he won&rsquo;t deal his team&rsquo;s marquee player.&ldquo;We wouldn&rsquo;t trade John,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;In my mind, we wouldn&rsquo;t attempt to trade him. Even if something came along, I certainly think we&rsquo;d have to look at John&rsquo;s relationship with the fans. The fans are the ones who buy tickets and they have a special feeling for the players.&rdquo;Said Vanbiesbrouck: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to get Bob Clarke&rsquo;s endorsement. I realize that nothing is written in stone in this business. But it feels like a family is being formed here and I want to remain a part of it.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Panthers are making a highlight tape of their inaugural season. It will cost $19.95 and be available in mid-June&hellip;The Panthers rewarded their players with a day-long inner coast cruise shortly after the season ended. &#9632;

Season to remember for Beezer

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Roman Hamrlik finished the 1993-94 season as the Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s No. 1 defenseman. Within a couple weeks of the Lightning&rsquo;s season finale, though, Hamrlik had become the team&rsquo;s No. 1 concern.The transformation took place April 26 when Hamrlik severely injured his right knee while playing for the Czech Republic in a World Championship pre-tournament game in Italy.Two days later, doctors confirmed what the Lightning feared: Hamrlik had tom both the medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments and required major surgery. An operation was performed May 4.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, Roman is going to have a pretty lousy summer,&rdquo; said Tony Esposito, the Lightning&rsquo;s director of player development.The Lightning figured to be in for quite a lousy summer, too, but at a news conference to announce the doctor&rsquo;s findings, Esposito and Lightning trainer Larry Ness were optimistic about the results.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re sort of relieved today because we&rsquo;re no longer concerned that the injury is career threatening,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;If anything, the timing of was good, because Roman should be fine for next season if all goes well.&rdquo;Ness put Hamrlik&rsquo;s downtime at about six months, which means he could be ready to play when training camp gets underway next September in Lakeland, Fla.He said Hamrlik will spend a month resting the knee after surgery. He will then begin a rehabilitation program that is to include daily exercise and weekly tests on a Cybex machine, which tests the strength of the knee.The next test for Hamrlik will come during training camp, when he will gets into full contact scrimmages.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll have to deal with that mentally, knowing his knee can take it,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be very careful with him.&rdquo;The Lightning has already been careful with Hamrlik, who was taken first overall in the 1992 entry draft. Instead of allowing him to be operated on in Europe, they had him transported back to the United States, where team physician Dr. David Leffers performed the surgery.&ldquo;This is routine surgery for Dr. Leffers,&rdquo; Ness said. &ldquo;This is just another routine day of work for him, and that&rsquo;s why we brought Roman back to Tampa.&ldquo;European (doctors) just don&rsquo;t have the expertise in this area that North Americans do. Over there, these types of knee injuries are given emergency surgeries, which aren&rsquo;t necessary. We wanted him here.&rdquo;But getting Hamrlik back to Florida proved to be quite an ordeal for the 19-year-old.Fitted in a cast that ran from his upper thigh to his foot, Hamrlik flew nine hours from Italy to Atlanta. His flight from Atlanta to Tampa was delayed two hours so Hamrlik didn&rsquo;t arrive in Tampa some 15 hours after leaving Italy.When he arrived he was tired and worried about his future, but his mood improved when doctors determined the injury was not career threatening.BAD DECISION?: Following Roman Hamrlik&rsquo;s injury, the Lightning was left to defend its decision to allow the defenseman to play in the World Championships.&ldquo;Our feeling is if a guy wants to play for his country, he should be allowed to play,&rdquo; Tony Esposito said. &ldquo;Roman really wanted to play. And really, we thought the experience would be good for Roman. It&rsquo;s just one of those things.&rdquo;The Lightning had three other players participating in the World Championships. Mikael Andersson was played for Sweden and Danton Cole and Shawn Chambers played for the United States.NOTEBOOK: General manager Phil Esposito said he has no plans to deal leading scorer Brian Bradley. Esposito&rsquo;s comments came in response to a published report that claimed Bradley is unhappy in Tampa and is hoping to be traded. &#9632;

Hamrlik could be at camp despite blowing out knee

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>It would be safe to say some New York Islanders who said goodbye in April won&rsquo;t being saying hello in September.&ldquo;We really need to step back before we comment on the performance, or the lack thereof,&rdquo; said general manager Don Maloney. &ldquo;The numbness is going to take time to wear off. It would be foolhardy to say that we can go into next season with the same personnel.&rdquo;The numbness comes from being swept out of the playoffs by the New York Rangers in four games that weren&rsquo;t remotely competitive.This will be a long and busy off-season for Maloney. First, he must determine whether coach Al Arbour wants to come back for a 20th season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll sit down after all the emotion of the end of the season has gone and talk about it,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;If Al wants to coach, he has the record, the experience. There has been no better coach in the National Hockey League, past or present. It&rsquo;s going to be his decision. If he wants to go through all the aggravation again, then that&rsquo;s the way route we&rsquo;ll go.&rdquo;Arbour did not meet with the Islanders at breakup day. It was Maloney who addressed the subdued group.&ldquo;Al didn&rsquo;t want to see any of the players,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;He was the happiest of anybody in the organization when we made the playoffs and the most devastated when we lost.&rdquo;Maloney will also have to deal with a number of personnel decisions:&#9633; Benoit Hogue is a free agent and Maloney will try to sign him.&#9633; David Volek is a free agent, too, though it&rsquo;s unclear whether Maloney will make him a qualifying offer. Keith Acton and Dave Maley are also free agents.&#9633; Steve Thomas, Darius Kasparaitis and Vladimir Malakhov are entering their option years. Will Maloney attempt to sign them to long-term deals?&#9633; Players such as Ray Ferraro, Derek King and Uwe Krupp are veterans with value. Maloney might consider trading them in order to fill needs.However, Maloney doesn&rsquo;t feel wholesale changes are in order. &ldquo;We have the makings of a top team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of getting a few more pieces.&rdquo;Still, his optimism is far from what it was last May when the team made it to the semifinals.&ldquo;Last summer was enjoyable. We were coming off a great run, had a young nucleus, brought Ron Hextall in,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;Things went from bad to worse to disaster.&rdquo;Particularly bad in the playoffs was his young defense. &ldquo;They were god awful, quite frankly,&rdquo; Maloney said.What happens now will stem from what Arbour chooses to do. After Game 4, he sounded as though he had had enough, but he hasn&rsquo;t told Maloney he&rsquo;s stepping down.VUKOTA INVESTIGATED: The league is looking into the conduct of Islanders&rsquo; right winger Mick Vukota, who was involved in a fracas during Game 4 of the series with the Rangers.Vukota punched Ranger defenseman Jay Wells from behind while Wells was being held by a linesman and pinned by other players against the sideboards. Wells sustained a cut over his right eye. After the game, Vukota said he has a lot of respect for Wells and was sorry.Vukota was suspended for 10 games after initiating a fight against the Rangers in Game 1 of their 1990 playoff series.NOTEBOOK: Steve Thomas went from Islander breakup day directly to Italy to play for Team Canada at the World Championships. It was a convenient destination since he had planned to vacation there&hellip;Benoit Hogue wants to remain an Islander, yet of all the team&rsquo;s veterans, he probably has the most trade value.The Islanders lost the Salt Lake Golden Eagles as an affiliate, so they are looking to put 10-12 players with another International League team and four to six with an American League team. &#9632;

Expect some changes, but not drastic measures

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div>MILAN, Italy&mdash;Politics.In a word, that was the topic which preoccupied the International Ice Hockey Federation&rsquo;s meetings during the World Championships April 25May 8 in Italy.If it wasn&rsquo;t the politics of who&rsquo;s running hockey in Russia, it was the politics of who wants to run hockey around the world.Canadian and Swedish officials had hoped to get delegates to decide whether the shootout should be kept for medal-round games in the Winter Olympics and World Championships.The NHL had hoped to reach an agreement on transfer payments for European players with the IIHF.Neither transpired.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01127/6090614-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="581" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">Murray Costello said the meetings were very political.</figcaption></div>Both issues became casualties while European officials staked out their turf in the presidential election campaign.&ldquo;Politics kept us busy,&rdquo; said Murray Costello, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.The action in the political arena was as competitive as the action on the ice.The championships had barely begun when rival groups claimed they were the only voice for Russian hockey.In one comer was Vladimir Petrov, the embattled president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, while in the other comer was Valentin Sych, who was the head of the Russian Olympic Committee&rsquo;s Winter Games delegation in Lillehammer, Norway.There were controversial allegations of secret Swiss bank accounts, bribes, missing money and even a bizarre tale of the illicit purchase of instant chicken soup as a means of raising funds.The public scrap angered the IIHF to the point where the warring factions were told to stop behaving like children because they were embarrassing both the local organizing committee and the Italian Ice Hockey Federation.&ldquo;We told them to settle their differences at home and not here,&rdquo; said Gordon Renwick of Cambridge, Ont., an IIHF vice-president.No sooner had the Russians started behaving like model citizens when the IIHF took on the atmosphere of a political convention.At least six people, including Renwick, are vying for the post of IIHF president while two or three more were working the hotel corridors and breakfast tables sniffing out support.The campaign began in earnest when IIHF president Gunther Sabetzki backtracked on earlier comments by saying he would withhold IIHF sanctioning of a so-called Olympic dream tournament because it would be unfair to international hockey&rsquo;s lesser lights.Sabetzki said he told International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, &ldquo;that if he makes a contract with the NHL for dream teams then the IIHF will not take part. Why should we allow it to happen?&rdquo;Sabetzki&rsquo;s comments smacked of an election promise.The 76-year-old Sabetzki has been the IIHF president for the past 19 years. He has been known to nod off at meetings and people have taken to faxing him letters following telephone conversations to confirm in writing what they said and agreed to do.While most of the candidates conducted quiet campaigns, some came out with both barrels blazing, directing their shots at both Sabetzki and Renwick, who at one time was considered a front-runner for the June election in Venice.&ldquo;It is a real snakepit,&rdquo; said Rene Fasel, president of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation. &ldquo;The problem is that not always the best guy wins. That is politics and this is very political.&rdquo;Fasel should know.After saying for months he would never run if Renwick&rsquo;s name appeared on the slate of candidates, Fasel did an about face.&ldquo;It really hurts me to have to do this to Gordon, but I have no choice,&rdquo; Fasel said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to lose Gordon and I hope I can convince him to stay on to deal with the NHL (on transfer payments).&rdquo;Renwick, however, has other plans.&ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t win,&rdquo; Renwick said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going golfing.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0053-01

Summit meeting called ‘snakepit’

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Manhattan is a tough place to find a home. Alexei Kovalev found that out the hard way.The New York Rangers&rsquo; center spent most of his first two seasons in North America bouncing between the Big Apple and Binghamton and between right wing and center.Things fell into place March 22 when the nomadic Russian was switched to center for the umpteenth time and given a couple of ex-Chicago Blackhawks-Steve Larmer and Stephane Matteau-to fly on his wings.The trio was an instant hit. Kovalev, 21, loves to carry the puck; the experienced Larmer has a knack for getting open and finishing from in tight; and Matteau has become a physical force with the size and tenacity to work the comers.In the Rangers&rsquo; final 11 regular-season games. Kovalev collected eight goals and 12 points. He concluded the season with 23 goals and 56 points in 76 games.He has been an important cog in the Rangers&rsquo; playoff drive, counting four goals and 11 points in eight games as the Rangers flexed their muscles in the first two rounds of playoffs.Playing right wing, Kovalev was a defensive liability. Management recognized his natural talent and despite growing exasperated with him, resisted the temptation to trade him.They came close, though. A deal with the Vancouver Canucks for Petr Nedved was squelched when New York couldn&rsquo;t come to terms with Nedved.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more comfortable at center,&rdquo; Kovalev said. &ldquo;When I played wing I would get in trouble with Mike (coach Keenan). I didn&rsquo;t check my guy in our end. He would tell me and tell me about it, but I just didn&rsquo;t get it right.&rdquo;Kovalev&rsquo;s rookie season of 199293, was a series of ups and downs. The first player from the former Soviet Union ever drafted in the first round-15th overall in 1991-he made the Rangers and scored the first of 20 goals in his first NHL game. But he was assigned to the Binghamton Rangers of the American League three times and was there to stay when the Rangers finished out of the playoffs.He played 13 games in Binghamton and collected 13 goals and 24 points. Both he and Sergei Zubov wanted to play at the 1993 World Championships in Munich when New York&rsquo;s season ended, but their request was denied. They staged a brief holdout, then begrudgingly reported.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0283/6090645-1-eng-US/f0053-022.jpg" title="f0053-02" width="972" height="1930"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Kovalev sat out a Game 7 in the minors last season. (MARCO CAMPANELLI/BBS)</figcaption></div>Disheartened, Kovalev scored three goals and eight points in nine games. His play was erratic and Binghamton coach Colin Campbell sat him out in the seventh game of a series against the Baltimore Skipjacks. It wasn&rsquo;t part of some master scheme to teach Kovalev a lesson. Campbell simply felt his team stood a better chance of winning without Kovalev.Now an assistant to Keenan in New York, Campbell is a convert. He had given up on Kovalev, mostly because of Kovalev&rsquo;s selfish play.&ldquo;He got more thrill out of deking a guy than scoring a goal,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d deke the same guy twice-the fourth guy he deked was also the first guy.&rdquo;As a rookie, Kovalev would skate miles without accomplishing much.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing great now,&rdquo; said Ranger general manager Neil Smith. &ldquo;I said it would take a long time for this guy to mature because he was so young and so immature. There were times during his two years here people suggested we should see what we could get for him.&rdquo;It has hardly been a fairy tale sophomore year for Kovalev. He arrived at training camp in terrific condition and was placed on a line with Mark Messier and Adam Graves. He looked destined to score 50 goals.Kovalev scored points in his first four games, but his play declined rapidly. He was undisciplined and suspended three times. One was a five-gamer for kicking the legs out from under Dale Hunter in November. The two others were for stick-related incidents.Keenan has displayed remarkable patience with Kovalev. One game when he felt Kovalev&rsquo;s shifts were too long, Keenan kept him on for a six-minute shift. When Kovalev tried to come off the ice, Keenan waved him back on.&ldquo;Mike is like (Viktor) Tikhonov,&rdquo; Kovalev said. &ldquo;He looks mean behind the bench.&rdquo;But the man who had the least faith in Kovalev now insists the player will make his mark in the league.&ldquo;He compares to Gil Perreault-a guy who can go laterally on the spur of the moment,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;He has a good shot, but he&rsquo;d rather get in close and make a move. He&rsquo;s an exciting player to watch.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0053-02

Manhattan transfer

<div class="byline">By Steve Huber</div>It was the shot heard round Dallas and Stars&rsquo; winger Shane Churla never saw it coming.Churla was knocked unconscious-for the first time in his career-by a vicious blindside elbow from Vancouver Canuck Pavel Bure in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal May 4.The hit happened barely seven minutes into the game with the Canucks ahead 1-0. Churla returned to the ice late in the third period, but Bure&rsquo;s hit-which referee Andy vanHellemond didn&rsquo;t see or penalize-changed the complexion of the game and possibly the series. Bure went on to score twice as the Canucks swept both games at Reunion Arena.Usually reserved Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey said after the game Bure should have been ejected, saying he was the best player who shouldn&rsquo;t have been on the ice.Bure complained that the Stars had targeted him and he was simply trying to protect himself. Churla called the hit &ldquo;gutless&rdquo; and vowed revenge against Bure.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll remember it for the rest of my career,&rdquo; Churla said. &ldquo;If it was the other way around, if it was me who turned out his lights, I&rsquo;d be gone for about 15 games at least. I&rsquo;d be splashed all over the community and people would be calling me the biggest goon in hockey.&rdquo;NHL president Gary Bettman and vice-president Jim Gregory, plus supervisor John D&rsquo;Amico were all at the game.D&rsquo;Amico sent a tape of the incident to senior vice-president Brian Burke for further review. On the eve of Game 3 in Vancouver May 6-which the Stars won 4-3-Burke gave Bure a $500 fine and warned others such behavior would be &ldquo;severely punished.&rdquo;Churla was livid.&ldquo;It shows how weak our league is,&rdquo; Churla said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a double standard. This is a joke. The league is a joke. I think Brian Burke should pull up his dress if he&rsquo;s going to make the call based on who the player is. The guy I feel sorry for is Dale Hunter (who was suspended for 21 games for a cheap shot late hit on New York Islander Pierre Turgeon in the playoffs last season). They made a whipping boy out of him. I think the league took a step backwards and showed how weak they really are.&rdquo;Despite Churla&rsquo;s vowed revenge, there were no incidents between him and Bure in Games 3 and 4. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t put myself above the team so it costs us the game,&rdquo; Churla said.QUICK ON THE DRAW: It took the perfect shot to beat goalie Andy Moog in Game 4 and Vancouver&rsquo;s Sergio Momesso got it.The Stars and Canucks were in overtime when Momesso scored his first goal of the series, burying a high shot as he was falling away from the net to end the game 2-1.&ldquo;I saw it all the way,&rdquo; Moog said. &ldquo;Momesso reached back and grabbed the puck out of a scrum. He just wheeled around and fired. I was sure he couldn&rsquo;t put it high so I took away the bottom. He made some kind of shot. You have to give him credit. It was the perfect shot.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After combining for seven goals and 14 assists against the St. Louis Blues in the Western quarterfinals, Mike Modano, Russ Courtnall and Paul Cavallini had one goal (Modano) and one assist (Courtnall) among them through four games against the Canucks&hellip;The Stars gave up the first goal in seven of their first eight playoff games.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dean Evason, Brent Gilchrist, Pelle Eklund.LW-Trent Klatt, Dave Gagner, Mike McPhee, Alan May.RW-Russ Courtnall, Paul Broten, Shane Churla, Mike Craig, Mike Needham, Dave Barr.LD-Craig Ludwig, Derian Hatcher, Paul Cavallini, Mike Lalor.RD-Grant Ledyard, Doug Zmolek, Richard Matvichuk, Gord Donnelly.G-Andy Moog, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Tinordi, D, broken left femur, out for season. &#9632;

Bure fine ‘a joke’ Churla says

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>For only the fourth time in 67 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have new ownership.Steve Stavro officially became the club&rsquo;s new majority owner May 2 when the NHL board of governors unanimously approved the sale of the club to the millionaire food magnate from the estate of former Leaf owner Harold Ballard.The club was founded by the legendary Conn Smythe in 1927, co-owned by his son Stafford, John Bassett and Ballard through the 1960s and finally owned by Ballard alone until his death in April, 1990.Stavro was one of the executors of Ballard&rsquo;s will and fought a bitter battle for the Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens with Ballard&rsquo;s son, Bill, and former Leaf chairman Don Giffin until seizing control in September, 1991.The arena and club will now be owned by the Stavro-controlled MLG Ventures, with a major teachers&rsquo; union and the Toronto-Dominion Bank also owning substantial interest in the company. The club is valued at about $125 million.Stavro bought controlling interest in the Gardens at $34 a share, but that left several significant shareholders unhappy, including Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; vice-president Jimmy Devellano and former St. Louis Blues&rsquo; owner Harry Ornest.&ldquo;At $34, I&rsquo;m not selling,&rdquo; Omest said. &ldquo;Everybody, including my friend Steve Stavro, knows the shares are worth much more than that.&rdquo;&ldquo;Frankly, the offer of $34 is a steal for (Stavro),&rdquo; Devellano said.The Ontario Public Trustee, meanwhile, has said court approval is needed for the transaction, while the Ontario Securities Commission has also expressed interest in the deal. As well, the Teamster Union, which represents Gardens workers, has also asked the trustee&rsquo;s office to stop the deal.Stavro is the owner of Knob Hill Farms, a major food retailer in the Toronto area, and is also well-known for a successful thoroughbred horse racing stable.PLAYING WITH PAIN: Despite an ankle injury that doesn&rsquo;t allow him to practise on off-days, Doug Gilmour was having a whale of a post-season.After finishing second to Wayne Gretzky in the playoff scoring race last spring with 35 points in 21 games, Gilmour had 19 in his first 10 playoff games this spring.Five of those came in an 8-3 win over the San Jose Sharks in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal.The one-goal, four assist effort tied defenseman Ian Turnbull&rsquo;s 18-year-old club standard for most assists in a playoff game.Gilmour sustained the ankle injury in Game 5 of Toronto&rsquo;s first-round series with the Chicago Blackhawks when he fell awkwardly after fighting for the puck with Gary Suter.NOTEBOOK: The Leafs&rsquo; 8-3 win over San Jose in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal fell one goal short of matching the club record for most goals in a playoff game.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for the Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 27: Darby Hendrickson, C. recalled from St. John&rsquo;s (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Doug Gilmour, Mike Eastwood, Peter Zezel, John Cullen, Darby Hendrickson, Mike Krushelnyski, Alexei Kudashov.LW-Dave Andreychuk, Wendel Clark, Bill Berg, Ken Baumgartner.RW-Mike Gartner, Nikolai Borschevsky, Rob Pearson, Ken McRae, Mark OsborneLD-Jamie Macoun, Todd Gill, Dave Ellett.RD-Sylvain Lefebvre, Bob Rouse, Dmitri Mironov, Drake Berehowsky.G-Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kent Manderville, LW, sprained left thumb/wrist, day-to-day &#9632;

Food magnate Stavro takes reigns of power

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>After assessing the damage of a second straight first-round playoff exit, general manager Bob Pulford and coach Darryl Sutter both think the Chicago Blackhawks really aren&rsquo;t that far away from something good.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re two players from being real solid contenders, if they&rsquo;re the right players,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;I think next year our goaltending and defense will be as good as there is.&rdquo;The return to good health of Steve Smith and Cam Russell to play alongside Chris Chelios, Gary Suter and Eric Weinrich should give the Hawks a solid defense in front of Ed Belfour, but the keys next season rest up front.If the Hawks are to make any improvement, they must go out and find a playmaking second-line center to complement Jeremy Roenick.Chicago&rsquo;s inability to score was its downfall. The Hawks were shut out in three of four losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs.The No. 1 line of Roenick, Tony Amonte and Joe Murphy accounted for all but one point among the forwards in the six-game series.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;ve learned is not something that&rsquo;s a surprise to us,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;The key to this team is a center. It&rsquo;s tough to get a read on some of your wingers without that guy in the middle. I don&rsquo;t know what we can get out of our shooters until we find someone to get them the puck.&rdquo;Pulford will spend the off-season looking for a center to play between Paul Ysebaert and Murphy, thus providing two scoring lines.Murphy had been playing left wing with Roenick and Amonte, but both Murphy and Amonte are stronger on the right side and Sutter wants Amonte with Roenick.Finding a power player at left wing to work with Roenick and Amonte is a project. Patrick Poulin may be that guy. He spent most of the season failing to please the coaching staff after coming over from the Hartford Whalers.Sutter is happy with his checking line of Brent Sutter, Dirk Graham and Randy Cunney-worth and indicated he expects all three to be back even though Graham and Cunneyworth are unrestricted free agents.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got great checkers who are leaders,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said. &ldquo;But their effort was not rewarded and they got criticized because the (the second line) did not do the job.&rdquo;END OF ERA: Many of the fans remained in their seats long after Game 6 ended April 28. knowing it would be their last time in Chicago Stadium for hockey.Jeremy Roenick was the last Hawk to leave the ice, waving to the fans and tossing his stick into the stands.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it has hit me we won&rsquo;t be back here next year,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;What I&rsquo;ll probably always remember most is walking up those steps and hearing the fans cheer.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the best fans you could ever put in a building. If I could walk up to every one of them and tell them what they&rsquo;ve meant to me and the Chicago Blackhawks, I would.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Toronto&rsquo;s Mike Gartner scored the final goal in Chicago Stadium. It was the only goal scored in Toronto&rsquo;s 1-0 Game 6 win&hellip;Dave Christian dressed for Game 5. It was his first appearance since Dec. 7.Gary Suter&rsquo;s hat trick in Game 4 was only the 10th by a defenseman in playoff history.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jeremy Roenick, Christian Ruuttu, Brent Sutter, Jeff Shantz.LW-Joe Murphy, Patrick Poulin, Steve Dubinsky, Randy Cunneyworth, Tony Horacek, Dave Christian.RW-Tony Amonte, Paul Ysebaert, Dirk Graham, Rich Sutter, Darin Kimble, Sergei Krivokrasov.LD-Gary Suter, Keith Carney, Neil Wilkinson, Robert Dirk.RD-Chris Chelios, Eric Weinrich, Greg Smyth, Ivan DroppaG-Ed Belfour, Jeff Hackett, Chris Rogles.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Michel Goulet, LW, concussion, Cam Russell, D, neck surgery, Steve Smith, D, broken left leg. &#9632;

Wanted: Second-line center with offensive creativity

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>Chris Osgood took most of the blame for the latest in the Detroit Red Wings list of playoff failures. But the fact is there was more than enough blame to go around.Osgood, a rookie who wasn&rsquo;t even supposed to be in the NHL this season, shed tears for an entire team.&ldquo;There should be another dozen guys in there crying with him,&rdquo; said general manager Bryan Murray after his Detroit Red Wings lost Game 7 to the San Jose Sharks.The winning goal came with six minutes to play when Osgood skated out of his crease to handle the puck because his teammates were lackadaisical in their pursuit. He flipped it along the boards where Sharks&rsquo; forward Jamie Baker retrieved it. As Slava Kozlov and Ray Sheppard stood nearby, Baker flung a 45-foot shot at the open net for the winner.Osgood was devastated by the loss to the Sharks that ended an otherwise wonderful rookie season.&ldquo;I made a bad mistake,&rdquo; Osgood said. &ldquo;I just hope people stick with me. I thought I tried my hardest&hellip;I&rsquo;m sorry. Nobody in this city is more upset about it than me.&ldquo;I just have to find a way so that this doesn&rsquo;t ruin me. I&rsquo;m still young, so that&rsquo;s good. I&rsquo;ll try my best again next year.&rdquo;Osgood was there because Bob Essensa couldn&rsquo;t be. Coach Scotty Bowman had no faith in the veteran acquired from the Winnipeg Jets. Essensa twice was given the chance and twice he gave it back to the rookie.Essensa played poorly in a 5-4 loss in Game 1. He was worse in Game 5, when Osgood gave up two goals on his first two shots and got the hook. The Wings mounted a comeback that was spoiled because Essensa gave up three goals on five shots he faced in the third period.IMPLICATED: Scotty Bowman is pleading guilty for his role in the Wings&rsquo; upset.&ldquo;I take a lot of the responsibility,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;I enjoyed the season and I have no qualms about coming back next year.&rdquo;He said he felt he could return to work another season with general manager Bryan Murray &ldquo;there&rsquo;s not a big philosophical difference,&rdquo; he said-and that there wasn&rsquo;t a need for a great turnover in personnel.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want a fire sale certainly,&rdquo; Bowman said.NOTEBOOK: The Sharks were miffed Scotty Bowman left the bench immediately after Game 7 without congratulating the victors. &ldquo;How come Bowman did not shake our hands?&rdquo; said Igor Larionov. &ldquo;He has deep respect in Russia. But tonight was something different.&rdquo;&hellip;Shawn Burr, who didn&rsquo;t fit into Bowman&rsquo;s plans in the season&rsquo;s beginning, was Detroit&rsquo;s most consistent player in the post-season. Kris Draper, a checking forward, was the team&rsquo;s best player in Game 7.Captain Steve Yzerman offered no execuses for the team&rsquo;s early exit. &ldquo;What can I say? We failed again,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;We have to accept the consequences, whatever they are. We&rsquo;ve opened ourselves up to a lot of heat. We&rsquo;re all fair game now.&rdquo;<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 2: Martin Lapointe, RW, and Greg Johnson, C, assigned to Adirondack (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Sergei Fedorov, Keith Primeau, Kns Draper, Sheldon Kennedy.LW-Slava Kozlov, Shawn Burr, Greg Johnson, Bob Probert, Micah AivazofLRW-Dino Ciccarelli, Ray Sheppard, Mike Sillinger.LD-Paul Coffey, Steve Chiasson, Terry Carkner, Bob Halkidis.RD-Nicklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Mark Howe, Sergei Bautin.G-Chris Osgood, Bob Essensa.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Osgood accepts responsibility for team’s early exit

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>Coach Bob Berry has heard the term being applied to him and he doesn&rsquo;t like it.He said the people who are claiming he will be the scapegoat for the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; early exit from the NHL playoffs are merely speculating. As far as he&rsquo;s concerned, he&rsquo;s the coach until someone in authority tells him otherwise.&ldquo;If they tell me they don&rsquo;t want me to do it, that&rsquo;s fine. I have no control over that,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;I know what I do and I know how well I do it. It&rsquo;s my job now and no one has told me any different. I&rsquo;m going to keep getting on the horse until they tell me they don&rsquo;t want me to get on the horse again.&rdquo;When asked whether he wants to saddle up with the Blues again next season or ride off into the sunset, Berry said, &ldquo;Certainly, I want to keep coaching. People coach for simple reasons. They coach because the rewards are so very wonderful.&rdquo;Berry cited the excitement of the 1992-93 season, when the Blues&rsquo; qualified for the playoffs on the final day, then swept the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round before losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games.&ldquo;Those are things that bring people back to coaching,&rdquo; he said.But being on the losing side of a sweep can drive people from coaching, either by their own choice or their employer&rsquo;s.Berry has said he wants to continue, and team president Jack Quinn said the Blues had no immediate plans to fire Berry, who has two years remaining on his contract.&ldquo;Yeah, we can fire him,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;Anybody can be fired. (But) it has not been discussed.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t anticipate any changes. Nobody in the front office is blaming the coach. I&rsquo;m not heaping a lot of blame on him.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not time to point fingers and make decisions based on anger and depression.&rdquo;Berry has been the Blues&rsquo; head coach since October of 1992. In the four seasons prior to that, Berry had been an assistant to Brian Sutter.The Blues are 73-63-21 under Berry for a .532 winning percentage, a record that Quinn described as &ldquo;not bad.&rdquo;The Blues improved by six points over last season, finishing 40-33-11 for 91 points. Last season, the Blues had a 37-36-11 record for 85 points.FAULT LINE: Blues&rsquo; captain Brett Hull came out in support of Bob Berry, saying the coach shouldn&rsquo;t be blamed for the team&rsquo;s failure.&ldquo;Bob Berry is a fantastic coach and person,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t deserve to be thought of as a scapegoat. They can blame whoever they want, but if it wasn&rsquo;t for him, we wouldn&rsquo;t have been anywhere the last couple of years.&ldquo;He did a great job as far as I&rsquo;m concerned. In my mind, the game plan that he had for us was excellent.&rdquo;When asked if that meant the players were to blame for not following the game plan, Hull said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the players&rsquo; fault, either. Every guy worked hard. Very hard.&rdquo;Hull begged off when asked whose fault it was. In doing so, the finger was left pointing in the direction of management. Jack Quinn and general manager Ron Caron restructured the team&rsquo;s makeup during the last three months of the season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take the Fifth Amendment,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying another word. I&rsquo;m not getting myself in trouble.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: While the Blues are long gone, their alumni was going strong in the second round of the playoffs. Each of the four conference semifinal series featured at least one ex-Blue. Vancouver Canucks-Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican. Nathan LaFayette, Sergio Momesso. Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnail; Dallas Stars-Paul Cavallini, Dave Barr; Toronto Maple Leafs-Doug Gilmour; San Jose Sharks-assistant coach Wayne Thomas; Boston Bruins-coach Brian Sutter. Adam Oates, Gordie Roberts; New Jersey Devils-Scott Stevens; New York Rangers-trainer Mike Folga. &#9632;

Berry wants to return for 1994-95

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Though he has averaged more than a point per game in two seasons, Alexei Zhamnov is a great mystery for the Winnipeg Jets.The Russian-born center successfully passed the first hurdle in treating a persistent back injury. Zhamnov&rsquo;s protruding disc tarnished his first two seasons, forcing him out of the lineup for weeks on end and then leaving him a struggling, ineffective player when he got back into the lineup.With surgery ruled out, Zhamnov spent three weeks at the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic in Los Angeles under the care of Dr. Robert Watkins, and returned to Winnipeg April 25 confident he has found a way to reduce the pain. The team&rsquo;s No. 1 center has a customized stretching and strengthening program that will become part of his everyday routine.&ldquo;Alex seemed very happy about how he&rsquo;s feeling and what he learned,&rdquo; said coach-general manager John Paddock. &ldquo;But I told him, and I couldn&rsquo;t stress it enough, that he has to work at it all summer. It&rsquo;s a very unique program and it requires a commitment.&rdquo;Zhamnov and Paddock admitted relief the early results were good in the center&rsquo;s treatment with Watkins. &ldquo;But the news will only be good if he plays 80 games next year,&rdquo; Paddock said.Zhamnov scored 25 goals and 72 points in 68 games as a rookie in 1992-93. This past season, he scored 25 goals and 71 points in 61 games.&ldquo;Really, he missed nine weeks this season,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;When he was third in the league in scoring at Christmas, he missed three weeks, then he comes back and is brutal for three weeks, then plays good and then misses the rest of the season.&ldquo;If he&rsquo;s going to miss nine weeks next season, we&rsquo;re in big trouble.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s because the Jets are worried about their depth at center. Their first two centers are Zhamnov, 24, and veteran Thomas Steen, 34. Steen also had nagging back troubles in the past and despite his success in overcoming the problems, his back will always be a concern for the organization.Late this past season, Paddock did some experimenting with both Dallas Drake and captain Keith Tkachuk at center. He liked the way Drake&rsquo;s skating improved with every game. He also likes Tkachuk&rsquo;s power, but hasn&rsquo;t decided whether there&rsquo;s enough playmaking to accompany it.&ldquo;The jury&rsquo;s still out,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;My first choice is to have Keith play with those other two guys (Teemu Selanne and Zhamnov). I envision too much success there. But if he could play center as good as he plays wing, then that would take care of all our center ice problems.&rdquo;PRICE HIKE: The Jets announced ticket price increases for next season that average almost five per cent.That will take the top ticket at Winnipeg Arena to $50, up $2 from last season. All other seats, besides the few $50 box chairs, will cost $1 more, including the bottom-price admission, which goes to $12.The overall increase in revenue that the hike will provide will, at best, amount to $1 million. That will fall far short of covering the team&rsquo;s expected increase in payroll from $12 million in 1993-94 to about $18 million next season.The club expects to lose $6 million for 199394 and maybe $10 million next season. The losses, however, are still covered by the city of Winnipeg and province of Manitoba-under the terms of an 1991 agreement-while the debate over a new arena for the city continues.NOTEBOOK: Rumors persist that Detroit Red Wing Sheldon Kennedy is on his way to the Jets to complete the Bob Essensa and Sergei Bautin for Tim Cheveldae and Dallas Drake trade March 8&hellip;Defenseman Wayne McBean had minor surgery on his wrist April 15, the day after the season ended.Defenseman Dave Manson&rsquo;s surgery to correct his scratchy voice was scheduled for April 26. Manson&rsquo;s has had the voice box problem since being punched in the throat by Vancouver Canuck Sergio Momesso two years ago. &#9632;

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May 20, 1994

Injuries to key personnel make life in Mav difficult

Churla promises ‘payback’ on Bure for vicious elbow

NHL SUMMARIES

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE