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.

June 10, 1994

The Hockey News June 10, 1994

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01323/6135538-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

SCOREBOARD

Roller Hockey International, the professional roller hockey league, felt so good about its successful first season, it went out and doubled in size for Year II.A 12-team league last year now stands at 24 and there are big plans for the future-including a European division and eventually a true World Championship.The brainchild of Dennis Murphy who started the American Basketball Association, World Hockey Association and World Team Tennis, RHI considered 40 applications for franchises before deciding to only add 12.A recent successful exhibition game between Canadian and American Selects in Japan offers significant hope for the future abroad. RHI expects to operate a 10-team league in Japan in the summer of 1995- the first step toward that World Championship.&ldquo;This thing is big and our goals are not unattainable,&rdquo; said RHI commissioner Ralph Backstrom, a former NHLer who played on six Stanley Cup champions.Big indeed. RHI boasts 20 Americanbased franchises and four more in Canada. And if it&rsquo;s name dropping you want, consider that if the league stands a fighting chance for success, it has two of the best scrappers in its corner: Dave (The Hammer) Schultz and Dave (Tiger) Williams. Williams is the NHL&rsquo;s all-time penalty leader and Schultz was a physical demon in his dav as well.The 1994 season begins June 3 and teams play a 22-game schedule. The playoffs run between Aug. 15-29 and the championship final is set for Aug. 29-Sept. 3.The league will be divided into two Conferences, Eastern and Western, with four divisions, Pacific, Northwest, Central and Atlantic.Returning from last season are the champion Anaheim Bullfrogs, Los Angeles Blades, San Diego Barracudas, Oakland Skates, Florida Hammerheads, Vancouver VooDoo, Portland Rage, Calgary Rad&rsquo;z and St. Louis Vipers.New franchises include the San Jose Rhinos, New Jersey Rockin Rollers, Montreal RoadRunners, Pheonix Cobras, Edmonton Sled Dogs, Sacramento River Rats, Chicago Cheetahs, Minnesota Arctic Blast, Atlanta Fire Ants, Pittsburgh Phantoms and New England Stingers. The Las Vegas Flash relocated from Utah.In case you haven&rsquo;t guessed, with nicknames like Bullfrogs, Fire Ants, Arctic Blast and Sled Dogs, RHI places a great emphasis on fun and marketing.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re seeking credibility and we&rsquo;re slowly getting it,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a junk sport. We think playing 4-on-4 opens things up; with penalties you have the chance of seeing 4-on-3 or even 4-on-2. Power plays in our league operated at an average 53 per cent success last season. There was an average 88 shots and 16.6 goals per game.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01859/6134779-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="711" height="950"><figcaption class="caption-body">Players in the second-year RHI league make a minimum of $3,960 per season.</figcaption></div>RHI games are played on traditional NHL-sized 200-by-85 feet rinks; on cement or plastic surfaces; with a goalie and four skaters per side (at full strength); with no bluelines; in four 12-minute periods and each team carrying 14 players.And, unlike their ice cousins, no fighting is allowed. Fight and you&rsquo;re out of that game and the next.&ldquo;We see our game as family entertainment,&rdquo; Backstrom said.Backstrom also insists RHI isn&rsquo;t in competition with the NHL. Rather, Backstrom insists the NHL sees his organization as an ally.&ldquo;We will not sign players to play in our league if they are under an NHL contract,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;And the NHL has indicated it is interested in sending young prospects. Players who play in our league show up to ice hockey training camps in the best condition of their careers.&rdquo;Players must not expect to get rich toiling in the RHI. The most a player can make in the regular season is $13,720 and the average salary is $6,000. The minimum salary is $3,960 or $180 per game.There are pay bonuses depending on where teams finish in the regular season and how far they advance in the playoffs.The ace in the hole for the second-year league could be its national TV deal, a multi-year package signed with ESPN and ESPN2 in January.ESPN2 will televise a live Game of the Week each Monday during the regular season and five playoff games including the opening game of the championship final.The parent ESPN station will carry the 1994 RHI All-Star Game July 9 and the championship game scheduled for Sept. 2. ESPN will also broadcast games shown on ESPN2 on a taped-delayed basis. &#9632;

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Expansion to Europe in RHI’s plans

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>Brian Leetch got lost in the excitement of the New York Rangers&rsquo; most important game of the year.Mark Messier guaranteed a Game 6 victory over the New Jersey Devils and delivered. Alexei Kovalev emerged from a slump with a crucial goal. Mike Richter stopped everything in sight after two deflections got by him in the first period.Leetch? He simply quarterbacked The Comeback with two brilliant assists, had eight shots on goal and enjoyed a plus-4 night.Two nights later, Leetch put a stop-on-a-dime spin move on Bill Guerin and in one motion wrapped a shot past goalie Martin Brodeur for the 1-0 goal that held up until the dying seconds of regulation in the Rangers&rsquo; eventual doubleovertime victory that put them into the Stanley Cup final.Heroics have been routine for Leetch since the playoffs began. Entering the Cup final, he was tied with Messier for third in playoff scoring, second in assists, first in defensemen scoring, third in power-play goals, first in game-winners and first in plus/minus. He had been on the ice for 44 of the Rangers&rsquo; 60 goals, including all of their last six most desperate goals.He did all of this with a left shoulder that is still only about 85 per cent healed from a December, 1992 nerve injury.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to play the same as I have all year long,&rdquo; Leetch said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve realized that to keep it simple is usually the best way to do it, especially on this team.&rdquo;Except for two Messier masterpieces in Games 2 and 6 of the conference final, Leetch has been the most dominant Ranger and their playoff MVP. Yet he&rsquo;s not a finalist for the Norris Trophy, which he won two seasons ago when he wasn&rsquo;t nearly as complete a player.Consider what happened in Game 4, with the Rangers leading the series 2-1. Leetch drilled Claude Lemieux in open ice five minutes into the game, but got the worse of the collision. He spent most of the rest of the night on the bench. Most watchers thought coach Mike Keenan had flipped his lid, benching Leetch, who spread the company line he had been benched in order to hide a pretty bad right shoulder injury.Leetch couldn&rsquo;t perform, however, and the Rangers&rsquo; offense was shut down by the Devils, who won Games 4 and 5. Those were the only two games in the playoffs in which Leetch was not on the ice for a Ranger goal. When Leetch made a partial recovery for Game 6. the Rangers were back in the series.Only since the playoffs began has Leetch&rsquo;s leadership really taken root.&ldquo;He plays so hard, so much, defensively and offensively,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a lot more mature now in his fifth year in the league and his leadership obviously has taken a step forward. He&rsquo;s at the prime of his career now and it&rsquo;s showing.&rdquo;Leetch had another monstrous game in the clincher of the conference semifinals against the Washington Capitals. He had assists on the first three Rangers goals, then snapped a 3-3 tie with 3:28 left in regulation to help the Rangers avoid overtime and a possible Game 6.&ldquo;That was one of the single best playoff performances I&rsquo;ve seen since I&rsquo;ve been around,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;He did it all. It was as incredible as anything I&rsquo;ve ever seen&rdquo;&ldquo;He has just proven to not only everyone here, but to the entire league, that he&rsquo;s the best defenseman in the league,&rdquo; Adam Graves said. &ldquo;Each game he has risen to play better and better, if you can believe that.&rdquo; &#9632;

Leetch shoulders load

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>New York Rangers&rsquo; goalie Mike Richter had it right.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re this near to death and you don&rsquo;t die, you&rsquo;re tougher to kill,&rdquo; Richter said after the Rangers survived the brink of elimination by winning Games 6 and 7 against the New Jersey Devils.The Rangers, with Mark Messier and Brian Leetch playing hurt, had lost Games 4 and 5 of the Eastern Conference final.Messier guaranteed victory in Game 6, then as the Rangers&rsquo; hopes fell even further with the Devils stifling the Rangers and holding a 2-0 lead in Game 6, he delivered. Messier set up a late second-period goal by Alexei Kovalev, then scored a natural hat trick in the third, including the tying, winning and insurance goals.The Rangers won Game 7 on Stephane Matteau&rsquo;s goal in double overtime, after a mighty scare-the Devils were down 1-0 until they tied it with 7.7 seconds left in regulation.The Messier reviews came in, conjuring up memories of his most famous game, in the 1990 playoffs when Messier ran over the Chicago Blackhawks in noisy Chicago Stadium, erasing a 2-1 series deficit en route to his fifth Stanley Cup.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big-game player,&rdquo; Craig MacTavish said. &ldquo;You need your big guns in big games and there&rsquo;s nobody who can deliver like he can.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the greatest clutch player in the game,&rdquo; said Bernie Nicholls of the Devils. &ldquo;(Wayne) Gretzky and Mario (Lemieux) get a lot of credit, but when the chips are down I want Messier. He&rsquo;s their leader. He leads, they follow.&ldquo;This has to be one of the most impressive performances by any hockey player in the history of this league,&rdquo; said coach Mike Keenan.SEALED WITH KISS: Stephane Matteau, who scored the double-overtime winner in Game 3, was in the dressing room with a broken skate lace when the second overtime of Game 7 began.Ed Olczyk, who is the leader of the Rangers&rsquo; Black Aces, had his mates turn their suit jackets inside-out for the second OT in Game 3.The stakes were bigger in Game 7, so Olczyk and Co., put on the rally jackets before the first OT. Later, Olczyk spotted Matteau in the dressing room and decided it was time for more luck. So he took Matteau&rsquo;s stick and smooched it.&ldquo;He kissed it, kissed it, and kissed it again,&rdquo; Matteau said. &ldquo;I wanted him to kiss it, to bring me luck.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Mark Messier&rsquo;s Game 6 hat trick put him in striking distance of becoming the third player to score 100 career playoff goals. Messier had 97 going into the final, Jari Kurri 102 and Wayne Gretzky 110. His shorthanded empty-netter extended his record to 14 career playoff shorthanders&hellip; Mike Keenan moved to fourth place, ahead of Glen Sather, on the coaching list, with 133 playoff games.Mike Richter&rsquo;s Game 2 shutout of the Devils was his fourth of this year&rsquo;s playoffs, tying an NHL record for shutouts in a playoff year, held by many, including Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mark Messier, Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Nemchinov, Craig MacTavish, Mike Hudson.LW-Adam Graves. Stephane Matteau, Esa Tikkanen. Greg Gilbert, Mike Hartman.RW-Glenn Anderson, Steve Larmer. Brian Noonan. Joey Kocur, Ed Olczyk. Nick Kypreos.LD-Brian Leetch, Jay Wells, Mattias Norstrom, Barry Richter.RD-Jeff Beukeboom. Sergei Zubov, Doug Lidster. Alexander Karpovtsev. Joby Messier.G-Mike Richter. Glenn Healy, Corey Hirsch<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kevin Lowe, D, bruised right shoulder dav-to-dav &#9632;

Vintage Messier a force

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011360/6133665-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="513" height="797"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sam McMaster is the new king of the Kings. Page 50</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021102/6133658-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="516" height="795"><figcaption class="caption-body">Will Al Maclnnis remain a Calgary Flame? Page 51</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03794/6133651-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="735" height="1271"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Adams leads the Vancouver Canucks to the final. Page 50</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04572/6133644-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="516" height="797"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dirk Graham is talking about hanging&rsquo;em up. Page 14</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05414/6133637-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="515" height="793"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gilbert Dionne is not happy in Montreal. Page 20</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to make $2 million for sitting around hanging out. As much as that would be a novel concept, I wouldn&rsquo;t enjoy it.&rdquo;&ndash;Grant Fuhr on his prospects of returning to the Buffalo Sabres. Page 19.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll hear the sound of that puck hitting the crossbar for a long time.&rdquo;&ndash;San Jose Shark Igor Larionov on the overtime shot that almost put the Sharks into the semifinals. Page 51. &#9632;

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QUOTABLE

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06301/6133696-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="387" height="486"></div>Some things I didn&rsquo;t know (a long list) or hadn&rsquo;t thought much about (an even longer one) before the 1993-94 season began:&#9633; The longtime under-achieving Vancouver Canucks would win the Stanley Cup in six games.&#9633; Mike Richter was so good. The regular season didn&rsquo;t convince me; the playoffs have.&#9633; NHL Officials&rsquo; Association president Terry Gregson was such a resourceful individual.&#9633; Murray Craven was such a complete player with so much to offer at both ends of the ice.&#9633; There would be a satirical song entitled, What&rsquo;s wrong with Lumme? Answer: Absolutely nothing.&#9633; The absence of Phil Housley would have such an impact on Teemu Selanne.&#9633; Defensemen obtained in trades would occupy positions Nos. 1-7 on the Vancouver depth chart.&#9633; Vancouver would be in position to be the worst regular-season team in 45 years to win the Stanley Cup.&#9633; Maverick director of player personnel Chuck Grillo would go from outcast to godfather status.&#9633; Refereeing would become such a huge distraction it can overshadow the game.&#9633; Mark Messier had so much fighting spirit left. I prefer results to reputation; Messier has delivered.&#9633; The dreaded shootout would decide the outcome of two major international competitions.&#9633; Don Cherry, my polar opposite, would remain so engaging a conversationalist on hockey matters.&#9633; Gordie Howe would insist his real record is 975 major professional goals, not 801 NHL goals.&#9633; NHL players would continue to flaunt their wealth with excessive rookie dinners.&#9633; Luc Robitaille would score one fewer winning goal for Canada (two) than the L.A. Kings (three).&#9633; The NHL and NHL Players&rsquo; Association would approach impasse over a new collective agreement.&#9633; Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s points on Cupwinning Montreal&rsquo;s last eight goals in 1977 would remain mark for the ages.&#9633; Neil Smith would make such a serious run at THN&rsquo;s Executive of the Year Award.&#9633; More teams than not would contemplate off-season management changes after a turbulent 1993-94.&#9633; It would take a suburban Boston daily to properly chronicle the Alan Eagleson affair.&#9633; Wayne Gretzky would earn nearly twice as many points as his team-130 to 66.&#9633; Sergei Zubov would challenge Guy Lapointe&rsquo;s record for thickest playoff beard by a defenseman.&#9633; The last two coaches standing in the final during another year the Flyers failed would be Philly alumni.&#9633; People would actually think it&rsquo;s cool San Jose players emerge from a giant set of inflatable lips.&#9633; Paul Kariya&rsquo;s delayed signing with Anaheim would cast such a huge shadow over 1994 draftees&rsquo; deals.&#9633; This would mark the 10th straight year the Norris winner will have scored at least 70 points.&#9633; Keith Tkachuk would establish himself so quickly as an elite-level power forward.&#9633; Support would be marshalled for a draft lottery-an idea whose time was overdue.&#9633; Discipline would be a philosophical issue: How do you punish players paid to be punishing players?&#9633; The position of NHL chairman of the board would become irrelevant.&#9633; Bobby Orr would remain a hero whose ghost properly hangs over every playoff year.&#9633; Kirk McLean would potentially win more playoff games in one year than during the rest of his career (15).&#9633; The talented Red Wings&rsquo; playoff autopsy would read: Death by heart attack. &#9632;

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Who knew? A season of surprises and shocks

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell and Jason Kay</div>Stanley Cups are usually won before the finals. We just don&rsquo;t know it.Crucial moments that ultimately shape championships come and go during the playoffs, but sometimes get lost over time.This year&rsquo;s candidates entering the final series between the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks are obvious.If the Canucks win, they will remember goalie Kirk MacLean&rsquo;s pad-stacking stop on Calgary Flame forward Robert Reichel in overtime of Game 7 of their first-round series.Likewise, if the Rangers win, Mark Messier&rsquo;s tour-de-force, four-point performance against the New Jersey Devils in Game 6 of their third-round series will not have been in vain.There have been many such moments since the NHL expanded to 12 teams in 1967 and truly entered the modem era.Here they are, along with the Stanley Cup match-up and competing coaches:1992-93 Montreal over Los Angeles (4-1) Canadiens: Jacques Demers. Kings: Barry Melrose. Montreal&rsquo;s path is cleared when Islander David Volek scores in overtime to eliminate favored Pittsburgh in second round.1991-92 Pittsburgh over Chicago (4-0) Penguins: Scotty Bowman. Blackhawks: Mike Keenan. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Ron Francis beats Mike Richter of Rangers with 65-foot shot in Game 4 of Patrick Division final.1990-91 Pittsburgh over Minnesota (4-2) Penguins: Bob Johnson. North Stars: Bob Gainey. Goalie Frank Pietrangelo keeps Penguins alive with acrobatic save on Peter Stastny in Game 6 of first-round series against New Jersey.1989-90 Edmonton over Boston (4-1) Oilers: John Muckier. Bruins: Mike Milbury. Edmonton&rsquo;s Petr Klima gets dramatic triple overtime winner in Game 1 of final series against Boston at Garden.1988-89 Calgary over Montreal (4-2) Flames: Terry Crisp. Canadiens: Pat Bums. Calgary&rsquo;s Joel Otto scores first-round winner on deflection after Vancouver&rsquo;s Stan Smyl hits post in overtime.1987-88 Edmonton over Boston (4-0) Oilers: Glen Sather. Bruins: Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky scores shorthanded overtime winner in Game 2 of second round against Calgary.1986-87 Edmonton over Philadelphia (4-3) Oilers: Glen Sather. Flyers: Mike Keenan. Oilers&rsquo; right winger Jari Kurri scores go-ahead goal in second period of Game 7 final series against Philadelphia.1985-86 Montreal over Calgary (4-1) Canadiens: Jean Perron. Calgary: Bob Johnson. Oiler defenseman Steve Smith banks clearing pass into own net to give Calgary 3-2 lead in Game 7 of second round.1984-85 Edmonton over Philadelphia (41) Oilers: Glen Sather. Flyers: Mike Keenan. Goaltender Grant Fuhr holds Oilers in when Edmonton is outshot in every game of first-round series against Los Angeles.1983-84 Edmonton over Islanders (4-1) Oilers: Glen Sather. Islanders: Al Arbour. With senes tied 1-1, Wayne Gretzky puts Oilers up two games to one with hat trick in 7-2 Game 3 romp in final.1982-83 Islanders over Edmonton (4-0) Islanders: Al Arbour. Oilers: Glen Sather. Billy Smith and Islanders shut out Oilers for first time in 99 games in Game 1 of final. Islanders win next three to take Cup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011521/6133758-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="369" height="366"></div>1981-82 New York Islanders over Vancouver (4-0) Islanders: Al Arbour. Vancouver: Roger Neilson. Left winger John Tonelli scores in overtime of deciding preliminary-round game as Islanders survive Pittsburgh scare.1980-81 Islanders over Minnesota (4-1) Islanders: Al Arbour. Minnesota: Glen Sonmor. Oiler Andy Moog&rsquo;s 40-save performance kills regular-season champion Canadiens&rsquo; spirit in Game 2 of preliminary round.1979-80 Islanders over Philadelphia (4-2) Islanders: Al Arbour. Philadelphia: Pat Quinn. Minnesota&rsquo;s Al Mac Adam chips in rebound in Game 7 of first-round series to end Canadiens&rsquo; drive for five straight Cups.1978-79 Montreal over Rangers Canadiens (4-1) Montreal: Scotty Bowman. Rangers: Fred Shero. Bruins take too-many-men-on-ice penalty late in Game 7 of semifinals; Montreal scores, then wins in overtime.1977-78 Montreal over Boston (4-2) Montreal: Scotty Bowman. Boston: Don Cherry. Montreal&rsquo;s Larry Robinson scores on end-to-end rush to decide Game 5 of final and thwart Bruins&rsquo; comeback bid.1976-77 Montreal over Boston (4-0) Montreal: Scotty Bowman. Boston: Don Cherry. Referee Dave Newell drops puck in Game 1 of Montreal-St. Louis first-round series; Canadiens go 122 en route to Cup.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021237/6133751-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1524" height="1824"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rookie goalie Ken Dryden did quite a Conn job during Montreal&rsquo;s 1971 Cup triumph.</figcaption></div>1975-76 Montreal over Philadelphia (4-0) Montreal: Scotty Bowman. Philadelphia: Fred Shero. Pierre Bouchard&rsquo;s Game 3, final-series winner gives Montreal 3-0 stranglehold on two-time, defending-champion Flyers.1974-75 Philadelphia over Buffalo (4-2) Philadelphia: Fred Shero. Buffalo: Floyd Smith. Center Rick MacLeish saves Flyers with hat trick in Game 7 of semifinal series against Islanders; Flyers win game 4-1.1973-74 Philadelphia over Boston (4-2) Philadelphia: Fred Shero. Boston: Bep Guidolin. Rick MacLeish tips in defenseman Andre Dupont&rsquo;s point shot to give Flyers l-0 win and Stanley Cup in Game 6.1972-73 Montreal over Chicago (4-2) Montreal: Scotty Bowman. Chicago: Billy Reay. Boston&rsquo;s chance for consecutive Cups dashed when Ranger Ron Harris injures Phil Esposito with clean check in quarterfinal.1971-72 Boston Bruins over Rangers (4-2) Boston: Tom Johnson. Rangers: Emile Francis. Boston&rsquo;s Bobby Orr secures his second Conn Smythe Trophy with first goal of 3-0 win in Cupclinching game.1970-71 Montreal over Chicago (4-3) Montreal: Al MacNeil. Chicago: Billy Reay. Canadiens decide to go with rookie goalie Ken Dryden over veteran Rogie Vachon; Dryden wins Conn Smythe Trophy.1969-70 Boston over St. Louis (4-0) Boston: Harry Sinden. St. Louis: Scotty Bowman. Bobby Orr clinches Cup, then goes airborne after dramatic overtime winner in Game 4 of final series against St. Louis.1968-69 Montreal over St. Louis (4-0) Montreal: Claude Ruel. St. Louis: Scotty Bowman. Canadiens advance to final on Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s double-overtime winner in Game 6 of semifinal series against Boston.1967-68 Montreal over St. Louis (4-0) Montreal: Toe Blake. St. Louis: Scotty Bowman. Defenseman Serge Savard scores shorthanded goal in Game 2 of final to give Canadiens 1-0 win and 2-0 series lead. &#9632;

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Agony & ecstasy: How Cup was won

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011525/6133789-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"></div>Two goalies who matched time-honored standards for perfection led their teams to the Stanley Cup final.Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks and Mike Richter of the New York Rangers&rsquo; entered the final with a share of the all-time record for shutouts in one post-season-four.McLean blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 in Game 4 of the Western Conference final May 22 for his fourth shutout.Richter hit four when he shut out the Devils New Jersey 4-0 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final May 17.Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens (1977) was the last goalie to have four shutouts in one playoff.McLean and Richter led a postseason parade that included shutout artists Toronto Maple Leaf Felix Potvin (three) and Buffalo Sabre Dominik Hasek (two). There were 16 shutouts this playoff, two more than the record set in 1992.Other playoff highlights included:&#9633; Brian Leetch assisted on New York&rsquo;s first three goals and scored the winner as the Rangers eliminated the Washington Capitals 4-3 May 9.&#9633; Johan Garpenlov&rsquo;s overtime shot hit the crossbar to give the Leafs new life in their Game 6 final against the San Jose Sharks. Reprieved, the Leafs won Games 6 and 7.&#9633; Greg Adams&rsquo; goal 14 seconds into the second overtime propelled Vancouver past Toronto and into the Stanley Cup final.&#9633; Mark Messier guaranteed a win, then netted a natural hat trick as the Rangers survived Game 6 with New Jersey. Stephane Matteau&rsquo;s double overtime goal in Game 7 pushed New York into the final. &#9632;

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Goalies heroes of zeros

The Memorial Cup suffered one of the darkest days in its 76-year history when referee Luc Lachapelle was allegedly attacked in his car by four Laval Titan officials as he attempted to leave a Le Colisee de Laval.Titan general manager Jean-Claude Morrissette, 48, was charged with simple assault and mischief causing property damage of less than $1,000 in the May 15 incident.A Canadian Hockey League disciplinary committee banned Morrissette from the rest of the tournament, suspended him for three seasons and fined the Titan $10,000.The Quebec League later suspended Morrissette, one of six brothers who own the Titan, for one season.Upset with Lachapelle&rsquo;s officiating in the Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; 5-4 win over the Titan Morrissette, Titan coach Michel Therrien, assistant coach Pierre Pelletier and Titan administrative director Pierre Morrissette stopped Lachapelle&rsquo;s car as he attempted to exit a parking lot.Lachapelle stopped the car and rolled his window down slightly.At that point, Morrissette allegedly smashed the window with his fist.Lachapelle, 40, sustained facial cuts and a mild concussion. A day later, Morrissette resigned as Titan GM.JAIL TERM: Mike Mayhew, the 20-year-old captain of the Western (Ont.) Jr. B League Chatham Micmacs, was sentenced to 10 weekend days of jail after pleading guilty to assault May 10. He admitted to hitting CHOK radio play-by-play man Murray Vosburgh in the face March 10.Evidence was heard that in game between Chatham and Sarnia, Mayhew was given a game misconduct. Vosburgh, whose station is based in Sarnia, then yelled from the press box that Mayhew was a goon, didn&rsquo;t belong in the league and challenged the player to come to the press box and try the same thing with him.Mayhew took off his skates, went up to the press box and struck Vosburgh. &#9632;

Laval Titan GM faces charges

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Alan Adams</div>It&rsquo;s not who he is, but where he&rsquo;s from that may scuttle Gordon Renwick&rsquo;s bid for the presidency of the International Ice Hockey Federation.Being Canadian may be too much for Renwick to overcome when IIHF delegates assemble in Venice, Italy, June 10 to choose a successor to Gunther Sabetzki.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid it&rsquo;s going to be a beauty contest and not a skills contest,&rdquo; said Fred Meredith, president of the British Ice Hockey Federation.For months, Renwick was a frontrunner in the presidential elections and high profile people such as Swedish Ice Hockey Federation president Rickard Fagerlund and his Swiss counterpart, Rene Fasel, were working on Renwick&rsquo;s behalf.But now, the Swedes, Swiss, Germans and Finns are worried about the NHL&rsquo;s intentions for Europe and want one of their own to deal with the NHL.Renwick, Fasel and Paul Seeber of Italy are candidates and others are expected to follow. Besides Sabetzki, the other hopefuls are Miroslav Subrt of the Czech Republic, Kai Hietarinta of Finland, Hans Dobida of Austria and Frans van Erp of the Netherlands.There are 52 countries in the IIHF and each has two votes. &#9632;

Renwick in tough

And here they are&hellip;your 1994 Stanley Cup finalists.The rosters for the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks are listed in order of the forward lines and defensemen pairings used most frequently through the semifinals. Kevin Lowe is included among the Rangers&rsquo; starting defense, even though he entered the final with a shoulder injury.It has been six years since a coach-general manager won the Cup. Vancouver&rsquo;s Pat Quinn, a newcomer to the finals as a GM, would be the first since Glen Sather in 1988.<h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021367/6133875-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="824" height="1058"></div>Rangers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan has made it to the finals three times before, twice as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and once with the Chicago Blackhawks. Ranger GM Neil Smith is a first-time Stanley Cup finalist.<h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031150/6133868-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="829" height="1061"></div> &#9632;

f0004-02

Final tale of the tape: Canucks vs. Rangers

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Hockey&rsquo;s most prominent agent is being questioned over his handling of a former client&rsquo;s investments.Ex-NHL player Normand Lacombe said lawyer-agent Don Meehan cost him and members of his family $200,000 when investments made on his behalf by Newport Sports Management of Mississauga, Ont., went sour.The complaint was levelled during the three-part CBC television series, Blind Trust, which aired in southern Ontario, May 24, 25 and 27.&ldquo;I remember it word for word,&rdquo; Lacombe told CBC. &ldquo;(Meehan said) &lsquo;Norm, these are great investments, we guarantee your principal and your money is going to double in five years.&ldquo;Any time you want to take your money out, give us a call, we&rsquo;ll get it out.&rsquo;&rdquo;Lacombe, whose seven-year NHL career ended in 1991, said he has not yet seen his money.Meehan, president of Newport, said Lacombe&rsquo;s assertions are groundless.&ldquo;I have never, to any client, indicated I would guarantee an investment,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;Nor would I do that in relation to any investment a client would make through the three or four brokers that we use.&ldquo;Not one of my clients has lost any money concerning principal in a mortgage investment, nor will they, save for one case for $803.&rdquo;Meehan said Lacombe&rsquo;s motive for speaking out is to build up his own agent business by recruiting Newport clients. Lacombe was the only former client to criticize Meehan on camera.Lacombe, 29, is not a registered agent, but is apprenticing with Edmonton-based agent Rich Winter-an outspoken Meehan critic. One former Newport client, Martin Gelinas of the Vancouver Canucks, has joined Lacombe.&ldquo;He has done everything to discredit me in every way,&rdquo; Meehan said of Lacombe. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hurt by this process and I&rsquo;m hurt by it because I think it&rsquo;s very unfair.&rdquo;Meehan is among the busiest men in hockey. His company represents 74 NHL players and six coaches. Meehan also acted as negotiator for the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association last fall during collective bargaining talks with the league.The Lacombe-Meehan dispute arises out of 1988 and 1989 real estate investments which, according to CBC reporter Bruce Dowbiggin, dropped substantially in value.Dowbiggin and a CBC camera crew were barred from attending Meehan&rsquo;s mini-news conference at a Toronto law office May 27.At the heart of the CBC story were several questions:&#9633; Did Meehan guarantee Lacombe a 13-15 per-cent return on risky real estate investments?&#9633; Did Meehan consult with Lacombe before investing his money in a series of real estate deals that included second mortgages?&#9633; Did Meehan renege on a pledge to return Lacombe&rsquo;s investment on request?Meehan said he is absorbing the financial impact of any bad real estate investments, but would not comment on whether he is paying Lacombe any money.Lacombe said he thought his money was tied up in four or five properties, but found it was in about 12 mortgages.Among the investments: $12,500 in 1988 for a share of Toronto downtown property and $50,000 for another Toronto property in 1989.In all, Lacombe, his sister and father invested $250,000. Lacombe said about $50,000 has been returned.Meehan said all transactions were made following full consultation with the players and financial reports were issued every 60 days to keep them abreast of developments.The agent challenged assertions he profited from the deals.CBC reported real estate investments provided &ldquo;a plentiful, convenient source of money&rdquo; for the mortgage business of Meehan&rsquo;s business partner Jerry Ublansky.Meehan would not comment on Ublansky&rsquo;s role in the purchases, but said such investments ended with the 1990 economic downturn that shattered the Toronto real estate market.&ldquo;I have not made one cent from any mortgage investment made on behalf of my clientele,&rdquo; Meehan said.&ldquo;Nor have I made one cent in relation to any building investments. In fact, the only person losing money in this process is me.&rdquo;Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; superstar Pat LaFontaine, a longtime Meehan client who uses Newport&rsquo;s financial services, said Meehan has always kept him well-informed.&ldquo;For anyone to question him, it&rsquo;s hard to understand,&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;Don Meehan and Newport Sports have always operated with their clients&rsquo; best interests in mind.&rdquo;Lacombe said the experience prompted him to get into the agent business.&ldquo;What happened to me is the reason I decided to become an agent,&rdquo; Lacombe said. &ldquo;I want to make sure this never happens to anyone else.&rdquo;The CBC said Meehan is under investigation by the Law Society of Upper Canada. The regulatory body is bound to investigate any written complaint.Meehan is also the subject of a probe by the Ontario Securities Commission, according to the Toronto Star and CBC. The Star said several players who have invested money through Newport received questionnaires from the commission.Both Lacombe and Meehan said they are contemplating lawsuits. &#9632;

Lacombe says agent cost him $200,000

<div class="byline">By THN Staff</div>Two groups from Atlanta are looking to bringing the NHL back to the Georgia city.Representatives of the International League&rsquo;s Atlanta Knights and sports and media magnate Ted Turner are working on separate bids to acquire either an expansion or existing franchise.The Knights play in the 14,919-seat Omni, which is also home of Turner&rsquo;s National Basketball Association team, the Hawks. The Omni was also NHL home of the Atlanta Flames from 1972-73 until their move to Calgary in 1980.The Knights and Turner, reasoning that a new arena will be the final stroke in returning the NHL to Atlanta, are racing to break ground and build a new facility.Knights&rsquo; president Richard Adler said the team purchased a 180-acre parcel of land and will begin construction this summer.Stan Kasten, a friend of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman as well as a president of the Hawks and baseball&rsquo;s Atlanta Braves, said he and Bettman have engaged &ldquo;in a lot of discussions&rdquo; about bringing an NHL team to Atlanta.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s premature to discuss how we get a team here.&rdquo; Kasten told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. &ldquo;But we think it&rsquo;s very possible. In fact, we think it is extremely likely.&rdquo;The selection of Turner as an owner would dovetail nicely with the NHL&rsquo;s policy of identifying markets, then waiting for a suitable owner.&ldquo;If someone like Ted Turner were interested in us, we would be flattered.&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;You would have to lake such interest seriously, not unlike the degree to which we had to respond to Disney and Wavne Huizenga.&rdquo;INVESTIGATION SNUFFED: A lack of evidence and money has scuttled Hockey Canada&rsquo;s 13-month investigation of its former chief negotiator Alan Eagleson.The agency decided in March to halt an audit performed by the accounting firm Deloitte and Touche because critical documents are under subpoena by the U.S. Justice Department.The documents revolve around Eagleson&rsquo;s role as the director of Canada Cup tournaments.Hockey Canada is believed to be looking at a legal bill in excess of $200,000 in connection with its investigation of Eagleson. The mounting expense dissuaded the non-profit agency from following through, said president Ron Robison.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Law Society of Upper Canada are conducting investigations on Eagleson, a former player agent and one-time head of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. A Boston-based U.S. Grand Jury charged Eagleson March 3 with 33 counts of racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice, embezzlement and accepting kickbacks.Eagleson has refused to go to Boston to answer the charges. His lawyers continue to wait for an extradition order.NEW APPROACH: NHL vice-president Brian Burke is attempting to get the National Collegiate Athletic Association to reconsider its stand of viewing Canadian Hockey League major junior players as professionals, Burke is lobbying members of the American Hockey Coaches&rsquo; Association for input on a suggestion to grant college eligibility to some major junior players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011438/6133930-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="741" height="969"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce Shoebottom is hoping a jury can help him clear his name.</figcaption></div>One option mentioned is giving junior players until Sept. 1 of the year of his 1 Sth birthday to claim college eligibility or lose it forever. Under this scenario, a player could play two years of major junior and still be eligible for college hockey without having to sit out a full season.Under existing rules, a player who spends more than 48 hours at a major junior camp is considered a pro because he receives room, board and about $40 a week.Central Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Bill Beagan told USA Today the proposal would never be approved.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t fall off the turnip truck yesterday."&rsquo; Beagan said. &ldquo;(The NHL) wants to control college hockey. Their motives are self-serving.&rsquo;&rsquo;PLEA ISSUED: Bruce Shoebottom pleaded not guilty to assault and battery charges from an incident in a Central League game March 23.The Oklahoma City Blazers&rsquo; defenseman allegedly attempted to leave the penalty box to join a fight, but was prevented by on-duty Tulsa police officers. He sustained a serious neck injury and is still under doctor&rsquo;s care.Shoebottom was fined an undisclosed amount by the CHL and had it garnished from his final league-issued paycheque.Charges against Shoebottom, 28. were filed May 6 and he surrendered to Tulsa police May 23. Shoebottom pleaded not guilty the same day and elected to be tried by jury June 13.&ldquo;I am innocent of any wrongdoing: I have not violated any laws.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have a lot of friends who are officers and my father-in-law is a police officer. I respect the law. I am here to try this case to a jury and clear my name.&rdquo;DRAFT ON TV: Despite some scheduling problems, the NHL entry draft will be carried live on Canadian and American television.The draft is set for June 28 and 29 at the Hartford Civic Center. The Sports Network in Canada and ESPN2 in the United States will broadcast the first two hours of the draft&rsquo;s first day. The event begins at 6 p.m. (EST).ESPN will replay the ESPN2 presentation June 29 at 10:30 a.m. Rounds 3 to 11 proceed June 29 without television coverage. &#9632;

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Atlanta posturing to join NHL

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011618/6133982-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div>The rain picked up just past suppertime and by the time Lane Linden found his 10-year-old son at the Connaught Golf Course in Medicine Hat, Alta., it was coming down in sheets.Typically, the younger Linden was working, not playing, plucking stray golf balls from the rough that bordered the course and driving range.&ldquo;The water was just running down the sides of him,&rdquo; recalls the elder Linden. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Trev, we&rsquo;ve got to shut &lsquo;er down.&rsquo; I mean, I wouldn&rsquo;t have toughed that out. He said, &lsquo;Dad, they&rsquo;ll cut this lawn tomorrow morning and these balls will be gone by the time I get back.&rsquo;&rdquo;Lane Linden turned around and went home. His son received a quarter for every 100 golf balls he picked up. By his 16th birthday, Trevor Linden had picked up 2.5 million golf balls and earned over $6,000. His mother Edna still has $3,000 of that money.&ldquo;You never told Trevor, &lsquo;Look you can&rsquo;t do this,&rsquo; and you never painted yourself into a corner with him,&rdquo; Lane recalls. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d just never back down.&rdquo;Alone in a prairie rainstorm or before 16,000 witnesses in an NHL arena, it really doesn&rsquo;t matter. At 24, will still sets Linden apart. It&rsquo;s his greatest quality, his most damaging fault.Will as much as size or talent put Linden in the NHL as an 18-year-old rookie with the Vancouver Canucks in 1988 and made him a 30-goal scorer.Linden is listed as 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, but looks 10 pounds lighter. He is one of the worst fighters in the league and he has shown no taste (Linden has never broken more than 100 penalty minutes) for the gratuitous hit. Yet, his will has made him a dominant power forward.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021103/6133975-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="460" height="593"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pavel Bure</figcaption></div>Strength of will has made him a dependable scorer as well as a player whose production swells in the post-season. Linden has hit the 30-goal standard in five of six seasons even though he isn&rsquo;t blessed with a natural scoring touch.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m probably never going to be a 50-goal-scorer or a 100-point player,&rdquo; Linden concedes. &ldquo;I take pride in being a consistent player.&rdquo;He is consistently excellent in the post-season, a time when most players&rsquo; productions slip. Linden averaged 0.81 points per game during the regular season and 1.07 in the first three rounds of this year&rsquo;s playoffs. He scored an overtime winner and emerged as a dominant figure in the Canucks&rsquo; drive to the Stanley Cup final.Will made him the NHL&rsquo;s reigning ironman with 328 consecutive regular-season games played. Linden missed the last seven contests of his sophomore season because of a shoulder injury, but has missed one since.And will made him, at 22, the youngest captain in NHL history.In a sense, the Canucks had no choice but to hand the L to Linden prior to the 1991-92 season. Linden was one of three players to share the letter the year before and his intensity and preparation made him impossible to ignore.&ldquo;When you see a player like him, who plays 100 per cent every night and who has natural leadership qualities,&rdquo; said veteran defenseman Dave Babych, &ldquo;you just have to give him responsibility.&rdquo;But that responsibility comes at a cost. Somewhere, all of us must strike a truce between the twin effects of ambition, a line between bettering and battering ourselves.The only antidote for youth is life experience and time and Linden has never afforded himself any great measure of either.&ldquo;He probably shorted himself,&rdquo; Lane Linden says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that the kid ever went to a school dance. But I think he knew that was what was needed to do what he wanted to do.&rdquo;By the time he went to the Western League&rsquo;s Medicine Hat Tigers, Linden&rsquo;s persona as the quintessential straight arrow was well-developed.&ldquo;When we went to the Memorial Cup,&rdquo; recalls Philadelphia Flyers GM Russ Farwell, the Tigers&rsquo; GM during Linden&rsquo;s era, &ldquo;we roomed him (as a 17-year-old) with certain 19-year-olds, just to make sure they stayed on the straight and narrow.&rdquo;This is not to describe Linden as a dour, ruined prodigy. &ldquo;He pursued his fun just as hard as he pursued his goals,&rdquo; Farwell says.&ldquo;Trevor loves to laugh and loves to enjoy life,&rdquo; says his agent Don Meehan. &ldquo;He is doing exactly what he wants to do.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03703/6133968-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="461" height="594"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Modano</figcaption></div>But who teaches the prodigy about revelling in play, not just in results, about patience and pacing himself, about the shortcomings of the media and the volatility of hockey fans?Linden has been hurt and angered by critics. He was an outspoken supporter of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association in the 1992 strike, a work stoppage that hammered home the unpleasant truth that while he was valued by management, Linden&rsquo;s employers were also his adversaries.&ldquo;That really played hard on Trevor,&rdquo; says Ryan Walter, the Canucks&rsquo; player rep during the strike. &ldquo;He took a lot of that to heart.&rdquo;Some members of the Vancouver media dubbed Linden the Militant Millionaire, an image so removed from Linden&rsquo;s roots it&rsquo;s laughable. Only Linden didn&rsquo;t laugh, not at criticism from the print media, nor at the ramblings of fans and guests on open-line talk shows.Experience means your faults don&rsquo;t grow out of your qualities. No checker can hamper Linden as effectively as his own expectations.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s harder on himself than anyone,&rdquo; says Stan Smyl, now a Canucks&rsquo; coach and one of Linden&rsquo;s best friends. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s what can hold him back the most.&rdquo;After a superb 1993 playoff and a sensational 23-goal first half this season, Linden slumped after he wasn&rsquo;t named to the Western Conference team for the All-Star Game.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011465/6133961-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="2266" height="2036"></div>Linden denies it, but team officials think the snub was a major contributor to a poor second half that saw him score only nine goals in the Canucks&rsquo; final 42 games. He finished with 32 and 61 points.Linden&rsquo;s competitiveness was an asset when he was competing with Mike Modano as the top prospect of the 1988 draft.&ldquo;Honestly, now it&rsquo;s a thing of the past, but I read the papers every day and when we played each other in the playoffs, I compared what I did to what he did,&rdquo; Linden says.But there are whispers that the same competitiveness has formed a wedge between Linden and Pavel Bure, his playoff linemate and the Canucks&rsquo; top-ranking superstar.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s garbage,&rdquo; Linden says. &ldquo;It was created by the media or somebody, but there has never been a problem. We wouldn&rsquo;t be where we are without Pavel.&rdquo;Bure himself says he knows of no rift and Canucks&rsquo; director of hockey operations George McPhee agrees-to a point.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about jealousy, but there might have been some competitiveness there,&rdquo; McPhee says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there was a problem and if there was, it doesn&rsquo;t exist anymore.&rdquo;Whatever the reason, while Modano enjoyed his breakthrough regular season. Linden did not.&ldquo;I think the lack of offensive production affected his game,&rdquo; says Canucks&rsquo; coach-general manager Pat Quinn. &ldquo;Athletes get paid for stats, but with Trevor so much of the good things he does don&rsquo;t show up in stats.&rdquo;Modano and Linden play radically different games, but there is no question Linden has been not only more consistent, he has consistently done more things.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m building a team,&rdquo; says Ottawa Senators&rsquo; assistant coach E. J. McGuire, &ldquo;I think I take Linden. Trevor isn&rsquo;t going to score four goals in a game like Modano can, but I think he&rsquo;s a little better all-around.&rdquo;Linden is good in the faceoff circle. His defensive game and his instinct for positioning are advanced and he plays without the puck better than almost any other NHL star. While his build makes him prone to fatigue late in the season, Linden was still the Canucks&rsquo; most dependable player, even during his sluggish second half.&ldquo;With Trevor, you get 60 good games and 10 medium ones,&rdquo; Babych says. &ldquo;Most guys would consider that an outstanding year.&rdquo;Linden wouldn&rsquo;t, but he is learning.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to think less about things, to just go out and play,&rdquo; Linden says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a worrying type of guy and I&rsquo;m trying to let things take care of themselves.&rdquo;He is a better captain, he says, &ldquo;because I&rsquo;m saying less and doing more.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s good news for the Canucks as they attempt to win their first-ever Stanley Cup.&ldquo;Trevor is maturing, he has gotten better as he has aged,&rdquo; Quinn says. &ldquo;It feels funny to say that about a 24-year-old.&rdquo;The self-made man is almost complete. Time finally took him in from the rain. &#9632;

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SUPER LINDEN

Once again, the annual rite of spring has come to the Motor City: The Detroit Red Wings were bounced from the playoffs in the first round.It is painfully obvious that a major re-structuring is needed if the Red Wings have any hope of winning the Stanley Cup or at least advance beyond the first round. Here&rsquo;s what they have to do:&#9633; Trade Steve Yzerman. Yzerman will be inducted into the Hall of Fame some day, but he&rsquo;s not the one to lead the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup. While Yzerman is a skill player, he&rsquo;s not a leader and shouldn&rsquo;t be captain of the team. This is not a knock, it&rsquo;s just not part of his personality.&#9633; Do not re-sign Bob Probert. Probert has decided to play out his option and his best days are long behind him. It would be better to take the money and&hellip;&#9633; Sign Scott Stevens. The Wings&rsquo; defense is mobile, but lacks a physical force. Stevens would add that dimension and a lot more.&#9633; Trade Paul Coffey. Coffey was critical of coach Scotty Bowman during the playoffs and it&rsquo;s clear their relationship is strained.&#9633; Acquire Bill Ranford from the Edmonton Oilers. The future for the Detroit franchise is now and you don&rsquo;t win the Stanley Cup without outstanding goaltending. It would come at a high price-namely Keith Primeau-but it must be done.Back-to-back 100-point seasons are wonderful, but fans want to see players with a winged wheel on their chests skating around with a Stanley Cup.Jerry Slowinski, White Lake, Mich.<h2>Eddie can&rsquo;t win</h2>Ed Belfour of the Chicago Blackhawks deserves more recognition for his playoff goaltending.He and his team were eliminated in the first round once again this season, but Belfour was on the short end of three 1-0 losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs. What was Belfour supposed to do, skate down to the other end a score goals as well?David Zarikoff Nelson, B. C.<h2>I&rsquo;ll take the tix</h2>I wholeheartedly agree with the letter written by John Raymers in the April 22 issue.All those people who love fighting should give up their season tickets as he claims he did. Then perhaps the real fans can get tickets to watch the grace and skill that is hockey and let the others go watch roller derby or professional wrestling.Guy Kujawa Countryside, III.<h2>Sharks don&rsquo;t bite</h2>When will the San Jose Sharks get some respect?Kevin Constantine outcoached the great Scotty Bowman and Igor Larionov was among the scoring leaders after the first round. Meanwhile, the high-scoring Sergei Fedorov was held to one goal by the Shark defense and goalie Arturs Irbe.Clearly, the Sharks deserve a little more than the usual few hundred words buried on page 42.Scott Bostwick, Fremont, Calif.<h2>Howe dare you</h2>In the April 29 issue of THN, a letter appeared accusing Gordie Howe of coming across as &ldquo;another bitter ex-player&rdquo; because he was not in attendance when Wayne Gretzky broke his NHL career goal-scoring record.Was Howe supposed to follow Gretzky around North America while Gretzky attempted to break the record? Should he have cancelled all of his plans to be present at another trumped-up pre-game ceremony?Without question, Gordie Howe will always be Mr. Hockey to real hockey fans.A. Reed, Detroit, Mich.<h2>Good work, THN</h2>Thank God I am not a betting man and used your playoff preview to place any wagers. Mike Brophy and Murray Townsend should not be confused with Nostradamus. The Pittsburgh Penguins 3:1 to win the Stanley Cup?The playoff skinny on the Washington Capitals was as follows: &ldquo;The Capitals might take a game or two, but winning a series is out of the question.&rdquo;There are a number of reason why the Caps beat the Penguins: The play of Kevin Hatcher, Don Beaupre and Dave Poulin; the coaching of Jim Schoenfeld; and the constant whining of Mario Lemieux and Co.But Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile had a large hand in the win. He stole the Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s best defenseman in Joe Reekie, then pick-pocketed the Boston Bruins when he traded Al lafrate for Joe Juneau.Jim Perrus, Silver Spring, Md.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Wings must deal Stevie Y, Coffey

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011540/6134061-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><h2>May best team prevail in final</h2>1. Rangers-Canucks. Survive gruelling playoff series to advance to Stanley Cup final.2. Martin Brodeur. Devil rookie goalie&rsquo;s 8-9 playoff record no indication of invaluable effort.3. Mark Messier. Ranger captain predicts Ranger victory over Devils, ensures it with three goals.4. Kamloops fans. Blazer supporters purchase all tickets for 1995 Memorial Cup tournament.5. Minor league champs. Atlanta Knights (IHL). Portland Pirates (AHL) claim crowns.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021207/6134092-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="575" height="746"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Nicholls</figcaption></div><h2>Bernie Nicholls one bad Devil</h2>1. Bernie Nicholls. Crosschecks Sergei Kovalev in neck, shoots puck at him. shoots puck at Ranger bench.2. Ref attack. Laval GM Jean-Claude Morrissette attacks Memorial Cup ref in parking lot.3. Playoff format. AHL decides third round with best-of-three series; all others best-of-seven.4. Mike Richter Ranger goalie bumps ref Bill McCreary during temper tantrum.5. Dave Andreychuk. Fifty-three goal scorer has just one goal in Western Conference final. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021052/6134130-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Las Vegas Thunder center Radek Bonk possesses a good mix of talent and strength.</figcaption></div>The San Jose Sharks captured the hearts of fans and imaginations of rivals this season.After witnessing the Sharks&rsquo; success in 199394, many teams thinks they&rsquo;re one or two players away from duplicating the Sharks&rsquo; feats.That mind-set figures to have an impact on this year&rsquo;s entry draft. Instead of following the traditional philosophy of taking the best available player, many teams will draft to fill a hole and pass on a slightly more talented prospect.With that in mind, here is our look at who each team should draft in the first round June 28 at the Hartford Civic Center. Teams are listed in order of selection, but that will likely be skewed by draft-day deals.1. Florida Panthers. Czech center Radek Bonk scored 42 goals as an 18-year-old for the Las Vegas Thunder of the International League. He&rsquo;s too big, strong and talented to pass on. THN recommends: Bonk.2. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Ducks could have two rookie-of-the-year candidates next season in Paul Kariya and defenseman Ed Jovanovski of the Windsor Spitfires. The topranked prospect in THN&rsquo;s 1994 Draft Preview is ready to step in. THN recommends: Jovanovski.3. Ottawa Senators. The Senators have had the league&rsquo;s worst defense both years they&rsquo;ve been in the league. They could attempt to remedy that by picking Russian skilled defender Oleg Tver-dovsky of Krylja Sovetov. THN recommends: Tver-dovsky.4. Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers figure to boost their size and scoring up front with their first of two picks in the top six. Their options include Jason Wiemer of the Portland Winter Hawks and Jason Bon-signore of the Niagara Falls Thunder. THN recommends: Bonsignore.5. Hartford Whalers: The Whalers are in the hunt for youth up front. Jason Wiemer offers size, but center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Guelph Storm is rated a better offensive prospect because of his Doug Gilmour-like tenacity and playmaking abilities. THN recommends: O&rsquo;Neill.6. Edmonton Oilers: With the value of goaltenders higher than ever, the Oilers can choose between Jamie Storr of the Owen Sound Platers and Eric Fichaud of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. THN recommends: Storr.7. Los Angeles Kings. The Kings found out they&rsquo;re too small up front. That&rsquo;s good news for Jason Wiemer and Brett Lindros of the Kingston Frontenacs. Lindros is bigger and stronger, but Wiemer is nearly as tough and more polished offensively. THN recommends: Wiemer.8. Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning&rsquo;s greatest immediate need is scoring. Left winger Jeff Friesen of the Regina Pats might be the most gifted scorer available, but his stock dropped because of inconsistency. Ryan Smyth, left winger for the Moose Jaw Warriors, is a little bigger and more consistent, but has less upside. THN recommends: Friesen.9. Quebec Nordiques. With a surplus of talented forwards, the Nordiques are in the market for a physical defenseman. Brad Brown of the North Bay Centennials, a fierce competitor with limited offensive skills, fits the bill. THN recommends: Brown.10. Quebec Nordiques. Don&rsquo;t rule out Quebec selecting Brett Lindros with this pick, even though he won&rsquo;t report. The Nordiques can afford to draft and trade him. If they elect not to rock the boat, a good alternative is a skilled defenseman such as Swede Mattias Ohlund of Pitea. THN recommends: Ohlund.11. San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are solid defensively, but too small up front. Brett Lindros is the draft&rsquo;s most physically prepared player. He would add at least two years to the careers of some of the Sharks&rsquo; aging veterans. THN recommends: Lindros.12. New York Islanders. If the Islanders decide they need help in goal, they should draft Eric Fichaud. If scoring is their most pressing need, they&rsquo;ll consider Ethan Moreau of Niagara Falls. THN recommends: Moreau.13. Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks are desperate for help at center, which is good news for Wayne Primeau of Owen Sound and Czech Josef Marha of Dukla Jihlava. Primeau, younger brother of Detroit Red Wing Keith, is big and has offensive potential. THN recommends: Primeau.14. Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks need help on the blueline. Nolan Baumgartner of the Kamloops Blazers is a steady performer with offensive potential; Wade Belak of the Saskatoon Blades is big and tough, but less a threat to score. THN recommends: Baumgartner.15. Washington Capitals. Expect the Capitals to choose a goalie-either Eric Fichaud or Sault Ste. Marie&rsquo;s Greyhound Dan Cloutier. Fichaud has drawn comparisons to Felix Potvin. THN recommends: Fichaud.16. Washington Capitals. It would be difficult for Washington to pass on Ryan Smyth if he slips this far. Unless, of course, Mattias Ohlund also slips through the cracks. THN recommends: Smyth.17. Buffalo Sabres. Requiring help at center, the Sabres will likely pick a pivot. If 6-foot-6, 215-pound Chris Wells of the Seattle Thunderbirds is available, he should become a Sabre. THN recommends: Wells.18. Montreal Canadiens. If the playoffs proved anything, it&rsquo;s that the Canadiens need a reliable backup goaltender. Jose Theodore of the St-Jean Lynx is CSB&rsquo;s second-ranked goalie. THN recommends: Theodore.19. Calgary Flames. Considering the average age of the Flames&rsquo; top six defensemen is 30, it won&rsquo;t be surprising if they draft a blueliner. Deron Quint of Seattle is a good skater with offensive instincts. THN recommends: Quint.20. Dallas Stars. The Stars need a left winger and have three prime candidates-Sean Haggerty of the Detroit Jr. Red Wings, Chris Dingman of the Brandon Wheat Kings and Greg Crozier of Lawrence Academy. Dingman can score and is a banger. THN recommends: Dingman.21. Boston Bruins. If one of the three toprated goalies is available, the Bruins should grab him. Otherwise, they could attempt to pad their scoring punch. THN recommends: Cloutier.22. Toronto Maple Leafs. It would be a dream come true for the Leafs if goalie Eric Fichaud slipped through. Dan Cloutier would also do. If not, the Leafs are likely to look for a scoring forward such as Alexander Kharlamov of Central Army. THN recommends: Kharlamov.23. Detroit Red Wings. Red Wing GM Bryan Murray wants size and grit. If he favors a European, Russian defenseman Yan Golubovsky of Central Army is attractive; if it&rsquo;s a North American, Jason Botterill is their man. THN recommends: Botterill.24. Pittsburgh Penguins. After picking Europeans first the past four years, the Penguins won&rsquo;t stop now. Six-foot-3, 183-pound Yan Golubovsky played for the Penguin-sponsored Central Army team. THN recommends: Golubovsky.25. New Jersey Devils. Goaltending and defense are sound, so look for the Devils to draft a forward. The best bets are Robb Gordon, right winger Jason Podollan of the Spokane Chiefs and Greg Crozier. THN recommends: Gordon.26. New York Rangers. Expect the Rangers to take the most talented player remaining, likely a European. Since right winger Vadim Sharifjanov of Ufa Salavat is just that and has grit, he&rsquo;s the logical candidate. THN recommends: Sharifjanov.<h2>THN&rsquo;s Top 26 rated prospects</h2>Here is THN&rsquo;s Draft Preview ranking of the top 26 prospects for the 1994 entry draft.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011480/6134123-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="681" height="914"></div> &#9632;

f0009-02

Taking stock of draft class

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>The dream ended for the New Jersey Devils at about midnight-in the second overtime period of a seventh game that won&rsquo;t soon be forgotten.They had pulled their goalie and scored with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation time, seemingly destined for their first Stanley Cup final. But the Devils could not emerge from the shadow of the New York Rangers.Although the greatest season in team history ended in heartbreak, the Devils established themselves as true Cup contenders. Their 1988 run was always considered something of a fluke, but this was the real thing.&ldquo;By most eyes in the hockey world we were overachievers,&rdquo; said center Bobby Carpenter. &ldquo;We may have even surprised ourselves, but what this will do for next year is unlimited. I don&rsquo;t think you can have better chemistry than on this team.&rdquo;Bill Guerin felt the same way.&ldquo;When you see the faces in the lockerroom and the feeling in your heart and gut, it hurts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have a really tight team.&rdquo;Bernie Nicholls called it the best team he ever played on.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure the best team won,&rdquo; said the veteran center. &ldquo;The Rangers have a lot of great individuals, but we have a great team. We took a long road and battled hard. It&rsquo;s kind of unfair someone loses. We had to beat that team to get it all, but I know they have a lot of respect for us.&rdquo;Credit goes to coach Jacques Lemaire and assistant Larry Robinson, who got the most out of a group of talented young players and a few veterans near the end of their careers.&ldquo;Before the last game I told them: &lsquo;One thing I am really proud of with you guys is now we have a team,&rsquo;&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s unfortunate we lost, I was really proud of them.&rdquo;DECISIONS: The Devils plan to look for offensive help in the off-season, but general manager Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s toughest decisions involve free agents Scott Stevens, Bernie Nicholls and Viacheslav Fetisov.All over 30, they require no compensation, although the Devils have the right to match any offers.Stevens, a Norris Trophy finalist, should command offers of $3-4 million from interested clubs.NOTEBOOK: Bernie Nicholls was suspended from Game 4 for cross-checking Alexei Kovalev. It was his fourth career stick-related suspension&hellip; Stephane Richer scored two overtime goals and has four in his career, tying him with four other players. Maurice Richard has the record with six.The Devils hope Larry Robinson decides to bypass head coaching offers from other NHL clubs and remain as an assistant with the Devils. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had a chance to talk about that,&rdquo; Jacques Lemaire said. &ldquo;I think Larry will be back.&rdquo;<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jim Dowd. Bernie Nicholls, Corey Millen, Bobby Carpenter. Bobby Holik. Alexander Semak.LW-Valeri Zelepukin, Claude Lemieux, Tom Chorske, Mike Peluso.RW-Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Randy McKay, Bill Guerin, 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>None. &#9632;

Date with Stanley not perfect, but team happy with courtship

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>As May turned to June, the New York Islanders were still waiting for coach Al Arbour to make up his mind, which isn&rsquo;t anything new.Arbour traditionally takes a week or two, or a month or two, to decide whether he wants to coach again the following season.When 1993-94 ended, it sounded like this spring might be different. After his team was swept out of the playoffs in the first round by the rival New York Rangers, Arbour hinted his 19th season of coaching the Islanders might be his last.&ldquo;I made up my mind along time ago,&rdquo; Arbour said in April.Well, if he did, he didn&rsquo;t tell general manager Don Maloney. And he surely didn&rsquo;t tell any of his players, who he refused to address on breakup day. He was afraid he might say something he might regret, particularly if he were to continue coaching this season.&ldquo;We have a few details to work out, so I&rsquo;d rather not comment,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;I fully expect Al to be part of this organization next season. Whether he&rsquo;ll be coaching, I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;Maloney professes to be more impressed with Arbour&rsquo;s coaching this season than last when the team made it to the Stanley Cup semifinals.&ldquo;Considering all the injuries we had and the fact that some of our top players had inconsistent years, I&rsquo;d say Al and his staff did a heckuva job,&rdquo; Maloney said.If Arbour decides he has had enough, he likely will take over as director of player personnel, a position he held from 1986 to 1988.Waiting in the wings is Arbour&rsquo;s longtime assistant, Lome Henning, who already runs the majority of practices and is the chief strategist. Henning was an original Islander, and was head coach of the Minnesota North Stars from 1985 to 1987.SIGN TIMES: The Islanders and the representative for free agent forward Benoit Hogue have met, but were not close to a deal.Hogue, who had 36 goals and 69 points last season, played out his option. His agent Don Meehan is thought to be asking more than $1 million a year for his client.There were times last season when Hogue looked like the team&rsquo;s best player and times when you had to look hard to find him. He wants to stay with the Islanders, but might be the team&rsquo;s most valuable trade commodity. The team may make him a qualifying offer to retain its matching rights, then let the market set the price.Don Maloney, meanwhile, won&rsquo;t be making an offer to David Volek until he gets an update on Volek&rsquo;s health. Volek, who also played out his option, sat out the second half of the year with a ruptured disc.NOTEBOOK: Mick Vukota was issued a two-game suspension for the start of next season as a result of an altercation in Game 4 against the Rangers in their Eastern Conference first-round series. Vukota was banned for punching Jay Wells from behind while Wells was being pinned against the sideboards by a linesman and other players. Wells sustained a cut over the his right eye. Vukota was also fined $500&hellip;Kevin Cheveldayoff, the Islanders No. 1 pick in the 1988 draft, is no longer in the organization. The defenseman, who has been a career minor-leaguer and played for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the International League last season, played out his option and won&rsquo;t be re-signed. &#9632;

Arbour keeps everyone waiting for decision on coaching future

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Russ Farwell was the one who fired Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; coach Terry Simpson, but Bob Clarke might be the one who plays a big part in hiring Simpson&rsquo;s successor.Farwell, the Flyers&rsquo; general manager, relieved Simpson of his duties May 20 stating, &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t sure enough that we would see anything different from Terry&rsquo;s approach this past season. I didn&rsquo;t feel we could go forward from that.&rdquo;No successor was named, giving rise to speculation that another coach won&rsquo;t be hired until Clarke is named as the team&rsquo;s new president and part owner.Sources said the only thing holding up Clarke from leaving his job as GM of the Florida Panthers is a matter of compensation from the Flyers to break the contract.Florida president Bill Torrey would only say Clarke is still under contract. Flyers&rsquo; majority owner Ed Snider refused comment. And Clarke was no longer making statements about his plans for the Panthers.This is a departure from remarks Clarke made in late April when he said he intended to honor his contract with the first-year expansion team.Meanwhile, Farwell decided to cut his losses after Simpson put together a disappointing 35-39-10 mark.Farwell said the Flyers, who have missed the playoffs a league-high five straight seasons, weren&rsquo;t close to hiring a new coach and that a list of candidates is incomplete.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t comfortable enough, or thought there were enough reasons for us to sit tight and just expect (improvement),&rdquo; Farwell said.Simpson, 50, was vacationing in Saskatchewan and was not available for comment.The Flyers began the season with a lot of hope. But after a good start, Eric Lindros sustained a knee injury that kept him out of 14 games. When he returned, the Flyers experienced goaltending problems with Tommy Soderstrom and Dominic Roussel.&ldquo;I know (Simpson) knows the game and I know he worked hard,&rdquo; Farwell said. &ldquo;But results are what you accomplish and what you put on the ice. We weren&rsquo;t responding.&rdquo;By season&rsquo;s end, players were divided into pro-and anti-Simpson factions.The list of replacements includes former Washington Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim assistant coach Al Sims, Hershey Bears&rsquo; coach Jay Leach and New Jersey Devils&rsquo; assistant coach Larry Robinson. Tampa Bay Lightning coach Terry Crisp also has ties to the Flyers&rsquo; organization.Farwell said assistant coaches Craig Hartsburg and Mike Eaves are free to pursue jobs with other teams, but didn&rsquo;t rule out the possibility of returning under a new regime.Simpson has two years remaining on his contract. Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; coach-GM John Paddock said he is interested in hiring Simpson.&ldquo;We all share the blame in us not qualifying for the playoffs,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;I guess now we just regroup and see who comes in as our leader.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Flyers signed left winger Chris Herperger of the Western League&rsquo;s Seattle Thunderbirds to a three-year contract and Harvard University goalie Aaron Israel to a four-year contract May 11. Herperger, 20, led Seattle in goals (44), assists (51) and points (95) last season. Israel, 20, compiled a 12-2-2 record and 2.30 goals-against average.The Spectrum II project needs another $10 million in financing to meet the construction budget. Spectacor, the Flyers&rsquo; parent company, is seeking a loan from the city of Philadelphia.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 11: Chris Herperger. LW. and Aaron Israel, G. signed contracts. May 20: Terry Simpson, coach, fired. &#9632;

Simpson takes the fall

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>The waterfront site where the Tampa Bay Lightning plans to build its permanent arena was once the site of an early 19th century United States Army battle fortress.So it came as no surprise when a few arrowheads, musket balls and military brass buttons were found buried beneath the surface of the vast downtown Tampa plot.The discovery of four human skeletons buried in wooden coffins did raise a few eyebrows, though. It also raised questions about the future of the site as a home for the Lightning&rsquo;s arena.With archaeologists suddenly combing the site hoping to find out the history behind the buried remains, many were left to wonder if the find would delay work on the structure and turn the site into a permanent archaeological dig.The answer came quickly and to the relief of the Lightning. After examining the bones of a man believed to have died in the 1820s, the leader of the archaeological firm examining the site said the arena project could move forward as planned.&ldquo;There is nothing to indicate there is anything else out there,&rdquo; said Ken Hardin, the president of Janus Research.Hardin&rsquo;s firm had routinely examined more than 75 per cent of the arena site before it found the first coffin on a piece of land that will eventually become the arena parking lot.After examining the remains of the first coffin, it was determined they were those of a white male who apparently died between the age of 20 and 25. Hardin said that other than a remarkably well-preserved skeleton and a near full set of teeth, all that was found in the first coffin was a piece of leather.In the other coffins, which were unearthed about three weeks after the first was found, Janus researchers found a variety of objects that linked the bodies to the U.S. military and Hardin speculated that one or more may have been soldiers.Hardin said the fortress, known as Fort Brooke Army Camp, contained two cemeteries. The coffins, however, were found on a tract believed to have once been the occupied by the officers&rsquo; quarters and a prison.Fort Brooke was in use during the second and third Seminole Wars, which were fought on Tampa&rsquo;s shores between 1830 and 1850.COLE BITES DUST: Danton Cole became the second Lightning player hurt at the World Championships in Italy. But unlike defenseman Roman Hamrlik&rsquo;s, Cole&rsquo;s injury was not deemed serious.The right winger was forced out of Team USA&rsquo;s lineup after separating a shoulder in a 31 quarterfinal win over Russia. His injury came on the same day Hamrlik had his damaged right knee operated on.Hamrlik tore the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament during a World Championship exhibition game April 26. During surgery it was learned the injury was not as severe as first thought.Lightning trainer Larry Ness said doctors discovered there was no meniscus cartilage damage at all in Hamrlik&rsquo;s knee and that the medial collateral ligament had begun to re-attach itself during the days leading up to surgery.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have to touch the MCL at all,&rdquo; Ness said. &ldquo;We were elated when we found that out. It&rsquo;s all because he&rsquo;s so young. When you&rsquo;re young like Roman, the knee will do that. It&rsquo;ll start to mend itself.&rdquo;Both Cole and Hamrlik are expected to be ready for training camp.NOTEBOOK: General manager Phil Esposito said he won&rsquo;t make any decision on his future with the team until after the entry draft in Hartford. Esposito has reportedly been offered a job as a studio analyst with the ESPN television network&hellip;Tampa Bay&rsquo;s primary minor-league affiliate, the Atlanta Knights, won the International League&rsquo;s Turner Cup over the defending champion Fort Wayne Komets in six games.Former Lightning farmhand David Littman was in goal for the U.S. when it lost to Finland in the semifinal of the World Championships. &#9632;

Full speed ahead on new digs

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>Barring an unexpected hitch when the final contract is produced, Washington Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile will re-sign with the team for another three years.After a couple of meetings, Poile and team president Dick Patrick struck a tentative deal that will give Poile three more years and the club would have an option to extend the deal after that.Neither side has said what Poile will earn, but the deal is thought to be worth between $400,000 and $500,000 per season.Poile just completed his 12th year with the Capitals. Harry Sinden of the Boston Bruins and Glen Sather of the Edmonton Oilers are the only GMs to have served with their current teams longer than Poile has guided the Capitals.Capitals&rsquo; majority owner Abe Pollin has said little about the team since the end of the season, but apparently conveyed his desire to retain Poile to Patrick, who owns 20 per cent of the team and is more involved in day-to-day matters.&ldquo;Abe and I talk about all aspects of the team on a regular basis,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;If he was unhappy or wanted to make a change, he would have made that clear. Our intention was to work out an agreement with David between the end of the playoffs and the end of his contract, so that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ll do now.&rdquo;Poile has had several contracts in his 12-year tenure, but this was the first time he ever worked into the last year of a contract. In the past, a new one was always done long before the old one was due to expire.With that in mind, there was considerable speculation this season was some sort of test for Poile and the results would have a bearing on his job status.Also factored into the mix was Pollin&rsquo;s consideration of selling the Capitals, the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Washington Bullets and USAir Arena. Pollin had several offers and was reportedly close to selling both teams and the arena, but decided not to sell.REST ASSURED?: David Poile can rest easier now his future is secure, but that doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean he&rsquo;ll get more rest.Poile will be busy negotiating with free agents Kevin Hatcher, John Slaney and Randy Burridge. Hatcher and Burridge are Group II free agents, which means the Capitals would be due compensation in the form of draft picks.Having gone down this road before with Scott Stevens in 1990, the Capitals are hoping to avoid the situation.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want picks for Kevin Hatcher,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;We want to sign him.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Calle Johansson had some improvement in the knee injured by a slash from Pittsburgh Penguin Shawn McEachern, but it&rsquo;s unclear if Johansson will be ready to skate in September. The league is apparently waiting to see how long he is out before announcing a suspension for McEachern&hellip;Center Jason Allison of the London Knights was named the Canadian Hockey League player of the year. It was the second year in a row a Capitals&rsquo; prospect won the award. Pat Peake, then of the Detroit Jr. Wings, won it in 1993.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Juneau. Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley. Dave Poulin. Jason AllisonLW-Dimitri Khristich, Randy Burridge, Steve Konowalchuk, Craig Berube.RW-Pat Peake. Keith Jones. Kelly Miller. Todd Krygier. Tim Bergland.LD-Joe Reekie. John Slaney, Jason WoolleyRD-Sylvain Cote. Kevin Hatchar, Shawn Anderson.G-Don Beaupre. Rick Tabaracci. Byron Dafoe.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Peter Bondra, RW. bruised shoulder. Calle Johansson. D. damaged nerve in left knee. Jim Johnson. D, tom left knee ligament Michal Pivonka. LW. groin pull. &#9632;

Poile continues to toil as GM with new pact

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>Bob Clarke sounded like someone with the dream job last November. The Florida Panthers&rsquo; general manager had his expansion team winning, had made several shrewd deals and he was learning to wear shorts in December.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have players mad at me because of their salary or playing time,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got one of the best jobs you can have.&rdquo;So why, six months later, is Clarke about to leave his job to return to the Philadelphia Flyers as president and part-owner? Some of the answers are obvious.Clarke spent his 15-year, Hall-of-Fame career in Philadelphia before working seven years in the front office. Philadelphia always will be considered home to Clarke and his family. He also received a great offer from Flyers&rsquo; owner Ed Snider that includes a piece of the team.Another reason for his departure was control. Clarke will have it with the Flyers. He didn&rsquo;t have it with the Panthers.Though Clarke hid it well, several sources in the Florida organization said Clarke wasn&rsquo;t happy working with Panthers&rsquo; president Bill Torrey.&ldquo;Bob got tired of Bill looking over his shoulder at every move he made,&rdquo; a source said. &ldquo;And there were other things&hellip;Bill going to the Olympics. Bill scouting juniors. Bill making comments on whether John Vanbiesbrouck was going to be traded. Bob felt like he was a GM who wasn&rsquo;t being allowed to manage.&rdquo;Whether this unhappiness was the final factor in Clarke&rsquo;s leaving the organization isn&rsquo;t known. Neither Clarke nor Torrey will comment on the situation while Clarke remains under contract.Clarke&rsquo;s departure is being delayed until the Panthers and Flyers can agree on compensation. The Panthers are asking for a first-round draft pick-the Flyers don&rsquo;t have one this year-in exchange for letting Clarke out of the final two years of his contract.Certainly there are reasons to believe Clarke would have eventually returned to Philadelphia.After all, this will be Clarke&rsquo;s third front-office position with the Flyers.Asked previously about his working relationship with Clarke, Torrey always gave a positive response. &ldquo;I think we get along very well,&rdquo; Torrey said.The chemistry worked because the Panthers were the most successful expansion team ever, missing the playoffs by one point. But both men are used to calling the shots and it was only a matter of time before one would leave.Torrey will probably hold off hiring another GM until after the June 28-29 entry draft in Hartford, but he may have a problem luring someone with experience for many of the same reasons Clarke is leaving. The Panthers may have to hire a younger executive who&rsquo;s willing to learn from Torrey.AWARDS TIME: The Panthers set their final expansion record when they had players become finalists for three major NHL awards. John Vanbiesbrouck is vying for the Hart (MVP) and Vezina (best goalie) Trophies, while center Brian Skrudland was a finalist for the Selke Award as the top defensive forward.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor just to be a finalist,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something you can hold your head high about.&rdquo;Skrudland found out when his family was visiting Disney World. &ldquo;When my brother-in-law told me, I thought he was being Goofy,&rdquo; Skrudland said.NOTEBOOK: The World Championships was a mixed experience for Panthers&rsquo; left winger Bill Lindsay. He had four goals and an assist in five games to tie Craig Janney for the Team USA scoring lead. But Lindsay&rsquo;s run suddenly ended when he was suspended because a vitamin supplement he had been taking contained Ephedrine, which is on the banned substance list by the International Ice Hockey Federation. &ldquo;The worst thing is people may read it the wrong way, that I was taking something really illegal,&rdquo; Lindsay said. &ldquo;It was a multi-vitamin I had been taking all year. It&rsquo;s not like I was taking something to enhance my performance.&rdquo; &#9632;

Clarke departure linked to power clash with Torrey

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011413/6134329-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dominic Roussel took loads of criticism for the Flyers&rsquo; collapse.</figcaption></div>The happiest people in the world to see the San Jose Sharks exit before the Stanley Cup final were the bookmakers in Las Vegas. San Jose opened the season as a 1,000:1 longshot to make the final, but had more than a few bookies afraid when they knocked off the Detroit Red Wings in the first round and came a crossbar away from eliminating the Toronto Maple Leafs. One Nevada bookie told Bluelines a Sharks&rsquo; swim to the final would have been as disastrous to them as the 1991 &ldquo;Black October,&rdquo; when the Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins reached the World Series. They had opened the season as 100:1 underdogs to get that far. &ldquo;If the Sharks had gone the route, the &lsquo;91 baseball futures would have paled in comparison,&rdquo; said Vinny Magliulo. sports book manager at Caesar&rsquo;s Palace in Vegas. One hockey betting group wagered $1,300 on the Sharks to win the Stanley Cup at 600:1 odds. If San Jose had triumphed, the single ticket would have translated into a payout of $780,000. &ldquo;Had they won, it would have been the worst ever for the town bookmakers,&rdquo; said Ranse Brown, sports book director at the Aladdin&hellip;. Larry Robinson has emerged as the hottest head-coaching prospect in the NHL, but the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; assistant coach has made it clear he wants another year of experience as Jacques Lemaire&rsquo;s assistant before making any moves for a top job.<h2>Set Bob free</h2>According to sources close to the Florida Panthers, Bob Clarke didn&rsquo;t decide all on his own to leave the Panthers&rsquo; general manager job for the presidency of the Philadelphia Flyers. Insiders said Panthers&rsquo; owner Wayne Huizenga grew tired of Clarke&rsquo;s indecisiveness while overtures were coming from Broad Street&hellip;This is definitely not good news: Hot hockey cities such as Chicago, Calgary, Pittsburgh and St. Louis failed to sell out for the playoffs as they had in the past&hellip;Steve Heinze of the Boston Bruins has an interesting off-season pastime, He plays Sega Hockey and makes sure that the electronic Steve Heinze gets plenty of ice time. &ldquo;I throw myself right into the action,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny watching myself skating around and being rated &lsquo;middle-of-the-road,&rsquo; which is where I ought to be.&rdquo;<h2>Hajt of success</h2>From the Fame Is Fleeting Department: Former NHLer-turned-broad-caster Peter McNab was riding in a cab in Buffalo when the taxi driver realized that McNab was a former Sabre. The cabbie looked twice in the rearview mirror and said, &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you Bill Hajt?&rdquo;&hellip;Bruins&rsquo; owner Jeremy Jacobs, who works well with commissioner Gary Bettman, is said to have a good shot at becoming the next chairman of the NHL board of governors&hellip;Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; captain Keith Tkachuk, a native of Boston, recently showed his commitment to the team by buying a home in Winnipeg and taking up permanent residence. &ldquo;I want to stay here,&rdquo; he said. The Jets will likely help the cause by giving Tkachuk a lucrative new contract.<h2>McNall&rsquo;s mistake</h2>One of Bruce McNall&rsquo;s biggest blunders was reclaiming millionaire defenseman Marty McSorley from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Wayne Gretzky, who many claim makes the personnel decisions for the Kings, was said to be a big backer of the deal. As one source close to the Kings, put it, on the wall buzzes, &ldquo;Bruce simply couldn&rsquo;t say no to Wayne.&rdquo; The bottom line on the Nick Beverley firing was that the former Kings&rsquo; GM became an easy fall-guy. A fellow executive told Bluelines, &ldquo;In plain English, Nick took a hosing.&rdquo;&hellip;One of the most dynamic players of 1994-95 will be the Mariusz Czerkawski of the Bruins, who just barely got his skates wet in the playoffs this spring.<h2>Wanted: Goalie</h2>Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Philadelphia Flyers make a pitch for Grant Fuhr from Buffalo, especially if Bob Clarke can&rsquo;t land John Vanbiesbrouck from Florida. Flyer GM Russ Farwell was quick to blame goalies Tommy Soderstrom and Dominic Roussel for the team&rsquo;s failure to make the playoffs for the fifth straight season. &ldquo;I never thought they&rsquo;d collapse the way they did down the stretch,&rdquo; Farwell said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t just poor goaltending, it was horrible goaltending. I banked on these guys.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

Was Vegas nervous about Sharks? You bet!

<div class="byline">By Steve Huber</div>The Dallas Stars nearly pulled it off.For 84 regular-season games and the first four of the playoffs, the Stars were able to use tireless work from their smallish forwards and the patience of-well, Bob Gainey-to frustrate opponents.In the second round they ran into the Vancouver Canucks, who used their size and a measure of the same patience to end the Stars&rsquo; first season in Texas, four games to one.&ldquo;I think what we did this season worked well enough to camouflage our weaknesses,&rdquo; said Gainey, the Stars&rsquo; coach and general manager. &ldquo;In defeat, those weaknesses become more apparent and teams take advantage it.&rdquo;The biggest shortcoming for the Stars was their inability to score first. They accomplished that just once in nine post-season games.&ldquo;The story was written early in all of the games,&rdquo; Gainey said.That lack of scoring and the team&rsquo;s continued weakness on the left side is something Gainey must address. Mike McPhee was the Stars&rsquo; only natural left winger at season&rsquo;s end.The Stars were also hurt in the playoffs when their best players, Mike Modano, Russ Courtnall and Gagner, fell strangely silent against Vancouver. Courtnall had 30 shots and three assists in the five games. Modano and Gagner each scored twice, but it wasn&rsquo;t enough to carry the team.Vancouver aside, it was not a bad season for the Stars. Mike Modano scored 50 goals for the first time, while goalie Darcy Wakaluk (18 wins), defensemen Grant Ledyard and Paul Cavallini in points (46 points) and Courtnall (57 assists) each posted career highs.&ldquo;The disappointment of losing is fresh and deep,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;I need a little more time to judge the whole season. We didn&rsquo;t get where we wanted to go, but there were a lot of good things that happened.&rdquo;That wasn&rsquo;t good enough for some on a team picked to be among the dregs of the league in the pre-season.&ldquo;Guys had a good year-blah, blah, blah,&rdquo; said defenseman Craig Ludwig. &ldquo;We expected more from ourselves. We expected to still be playing.&rdquo;HE&rsquo;LL BE BACK: Shane Churla&rsquo;s revenge will have to wait until next year.The rugged winger vowed to repay Vancouver&rsquo;s Pavel Bure for a cheap shot during Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal. The unpenalized hit (which later cost Bure a $500 fine) knocked Churla unconscious and kept him from most of the game.The paths of the two players did not meet until the post-series handshake. Churla refused shake Bure&rsquo;s hand.&ldquo;I respect everyone I play against and plays me hard,&rdquo; Churla said. &ldquo;When he tried to injure me I lost respect for him. I don&rsquo;t shake anyone&rsquo;s hand I don&rsquo;t respect.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Stars sold out all four of their playoff games at Reunion Arena&hellip;Goaltender Darcy Wakaluk ended his season by going 4-1 in the playoffs. Andy Moog was 1-3.<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 DonnellyG-Andy Moog. Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Tinordi, D, broken femur. &#9632;

Team looking to change smoke and mirrors approach

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>To quit or not to quit. That&rsquo;s the decision facing Dirk Graham this off-season.The classy Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; captain, who turns 35 in July, is considering retirement after 15 seasons in professional hockey.Because of the style he plays, Graham&rsquo;s body has taken a pounding the last few seasons and the veteran right winger isn&rsquo;t sure he wants to go through it all one more time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to sit down this summer, assess things and go from there,&rdquo; said Graham, who has spent the past six and a half seasons with the Blackhawks. &ldquo;Right now, I&rsquo;m unsure of what I&rsquo;m going to do. There&rsquo;s a lot to consider.&rdquo;Graham has spoken of retirement before. He came close to calling it a career following the 1989-90 season because of a cracked kneecap. He returned the next season and won the Selke Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top defensive forward.He made his latest comments about retirement not long after the Blackhawks were eliminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs. It was the second straight season the Hawks bowed out in the first round.Graham still has a burning desire to win a Stanley Cup, which could make him return for another try if he thinks the Hawks have a chance next year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to decide so soon after we lost,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;Sometimes you make snap decisions on the spur of the moment and I won&rsquo;t do that. I want to sit back and think things through. When you get older you want to assess where you&rsquo;re at.&rdquo;Coach Darryl Sutter has made it clear he wants Graham back for another season.Graham had just 15 goals and 33 points in 67 games-his poorest offensive totals as a Blackhawk-but he remains one of the Hawks&rsquo; best checkers and penalty killers.As for his leadership qualities, the fact Graham has been captain since 1989 of a club that also includes people such as Chris Chelios, Steve Smith, Brent Sutter and Jeremy Roenick speaks for itself.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already talked to Dirk and let him know how I feel,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said. &ldquo;You can say what you want about our stars, but the most important guy in our dressing room is Dirk Graham.&ldquo;He goes through this (retirement talk) every summer, but that&rsquo;s because he cares so much.&rdquo;Graham earned $690,000 in the final year of his contract with the Blackhawks and will be a free agent without compensation this summer. It&rsquo;s possible there will be interest in him around the league if he decides to continue his playing career.GM SHUFFLE?: Bob Pulford has said several times he doesn&rsquo;t plan to be general manager of the Blackhawks much longer. But the 58-year-old won&rsquo;t say if a change could happen this summer.Speculation is Hawks&rsquo; director of player personnel Bob Murray will eventually take over for Pulford. Murray played 15 seasons with the Hawks in the 1970s and 1980s.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be talking to Mr. (owner Bill) Wirtz about it this summer,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;Part of my job is preparing for the day when it happens and finding the right person to bring in.&rdquo;Pulford is in his second stint as Hawks&rsquo; GM. He held the job from 1977 until 1990 when Mike Keenan was promoted. Pulford resumed duties in 1992 after Keenan was fired.Pulford, also the club&rsquo;s senior vice-president, has told people he wants to remain GM at least until the move into the United Center is complete.NOTEBOOK: National anthem soloist Wayne Messmer is recovering nicely from the gunshot wound to the neck he received in a robbery attempt April 9 and is able to speak in a raspy voice. It&rsquo;s still not known how Messmer&rsquo;s singing voice will be affected. Messmer is also a vice-president with the expansion Chicago Wolves of the International League.Jeremy Roenick played Games 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the playoff series against Toronto with cracked ribs. He was injured in Game 2, but the Hawks kept it quiet. &#9632;

Graham considering retirement

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>An off-season expected to bring major changes to the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; lineup began with the smallest of moves.Sheldon Kennedy, whose five-year career with the Red Wings was punctuated by alcohol-related problems, was traded May 25 to the Winnipeg Jets for a 1995 third-round draft pick.The deal, which was first discussed by the clubs in February, is the first of several the Wings are likely to make this summer.&ldquo;No. 1, Sheldon didn&rsquo;t play very much here. He got six goals,&rdquo; said general manager Bryan Murray. &ldquo;Also, I want Martin Lapointe to have a real shot at making our team next year. Some of our young guys like Martin weren&rsquo;t getting any ice time at all. He&rsquo;s a gritty, competitive guy and he&rsquo;ll have an impact.&rdquo;Murray also confirmed he made the trade in large part because of Kennedy&rsquo;s off-ice habits.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an image thing, as well, from our point of view,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It (drinking) was a major, major item and it was for a big part of the year.&rdquo;Kennedy spent nearly two weeks in jail last summer for violating terms of a probation stemming from a September, 1992 driving offense that occurred after he had been drinking. On at least two occasions, Kennedy spent time in rehabilitation centers in an attempt to control his abuse of alcohol.Kennedy, who could not be reached for comment. and Murray addressed the issue in a meeting the day before the trade was announced.&ldquo;He basically said, &lsquo;Thanks for trying to help me in areas other than hockey,&rsquo;&rdquo; Murray said.The Wings acquired Kennedy, 24. a fast and feisty right right winger who was used at all three forward positions in Detroit, with their fifth pick (80th overall) in the 1988 draft. He finished the season with six goals and 13 points and 30 penalty minutes in 61 games. His best season was in 1992-93, when he had 19 goals and 30 points in 68 games.The deal concludes negotiations that began last winter when the Wings made overtures to the Jets about swapping goaltenders. That trade was consummated March 8, when Detroit acquired goalie Bob Essensa and defenseman Sergei Bautin for goalie Tim Cheveldae and forward Dallas Drake.FOR SALE?: Despite denials by Mike and Marian Hitch, speculation persists they are considering selling the team they&rsquo;ve owned since 1982.Gossip among employees had the family selling the team to raise money to stem losses of up to $20 million the Hitch-owned Detroit Tigers are expected to record this season.If the Hitches keep the club, they must decide what to do with their management and coaching staffs. It&rsquo;s unlikely both Bryan Murray and coach Scotty Bowman will return next season.NOTEBOOK: Former team president Marguerite Norris, the only woman to have her name engraved on the Stanley Cup, died May 12 following a long illness. She was 67. Norris served as president from 1952-55, winning two Stanley Cups. The Wings haven&rsquo;t won since.Bryan Murray said free agent enforcer Bob Probert will be offered a contract by July 1. That allows the Wings to match offers made to Probert by other teams. Probert&rsquo;s skills as a player and fighter showed signs of diminishing last season. He finished with seven goals, 17 points and 275 penalty minutes in 66 games.Captain Steve Yzerman has fully recovered from a knee injury that spoiled his playoffs. Yzerman injured the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the final game of the regular season against the Dallas Stars and missed the first four playoff games against the San Jose Sharks. He was scheduled to be out a minimum of two weeks with the injury, but returned to score four points in Games 5 and 6, but was scoreless in a losing effort in Game 7.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 25: Sheldon Kennedy, RW. traded to Winnipeg for third-round. 1995 draft pick. &#9632;

Trade parade underway as Kennedy moves west

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>After the Vancouver Canucks dispatched the Dallas Stars in five games in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, one St. Louis Blues&rsquo; player said Dallas&rsquo; quick demise showed &ldquo;how bad we really are.&rdquo;The Stars swept the Blues in the first round and if they had advanced past Vancouver, it might have removed some of the sting.Still, there&rsquo;s some optimism.&ldquo;We have a good team, contrary to what happened in the series,&rdquo; Curtis Joseph said. &ldquo;This team has a lot of potential.&rdquo;The Blues have a wealth of talent that they need to supplement with players who have toughness, grit and a commitment to defense.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to dismantle the team because we lost four games,&rdquo; said general manager Ron Caron. &ldquo;I feel very good starting next year, with or without changes, but we&rsquo;re going to try to improve the team.&rdquo;Caron, president Jack Quinn, who calls most of the shots, and coach Bob Berry are in general agreement about what needs to be done before the Blues move into the Kiel Center this fall. Berry had been at odds with Quinn and Caron about the team&rsquo;s direction, but now they seem to be on the same page.Management agrees it has to replace Garth Butcher, Ron Sutter and Bob Bassen, who were traded to the Quebec Nordiques for Steve Duchesne and Denis Chasse.That trade robbed the Blues of their spine, but Caron said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d do that trade twice a day. It&rsquo;s tougher to make these kind of trades, for a player like Duchesne than doing what I need to do now.&rdquo;But Caron admitted the Blues missed Sutter and Bassen.&ldquo;Sometimes, you have to reach the red line, shoot it in and muck,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;We could do it, but it was not our forte with our roster.&ldquo;I was aware as we were making player changes that we would suffer a little bit missing that dimension.&rdquo;MANAGEMENT SHUFFLE: Although there have been calls for the heads of Bob Berry, Ron Caron and Jack Quinn at various times in St. Louis, all apparently will be back next season, with some slight adjustments.Caron, 64, has a year remaining on his contract and likely will be eased into retirement. Plans are for the Blues to hire a GM-in-training to work with Caron and eventually replace him.Berry had been in that role before being hired to replace Bob Plager as coach Oct. 29, 1992, but he relinquished any hold on such a job when he demanded and received a raise and a contract extension after the 1992-93 season.He ruffled enough feathers in the front office by renegotiating that he probably won&rsquo;t be offered the GM job. However, with two years and $600,000 remaining on his contract, he isn&rsquo;t likely to be fired by the Blues either.NOTEBOOK: Rumors about the future of captain Brett Hull have circulated in St. Louis. In one rumor, the Blues would offer him to the New Jersey Devils this summer for free agent Scott Stevens, the former Blues&rsquo; captain who was lost to New Jersey as compensation for the signing of free agent Brendan Shanahan In another rumor, Hull would be offered to the Los Angeles Kings as a linemate for Wayne Gretzky. &#9632;

Management on same page in addressing team problems

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>The Winnipeg Jets have decided to take the gamble on right winger Sheldon Kennedy.The Elkhorn, Man., native was acquired May 25 from the Detroit Red Wings for a 1995 third-round pick, effectively closing the book on the Jets&rsquo; right side. Teemu Selanne, Nelson Emerson, Kennedy and Tie Domi are the four right wingers.Basically what the Jets have done traded Paul Ysebaert for Kennedy, since the cost for Kennedy is what they received from the Chicago Blackhawks for Ysebaert.Jets&rsquo; coach-general manager John Paddock said he likes the aggressiveness Kennedy may add.&ldquo;We lacked competitiveness and if Sheldon plays at a his high speed all the time, he&rsquo;s a competitive, physical player,&rdquo; Paddock said.Paddock denied the trade was part of the dealings he had with Detroit GM Bryan Murray in March, but Murray said the transaction was discussed months ago and the Wings needed to put off the move because Kennedy was needed for the playoffs.Kennedy, 25, never made the impact many expected after a 58-goal season in 1988-89with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western League.In Winnipeg, Kennedy gets the fresh start he has been looking for.The risk the Jets assume is Kennedy&rsquo;s past difficulty with alcohol. Two seasons ago, he was on antabuse, the medication that causes illness when combined with alcohol. Last season, after violating terms of a probation, he had written into his contract a clause agreeing he could be randomly tested and if it was found he was drinking, he could be demoted to the minors at a reduced salary.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something John Paddock knows about, everybody knows about it,&rdquo; Kennedy told the Detroit News. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think the Jets should worry. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m going to get out of control. I think my first couple of years in the big leagues I went a little nuts with it. But I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a big concern.&rdquo;STILL A MESS: With a June 30 deadline approaching, talk of a six-month extension surfaced in order to give more time to the committee charged with formulating a plan to keep the Jets in Winnipeg and constructing a new arena.Jets&rsquo; president Barry Shenkarow, head of the group that owns the majority 64 per cent share of the team, said he&rsquo;d agree to the extension if it can be shown progress is being made by the committee headed by Great West Life CEO James Bums.The deal between the Jets, the committee, and two government levels in 1991 has the city and province covering losses (about $7 million for last season). It also requires Shenkarow&rsquo;s group to sell the majority shares to an approved buyer for $32 million before June 30.If there&rsquo;s no sale or plan in place for a new arena by that date, Shenkarow has several options. He can sell the club, move it or keep it in Winnipeg under the terms of the present agreement until 1997. The team, however, will play at least one more season in Winnipeg.NOTEBOOK: Curt Keilback, the radio voice of the Jets, left CJOBAM after a contract dispute. Keilback, who had been calling Jets&rsquo; games for 15 seasons, agreed to do television play-by-play next season for CKND, which carries only 16 games&hellip;John Paddock had no comment on speculation that fired Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; coach Terry Simpson would return as an assistant coach, a position he held with the Jets for three seasons.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 25: Sheldon Kennedy. RW, acquired from Detroit for third-round pick in 1995 entry draft. &#9632;

Paddock rolls dice with deal

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>Pat Bums wants a new contract and the Toronto Maple Leafs want to give him one.But that doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean salary negotiations between general manager Cliff Fletcher and Bums&rsquo; agent, Don Meehan, will be simple and cordial.Bums, a two-time coach-of-the-year winner, has two years left on his $450,000 per annum contract, but was promised by Fletcher that a renegotiation or extension would be discussed during the off-season.&ldquo;We made a commitment last summer that we&rsquo;d talk and we will,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident something can be worked out.&rdquo;Bums wants to be compensated on par with many of his better-paid colleagues, some of whom earn double his salary and are paid in U.S. dollars. Bums probably isn&rsquo;t looking for the salaries earned by Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; Scotty Bowman ($1 million U.S.) or New York Rangers&rsquo; Mike Keenan ($950,000 U.S.), but a bump to the $700,000 to $800,000 (Cdn.) range may be in the offing.With 99- and 98-point regular seasons, plus 39 playoff games in two years to match the total of the 1980s, he&rsquo;ll almost certainly get a new deal.&ldquo;There have to be changes made somewhere,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;If management is satisfied with me and the work I do, then we have to change the club. If they want to stay with the team they&rsquo;ve got, then maybe it&rsquo;s time for me to move.&rdquo;The contracts of assistants Mike Murphy and Mike Kitchen expired. Both are expected to return unless they get an offer from another club.SEASON DELAY: Toronto fans have warmed themselves with the belief Kenny Jonsson would be on the club&rsquo;s blueline next season.That&rsquo;s no longer be the case as Jonsson&rsquo;s contract demands and the club&rsquo;s response convinced him to play in Sweden again next season.&ldquo;He met with (European scout) Anders Hedberg and said he probably was going to stay home another year,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s fine.&rdquo;Jonsson, the 12th player selected in last June&rsquo;s draft, was an all-star at the World Junior Championships in Finland and skated with Sweden&rsquo;s Olympic team.Jonsson, 20, is asking for big-time money-rumored to be $3 million over four years-to come over next season.&ldquo;It has nothing to do with the negotiations,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;He just wants to stay. But the financial ballpark he and his agent were mentioning doesn&rsquo;t interest me at all.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Leafs have two unrestricted free agents, defenseman Bob Rouse and winger Mark Osborne, and two restricted free agents in Rob Pearson and Mike Eastwood. All but Rouse are likely to be back, as the veteran blueliner is expected to receive offers from other teams&hellip;The Leafs are close to signing forward Martin Prochazka. Prochazka impressed at camp two years ago and was one of the top scorers in the Czech Elite League this season.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Doug Gilmour, Mike Eastwood. Peter Zezel. John Cutlen. Darby Hendrickson, Mike Krushelnyski, Alexei Kudashov.LW-Dave Andreychuk, Wendel Clark. Kent Manderville, Bill Berg, Ken Baumgartner.RW-Mike Gartner. Nikolai Borchevsky. Rob Pearson. Ken McRae, Mark Osborne.LD-Jamie Macoun, Todd Gill. Dave Ellett.RD-Sylvain Lefebvre. Bob Rouse. Dmitri Mironov, Drake Berehowsky.G-Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Burns in line for raise, but how much will he get?

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011124/6134504-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="387" height="542"></div>Guarantee? The only thing the New York Ranger fans had ever been guaranteed was pain. And here was Mark Messier, just another heart-breaker-come-lately, still not really understanding that when he signed up to drive this team he had commandeered the bus to Agony.This was not 1990. And this was not Edmonton. The steering column always locks on the Rangers, year after year sending them hurtling into the abyss. And this Captain Naive was trying to pretend the 1994 version suffered only from a flat tire?A better team than most of its predecessors was producing only the same old story. The Rangers had the New Jersey Devils under control after winning Game 3 in overtime, but they had been bad in Game 4 and made to look dreadful before their dreading fans in Game 5. And now he was guaranteeing a victory in Game 6?Sure, everybody conceded, Messier&rsquo;s desire burned, but so did cartilage in his side, leaving him looking about as Messianic as Brian Lawton. Holding his stick close to his body, reaching for passes with the dexterity of Herman Munster, Messier and his guarantee looked a lot less deliverable than FTD&rsquo;s. Down 3-2 going back to the Meadowlands, it was time to send flowers for the Rangers again.It had been a nice try importing old Edmonton guys who know what it takes, but the years had already taken too much from them. Besides, they could have brought in the 1960 Montreal Canadiens in their prime while keeping the 1982 New York Islanders as Black Aces and the Rangers would still be the Rangers, doomed to fail no matter what.&ldquo;We will win,&rdquo; Messier said.&ldquo;We will believe it when we see it,&rdquo; the fans said.And for almost 30 minutes at the Meadowlands the next night, they couldn&rsquo;t bear to look. The Devils had a 2-0 lead and the Rangers had nothing. Nothing. Sergei Zubov did zilch. Alexei Kovalev was kaput. The Devils were all over Brian Leetch like leeches. And Messier was a mess.Behind the bench, Mike Keenan became the latest in a long line of helpless coaches doing CPR on a Ranger team in Code Blue. He put his best three offensive players on the same line, said three prayers, and little-by-little things began to happen. Kovalev, off a drop pass from Messier, scored his first goal of the series to cut the lead in half just before the second intermission. Early in the third period, Leetch dished to Messier, whose slid the puck just inside the right post before Martin Brodeur could get all the way across.Messier pounced on a Leetch rebound to put the go-ahead goal between Brodeur&rsquo;s legs, then, with the goalie pulled, the Ranger captain picked off a centering pass that had hopped over two sticks and fired 160 feet into the empty net. Wondrously, the Rangers had survived.Afterwards, a lot of people compared what Messier had done to the signature game of his career. Game 4 of the 1990 semifinals against the Chicago Blackhawks. It wasn&rsquo;t close.In 1990, he not only produced the important points in the turnaround contest of the series, but physically dominated. He was awesome, the best damn player on the best team in the game, determined not to let an opportunity slip away. This time, there was almost something mystical about the way the puck came to him, just like he had come to New York to seize this moment. Two paths intersected in the cosmos, leaving the star that determined the Ranger fate for 53 years uncrossed.Messier, who from his first day in New York three years ago had shaken his head stubbornly against all suggestions of this absurd curse, had willed the puck to himself, levitating the Rangers.Two nights later, they ran the drill again, being sledgehammered by a Devil goal only 7.7 seconds away from a 1-0 Game 7 victory. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played so well for three periods, there&rsquo;s no harm in going out to play some more,&rdquo; Messier told his teammates.Again putting mind over matter, he drained the fear out of them. Messier told his teammates that if necessary, they would stay all night to get the goal and they almost did. Stephane Matteau got the winner in the second overtime.Messier&rsquo;s focus was as narrow as the tunnel between Manhattan and the home of the Devils. New Jersey was plenty good enough to make the 1993-94 Rangers another victim of the psychological overgrowth that had wrapped around the franchise like a 54-year-old weed.They hadn&rsquo;t won yet, but there wasn&rsquo;t a person left in the Ranger dressing room or on a New York street who believed they wouldn&rsquo;t. Messier would tell you that&rsquo;s most of the battle. Why, at this point, would anyone question anything he says? &#9632;

f0017-01

Messier’s guarantee good as gold

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Will the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; playoff run boost rookie coach Kevin Constantine&rsquo;s chance of being named NHL coach of the year?It should, but it won&rsquo;t.The Jack Adams Award was voted on by members of the NHL Broadcaster&rsquo;s Association at the end of the regular season.We don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s fair.Playoff success alone shouldn&rsquo;t be the deciding factor in judging coach of the year. If it were, John Muckier of the Buffalo Sabres would be out of luck. His team was eliminated from the first round, yet we think he&rsquo;s a worthy candidate.But the post-season can&rsquo;t be totally ignored.That&rsquo;s why THN waits until the conclusion of the Stanley Cups finals before tabulating our votes for top NHL executive and the THN/CCM coach of the year. We have assembled a panel of 10 members of the media, five coaches and five general managers who will cast their votes for top coach, top executive and most valuable player of the playoffs the day after the Cup winner has been decided.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02853/6134549-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="574" height="923"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Constantine led the best turnaround in NHL history.</figcaption></div>Our winners will be announced in the June 24 edition of THN.Last year&rsquo;s winners were Cliff Fletcher (top executive) and Pat Bums (coach of the year), both of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs&rsquo; dash to the semifinals clearly played a favorable role in Fletcher and Bums being honored.The playoff MVP was Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender Patrick Roy.Candidates for the THN/CCM coach of the year include:&#9633; Pat Bums. He was the only coach from last season&rsquo;s final four to get his team back to the semifinal this season. It took some crafty coaching to get the Leafs past the Chicago Blackhawks and the Sharks.&#9633; Constantine. The Sharks went 08-1 to start season, rebounded to set new mark for the greatest turnaround in NHL history and shocked the Detroit Red Wings in the first round.&#9633; Mike Keenan. Iron Mike worked magic in with the New York Rangers, leading them from out of the playoffs to the President&rsquo;s Trophy and a berth in the Stanley Cup final.&#9633; Jacques Lemaire. He took over the underachieving New Jersey Devils and guided them to a second overall finish in regular season.&#9633; Muckier. The Sabres lost star Pat LaFontaine early, but Muckier convinced his players to follow a successful defensive system.The candidates for executive of the year include:&#9633; Bob Clarke. The Florida Panthers&rsquo; GM was a driving force behind hired Keenan and made a flurry of trade deadline moves to strengthen his team for the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04459/6134542-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="566" height="924"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Richter of the Rangers produced MVP-type numbers.</figcaption></div>Candidates for playoff MVP include:&#9633; Pavel Bure. Vancouver&rsquo;s Russian Rocket is proving he can excel in the playoffs.&#9633; Brian Leetch. The veteran blueliner carried the scoring torch for Rangers through three rounds of the playoffs.&#9633; Kirk McLean. The Vancouver goalie proved he could be counted on and was largely responsible for getting the Canucks to the final.&#9633; Mark Messier. Ranger captain continues to show why he&rsquo;s No. 2 all-time in playoff points behnind Wayne Gretzky.&#9633; Mike Richter. The Ranger goalie posted four shutouts through three rounds.<h2>THN AWARDS</h2>Here are the panel members who participated in voting for THN&rsquo;s player of the year, coach of the year and playoff MVP:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03622/6134535-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="535" height="1205"></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

Best of the best

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div>He portrayed himself as part Scotty Bowman and part Bob Johnson. But the best way to describe Pierre McGuire May 19 was fired.The fifth Hartford Whalers&rsquo; coach in six seasons, McGuire was told a week after he was let go he wouldn&rsquo;t be offered another position in the organization.&ldquo;With Pierre, I didn&rsquo;t see the unity for us to be successful as a team,&rdquo; said general manager Paul Holmgren.McGuire finished 23-37-7 as coach, including a 10-26-6 mark during the second half of the season.&ldquo;As far as our team is concerned, this is the best thing that could have happened,&rdquo; said captain Pat Verbeek. &ldquo;There are times when you can hate a coach, but you always have to respect him. That wasn&rsquo;t the case with practically our whole team. I think we can be a great team, but not if Pierre is here.&ldquo;When everybody on the other team is laughing at your coach and there&rsquo;s no respect on your own team, you&rsquo;ve got big problems. It was a joke. If Pierre had stayed, a lot of players wouldn&rsquo;t have wanted to be here next season.&rdquo;McGuire said he didn&rsquo;t think the players were dissatisfied with him.&ldquo;Paul said there are some players whom he didn&rsquo;t see where there was any way of me repairing problems with,&rdquo; said the 32-year-old McGuire. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know exactly who those players are.&rdquo;McGuire feels the Buffalo nightclub altercation was his undoing. He got into a disagreement with Verbeek over whether a curfew was in effect the March night five players and assistant coach Kevin McCarthy were arrested.&ldquo;Buffalo capped the whole thing,&rdquo; Verbeek said. &ldquo;Pierre probably lost everybody after that (because it) showed how much he would stick up for the players. It wasn&rsquo;t one ounce. He was more concerned about himself than anyone.&rdquo;McGuire&rsquo;s response to Verbeek&rsquo;s comments was, &ldquo;Pat didn&rsquo;t have much to say before the Buffalo incident, but he has a lot to say now.&rdquo;Holmgren interviewed his American League affiliate coach Joel Quenneville of the newly named Springfield Falcons and was making plans to interview Canadian Olympic coach Tom Renney. Holmgren has yet to receive permission to interview two frontrunners: New Jersey Devils&rsquo; assistant coach Larry Robinson and Marc Crawford, coach of the St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs, the Toronto Maple Leaf&rsquo;s affiliate.SALE PENDING: Bob Caporale, the attorney for owner Richard Gordon, sent a proposal to the Connecticut Development Authority May 26 to sell all of the NHL team immediately.Completion of this move will set the stage for the CDA, a state agency serving primarily as a broker in the negotiations, to turn around and sell the team either to a group led by William Dowling or one led by Peter Karmanos and Thomas Thewes, principles of the Detroit-based Compuware Corp.&ldquo;I am very optimistic that things are going to work out very well for this franchise,&rdquo; said Gov. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.According to the terms of an agreement signed last year with the state, Gordon, who owns 76 per cent, is scheduled to receive $45 million for the team and $2.5 million more to cover losses. He must pay 24 per cent of the $45 million to corporations who held shares of the team.NOTEBOOK: Free-agent forward Brian Propp will not be offered a contract by the Whalers&hellip;Frank Pietrangelo, Brad McCrimmon, Al Pedersen. Jim Agnew. Todd Harkins. Yvon Corriveau and Marc Potvin are receiving terminations contracts. Agnew, who retired last season with knee problems, wants to make a comeback. Pietrangelo, Pedersen and Corriveau are expected to be bought out even if they sign back. Paul Holmgren thinks Potvin may sign with another team.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 19: Pierre McGuire, coach, fired. &#9632;

Few tears shed for McGuire

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Management has not offered any particulars, but it is certain to be a summer of significant changes in Pittsburgh.That reality registered with the Pittsburgh Penguins even as the grim truth of their first-round loss to the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup playoffs was sinking in.&ldquo;Anytime you don&rsquo;t win, you look for management to make changes,&rdquo; center Mario Lemieux said. &ldquo;With the payroll we have in Pittsburgh, if you don&rsquo;t win, it&rsquo;s not really worth it.&rdquo;The Penguins&rsquo; payroll is about $20 million, awfully steep for a team that couldn&rsquo;t last more than a half-dozen games in this year&rsquo;s post-season.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to have the highest payroll in the league, we damn well sure better get a return near the top of the league,&rdquo; said Howard Baldwin, the team&rsquo;s chairman of the board. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question we didn&rsquo;t get the proper return this year.&rdquo;Still, Baldwin said he and his partners will not order general manager Craig Patrick to simply trim the payroll, stressing that, &ldquo;everything we do will be based on trying to win another Cup.&rdquo;The Penguins finished third overall in 199394, collecting 101 points and winning the Northeast Division. Still, the playoffs provide the most important measure of a team&rsquo;s success and the Penguins were an unabashed flop. Pittsburgh looked old, immobile and slow during the Washington series.&ldquo;We want to keep (the team) together,&rdquo; said left winger Kevin Stevens, &ldquo;but obviously there&rsquo;s something missing.&rdquo;The challenge for management is to determine which pieces are missing and which can be sacrificed. Whether the Penguins would consider trading any of their core players isn&rsquo;t clear, but it can&rsquo;t be ruled out.&ldquo;The only guy who probably is untouchable on our club is Mario (Lemieux),&rdquo; said goalie Tom Barrasso. &ldquo;Other than that. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anybody in the organization who couldn&rsquo;t be traded.&rdquo;Several players who filled support roles last season are not expected to return. Bryan Trottier will likely concentrate on his assistant-coaching duties, Tomas Sandstrom is a candidate to play in Europe and Mike Ramsey might receive a buyout.CHARGES REDUCED: Defenseman Peter Taglianetti and John Welday, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s conditioning coach, were held for trial on charges of assaulting a man after the team&rsquo;s break-up party in a city tavern May 6. No trial date has been announced.Charges against Taglianetti and Welday were reduced from aggravated assault, a felony, to simple assault. Welday also had been charged with terroristic threats, a misdemeanor, but that was dropped.Tom Barrasso was fined $371 on a charge he harassed the man, David E. Ninness of suburban Bethel Park, after the incident. Originally, Barrasso had been charged with terroristic threats.Ninness, 34, testified at a preliminary hearing that Taglianetti repeatedly bumped into him at the bar and, after a verbal exchange, punched him in the mouth.After those two were separated, Ninness said Welday intervened broke his nose by and headbutting him.NOTEBOOK: Craig Patrick faces a busy off-season with 11 players entering their option years. Rich Winter, agent for center Martin Straka, said there has been strong interest in his client from Europe. Patrick said the Penguins have a strong interest in re-signing Straka&hellip;The Penguins plan to invest about $5 million in a high-tech video scoreboard for the Civic Arena. Officials of the Public Auditorium Authority have agreed to an $11-million renovation plan that will be carried out over a span of several years and include a new sound system, lighting and escalators. &#9632;

Big changes could come in summer of discontent

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>The Quebec Nordiques have turned a Page in their history.In one of the fastest turnarounds in team history, Pierre Page was out as coach-general manager and well-known player agent Pierre Lacroix was named new GM.Page had been discussing the management structure with president Marcel Aubut for more than a month when talks broke off May 20. Aubut wanted Page to leave his coaching job to concentrate on GM duties, but Page wasn&rsquo;t interested. The two men shook hands and parted company.A firing? A resignation? A friendly split?&ldquo;Everything broke down,&rdquo; Aubut said. &ldquo;Pierre kept asking for delays so he could sort this out. What has happened does not diminish in any way or form Pierre&rsquo;s abilities to do a good job. It&rsquo;s just that the two jobs were too much. And he wouldn&rsquo;t give up.&rdquo;Page arrived on the scene in 1990. The team improved the first three years, but flopped and missed the playoffs amidst controversy this past season.&ldquo;Pierre&rsquo;s first love is coaching,&rdquo; said assistant GM Sherry Bassin. &ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t live without it. And Pierre knew he wouldn&rsquo;t be helping the team if he stayed on. That&rsquo;s the kind of guy he is. He left thinking it would be best for the Nordiques. That shows you how he is.&rdquo;Page was not available for comment. He was said to be talking with another organization.Lacroix was one of the most respected player agents in the business. His list of clients included Patrick Roy, Pierre Turgeon, Alexandre Daigle, Vincent Damphousse and Nordiques Steven Finn, Jocelyn Thibault, Rene Corbet and Jacques Cloutier.One of Lacroix&rsquo;s first moves was to hand over the reigns of his business, founded 20 years ago, to his associates Robert Sauve, Daniel Sauve (no relation to Robert) and Lacroix&rsquo;s 24-year-old son Martin, who played two seasons in the New York Islanders&rsquo; minor-league system and has a diploma in business administration. Lacroix&rsquo;s other son, Eric, is in the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; system.&ldquo;There will be no conflict of interest with my old clients,&rdquo; Lacroix said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spoken to most of them and they&rsquo;re all behind me. I had been stepping down gradually anyways. So now I am GM in the NHL, an old dream of mine.&rdquo;Lacroix may not have any experience as a GM, but he is a veteran in the industry.&ldquo;I know more about this business than most hockey people,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know the strengths and weaknesses of all the other GMs because I&rsquo;ve been negotiating with them for years. And I have always done my own scouting.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m 45 and I like challenges. This is a great one. The Nordiques have enormous potential. I now have to make sure I get things rolling."Lacroix&rsquo;s first mission is to find a coach, preferably a French-speaking coach. Lacroix&rsquo;s best friend is Michel Bergeron. It&rsquo;s possible Le Petit Tigre may return to the Nordiques&rsquo; helm a third time.Guy Charron, Dany Dube, Jacques Martin and Alain Vigneault are other candidates for the head coaching job.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been given a clear mandate,&rdquo; Lacroix said. &ldquo;Marcel Aubut has given me full control of the hockey department. I have to win and fast. The people of Quebec deserve a better team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Joe Sakic wasn&rsquo;t surprised to hear he&rsquo;ll have a sixth coach in seven seasons. &ldquo;I knew Pierre had to go as coach,&rdquo; Sakic said. &ldquo;There was a lot of friction between Pierre and the players. If he would have come back behind the bench, we would probably have had the same bad results as last year.&rdquo;&hellip;Sherry Bassin will retain his duties in hockey operations and will counsel Lacroix on the prospects eligible for the draft.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 24: Pierre Page, coach-general manager, fired Pierre Lacroix named GM. &#9632;

Lacroix realizes lifelong dream as team’s new GM

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>For the first time in his NHL career, a perfectly healthy Grant Fuhr didn&rsquo;t log a minute of ice time in the playoffs.He doesn&rsquo;t expect to go through it again.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I could adjust to being No. 2 again,&rdquo; Fuhr said. &ldquo;I think if I&rsquo;m not good enough to be No. 1, maybe it&rsquo;s time to work on something else.&rdquo;Golf comes immediately to mind, but Fuhr expects he will be a starter again next season, but not in the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; nets.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m a betting person, I bet I&rsquo;m not here by training camp,&rdquo; Fuhr said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just my assessment of the situation. Economics say I won&rsquo;t be here next year.&rdquo;Fuhr is entering the option year of his contract and is one of about 17 players the Sabres would have to resign over the next season or two. Many of them will command big money-Pat LaFontaine, Dale Hawerchuk, Dominik Hasek, Brad May, Yuri Khmylev, Richard Smehlik and others. Fuhr knows a backup goalie who will be 32 in training camp and making nearly $2 million per season doesn&rsquo;t add up.&ldquo;Reality says I&rsquo;ll be moving. I&rsquo;m not going to make $2 million for sitting around hanging out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As much as that would be a novel concept, I wouldn&rsquo;t enjoy it. I kind of like to earn my money.&rdquo;Fuhr lost his starting spot to Hasek, the goalie who posted a league-leading 1.95 goals-against average. Fuhr had a 3.68 GAA and 13-12-3 record while playing part of the season on a gimpy knee.Sabres&rsquo; coach and general manager John Muckier said he would like to have Fuhr back next season. Fuhr said surgery and the imposed rest allowed his knee to heal to a point where he expects he can still be a No. 1 goalie.SALARY SCRUTINY: Gerry Meehan, the Sabres&rsquo; executive vicepresident for sports operations, said the club lost a &ldquo;substantial&rdquo; amount of money in 1993-94.Meehan declined to reveal how much, but noted the team would take an aggressive stance in upcoming bargaining sessions with players.&ldquo;High salaries will have to be justified,&rdquo; Meehan said.The remark was viewed as an indictment of a team with a reported $14-million payroll that again went out in the first round of the playoffs. Chief target for scrutiny is Alexander Mogilny who netted $3 million this season, but was not a post-season gamebreaker.NOTEBOOK: John Muckier, an NHL coach-of-the-year candidate, said he will be behind the Sabres&rsquo; bench again next season. Muckier, also the team&rsquo;s general manager, had said in 1991 he was through with coaching, but returned after Rick Dudley was fired by the Sabres in mid-season.At a season-ending awards luncheon, goalie Dominik Hasek was named team MVP, Dale Hawerchuk was honored by his teammates for dedication and leadership and defenseman Craig Muni was cited as the unsung hero. Hasek had a career season and is a candidate for both the Hart and Vezina Trophies. Hawerchuk was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer and on and off-ice leader. Muni, obtained in an early-season deal with the Chicago Blackhawks, finished as the team&rsquo;s plus-minus leader at plus-31. &#9632;

Fuhr still looking out for No.1, but will he find it elsewhere?

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>Though the Boston Bruins&rsquo; season lasted only a few weeks longer than last year, the team felt it had come a lot further in 1993-94.A six-game, second-round Eastern Conference loss to the New Jersey Devils stung, but it was nothing compared to the frustration of last year&rsquo;s first-round sweep at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres.&ldquo;Sure, it hurts,&rdquo; said coach Brian Sutter. &ldquo;We thought we were in good shape and we worked damn hard, but we didn&rsquo;t do enough. We lost to a very good team.&rdquo;Sutter and several key Bruins think the club has a good shot to go further next season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got guys who weren&rsquo;t even around last year,&rdquo; said injured right winger Cam Neely. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got Muzz (Glen Murray), Bryan Smolinski, Jozef (Stumpel),-Mariusz (Czerkawski). They didn&rsquo;t just come up and play in the playoffs; they all played well and contributed.&rdquo;&ldquo;We knew we were going to have to live with some mistakes from our younger players,&rdquo; Sutter said, &ldquo;but they learned a lot by playing so much. This puts us ahead of about 95 per cent of the other teams trying to build something.&rdquo;MEET MIKKO: Mikko Makela, last seen in the NHL with the Sabres in 1990-91, concluded a one-week rash of Bruins&rsquo; free-agent signings when he agreed to a two-year deal May 25.Makela had spent the last three seasons in Europe, most recently with Malmo of the Swedish Elite League, and played for Finland in the 1994 Olympics and World Championships.&ldquo;Mikko is a good skater and has proven he can score in the NHL,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden of the 29-year-old left winger, who posted a career-best 36 goals for the New York Islanders in 1987-88. &ldquo;We feel he can help our team offensively&rdquo;Sinden feels the same way about free-agent center Clayton Beddoes, who signed a three-year deal shortly after completing his senior year at Lake Superior State. Beddoes joins Lakers&rsquo; teammate Blaine Lacher, who gave up his last year of eligibility to sign a four-year deal.NOTEBOOK: The first of what will probably be several proposals on a new contract for Cam Neely was received and rejected by Harry Sinden May 20. Neely is thought to be seeking a deal worth $3.5 million per season&hellip; Defenseman Al lafrate, who labored during the Devils&rsquo; series, had laser surgery May 17 to repair cartilage damage in his left knee.The defeat to New Jersey marked the fourth consecutive year the Bruins lost four straight games en route to elimination. They were swept by Buffalo in 1993, by Pittsburgh in a &lsquo;92 semifinal and lost a 2-0 lead to the Penguins in &lsquo;91. They won the first two games against New Jersey, but lost the next four.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 19: Blaine Lacher, G, signed four-year contract. May 24: Clayton Beddoes. C. signed three-year contract. May 25: Mikko Makela, RW. signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Adam Oates, Bryan Smolinski, Jozef Stumpel, Fred Kmpscheer. Andrew McKim.LW-Brent Hughes, Ted Donato, Dave Reid, Cam Stewart, Dmitri KvartalnovRW-Glen Murray. Steve Heinze, Mariusz Czerkawski, Daniel Marots, 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>Cam Neely. RW, tom right knee ligament &#9632;

Hopes high for 1994-95

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>Gilbert Dionne claims he wants to remain with the Montreal Canadiens, but you wouldn&rsquo;t know by listening to him.The left winger might have sealed his own fate when he complained in a report about playing on a line with Ron Wilson and Ed Ronan. At the same time, Dionne ridiculed John LeClair.&ldquo;When you play with Ron Wilson and Ed Ronan, you can&rsquo;t expect to produce,&rdquo; said Dionne, who had 19 goals and 45 points in 74 games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a sniper. I need mates who can feed me."Dionne played a portion of the season on a line with Kirk Muller and enjoyed a good run during that period. But when Dionne&rsquo;s production dropped, he was relegated to duty on the Canadiens&rsquo; third or fourth lines.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very frustrated and I don&rsquo;t want to hide it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For three years I&rsquo;ve shut my mouth. I&rsquo;ve become the easiest target and I&rsquo;m fed up with that.&ldquo;I know I didn&rsquo;t have a good season; 19 goals isn&rsquo;t enough. (But) I felt like my margin of error was thin. Everyone just waited for me to make a mistake. The smallest one and it was over.&ldquo;Look at John LeClair. He has nine lives. How many do I have?&rdquo;Dionne is convinced he can become a 30-goal scorer-if not in Montreal, somewhere else.General manager Serge Savard, meanwhile, claims he is laying the groundwork for several trades. He said he expects to make some moves prior to the June 28 entry draft in Hartford.HART FAILURE: Coach Jacques Demers&rsquo; one-man campaign to get Patrick Roy the Hart Trophy didn&rsquo;t work. The Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender isn&rsquo;t one of the three finalists for the league&rsquo;s most valuable player award.Still, Roy said he appreciated the advertising campaign.&ldquo;Since Christmas, Jacques was trying to have me win,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;He knew I had no chance to win it if he didn&rsquo;t keep mentioning my name in every city around the league.&rdquo;Despite Demers&rsquo; constant touting of Roy as an MVP candidate, two other goalies-Buffalo Sabre Dominik Hasek and Florida Panther John Vanbiesbrouck-along with Detroit Red Wing Sergei Fedorov were named Hart finalists.Roy was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top goalie as he enjoyed one of his finest regular seasons. He appeared in 68 games, went 35-17-11, recorded seven shutouts, had a .918 save percentage and had a 2.50 goals-against average.In a unique arrangement, Roy and Demers worked on a schedule at the beginning of each month, mutually deciding upon which games the goalie would start.&ldquo;The system helped me keep my concentration,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;In return, I tried giving my best to prove the system was the right one.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Captain Guy Carbonneau sent an open letter to Montreal media outlets, pleading for forgiveness following a rude gesture. Carbonneau&rsquo;s future with the Canadiens became clouded when a picture on the front page of a Montreal daily showed him giving a one-finger salute to a photographer while playing golf with Vincent Damphousse and Patrick Roy. The 34-year-old, who has played his entire 12year career in Montreal, wants to remain with the Canadiens. He&rsquo;s entering his option year and will likely be seeking $1 million per season. He earned $750,000 in 1993-94. &ldquo;I hope they make their decision based on hockey,&rdquo; Carbonneau said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve always had a good image here.&rdquo; &#9632;

Dionne may be long gone

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>On more than one occasion during their short history, the Ottawa Senators have been up a creek without a paddle.But if a Canadian Coast Guard official had been able to get up the Carp River with a paddle, the club&rsquo;s future might have been even darker.The Carp-about the size of a glorified ditch-winds its way through the land where the Palladium is to be built. The 18,500-seat future home of the Senators is needed to keep the team in Ottawa.If the Coast Guard, which is responsible for all navigable waters in Canada, had decreed the Carp navigable, the building of the Palladium could have been delayed by public inquiries.But Canadian Coast Guard official Allan Robertson ruled the river unnavigable after wading through the muddy, weedy waters that ranged from two inches to just over two feet deep.&ldquo;There certainly could have been a delay (in construction),&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; chairman and governor Rod Bryden. &ldquo;It could have been a problem."&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy at the ruling,&rdquo; said Terrace Corp., spokesman John Owens. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d been planning on having tall ships sail to the opening.&rdquo;If the waters had been ruled navigable-the rule of thumb is a quarter-mile stretch that is two feet or deeper-the Coast Guard would have had to open the plan to build a bridge to public inspection for 30 days.If any objectors had come forward, it could have taken up to a year to address all concerns and come to a compromise.The Coast Guard&rsquo;s decision was a bright spot in what has been a checkered existence for the Palladium project. Almost two years after a glitzy ground-breaking ceremony on the westend site, construction still has not started.Bryden said legal paperwork is the latest obstacle. He has stopped trying to predict when construction might begin, other than saying the Senators will be playing in the Palladium in the 1996-97 season.OPTION PLAY: Realizing he has little bargaining leverage, winger Sylvain Turgeon has decided to play out his option.&ldquo;I have no negotiating power,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old who is coming of an 11-goal, injury-plagued season.The next contract Turgeon signs will be negotiated by a new agent. His former representative, Pierre Lacroix, left the business to become the general manager of the Quebec Nordiques May 24.&ldquo;I almost fell off my chair when my brother (New York Islanders&rsquo; Pierre), told me,&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;It was a shock.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Sylvain Turgeon is one of nine Senators entering their option years. The others are goaltender Craig Billington, defensemen Darren Rumble and Steve Konroyd and forwards Dave Archibald, Gene Davydov, Bill Huard, Claude Boivin and Troy Murray.Defenseman Norm Maciver&rsquo;s recovery from a broken leg has been slow. It was hoped he would be able to have a couple of surgical screws removed in late May, but not enough healing had taken place. The screws won&rsquo;t be taken out until mid-June which could mean he may not be ready for training camp in September. Maciver broke his leg in a game against the Washington Capitals April 9. &#9632;

Front office happy, relieved this river doesn’t run deep

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01727/6134748-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

The Hockey News RHI PREVIEW

Although NHL players aren&rsquo;t skating in Roller Hockey International, several former and current NHLers hold management or coaching posts around the RHI.The NHL influence starts right at the top. Ralph Backstrom, who played 17 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks, is RHI&rsquo;s commissioner.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been involved since Day 1 (with RHI),&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been friends with (RHI founder and president) Dennis Murphy since I played in the World Hockey Association and we&rsquo;ve stayed in touch. When he decided to start Roller-Hockey International, I was pleased that I was one of the first people he called.&rdquo;In his current post, Backstrom, who is based in Colorado, oversees the sport-related operations of RHI. So far, he likes what has developed on the leagues rinks.&ldquo;We have (ice) hockey players from the American League, Inter national League, East Coast League, Central League, major junior and college hockey,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;A guy doesn&rsquo;t have to be an NHL player to be a worldclass roller hockey player.&rdquo;Offense is the name of the game in RHI. There were an average of 88 total shots and 16.6 total goals per RHI game last season. Other NHLers involved in the league also have enjoyed the wide-open difference.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good game to watch,&rdquo; said Gary Unger, the coach of the Oakland Skates who played for six NHL clubs over 16 seasons. &ldquo;Its not a dump-and-chase game. Puck control is what&rsquo;s important. If a team can&rsquo;t get across the (centre red) line, it will regroup a lot like the Russians used to.&rdquo;Unger, who also coaches the Tulsa Oilers of the CHL, has no problem finding players. This summer in Oakland, 10 of his 12 skaters (RHI teams carry 14 players-six forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders) are from the Tulsa team.&ldquo;Since we&rsquo;re (RHI) not in competition with ice hockey, the players don&rsquo;t have to make a decision about which sport they want to play,&rdquo; Unger said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s good conditioning for players to skate in the summer.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our first season was great,&rdquo; said Dave &ldquo;Tiger&rdquo; Williams, the Vancouver Voodoo&rsquo;s coach-general manager who played for five NHL teams over 14 seasons. &ldquo;We were a dominant team and should have won it (the league title), but that&rsquo;s sports. I have no regrets at all. If I did, I wouldn&rsquo;t be here.&rdquo;Vancouver, which was 12-2-0 last season before falling in the playoffs, sold out its home games in the 4,000-seat Agridome at the PNE grounds.Other former NHLers who are coaches or coach-GMs of RHI teams this season are Yvon Cournoyer at Montreal and Bernie Federko in St. Louis. Both Cournoyer and Federko will operate in the cities where they enjoyed stellar NHL careers.Meanwhile, ex-Philadelphia Flyer Dave Schultz is a part owner of the Philadelphia Bulldogs. Bob Kelly, who also played for the Flyers, is the team&rsquo;s vice president of marketing. Doug Wilson, who starred for the Chicago Blackhawks before finishing his NHL career in San Jose has invested in the San Jose Rhinos. Bob Sirois, who skated for the Flyers and Washington Capitals, is a part owner of the Montreal Roadrunners.And an active NHLer, New York Ranger Mark Messier, has invested in the Tampa Bay Tritons and plans to spend much of his offseason in Florida. &#9632;

Former NHLers big wheels in roller league

Some of the names up in lights on the marquee in Canada&rsquo;s roller hockey centers are capable of getting traffic screeching to a halt. Then again, some aren&rsquo;t.In Vancouver, where the VooDoo captured the imagination of the town in Roller Hockey International&rsquo;s inaugural year, the marquee player is the coach-general manager-owner, Tiger Williams, who promises not to play this year.In Calgary, the marquee player of the Rad&rsquo;z is the GM, Glen Gretzky, Wayne&rsquo;s kid brother.In Montreal, the Roadrunner Yvan Cournoyer is the coach-GM.In Edmonton, home of the Sled Dogs, the marquee player is Barry Chyzowski. Barry Chyzowski!?The players? They are mainly hockey products from Canadian colleges and universities, the East Coast League and local firemen and roofers who think they&rsquo;re in a fantasy camp. Some, like Rad&rsquo;z Ted Fleury, even have brothers in the NHL.The 24-team RHI, which pays its players $400 to $600 a week, depending on how the team fares, still can&rsquo;t afford the real Fleury or the real Gretzky. Hence, Chyzowski.In Montreal, Cournoyer is trumpeting someone named Pat Lefebvre as the prototype Roadrunner. Somehow, you get the feeling Cournoyer&rsquo;s name sold more tickets than Lefebvre for the first-year team.From a marketing standpoint, the Roadrunner, like the cartoon character, is already leaving the other Canadian teams in the dust with over 4,000 season tickets sold at $300 each to the Montreal Forum.Roller hockey is considered a tough sell to hockey purists in Canada but then how do you explain the box-office madness in Montreal where pure hockey is sacred?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new way to play hockey,&rdquo; says Cournoyer of the free-wheeling 4-on-4 version of hockey. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll have a winner. In Montreal, you need to win.&rdquo;Cournoyer doesn&rsquo;t believe roller hockey is a fad that will vanish after few years.&ldquo;Last year, 20,000 people had in-line skates in Montreal, this year 300,000 have them,&rdquo; he says.The finesse game is a natural fit for Cournoyer, who defined the firewagon hockey of Montreal Canadiens in the 1960s and 1970s. But it doesn&rsquo;t suit ex-hockey hell raiser Tiger Williams quite as well (as was evident when Williams donned the blades for a playoff game last season).Williams did manage to resurrect the hockey career of Jose Charbonneau, who used his RHI scoring title as a stepping stone back to the NHL, succeeding in a tryout with the Canucks.&ldquo;Now we&rsquo;ve got the Missing Link, Link Gaetz,&rdquo; pipes Williams of the troubled ex-NHLer. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to get his life rolling again.&rdquo;Vancouver was one of RHI&rsquo;s model franchises last year, averaging 3,500 fans at the Agridome, 92 per cent of capacity.In Calgary, there was a rude awakening for owner Larry Ryckman, the Stampeders&rsquo; owner who says he lost &ldquo;a few hundred thousand dollars&rdquo; on roller hockey last year even with the Rad&rsquo;z 4,632 fans at the high-rent Saddledome.Ryckman promptly terminated the contracts of GM Ed Lukowich of curling fame and his brother Morris, the ex-NHL star who was the coach.He hired 24-year-old Glen Gretzky to head the organization. Gretzky hired Mount Royal College coach Scott Atkinson, who was Lukowich&rsquo;s assistant. &#9632;

Tiger and Roadrunner head Canadian contingent

The Anaheim Bullfrogs begin defense of their Roller Hockey International championship June 5 against the Los Angeles Blades.Coach Chris McSorley headed east to start the Buffalo Bisons&rsquo; franchise, but many Bullfrog players are back under new coach Grant Sonier.&ldquo;Defending a championship is never easy,&rdquo; Sonier said. &lsquo;This season is a whole new game with expansion of the league. We look forward to the challenge.&rdquo;Below is a listing of teams in the Western Conference. Information includes each owner, general manager, coach, arena, capacity, media affiliates, a need-to-know tidbit and key players.<h2>WESTERN CONFERENCE PACIFIC DIVISION</h2><h3>ANAHEIM BULLFROGS</h3>Owner: Nelson Silver. General Manager: Bob Elder. Head coach: Sonier. Ass&rsquo;t coach: Brad McCaughey. Arena: Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Capacity: 17,250. Media affiliate: KORG 1190 AM.Need to know: Coach Sonier has tough shoes to fill this summer. He replaces the popular McSorley, who left to take charge of the new Buffalo Stampede team in the Eastern Conference. McSorley guided the Bullfrogs to the first-ever RHI title. Sonier, 28, coaches the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario League.Key players: Shayne Arsenault, Jim Brown, Jim Burcar, Mike Butters, Joe Cook, Yuri Krivokhija.<h3>LAS VEGAS FLASH</h3>Owners: N/A. General Manager: Bob Lawson. Head coach: Ken Morrow. Ass&rsquo;t coach: Rich Chernomaz. Arena: Thomas/Mack Arena. Capacity: N/A. Media affiliate: TBA.Need to know: Serving as a player/assistant coach worked for Chernomaz this past season, so he&rsquo;s going to try it again with the Flash. The 30-year-old finished second in AHL scoring with the St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs. He&rsquo;ll assist Ken Morrow behind the bench and also hope to do a lot of scoring.Key players: Chernomaz, Scott Fukami, Myron Freund.<h3>LOS ANGELES BLADES</h3>Owner: Dr. Jerry Buss. General Manager: N/A. Head coach: Bobby Hull Jr. Ass&rsquo;t coach: Brett Kurtz. Arena: Great Western Forum. Capacity: 16,005. Media affiliate: TBA.Need to know: Hull Jr., 32, is the oldest son of former Chicago Blackhawk legend Bobby Hull and the brother of Brett Hull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spent my whole life in the shadow of my father and younger brother,&rdquo; he said. &lsquo;This is a great opportunity for me to make my own mark on the sport of hockey.&rdquo;Hull Jr. had NHL tryouts with the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs a decade ago. This is his first coaching stint.Key players: Steve Bogoyevac, Steve Ross, Nick Vachon.<h3>OAKLAND SKATES</h3>Owners: Murray Simkin, Gail Bettinelli, Bill Schoen. General Manager: Bill Glazier.Coach: Garry Linger. Arena: Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. Capacity: 13,134. Media affiliate: TBA.Need to know: Coach Unger directed the Skates to the RHI championship final last season. The former NHL ironman is also the coach of the Tulsa Oilers of the Central League during the winter. Leading a strong cast of returning players are the team&rsquo;s three leading scorers from last season: Doug Lawrence, Sylvain Naud and Shaun Clouston.Key players: Clouston, Lawrence, Naud, Alan Perry.<h3>SAN DIEGO BARRACUDAS</h3>Owners: Fred, Bill and John Comrie, Pete Chortek. GM-head coach: Robbie Nichols. Arena: San Diego Sports Arena. Capacity: 13,100. Media affiliate: TBA.Need to know: Owner Comrie is a mogul in the sports franchise scene. Other teams on his portfolio are the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League and the San Diego Gulls of the International League. He and his family are also prominent in the furniture business. The Barracudas began the second RHI draft by traded renowned female goalie Manon Rheaume to the New Jersey Rockin Rollers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01802/6134858-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="758" height="1629"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former NHL defenseman Doug Wilson is a part-owner of the San Jose Rhinos.</figcaption></div>Key players: Clark Donatelli, Barry Dreger, Larry Floyd, Dan Gravelle, Alan Leggett, Francis Ouelette, Marc Savard.<h3>SAN JOSE RHINOS</h3>Owners: Rich Shillington, Doug Wilson. General Manager: N/A. Coach: Roy Sommer. Arena: San Jose Arena. Capacity: 17,190. Media affiliate: KSJS 90.7 FM.Need to know: Former Chicago Blackhawk great Wilson gets into the roller hockey business as a part-owner of the Rhinos. He retired last September after 16 seasons in the NHL, the last two with the San Jose Sharks, where he was team captain. Coaching the team in their first season is Sommer, a native of Oakland who played youth hockey in the Bay area. He has coached the last three seasons in the East Coast League.Key players: Darren Colbourne, Chris Foy, Mark Woolf.<h2>NORTHWEST DIVISION</h2><h3>CALGARY RADZ</h3>Owner: Larry Ryckman. General Manager: Glen Gretzky. Coach: Scott Atkinson. Arena: Max Bell Center. Capacity: 2,200.Media affiliate: MIX 1060 AM.Need to know: The Gretzky name becomes part of RHI with Wayne&rsquo;s younger brother Glen jumping on board as president and GM of the Radz. Glen, 24, is the third of four Gretzky boys. Owner Ryckman also owns the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL. Atkinson takes over from Morris Lukowich as coach.Key players: Ted Fleury, Randy Jaycock.<h3>EDMONTON SLED DOGS</h3>Owners: Wayne Barry, Dr. Danny Kot. General Manager: Alan Howat. Head coach: Don Depoe. Ass&rsquo;t coach: Barry Chyzowski. Arena: Northlands Coliseum. Capacity: 17,503. Media affiliate: CFCW.Need to know: The Sled Dogs will be banking much of their hopes this season on center Brian Shantz. He had nine goals and 29 points with the Oakland Skates last season and led the team with seven goals and 14 points in four playoff games. Also expected to contribute is former University of Alberta Golden Bear Doug McCarthy and player/assistant coach Chyzowski, the brother of New York Islander prospect, Dave.Key players: Shantz, McCarthy, Chyzowski.<h3>PHOENIX COBRAS</h3>Owners: Stuart Silver, Lee Kasper. General Manager: N/A. Head coach: Lou Franceschetti. Ass&rsquo;t coach: Mike O&rsquo;Hara. Arena: Phoenix Memorial Coliseum. Capacity: 14,000. Media affiliate: KRIM 104.3 FM.Need to know: Goalie O&rsquo;Hara has duel responsibilities this season as he&rsquo;s also serving as an assistant coach to Franceschetti. O&rsquo;Hara was the league&rsquo;s most valuable goalie with the Los Angeles Blades last season. Daniel Shank and Mike Vukonich have plenty of minor pro hockey experience. Shank has 66 goals and 768 penalty minutes the past two seasons with San Diego of the IHL.Key players: O&rsquo;Hara, Vukonich, Shank.<h3>PORTLAND RAGE</h3>Owner: Bill Conyard. General Manager: Bill Conyard. Coach: John Black. Arena: Portland Memorial Coliseum. Capacity: 10.020. Media affiliate: TBA.Need to know: Coach Black, a roller hockey fanatic for more than 20 years, joins the Rage after leading the Los Angeles Blades to the semifinals last season. &ldquo;We will employ a puck control offense where the players are in constant motion,&rdquo; Black said. &ldquo;It is our goal to have the fastest skating team in the league.&rdquo; Among the top players in camp is Sergei Berdnikov, a fastskating Russian who once played in the Soviet Elite League.Key players: Berdnikov, Terry Menard, Vadim Slivchenko, Jacques Mailhot, Andrei Bashkerov, Andy Rymsha.<h3>SACRAMENTO RIVER RATS</h3>Owners: Sacramento Limited Partnership. General Manager: John Murphy. Coach: Jim McGeough. Arena: Arco Arena. Capacity: 13,000. Media affiliate: KSAC 1240 AM.Need to know: Goalie Sergei Naumov was backup to San Jose Sharks&rsquo; goalie Arturs Irbe four years ago with Riga in Latvia. He&rsquo;s one of five Latvians or Russians to suit up for the River Rats. The team&rsquo;s president is Austin &lsquo;Rocky&rsquo; Kalish, who wrote scripts for many TV sitcoms in the 1970s, such as All In The Family and Maude. Rugged forward David Fieola is nicknamed The Wild Thing.&rsquo;Key players: Naumov, Darren Houghton, Derek Crawford, Greg Herr, Rob Madia. Fieola.<h3>VANCOUVER VOODOO</h3>Owners: VooDoo Ventures Ltd. General Manager: N/A. Head coach: Dave &lsquo;Tiger&rsquo; Williams. Ass&rsquo;t coach: Mendel Vysholid. Arena: Pacific National Exhibition Argodome. Capacity: 3,660. Media affiliate: CKVU - UTVNeed to know: The defending division champions played to near capacity audiences last season averaging 3,400 fans per game. RHI scoring champion Jose Charbonneau used the league to help resurrect his NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks. He became the first player to make such a jump. The Voodoo has the league&rsquo;s most potent offense under the guidance of coach Williams.Key players: Link Gaetz, Frank Caprice, Scott Frizzell, Rob Richichi. &#9632;

f0026-01

WEST WILL BE WILD

Bryan Trottier came out of retirement in an effort to win a sixth Stanley Cup, but failed with the Pittsburgh Penguins this past season.Now, Trottier has his sights set on an RHI title. The 37-year-old veteran of 18 NHL seasons signed to play with the expansion Pittsburgh Phantoms May 26. Trottier, who has 524 goals and 1,425 points in 1,279 NHL games, is one of a number of former NHLers who will compete in the RHI this season.Trottier won five Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders and one with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He retired from the Penguins following the 1991-92 season, worked in management with the Islanders the next season, but came back to play with Pittsburgh last season. He scored four goals and 15 points in 41 games.Below is a listing of teams in the Eastern Conference. Information includes owners, general manager, coach, arena, capacity, media affiliates, a need-to-know tidbit and key players.<h2>EASTERN CONFERENCE ATLANTIC DIVISION</h2><h3>BUFFALO STAMPEDE</h3>Owners: Chris McSorley, Dave Barr, Mark Sanders. General Manager: N/A. Coach: McSorley. Arena: The Buffalo Auditorium. Capacity: 16,200. Media Affiliate: TBA.Need to know: The Stampede will be headed by coach McSorley, brother of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defenseman Marty McSorley, who won back-to-back East Coast League championships as coach of the Toledo Storm and last summer led the Anaheim Bullfrogs to the first-ever RHI title. Goalie Nick Vitucci is the all-time wins leader among ECHL goalies and defenseman Steve Dykstra is a former Buffalo Sabre who played for the RHI&rsquo;s L.A. Blades last season.Key Players: Alex Hicks, Vitucci, Rick Corriveau, Dykstra, Craig Martin, Chris Bergeron.<h3>FLORIDA HAMMERHEADS</h3>Owners: Arthur Barr, Sol Zuckerman. General Manager: Karen Keilt. Coach: James Richmond. Arena: Miami Arena. Capacity: 14,491. Media Affiliates: TBA.Need to know: The Hammerheads also boasts new ownership. Barr, major owner of Centennial South which distributes satellite equipment, is also CEO, president and executive vice president of 15 other companies operating in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Zuckerman is chairman and CEO of Kodiak.Key Players: Kevin Doherty, Ed Ljubicic, Don Oliver, Christian Skoryna.<h3>MONTREAL ROADRUNNERS</h3>Owners: Marcel Raymond, Bob Sirois. General Manager: Yvan Cournoyer. Coach: Cournoyer. Arena: Montreal Forum. Capacity: 17,000. Media Affiliate: RDS, Cable 25 (French), CIQC (English), CJMS/CKFM (French).Need to know: The RoadRunners are named after the nickname of their coach-GM-one of the fastest and most exciting wingers in NHL history. Corrado Micalef is a former goalie for the Detroit Red Wings (198186) and Patrice Lefebvre played this past season for the Las Vegas Thunder of the IHL scoring 31 goals and 98 points in 76 games.Key Players: Daniel Dore, Stephane Charbonneau, Micalef, Lefebvre.<h3>NEW JERSEY ROCKIN ROLLERS</h3>Owner: E. Burke Ross Jr. General Manager: Nick Fotiu. Head Coach: Fotiu. Ass&rsquo;t Coach: Vic Posa. Arena: Meadowlands Arena. Capacity: 19,040. Media Affiliate: WMTR 1250.Need to know: Talk about a mixed bag, the Rockin Rollers boast the first female goalie to ever play in an NHL game, Manon Rheaume; a Russian in Stanislav Tkatch; former NHLer lain Duncan and, from Anchorage, Alaska via pro hockey in Italy, Steven Macswain. The team is coached by former NHL tough guy Fotiu who had 1,362 career penalty minutes.Key Players: Rheaume, Duncan, Macswain, Tkatch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01786/6134889-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="764" height="1818"><figcaption class="caption-body">Competition in the Eastern Conference will be much tiqhter this season.</figcaption></div><h3>PHILADELPHIA BULLDOGS</h3>Owners: Ron Salcer, William Salcer, Tony Danza, Dave Schultz, Mike Foy. General Manager: Schultz. Coach: Schultz. Arena: The Spectrum. Capacity: 17,380. Media Affiliate: TBA.Need to know: The coach-GM certainly needs no introduction, (The Hammer) Schultz-former heavyweight champion of the NHL. The Hammer has long since changed his tune on fighting and its place in professional sport, but remains a colorful character. Part-owner Danza is indeed the actor (Taxi, Who&rsquo;s The Boss).Key Players: Don Martin, Perry Florio, Ted Dent and Mark Benard.<h3>TAMPA BAY TRITONS</h3>Owner: Mark Messier. General Manager: Paul Messier. Coach: Paul Messier. Ass&rsquo;t Coach: Peter Esdale. Arena: Expo Hall. Capacity: 8,000. Media Affiliate: WNFS.Need to know: Talk about family ties. New York Ranger captain Mark Messier is the principal owner of the Tritons, his brother Paul is coach-GM, dad Doug is senior hockey operations advisor, sister Mary-Kay is director of marketing and Aldo Esposito (no relation to Phil and Tony) is Paul and Mark&rsquo;s brother-in-law.Key Player: Phil Bourque.<h2>CENTRAL DIVISION</h2><h3>ATLANTA FIRE ANTS</h3>Owners: Richard Adler, Charles Felix, David Berkman. General Manager: Joe Bucchino. Coach: John Paris. Arena: Omni Coliseum. Capacity: 14,919. Media Affiliate: WQXI-AM (790), Sportsouth.Need to know: The expansion Fire Ants roster boasts two Atlanta hockey heroes, Jeff Madill and Devin Edgerton-members of the hockey Knights during the winter. Edgerton played with the Anaheim Bullfrogs last season.Key Players: Madill, Edgerton, Boris Rousson, Rob Pallante, Terry Virtue, Cory Cadden.<h3>CHICAGO CHEETAHS</h3>Owners: George Mikan, Michael Snow, Gary Benson, Conrad Schmitt, Michael Ryan. General Manager: Red Rush. Coach: Randy Boyd. Ass&rsquo;t Coach: Al Secord. Arena: UIC Pavilion. Capacity: 7,000. Media Affiliate: WGN-TV, WMAQ-TV (NBC), WLS-TV (ABC), WBBM-TV (CBS).Need to know: Coach Boyd spent parts of 10 seasons bouncing between the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and the minors as a hardnosed two-way defenseman. Former NHLer Secord will serve as player-assistant coach. Cammi and Rob Granato are sister and brother of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; forward Tony Granato.Key Players: Secord, Jeff Rohlicek, Troy Seibal, Cammi Granato, Rob Granato.<h3>MINNESOTA ARCTIC BLAST</h3>Owner: R. David Spreng. Coach: Dennis Maruk. Ass&rsquo;t Coach: Jay Moore. Arena: Target Center. Capacity: 19,000. Media Affiliate: TBA.Need to know: If the Arctic Blast can uncover a scorer with the same flair as their coach, they should be fine. Arctic Blast coach Maruk was one of the most exciting and consistent scorers in NHL history. He scored 356 goals and 878 points in 888 NHL games as a member of the California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals.Key Players: Tod Hartje, Bill Pye, Dan O&rsquo;Shea, Lee Brewer, Mike Toth.<h3>NEW ENGLAND STINGERS</h3>Owners: Tom Ebright, Godfrey Wood. General Manager: N/A. Coaches: Barry Trotz, Paul Gardnet. Arena: Cumberland County Square. Capacity: 6,746. Media Affiliate: WCME-FM 96.7; WPME-95.5; WCSH-TV (NBC); WMTW-TV (ABC); WGME-TV (CBS); WPXT-TV (FOX).Need to know: A pair of minor league veterans, Steve Tsujiura and Len Hachborn, head the player list for the Stingers.Key Players: Tsujiura, Hachborn, Cal Ingraham, Mario Thyer, Vince Guidotti.<h3>PITTSBURGH PHANTOMS</h3>Owners: Howard Baldwin, Morris Belxberg, Thomas Ruta, Tim Roberts. General Manager: Jeff Barrett. Coach: Rick Kehoe. Arena: Pittsburgh Civic Arena. Capacity: 17,537. Media Affiliate: TBA.Need to know: The Phantoms are owned by the same folks who run the NHL Penguins and Continental Indoor Soccer League Stingers and will be led on the floor by former NHL star Bryan Trottier. The team also has a couple of potential name players in Olympic speed skating champion Dan Jansen and female pro goalie Erin Whitten.Key Players: Scott Burfott, Glenn Clark, Bruce Coles, Cory Paterson, Jeff Whittle, George Wilcox, Trottier.<h3>ST. LOUIS VIPERS</h3>Owners: Bernie Federko, Keith Blase, Dale Turvey. General Manager: N/A. Head Coach: Federko. Ass&rsquo;t Coaches: Perry Turnbull, Ron Beilsten. Arena: St. Louis Arena. Capacity: 18,000. Media Affiliate: KFNS 590 AM.Need to know: Vipers&rsquo; part-owner, vicepresident of hockey operations and coach Federko is a hockey legend in St. Louis, having scored 369 goals and 1,130 points for the Blues and Detroit Red Wings in 1,000 NHL games.Key Player: Turnbull &#9632;

f0028-01

Let good times roll

A year after being Roller Hockey International&rsquo;s most valuable player, Manny Legace is rolling on.The 21-year-old Alliston Ont. native is setting his sights on the NHL after a splendid 12 months that included stints with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Niagara Falls Thunder, Roller Hockey International&rsquo;s Toronto Planets and the Canadian Olympic team.While he will not play in the RHI this season, Legace has rented the arena in his home town and figures to be on skates almost every day.&ldquo;I rollerblade all summer anyway and I&rsquo;ve already called some of my friends,&rdquo; Legace said. &lsquo;We&rsquo;re going to get together Thursday and Friday and play through the summer.&rdquo;The 5-foot-9, 180-pound net-minder is taking a well-deserved break prior to attending the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; training camp next fall. The Whalers made Legace their eighth-round choice in the 1993 entry draft.Like Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; forward Jose Charbonneau, if Legace were to achieve his goal of playing in the NHL, the path would lead him through RHI.Last summer, Legace stepped from the Thunder, where he was a first-team all-star, into the Planets&rsquo; lineup.&ldquo;RHI was great for me to stay in shape and the team we had was a great bunch of guys,&rdquo; Legace said. &ldquo;I enjoyed playing in the league very much.&rdquo;The experience was particularly beneficial for Legace&rsquo;s positioning.&ldquo;The big difference you notice is that the puck moves so much faster in roller hockey,&rdquo; Legace said. &ldquo;You have to rely on positioning because you can&rsquo;t move across the net like you do on ice and the guys can shoot the puck so hard, you often don&rsquo;t see it.&rdquo;Legace went from RHI to the Olympic program, where he backed up Corey Hirsch as Team Canada earned a bronze in the Lillehammer Olympics.While Legace instantly took to the blades, adjusting to ice again took some doing.&ldquo;That took me a couple of weeks to get used to,&rdquo; Legace said. &ldquo;I was used to compensating for not being able to dig the blade into the ice and drive across the net.&rdquo;Playing outside Canada has always been Legace&rsquo;s strong suit. He compiled an 8-6-0 record and a nifty 2.51 goals-against average in international play last season and was sensational at the 1993 World Junior Championship as Canada claimed gold. Legace was named the tournament&rsquo;s most valuable player and No. 1 goaltender.Small wonder that when RHI played its first game in Tokyo, it was Legace who stood out for Team Canada. About 8,500 fans watched the finale of the Live UFO Festival in Olympic Park, May 6, as Team Canada played Team USA. Despite Legace&rsquo;s heroics, Team USA prevailed 7-5. RHI is planning an eight-team Japan Division for the spring of 1995. &#9632;

Manny’s Legace included great stint with Planets

Given his combination of goal-scoring ability and youthful good looks, Luc Robitaille might make a nifty spokesman for any number of consumer products.But the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; left winger, hasn&rsquo;t found a commercial niche pitching blue jeans, soft drinks or fast food. Instead, he endorses &ldquo;items&rdquo; he truly believes in, namely in-line skates and in-line hockey.&ldquo;I trained a lot in them (in-line skates) the summer before I made it to the NHL (198687),&rdquo; said Robitaille, who was once considered too inferior a skater to stick in the &ldquo;show.&rdquo; &ldquo;It really helped put me get over the hump.&rdquo;The 28-year-old Montreal native currently has a multi-year contract with Canstar Sports, Inc. to help promote the company&rsquo;s Bauer brand of in-line skates and hockey gear. For several previous years, he had been a spokesman for Rollerblade.Today Robitaille wears Bauer&rsquo;s ZT7 skates when he goes for an outdoor roll in Los Angeles. You&rsquo;ll also find him indoors at a dual ice and roller rink facility called Iceoplex and Rollerplex in the San Fernando Valley. He is an investor in the complex.When the Kings&rsquo; forward first laced on a pair of wheels in the mid-1980s, in-line skates were a lot chunkier.After all, in-line skating was little more than an experimental off-season training technique for ice hockey players.&ldquo;You really had to work hard to get going in them,&rdquo; said Robitaille of his first pair of largely-metal Rollerblades. &ldquo;I used to have a real short stride. Using the in-line skates helped me lengthen the stride and increase my foot speed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d go for long distances,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;But I really worked at going from a stop to a start and trying to make a quicker start. I&rsquo;d pick an area that was smooth and clear, like on asphalt.&ldquo;You need a lot more leg power than you do on roller skates. So when you get back on the ice, you&rsquo;re a lot quicker.&rdquo;As a junior with the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques, Robitaille might even inline skate for 10-15 minutes in the afternoon before a game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d get on the ice,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and my skates were so light that it felt great.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01782/6134944-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="731" height="863"><figcaption class="caption-body">Los Angeles left winger Luc Robitaille improved his skating using in-line skates.</figcaption></div>Robitaille improved enough to not only earn a spot with the Kings, but also become a big-league 50-goal sniper. He has reached or surpassed the half-century mark three times in eight NHL seasons.Last year, he connected 44 times (while adding 42 assists) after posting a career-high 63 goals and 125 points in 1992-93.During the summer, Robitaille still heads down to a southern California beach for a game of seaside shinny or a longer-distance spin.But his new skates are a lot lighter than his original Rollerblades and have boots that are similar to those found on Bauer ice hockey skates.&ldquo;I still do it (in-line skate) and it&rsquo;s definitely a big part of my off-season training,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I love it. Every time I can go on the weekends in the summer, I go.&rdquo;But times have changed. In-line hockey has grown from being a curiosity to a happening and Robitaille says he&rsquo;s impressed with both the number and skill level of the players in the Los Angeles area.&ldquo;People love to play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re trying to make (in-line) leagues more organized. People have more fun that way.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Rolling along helps Robitaille keep fit

Roller Hockey International may be new to the Quebec sports scene. But Quebec sports fans will find mostly familiar names and faces when then Montreal Roadrunners debut at the Forum.Obviously, the most recognizable Roadrunner is the &ldquo;Roadrunner&rdquo; himself, legendary Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; forward Yvan Coumoyer. He is the coach-general manager of the new RHI club.Bob Sirois, one of the team&rsquo;s owners, is a Montreal native who played six NHL seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals.Additionally, most of the Roadrunners&rsquo; players figure to be former Quebec Leaguers. Since many hockey fans in Quebec closely follow their provincial circuit, many Roadrunners&rsquo; customers might not even need a scorecard to identify players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01720/6134975-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="566" height="803"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former NHLer Yvan Cournoyer hopes to build a winner in Montreal.</figcaption></div>According to Sirois, the team&rsquo;s goaltender figures to be Corrado Micalef, an Montreal native who went on to play five seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.Other home-grown Roadrunners include: Daniel Dore (a Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; draftee who played with Drummondville and Chicoutimi) Guy Rouleau (Hull), Patrice Lefebvre (Laval), Stephane Charbonneau (Hull), Eric Bellerose (Hull, St-Hyachinthe, Trois Rivieres and, most recently, the Canadian Olympic Team), Sylvain Thibault (Granby) Chris Tanguay (Victoriaville) Guy Ragault (Merrimack College) and Carl Boudreau (Trois Rivieres).&ldquo;Most of these guys are 22 to 26 years old,&rdquo; Sirois said. &ldquo;A lot of them didn&rsquo;t (progress further in ice hockey) because they weren&rsquo;t at the right place at the right time.This summer, however, they figure to skate in Montreal where having a team of francophones can be a strategic marketing advantage.But marketing aside, Sirois says his team&rsquo;s roster has been based on the skill levels-not mother languages-of available players.&ldquo;If English-speaking or American players would have come here ana tried out, we would have taken them if they were better players,&rdquo; Sirois said. &ldquo;But they didn&rsquo;t come.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re building our team (with Quebec players) to win, not just so we can draw people. You know Montreal, if we win, we&rsquo;II draw people.Even before the Roadrunners got rolling, their season ticket sales did. According to Sirois, the club had sold over 4,000 subscriptions by late May.&ldquo;Our publicity is really just starting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping to draw 8,500 to 9,000 people a game.That would make the Roadrunners one of the top drawing teams in RHI.Sirois believes fans in his hockey-steeped market will warm up to the summer version of the sport.&ldquo;With roller hockey, it will be a different game, he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a 4-on-4 between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins. There&rsquo;s no hooking and holding and a lot of the things fans have been complaining about. It&rsquo;s the kind of hockey people haven&rsquo;t seen in 20 years.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Montreal banking on homegrown players

If the National In-Line Hockey Association succeeds at its mission, roller hockey players of all ages soon will enjoy the same type of structured programs and benefits available to their on-ice counterparts.Based in Miami, the two-year-old NIHA describes itself as the roller hockey equivalent of USA Hockey or the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.Its goal is to facilitate the growth of its fast-growing sport through the organization of leagues, rules, instruction and member services at the grass roots level.Currently, the NIHA has established footholds in 39 states and, through an office in Edmonton, is moving into Canada. Headed by president and founder Joe Mireault, the organization currently has 14 full-time employees and numerous part-time coordinators.&ldquo;We can work through parks and recreation department, YMCAs, YWCAs and retailers to help start a league or a program,&rdquo; said Doug Balog, an NIHA vice president who is based in Newport Beach, Calif. &ldquo;We also have been getting a lot of inquires from U.S. military facilities. We can help people identify a playing facility and get them going in their community.&rdquo;According to Balog, NIHA has helped organizations set up rinks at venues ranging from parking lots to warehouses and vacant supermarkets.Besides providing specification for a playing surface, NIHA provides turn-key guidance on how to organize and operate a an entire roller hockey program.This includes player registration, program administration, and how to locate and train coaches and referees.The association also is trying to establish classifications in roller hockey that parallel those used in the amateur on-ice version of the sport.Eventually, the NIHA hopes that &ldquo;roller&rdquo; mites, squirts, peewees, bantams, midgets, juniors and adult/seniors will be competing at both house- and travel-league levels throughout the U.S. and Canada.Next, the NIHA plans to establish an evaluation process that will sort teams by skill level. In turn, this will lead to state/provincial and eventually national championship programs.&ldquo;We want categories for all ages,&rdquo; said Balog, noting that NIHA plans to hold its first U.S. national events in Las Vegas in 1995 and for men, women and mixed groups. Roughly 35-40 percent of the people interested in this sport are girls and women. Roller hockey isn&rsquo;t as gender-oriented as ice hockey.Women and girls have helped fuel interest in the NIHA. Since first registering members last year, the association has signed up 15,000 individuals. Balog projects that will increase to 30,000-50,000 by the end of 1994.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting 1,200 to 1,500 call a week from people looking for a place to play or from people who are trying to establish programs,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;With roller hockey, a whole new culture has developed. The stigma and image of being a hockey player has changed. We&rsquo;re seeing interest from East Indians, Asians and African-Americans and other groups that traditionally never played ice hockey.As with USA Hockey or the CAHA, individual players can register as members with NIHA. The annual fee is $35 for adults and $20 for youths. League sanctioning cost $200. Tournament and clinic sanctioning are $100.The association&rsquo;s services for individuals and organizers include:&#9633; Liability insurance for league organizers and excess medical insurance for participants.&#9633; League and site sanctioning.&#9633; League, tournament and event information.&#9633; A standardized rule book and regulation.&#9633; Access to clinics and instructional materials for players, referees and coaches.&#9633; A referee and coaching certification program.&#9633; Personal computer software to help league organizers create schedules.&#9633; Manufacturer vouchers and gift certificates.&#9633; A member magazine.&#9633; A travel discount card.&ldquo;We want to add value to our membership,&rdquo; Balog said.For more information about NIHA programs and services, contact the association at 1-800-358-NIHA. &#9632;

Organization’s goal to expand interest

Roller hockey is similar to ice hockey with skating, shooting, passing and checking.The game encompasses speed, quickness, stick-handling, finesse and contact and is action-packed. Each player wears in-line skates and protective equipment.But the RHI version is quite different than the version played on ice. Here are some major differences between roller hockey and ice hockey:&#9675; Roller hockey is played on cement or a Sportcourt floor, not ice.&#9675; The roller hockey season starts in June and concludes by Labor&#9675; Games are played in four 12minute quarters, with a 15-minute halftime.&#9675; There are no ties. A shoot-out decides the winner.&#9675; Games are two hours long.&#9675; There are five players-one defenseman, three forwards and one goalkeeper-on the playing surface for each team.&#9675; Each team roster has 14 players and three alternates.&#9675; Hard checking is acceptable. Fighting is not.&#9675; There is one red line in the center of the surface. The bluelines have been eliminated.<h2>RUNDOWN OF RULES</h2>International Ice Hockey rules apply with modifications as noted below.&#9675; There are four skaters and one goalkeeper on the surface at one time for each team.&#9675; There are four quarters in the game. Each quarter is 12-minutes duration, with a two-minute break between quarters and a 15-minute halftime.&#9675; There is a center red line only. Bluelines have been eliminated.&#9675; Immediate dismissal for fighting (instigator rule) and high sticking plus a penalty shot for offending team. The team receiving the penalty shot to select the player who will attempt the penalty shot.&#9675; Third man in fights will be assessed a major five-minute penalty. An automatic one-game suspension without pay will also be assessed by the commissioner.&#9675; Goal posts have been moved in four feet, thus allowing more room behind the net for play making. &#9632;

RHI rules differ from NHL

The single biggest adjustment for ice hockey players converting to roller hockey is the inability to perform a classic two-foot stop on inline skates.The wheels don&rsquo;t allow the subtle lateral sliding of the skate edges over the ice in the preparation phase of a stop and the final application of force through the edges into the ice for the final stop.Recreational in-line skates provide a stopper behind the heel of one of the skates, but this process is far too slow for the demands of roller hockey and isn&rsquo;t present on an in-line players&rsquo; skates.So how does one stop? Here are a few tips.To come to a full-stop when skating at relatively high speed, perform an altered hockey stop. It is actually an abbreviated tight turn.As in the ice hockey tight turn, you must lead with your inside foot, then apply pressure to the floor through the heels of the lead skate.As in ice hockey, the legs must have good flexion at the ankle, knees, and hip in order to maintain balance as the body tries to counter its forward momentum by applying the edges of the wheels into the floor.This often causes a sudden or jolting action as the wheels skid into position along the floor. But more and more as the players use the right kind of wheels for a particular surface they are playing on, the stopping will be the same as on ice.But why stop if you don&rsquo;t have to? Due to the back-and-forth action that the 4-on-4 roller hockey game produces, good players don&rsquo;t need to stop.They can angle when forechecking an opponent so they are forcing the flow in one direction and then go with the flow. They simply pivot to turn themselves back in the other direction as quickly as possible.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want my players stopping,&rdquo; says Yvan Cournoyer, coach of the new Montreal RoadRunners of the RHI. &lsquo;The game is too fast for that. That&rsquo;s why your ability to skate backwards is more important in roller hockey than on the ice-even for forwards. You are always pivoting from forward to backward or backward to forward in this game.&rdquo;All this is done in an effort to maintain as much of your forward speed as possible while pointing yourself back in the opposite direction. It&rsquo;s far better than taking the time and effort to come to a complete stop then having to build one&rsquo;s speed back up from zero.The pivot used is the &ldquo;Mohawk&rdquo; type pivot used in hockey. All the weight is placed on and over the front skate, allowing you to lift your back skate, turn it from front to back and turn your hips and body before transferring your weight onto the back skate which is now going backwards.Another way to avoid a full stop is the execution of a tight turn-that is, to turn back in the opposite direction in as small an arc as possible.The tight turn involves applying pressure into the floor through the heels or back portion of your skates as you drop your body weight down over your skates with good ankle, knee and hip flexion. A &ldquo;sitting down&rdquo; or &ldquo;dropping the butt&rdquo; kind of action is required. &#9632;

Stopping takes practise

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01774/6135078-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ADVERTISING SPECIAL RHI SCHEDULE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01734/6135123-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01695/6135116-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3086" height="3662"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01616/6135109-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3106" height="3051"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY THE WAY YOU WANT TO PLAY IT.

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; Dec-decision, charged to goaltenders of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>MONDAY, MAY 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02525/6135364-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="605" height="2328"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MAY 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03427/6135357-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="592" height="655"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04331/6135350-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="593" height="639"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05248/6135343-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="601" height="1087"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06208/6135336-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="580" height="99"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01698/6135329-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="1207" height="1683"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark&rsquo;s two goals helped Toronto beat San Jose in Game 7.</figcaption></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MAY 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07192/6135322-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="595" height="442"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08165/6135315-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="593" height="745"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MAY 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-09149/6135308-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="586" height="238"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-10132/6135301-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="594" height="986"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MAY 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-11124/6135294-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="602" height="1108"></div><h2>SUNDAY, MAY 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-12115/6135287-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="604" height="1214"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-13105/6135280-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="586" height="181"></div><h2>MONDAY, MAY 16</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1497/6135273-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="595" height="1124"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MAY 17</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1592/6135266-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="594" height="1204"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MAY 18</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1685/6135259-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="595" height="716"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01663/6135252-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="587" height="454"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MAY 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02459/6135245-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="590" height="1123"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03349/6135238-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="586" height="356"></div><h2>FRIDAY, MAY 20</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04284/6135231-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="589" height="1216"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MAY 21</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05233/6135224-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="591" height="1175"></div><h2>SUNDAY. MAY 22</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06199/6135217-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="590" height="304"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07179/6135210-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="1200" height="1630"><figcaption class="caption-body">Claude Lemieux led New Jersey in playoff scoring with 18 points.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01372/6135203-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="591" height="657"></div><h2>MONDAY, MAY 23</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02245/6135196-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="591" height="422"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03176/6135189-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="596" height="726"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MAY 24</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04142/6135182-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="587" height="344"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05119/6135175-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="594" height="988"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MAY 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06104/6135168-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="585" height="88"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0795/6135161-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="603" height="1171"></div><h2>FRIDAY, MAY 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0886/6135154-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="590" height="1080"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-09" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0973/6135507-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky was the NHL&rsquo;s best paid player in 1993-94.</figcaption></div><h2>NOTE</h2>All players&rsquo; salaries are in the currency of their teams&rsquo; country. Asterisks indicate players on Canadian teams who were paid in U.S. dollars.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1071/6135500-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="485" height="1883"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1167/6135493-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="491" height="2176"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1263/6135486-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="474" height="544"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1360/6135479-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="478" height="543"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1452/6135472-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="489" height="2174"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1550/6135465-1-eng-US/f0040-152.jpg" title="f0040-15" width="493" height="2176"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01311/6135458-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="510" height="3519"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02200/6135451-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="485" height="1104"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03148/6135444-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="476" height="595"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04123/6135437-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="485" height="1105"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05110/6135430-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="475" height="597"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06101/6135423-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="983" height="1759"><figcaption class="caption-body">Flyers rookie Mikael Renberg made $300,000 this season.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0789/6135416-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="524" height="3521"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0872/6135409-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="985" height="1739"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Weight, Edmonton&rsquo;s top scorer, took home $232,265.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0955/6135402-1-eng-US/f0041-092.jpg" title="f0041-09" width="493" height="1709"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1049/6135395-1-eng-US/f0041-102.jpg" title="f0041-10" width="487" height="1710"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SALARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02230/6135569-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01336/6135600-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE CALDER CUP</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02246/6135638-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="590" height="1744"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE TURNER CUP</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03208/6135631-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="602" height="1467"></div> &#9632;

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CHAMPIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01240/6135676-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01198/6135669-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="3321" height="3992"></div> &#9632;

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CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01200/6135714-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="384" height="535"></div>NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is determined to leave his signature on an officiating overhaul.Now if he can just narrow it down to something beyond, &ldquo;the officiating isn&rsquo;t as good as it could be and we plan to look into it,&rdquo; or whatever the company line is.Problems with hockey officiating are too-fold: there are too many inconsistencies with the way games are called and too often the officials become the main focus.There will always be complaints with officiating, but they can be minimized.Any moves the NHL makes in how games are called must guarantee officials more anonymity. If that means taking their names off the back of their jerseys, so be it. If it means making them all wear helmets, the way players must, so they aren&rsquo;t as easily identified, go for it.The NHL has traditionally been too wishy-washy in the direction it offers its officials. Ordering a crackdown on restraining fouls one minute and returning to status quo the instant teams complain about too many penalties is just one example.The league indicated two years ago players who dive in an effort to draw a penalty would be sent off for two minutes. That lasted about a month. There is more diving in this year&rsquo;s playoffs than in the Summer Olympics.Indeed, a change in the way hockey is officiated is in order. We suggest Bettman consider the following:&#9633; Establish abetter, more positive line of communication between the officials and their supervisors. Currently, there is too much negativity. The officials claim they are blasted for making mistakes, but rarely receive a pat on the back for a job done well.&#9633; Make better use of video analysis. Do supervisors really have to be on hand, watching every move like Big Brother?&#9633; Get the referees all on the same page. Players know Kerry Fraser is apt to call penalties late in a game, no matter what the score, and Paul Stewart will let things go.Let&rsquo;s take holding the stick, for example. Some call it almost every time, others almost never. The league must identify a philosophy for calls and police the officials to make sure they stick to it.So if they see that an official isn&rsquo;t calling things such as holding the stick, he should be held accountable for it.&#9633; Decide once and for all if games should be called the same in the final 10 minutes as they are in the first 10 minutes.Controversial calls are made in the final minute of basketball, baseball and football games. Players are conditioned to that. Hockey&rsquo;s tradition is to &ldquo;let the players decide the game.&rdquo; Great, but let them decide it within the rules. Referees should not be discouraged from making calls at any point in the game-including sudden death overtime in Game 7.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02138/6135707-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="579" height="1063"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Stewart</figcaption></div>&#9633; Make a decision on the two-referee system. The NHL has experimented with it in the pre-season and found an additional body on the ice doesn&rsquo;t cause traffic jams.It will work, but will cost the NHL more money. The NHL must decide if the additional expense is worth it. Bettman has indicated cost isn&rsquo;t an obstacle for improving officiating.The two-referee system would mean more penalties. Fouls players got away with behind the play in the past are more likely to be called. The league must make it clear there is no limit on the number of calls. The players will get the message. It will take time, but players will get used to it.&#9633; Forget the goofy notion of putting an official in the stands to call penalties. Officiating has been enhanced by the use of video replay, but that&rsquo;s as far as it should go office. &#9632;

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It’s time for official line from Bettman

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>O Canada is officially Canada&rsquo;s national anthem. Unofficially, it&rsquo;s Hockey Night In Canada&rsquo;s theme song-the best hockey music ever.While O Canada brings us to our feet. The HNIC Theme-as it&rsquo;s properly known-brings us to our TV sets. It signals the beginning of a weekly religious experience, Saturday night NHL hockey.There&rsquo;s an added bonus: Because the theme has no lyrics, it embraces both of Canada&rsquo;s official languages.Or at least that&rsquo;s what songwriter Dolores Claman believes.The Vancouver native was a jingle writer in Toronto during the 1960s when she was asked to write a theme song for HNIC. Her instructions were to write music that combined the enthusiasm of a college fight song with the spirit of a TV adventure series theme.Before the assignment, Claman had never attended a hockey game, but had seen a few on television. &ldquo;I just closed my eyes and thought of hockey,&rdquo; she said.The song was first played on HNIC in 1968 and remained a jingle until the early 1970s when it officially became the theme. By making it the theme, HNIC was able to stop paying performance royalties. Claman, who now lives in London, England, said she is seeking additional royalties.The song is stirring, gladiatorial and widely admired. A Canadian jazzfunk band, The Shuffle Demons, recorded The HNIC Theme in 1988 and make it a regular part of their live performances.&ldquo;During our show we ask the audience to rise for the national anthem and we play The Hockey Night In Canada Theme,&rdquo; said alto sax player Richard Underhill. People at our shows in Europe don&rsquo;t quite understand it.&rdquo;While The HNIC Theme is the No.1 English-language hockey song according to our Hockey News panel of experts, it is not without serious competition-much of it Canadian.Few songs of note that make hockey their main focus, as opposed to songs adopted as hockey anthems, have been produced by non-Canadians.Tom Cochrane and Red Rider&rsquo;s Big League-the tale of a Canadian teenager who earns a scholarship to an American school and then dies in a car accident-is one of the better songs (of any kind) released in recent years.And The Tragically Hip&rsquo;s FiftyMission Cap. a powerful rocker about the mysterious death of Toronto Maple Leaf Bill Barilko, is a another classic.Then there&rsquo;s Clear The Track.Here Comes Shack. Many Canadians remember that opening line from a song dedicated to Eddie Shack of the Maple Leafs, a 1966 novelty hit. Although it hasn&rsquo;t made any top 100 list of favorite oldies, it remains one of the greatest hockey songs ever. The song, recorded by Douglas Rankine and the Secrets, reached No. 1 on one Toronto radio station&rsquo;s pop chart.If there&rsquo;s any justice in the music world, HockeySong by Jughead, not to be confused with The HockeySong by Canadian icon Stompin&rsquo; Tom Connors, will generate similar interest. It&rsquo;s a delightful ditty about a travelling Canadian who is continually asked by locals if he plays hockey His reply: &ldquo;Do I play hockey? Well I play air hockey, ball hockey, bam hockey, bubble hockey, field hockey, floor hockey, ice hockey, kitchen hockey, road hockey, roller hockey, table hockey, twist hockey; And I play hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, all the time. Take shots.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s brilliant. Canada&rsquo;s answer to American Pie.The Hockey Song is not only a popular favorite played during stoppages in play, it&rsquo;s legendary rocker Neil Young&rsquo;s hockey song of choice.Asked at a Maple LeafSan Jose Sharks&rsquo; playoff game what his favorite hockey tune is, Young broke into song: &ldquo;&lsquo;The good old hockey, the good old hockey game.&rsquo; You know, the one by that guy Hank Snow, or whatever his name is.&rdquo;Stompin&rsquo; Tom Connors? &ldquo;Yeah, that&rsquo;s the one,&rdquo; Young said.Asked when he might write a hockey song, Young replied, &ldquo;Right after the Sharks win this game.&rdquo;They didn&rsquo;t.The Sharks&rsquo; loss was also the music world&rsquo;s. &#9632;

The Hockey Songs

Hockey songs come in two forms-those bom with skates on their feet and others adopted by the sport.Some, like all-time classic Big League, are songs whose subject matter is hockey. These are in the minority and mostly of Canadian origin.More familiar to hockey fans are songs commonly played at arenas. The best of them is (Na Na Hey Hey) Kiss Him Goodbye. No sport has laid claim to a song like hockey has this one.Below is a list of the best of both music worlds. THN musicologist Mike Brophy rates the top 20 English-language hockey songs of all-time:1.&nbsp;The Hockey Night In Canada Theme. Song inspires nation to lace up blades.2.&nbsp;Big League. Tom Cochrane&rsquo;s touching tale of Canadian dream ending in tragedy.3.&nbsp;(Na Na Hey Hey) Kiss Him Goodbye. Traditional song fans sing to taunt losing team.4.&nbsp;Fifty-Mission Cap. Tragically Hip&rsquo;s ode to 1951 Stanley Cup hero Bill Barilko.5.&nbsp;Rock &lsquo;N Roll Part II. Gary Glitter&rsquo;s glam-rock anthem a fist-raising experience.6.&nbsp;The Hockey Song. Stompin&rsquo; Tom Connors earned place in history with country classic.7.&nbsp;We Will Rock You. Queen&rsquo;s foot-stomper, handclapper whips crowds into frenzy.8.&nbsp;We Are The Champions. Second half of Queen&rsquo;s two-part hit heard during victory skate.9.&nbsp;Let&rsquo;s Play Hockey. Lost gem was theme song for first Canada Cup in 1976.10.&nbsp;Clear The Track, Here Comes Shack. Novelty song made No. 1 in Toronto in 1966.11.&nbsp;Jump. When it&rsquo;s too quiet, Van Halen anthem brings crowd to life.12.&nbsp;Final Countdown. Synthesized intro to rock group Europe&rsquo;s big hit perfect for greeting teams onto ice.13.&nbsp;Hockey Song. Jughead&rsquo;s jingle funniest hockey song ever.14.&nbsp;Sabre Dance. This song and Rick Jeanneret&rsquo;s play-by-play can wake the dead.15.&nbsp;Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Guess when they play this Pat Benatar song? During fights, of course.16.&nbsp;Born To Be Wild. Steppenwolf classic a hockey favorite long before emergence of Al lafrate.17.&nbsp;Theme From Jaws. Kicks off exciting nights in San Jose when Sharks take to ice.18.&nbsp;Three Blind Mice. The song referees. linesmen never sing to their kids.19.&nbsp;Eye Of The Tiger. Rocky Balboa&rsquo;s fight song is a Survivor.20.&nbsp;What&rsquo;s Wrong With Lumme? Nothing judging from his performance in the 1994 playoffs. &#9632;

TIME TO TUNE IN TO THN TOP 20

<div class="byline">By Tim Wharnsby</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01228/6135793-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Memorial Cup MVP Darcy Tucker scored the winner for Kamloops.</figcaption></div>LAVAL-At the rate the Kamloops Blazers capture championships, they&rsquo;ll probably run out of rafters at the Riverside Coliseum by the turn of the century.The most successful major junior franchise in Canada added its second Memorial Cup title in the last three years when the Blazers defeated the Laval Titan 5-3 in the championship game May 22.The Blazers&rsquo; cruised through this year&rsquo;s four-team tournament, outscoring the opposition 20-9 in their four victories. The Blazers finished the tournament without a loss after advancing to the final with three wins in the round-robin portion of the tournament.The host Titan advanced to the final by beating fellow Quebec League representative Chicoutimi Sagueneens 4-2 in the semifinal. Chicoutimi was 2-1 in the round robin, while Laval was 1-2. The Ontario League&rsquo;s North Bay Centennials lost all three games and finished fourth.Since a group of Kamloops business and community leaders came together to purchase the Kamloops Jr. Oilers from Peter Pocklington prior to the 1984-85 season, the Blazers have captured eight division titles, four Western League championships and two Memorial Cups.The Blazers&rsquo;, led by general manager Bob Brown, have fashioned a dynasty in a world where they shouldn&rsquo;t exist. Because of the cyclical nature of junior hockey, even the best teams have rebuilding years. This was supposed to be one of those years for the Blazers, who have the third youngest team in the WHL and will likely lose only three players from this year&rsquo;s team.Kamloops will host the tournament next season and gains an automatic berth.&ldquo;We were gearing for next year,&rdquo; said Brown, 49. &ldquo;When we won the Memorial Cup in 1992, we sort of knew we were going host the Cup in 1995. But then our kids developed quickly because we gave them a chance to play.&rdquo;The Blazers have provided a blueprint for success through hard work. From president Colin Day to coach Don Hay, the Blazers have a dedicated organization. It also helps that the team has 25 volunteer scouts.&ldquo;We tell our scouts to use their imaginations,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t close our eyes to small players and we opt for character.&rdquo;The Blazers have always been well coached-Ken Hitchcock and Tom Renney preceded Hay-but the success goes far beyond the bench. The players do well in school, are active in the community and successful on the ice.The financial picture couldn&rsquo;t be better for this team located in the picturesque British Columbia interior. The Blazers moved into the 5,000 seat Riverside Coliseum two years ago and cut off their season-ticket base at 3,900. Every game for next year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup is already sold out.&ldquo;It starts with the scouting staff,&rdquo; said Blazers&rsquo; center Darcy Tucker, who was named tournament MVP. &ldquo;They work hard to find the right players. Everybody wants to play for this team because of its success.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m from Whitehorse, Yukon and I didn&rsquo;t know much about the Western Hockey League, let alone the Kamloops Blazers,&rdquo; said captain Jarrett Deuling, a New York Islanders&rsquo; prospect. &ldquo;But I knew I was in some place special when I saw all those banners hanging up.&rdquo;Next May, the Blazers will have a chance to win the Memorial Cup in front of hometown fans. It will be Kamloops&rsquo; sixth appearance in the tournament, which ties the Peterborough Petes of the OHL for the most Memorial Cup appearances since the tournament went to a round-robin format in 1972.NOTEBOOK: Laval left its mark on the tournament, but unfortunately, it was a black one. Titan GM Jean-Claude Morrissette faced two criminal charges after allegedly punching referee Luc Lachapelle following his team&rsquo;s 5-4 loss to Kamloops in the round-robin. (For more on Morrissette, see page 4.)&hellip;The tournament all-star team included Chicoutimi goalie Eric Fichaud; Nolan Baumgartner and Aaron Keller of Kamloops on defense; Darcy Tucker of Kamloops at center; Alain Cote of Laval at left wing; and Rod Stevens of Kamloops on right wing.Laval center Yannick Dube was named the most sportsmanlike player in the tournament. He had two penalty minutes in five games&hellip;Fichaud, who allowed 10 goals in four games, was named top goalie.A Quebec-based team has now failed to capture a Memorial Cup championship in 23 seasons&hellip;The average attendance in Laval was a dismal 2,473 per game. The crowds of 1,836, 1,843 and 1,912 for the first-three games are the lowest in Memorial Cup history. &#9632;

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Kamloops Blazes path to Cup glory

<h2>CANADIAN HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>Shortly after resigning as the Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; coach-general manager, Graham James confirmed his desire to establish a Western League expansion franchise in Calgary.&ldquo;The conventional wisdom is that it won&rsquo;t work in an NHL city,&rdquo; James said. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m an unconventional guy. What better match?&rdquo;James and several of his former players-most notably Joe Sakic of the Quebec Nordiques and Theoren Fleury of the Calgary Flames-hope to land a franchise for 1995-96.The group may also include Calgary-born World Wrestling Federation star Bret (The Hit man) Hart.James is negotiating a lease with the Olympic Saddledome. Pending completion of that deal, James plans to apply for the WHL&rsquo;s 17th franchise. The WHL had a presence in Calgary from 1966 to 1987, when the Calgary Wranglers moved to Lethbridge.James, 41, compiled a 315-237-24 record during eight years in Swift Current, Sask, a city of 16,000. He guided the Broncos to the 1989 and 1993 Memorial Cups. Swift Current won in &lsquo;89.<h3>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h3>Former Laval Titan GM Jean-Claude Morrissette isn&rsquo;t the only member of his family who has been making news recently in the QMJHL.Morrissette resigned after an attack on referee Luc Lachapelle following a 5-4 loss to the Kamloops Blazers at the Memorial Cup.Morrissette&rsquo;s brother, Leo Guy, is the new majority owner of the St-Jean Lynx. Leo-Guy, who owns the arena where the Titan play, isn&rsquo;t one of Laval&rsquo;s owners. The six brothers who own the Titan are Jean-Claude, Jocelyn, Regis. Carol, Pierre and Georges.In St-Jean, Leo-Guy has already made changes, hiring Claude Therien as coach and Pierre Creamer as GM.MACKASEY MOVES: Blair Mackasey resigned as coach-GM of the Granby Bisons to become coach of Drummondville. Mackasey spent one season in Granby, posting a 30-40-2 record, a 15-point improvement over the previous year&hellip;The St-Hyacinthe Laser plans to move to Moncton next season if an arena deal can be worked out with the city and the American League&rsquo;s Moncton Hawks.<h3>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h3>Former London Knights&rsquo; coach Gary Agnew didn&rsquo;t stay unemployed long. He joined the Kingston Frontenacs as coach-GM after Dave Allison made his decision to leave the OHL team to seek a minor pro job.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why they did it, but I&rsquo;m glad they did.&rdquo; said Frontenacs&rdquo; managing partner Wren Blair of the new London owners&rsquo; decision not to retain Agnew. &ldquo;I got the best man. I never talked to another guv.&rdquo;GALLOPING IN: The OHL&rsquo;s board of governors granted the Barrie Colts a 1995-96 expansion franchise after the city of Barrie approved a SB-million. 4.200-seat arena with 36 private suites&hellip;Stan Butler, who coached the Wexford Raiders to four straight Metro Toronto Jr. A League championships, is the Oshawa Generals&rsquo; new bench boss, replacing Rick Comacchia, who resigned to take a coaching job in Italy&hellip;John Lovell was fired by the Guelph Storm directors after a disagreement over hiring an assistant coach&hellip;The Windsor Spitfires also dismissed rookie coach Shane Parker. No replacement has been announced.&ndash;With files from Rob Vanstone, Stuart Cowan and Jim Cressman. &#9632;

James hopes to make go of it in Flames’ country

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The Atlanta Knights decided to focus on the big picture and on May 25 they got the last piece of the puzzle when they beat the Fort Wayne Komets in Game 6 to capture their first Turner Cup.The Knights were on a quest. They took a picture of the Turner Cup, enlarged it to near actual size, and then cut it into 12 sections-each section symbolizing one of the 12 playoff victories a team needs to become International League champion.Atlanta swept the Milwaukee Admirals and San Diego Gulls in the first two rounds of the playoffs and won its first two games against Fort Wayne to post a 10-game post-season win streak.Following each post-season victory, the Knights pasted up another piece of the picture.They had the real thing after a 3-1 victory in front of an IHL final record crowd of 14,107 at the Omni. The decisive game vanquished the defending champion Komets.&ldquo;They believed in me and I believed in them,&rdquo; said Knights&rsquo; coach John Paris, who the team took over from re-assigned Gene Ubriaco in mid-season. &ldquo;I hope I get them (back) again. But a lot of them will be going to different places now. That&rsquo;s the sad part about winning championships. Some of them are going to go up to the next level and that&rsquo;s the way it should be.&rdquo;The turning point in the series came in Game 4 in Fort Wayne. With the Komets up 5-0 in the first period, it looked like they would even the series. But the Knights rallied behind a five-goal performance by center Steve Larouche to win 1:55 into the third overtime period.It gave them a back-breaking victory at raucous Allen County Memorial Coliseum-which over the years has earned a league-wide nickname &ldquo;The Jungle&rdquo;-and a 3-1 series lead.&ldquo;There was a lot of hype around (the Fort Wayne fans). They call it The Jungle,&rdquo; Paris said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m a Leo. So I guess the lion is the king of the jungle.The Knights will remember how 25-year-old Mike Greenlay-a goaltender with a journeyman tag before this season-came of age and played like a star.They&rsquo;ll remember Larouche&rsquo;s 16-goals and 26 points in 14 games.They&rsquo;ll remember how captain Stan Drulia put up 13 goals and 25 points in 14 games to win the playoff most valuable player award.&ldquo;The award could have gone to a number of guys,&rdquo; Drulia said. &ldquo;The whole team played well. When you have 18-20 guys playing like that. That&rsquo;s why you win championships. I&rsquo;m honored.&rdquo;And of course, the Knights won&rsquo;t forget their roots. At least not the ones in their heads. About a half-dozen of the Knights-including Larouche and Greenlay-modified their hair during the playoffs. Some of them shaved the sides of their heads, sporting a modified wide mohawk-type cut on top. Others added red and purple tints.&ldquo;It sort of started with one guy (Chris LiPuma),&rdquo; said Greenlay, who finished the playoffs with an 11-1 record and 2.20 goals-against average. &ldquo;We all sort of jumped on the bandwagon. Anything that brings the team together is a good thing.&rdquo;In the aftermath of a dressing room packed with celebrating players, Greenlay said, &ldquo;playing Fort Wayne provided us with a little extra incentive because they swept us out of the playoffs last year.&ldquo;They beat us twice in their building this time. Losing there made it that much sweeter because it was nice to know we could face adversity and come back to Atlanta (to win) in front of 14,000 people, which we appreciate beyond belief.&rdquo;CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The San Diego Gulls-reportedly under pressure from parent NHL club Mighty Ducks of Anaheim-fired head coach Harold Snepsts May 6.Snepsts apparently fell out of favor with the Ducks when he opted down the stretch to play to win rather than to develop prospects. The Gulls upset regular-season champion Las Vegas Thunder in the first round of the playoffs before being wiped out by eventual Turner Cup champion Atlanta.&ldquo;Looking back, even winning the Turner Cup championship might not have been enough to save me,&rdquo; Snepsts said. &ldquo;Obviously, Anaheim wanted certain players to play more. But the bottom line is that when I took this job I said I would play (the prospects) in the regular-season and play to win at the end.&rdquo;Former U.S. national junior team coach Walt Kyle became Snepsts replacement May 9. Kyle, 37, has spent the past two seasons coaching the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League.Kyle and Gulls&rsquo; general manager Don Waddell were teammates for two seasons at Northern Michigan University.I-OPENERS: Las Vegas, which won the Huber Trophy for finishing first in the regular season, lost coach Butch Goring, who resigned after the playoffs to become coach-general manager of the expansion Denver Grizzlies franchise. The Grizzlies signed a three-year affiliation deal with the New York Islanders.IHL owners named their legal advisor, Robert Ufer, to a newly created position as the league&rsquo;s chief executive officer. IHL commissioner Tom Berry now is the league&rsquo;s director of operations&hellip;The results of a contest have given the IHL&rsquo;s St. Paul-based expansion team a name-the Minnesota Moose.<h2>IHL PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01155/6135848-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="824" height="335"></div>PLAYOFF HIGHLIGHTS (MAY 9 to May 25): Steve Larouche scored eight goals and 11 points in six games as the Atlanta Knights knocked off the defending Turner Cup champion Fort Wayne Komets 4-2 Atlanta outscored Fort Wayne 22-19 in toe series Playoff MVP Stan Drulia added five goals and 11 points tn the six games. &#9632;

f0048-01

Knights complete championship puzzle

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0048-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02101/6135879-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg"></div>Byron Dafoe was an NHL goalie during the Stanley Cup playoffs, but he rode the bench as Olaf Kolzig&rsquo;s backup during the Calder Cup playoffs.Buoyed by Kolzig&rsquo;s spectacular goaltending, the Portland Pirates won the American League championship by defeating the Moncton Hawks in six games.The clinching 4-1 victory came May 29 on home ice, with Kolzig making 29 saves while Chris Jensen, Jeff Nelson. Michel Picard and Jason Allison scored goals. Kolzig was 12-5 in the playoffs and won the Jack Butterfield Trophy as most valuable player.After splitting the first two games in Portland, Me., the Pirates took a 31 series lead by posting a 4-3 victory in Game 3 and winning Game 4 on Kent Hulst&rsquo;s goal two minutes into the second overtime.Stephane Beauregard blanked Portland 4-0 in Game 5 to send the series back to Maine and led 1-0 after the first period in Game 6 before the Pirates rallied to win the franchise&rsquo;s first Calder Cup.The team moved to Portland in the summer of 1993 from Baltimore, where it played as the Skipjacks the previous 11 seasons.&ldquo;After Game 4, I told the team we had only lost three games in a row one time and that it wasn&rsquo;t going to happen again,&rdquo; said coach Barry Trotz. &ldquo;We were more mad than anything after we lost Game 5 and with the character we had on this team, when we got mad, we were able to channel that into a positive.&ldquo;But I think the key to the series was Game 3. We didn&rsquo;t play that well, but Olie Kolzig was outstanding.&rdquo;Trotz and assistant Paul Gardner faced a minor dilemma during the second round of the playoffs, when the parent Washington Capitals were eliminated in the Stanley Cup playoffs and Dafoe was returned from recall.&ldquo;It was tough, but we told Byron he would be the backup, that we were going to stick with Olie,&rdquo; Gardner said. &ldquo;Byron took it very well. Olie cheered for Byron in the Stanley Cup playoffs and Byron cheered for Olie in the Calder Cup playoffs.&ldquo;Olie played terrific every series and there&rsquo;s no question he was a huge part of our success.&rdquo;HAWKS CLEARED: Allegations by opposing players that the Moncton Hawks were reporting deflated attendance figures prompted an audit that cleared the team of any wrongdoing.Acting on complaints from its members, the Professional Hockey Players&rsquo; Association asked the Hawks to justify the announced attendance figures at Moncton Coliseum for the first seven Calder Cup playoff games.Post-season pay for players is based on a percentage of the total playoff attendance pool. That&rsquo;s why the PH-PA had a concern about the Hawks&rsquo; reporting an average of 3,884 for the first three rounds.But the team had an independent accounting firm audit its books, with Hawks&rsquo; player representative Rob Murray present and no improprieties were found.&ldquo;They verified it&hellip;at our expense,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; business manager John MacAulay.&ldquo;I think it was sour grapes by the players. It started after we beat Saint John. One of their players said something. Then we knocked off St. John&rsquo;s and one of their guys said something. Then we knocked off Cornwall and one of their guys said something. If those teams won, I don&rsquo;t think they would have said anything.&rdquo;The Hawks averaged only 2,798 in the regular season, third-worst in the 16-team AHL and 1,514 below the league average. There is much concern about the franchise&rsquo;s future.Moncton&rsquo;s working agreement with the Winnipeg Jets expired at the end of the playoffs. There has been speculation Winnipeg wants to reduce its commitment to Moncton and supply 10 to 12 players, plus coaches.&ldquo;We had a tough year dollars- and cents-wise,&rdquo; MacAulay said. &ldquo;But getting 10 extra games is a blessing in disguise and (the prospects of another season) look better.&rdquo;INDIANS NOW FALCONS: An ownership and franchise change also means a name change for Springfield. The new team, owned by Pro Friends Inc., will be called the Falcons.&ldquo;We wanted a name synonymous with Springfield,&rdquo; said president Bruce Landon, whose team uniforms are black, silver, teal and gold.For about five years, a pair of peregrine falcons-named Andy and Emilia by residents-has been nesting near the top of one of the city&rsquo;s downtown bank buildings. They have become so popular that the local cable television company devotes a channel to a stationary camera view of the nest 24 hours a day.<h2>AHL PLAYOFFS</h2>PLAYOFF HLIGHTS (May 9 to May 29): Boss Wilson opened the scoring for Moncton in Game 6. but Portland rebounded tor four goals and the title-clinching victory. A A capacity crowd of 7,142 in Portland was the Pirates&rsquo; 19th sellout of the season. Portland goalie Olaf Kolzig stopped 29 shots in the final game and was named playoff MVP. &#9632;

f0048-02

Olaf the Pirate pilots Portland to title

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01137/6135917-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="385" height="541"></div>Among the cheapest shots in sports journalism is franchise euthanasia, practised when a columnist such as Al Morganti decides a team should mercifully be killed.We got a taste of that shot-in-the-back-of-the-head thinking in the April 29 issue of THN when Morganti ordered the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; execution with reasoning that had all the substance of the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; power play.If Morganti&rsquo;s rationales were in vogue during other eras, there wouldn&rsquo;t be a Rangers in New York today, nor a Bruins in Boston, a Canadiens in Montreal nor, for that matter, a Blackhawks in Chicago, but we&rsquo;ll get to that in a minute.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0296/6135910-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="581" height="934"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harry Ornest</figcaption></div>First, Hartford. The Whale has bordered on extinction for very good reasons, starting with the fact it is chronically mediocre. Hartford has never won a Stanley Cup or even come remotely close, but that is no reason to shut down a franchise and move it elsewhere.Hartford is capable of supporting an NHL team under the proper circumstances. The best circumstance of all is winning.On those rare occasions when the Whale has shown even faint signs of being a contender, people have filled the Civic Center and will jam it again providing fans believe they&rsquo;re getting their money&rsquo;s worth.Would you plunk down $35 to see a club without a star, that finished 21 games under .500 and whose key members were making as much news off the ice as on it?The convenient knee-jerk reaction suggests the Whalers should move to a Sun Belt town because hockey hasObtained a nice tan in Florida and California. But the crowds in San Jose, Miami and Tampa Bay are deceptive and there&rsquo;s no guarantee of long-term success there any more than there was in Minnesota.Hockey is a novelty-if not a temporary fad-in those precincts just as it once was in Oakland and Kansas City. That&rsquo;s not to suggest big-league hockey will go belly-up in the south, but rather remind franchise-murderers such as Morganti there are ebbs and flows with most teams and you don&rsquo;t have to look farther than St. Louis for a good example.Shortly after entering the NHL in 1967, the Blues became a hot item. They reached the Stanley Cup final in each of their first three seasons and built a loyal following that packed The Arena for almost a decade.Then the Blues hit the skids and by February, 1983, the NHL was ready to permit a transfer to Saskatoon. Hockey, which again is thriving in St. Louis, was considered dead in Cardinaltown and the city would be hockey-less today were it not for entrepreneur Harry Ornest who figured the NHL belonged in Missouri, not Saskatchewan.Ornest bought the Blues at the 11th hour and put the franchise on its feet, while in the process signing a runty forward named Doug Gilmour who, we gather, is still around today.Then, there was the near death of the Rangers. In the early 1950s, the Blueshirts were such a dreadful draw that on some nights the entire balcony at the old Madison Square Garden was closed and fans were allowed to roam anywhere they pleased.As a matter of fact, on the night Bill Mosienko of the Blackhawks scored his record three goals in 21 seconds (March 23, 1952) there were only 5,000 people in the building.Attendance was so grim in both Boston and Chicago, both the Adams and Norris families who owned the clubs, were ready to walk away from hockey. Can you believe the Canadiens were such a lousy attraction at the start of the 1940s a crowd of 8,000 at the Montreal Forum was considered huge?Franchise-quitting is the easy way out. If it had been followed in the Morganti manner, it would have left the NHL as a four-team league with the future about as bright as an eclipse.Sorry, Al. The solution for Hartford is no different than it was for St. Louis: Give the fans a good product and they&rsquo;ll come out. &#9632;

f0049-01

Winning, not moving will save Whalers

<div class="byline">By Brent Hurst</div>Seventy-five million-dollar players helped push the average NHL salary past a record half-million in 1993-94.NHL Players&rsquo; Association documents say the average salary this season was $503,087, a 22 per-cent increase from $412,152 in 1992-93.It&rsquo;s actually higher.Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; sensation Pavel Bure reportedly agreed to a four-year, $22.5-million (U.S.) deal, that includes a $2.5-million (U.S.) addition to his 1993-94 wage of $930,000 (Cdn.).The Vancouver Province said the new contract will make Bure the NHL&rsquo;s third highest-paid player next season, trailing superstars Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.He is ranked 14th among right wingers and 83rd overall by the NHLPA, whose list was prepared before the new Bure deal.Bure led the league with 60 goals this season and has dazzled during the Canucks&rsquo; run to the Stanley Cup finals.Even without the late-season boost provided by Bure and his Los Angeles agent, Ron Salcer, NHL players have had a good year.On average, hockey salaries may be lower than those in the other three major North American sports leagues, but they&rsquo;re growing faster than in the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball.The average 1993-94 NBA salary was $1.4 million, an 11 per-cent hike from 1992-93. The average 1993 MLB salary was $1.1 million, a five per-cent increase from 1992.Only the National Football League average salary, which skyrocketed 70 per cent from $433,000 in 1992 to $737,000 in 1993, had a greater rate of growth.Leading the charge to pay wickets was scoring champion Gretzky, the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; superstar whose salary is listed as $8,366,000 (U.S.) by the NHLPA.NHLPA compensation figures represent basic salary, plus signing bonus and deferred income allocated to the 1993-94 season.According to union documents, Gretzky&rsquo;s contract called for a 199394 base salary of $1.5 million and $6,866 million in other payments.Second to Gretzky on the NHLPA list are Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; center Eric Lindros and Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Patrick Roy. Each earned $3.5 million, although Lindros is paid in U.S. dollars and Roy in Canadian.The weaker Canadian dollar is not factored into the list, which was released to player agents at NHLPA meetings May 12-13 in Toronto.Compensation is in the currency of the country in which the player plays-although some players on Canadian teams are paid in American funds.The list is not 100 per-cent reflective of what each player receives.Some differences are small andOthers enormous. As an example, Lindros&rsquo; 1993-94 salary is actually $3,556 million and Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; superstar Lemieux is not a mere $3-million player as the list suggests.Lemieux has a seven-year deal that averages about $6 million per year. Marketing clauses double Lemieux&rsquo;s annual wage. Lemieux, troubled by chronic back problems, has yet to announce whether he will retire. Speculation is he will continue playing.All players-a total of 776-who appeared in at least 10 games with NHL teams or spent 20 days on league rosters are included in the NHLPA salary survey. (A full list of NHL salaries appears on page 40.)The median salary, or dividing line between top-half and bottom-half salaries, is $350,000.Not surprisingly, centers, as a group, are the highest-paid players. Most of the NHL&rsquo;s top players are centers and their average income was $618,205. Eight of the 10 highest-paid players are pivots.Goaltenders made an average of $559,261; defensemen $468,253; right wingers $460,847; and left wingers $431,677.You will notice some players are listed at different positions by the NHLPA than reported in The Hockey News all year. For the sake of consistency, the players are listed by NHLPA position, although THN positions are more accurate. &#9632;

Fortune 500,000 Club

Salaries are in the currency of the team&rsquo;s country. Asterisks indicate Canadian-based players paid in U.S. funds.<h2>CENTER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0361/6136007-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="552" height="450"></div><h2>LEFT WING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0452/6136000-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="562" height="463"></div><h2>TOP 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0531/6135993-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="561" height="459"></div><h2>DEFENSE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0619/6135986-1-eng-US/f0049-062.jpg" title="f0049-06" width="561" height="459"></div><h2>RIGHT WING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0714/6135979-1-eng-US/f0049-072.jpg" title="f0049-07" width="562" height="463"></div><h2>GOALTENDER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-085/6135972-1-eng-US/f0049-082.jpg" title="f0049-08" width="563" height="461"></div> &#9632;

f0049-03

Who makes what in NHL

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>It seemed fitting that Greg Adams, one of the quietest players on the Vancouver Canucks, would score one of the loudest and most important goals in team history.The lanky left winger connected at the 14-second mark of double overtime May 24 to finish off the Toronto Maple Leafs and propel the Canucks into the 1994 Stanley Cup final. Adams&rsquo; backhander over a sprawled Felix Potvin was the shot heard around British Columbia, the province where Adams was bom and raised. Vancouver won the game 4-3 and took the best-of-seven Western Conference final in an impressive five games.&ldquo;It was an unbelievable feeling,&rdquo; Adams said. &ldquo;When it went in, I don&rsquo;t even remember how I felt.&rdquo;The goal was redemption for Adams, who had suffered through another injury-plagued and frustrating regular season. He had surgery on a fractured right hand in December and never seemed to regain his scoring touch. He went 22 games without a goal at one point and finished with just 13 on the year.&ldquo;I guess there&rsquo;s a reason for everything that happens,&rdquo; Adams said. &ldquo;Maybe after the drought I went through, this is payback. Maybe after the season I had, it just happened to be my turn. This kind of erases everything.&rdquo;The goal wasn&rsquo;t the only crucial one scored by Adams during the Canucks&rsquo; fairy tale run to the final. He scored the tying goal in Game 7 of the Calgary Flames&rsquo; series, setting the table for Pavel Bure&rsquo;s double-overtime winner. And he also scored the equalizer against Potvin as the Canucks erased a 3-0 first-period deficit in the Western Conference finale.NO MORE BLUES: Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican and Nathan LaFayette have been hailed as key ingredients in the Canucks&rsquo; playoff run. The three former St. Louis Blues feel touched to have been given the chance.&ldquo;This is my eighth year in the league and I&rsquo;ve finally made the final,&rdquo; said Brown, part of the March 21 trade for Craig Janney. &ldquo;This is what hockey is all about. I&rsquo;m not pinching myself, but I do shake my head every once in a while.&rdquo;Hedican expressed disbelief at his dramatic shift in fortunes.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s weird how a couple of months can change your life,&rdquo; said the 23-year-old blueliner. &ldquo;The chances to reach the final are few and far between and I think we all realize it&rsquo;s a big opportunity.&rdquo;LaFayette, a first-year pro, admitted Lady Luck has perched on his shoulder.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t think this is going to hit me until the summer,&rdquo; said the 21-year-old forward. &ldquo;It seems to be if it happens, it only happens once every 15 years. If you&rsquo;re fortunate enough, like myself, to have it happen in the first year, you can&rsquo;t let it slip away.NOTEBOOK: Pavel Bure entered the final on a 15-game point streak, three short of BryanTrottier&rsquo;s mark set in 1981. He also became the Canucks&rsquo; all-time leading playoff goal scorer (24), while setting records for most goals in one playoff year (13) and most points in one playoff year (23).<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Trevor Linden. Cliff Ronning, Nathan LaFayette, John McIntyre. Jimmy CarsonLW-Greg Adams, Geoff Courtnail, Sergio Momesso. Gino Odjick, Shawn Antoski.RW-Pavel Bure. Martin Gelinas. Murray Craven, Tim Hunter, Joe Charbonneau.LD-Dave Babych. Bret Hedican, Brian Glynn, Dana Murzyn, Adrien Plavsic.RD-Jeff Brown, Jyrki Lumme. Gerald Diduck. Jiri Slegr.G-Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Adams apple of fans’ eyes after frustrating season

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Credit the NHL&rsquo;s greatest playmaker with another assist.Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; captain Wayne Gretzky, who often has been charged with meddling in front-office decisions, happily acknowledges using his influence to help reel in the team&rsquo;s new general manager, Sam McMaster.McMaster, 50, was introduced May 24 as the sixth GM in franchise history. Former GM Nick Beverley and director of player personnel Bob Owen were fired May 18.The longtime junior hockey executive spent the past six seasons as GM of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario League.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re taking a bit of a chance with a rookie, but maybe I can be rookie of the year,&rdquo; McMaster said. &ldquo;I believe I can win at this level.&rdquo;The native of Vancouver is highly regarded in NHL circles, but a recommendation from Gretzky also carried considerable weight with the Kings&rsquo; restructured executive team of chairman Joseph Cohen, president Bruce McNall and his assistant, Rogie Vachon.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t win and I&rsquo;ve been taking the heat,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve told Bruce many times that I just want to be a player. I just want to win. But Mr. McNall asked me, so I gave him a list of five or six people who I thought would be capable of being a GM. I told Sam I&rsquo;ll be on the hotseat more than he is.&rdquo;Gretzky had a strained relationship with Beverley, who feuded with coach Barry Melrose and was fired in the wake of a 27-45-12 season and failure to qualify for the playoffs.The paths of McMaster and Gretzky first crossed nearly 20 years ago, when McMaster took Gretzky, then 13, to Toronto to play for a Jr. B team.McMaster&rsquo;s only previous NHL experience came from 1985-88 when he served as the Washington Capitals&rsquo; assistant director of player personnel.McMaster said he is &ldquo;very comfortable&rdquo; with Melrose returning as coach, but added, &ldquo;We have to sit down and talk. It&rsquo;ll be more his decision than mine. I don&rsquo;t think we will have a problem.&rdquo;BEVERLEY OUT: Nick Beverley&rsquo;s dismissal is viewed as a clear-cut victory for Barry Melrose and the faction of players, including Wayne Gretzky, that backed him.&ldquo;Anybody can manufacture that situation if they put enough time and energy into it,&rdquo; Beverley said of Melrose. &ldquo;I can walk away satisfied that I did my best within the parameters that wound up being established. Beyond that&hellip;I know the truth."A well-placed source told the Los Angeles Daily News that Beverley wanted to fire Melrose back in January, but was prevented from doing so after Bruce McNall consulted with Gretzky.Melrose said he was aware that Beverley tried to fire him and Gretzky denied he protected the coach. &ldquo;Mr. McNall called me in and I said everybody should be fired and we should all be traded,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;We all have to stand up and say it was our faults.&rdquo;Said Melrose: &ldquo;Nick and I just didn&rsquo;t agree on things. It&rsquo;s very unfortunate it happened because I never want to see anyone lose their job, but our relationship wasn&rsquo;t working. We just had two different philosophies.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Bruce McNall likely would not have sold a majority interest in the Kings, but he needs to pay off significant debts, including a $92-million loan from Bank of America. Three other banks that claim he owes them about $162 million attempted to force him into personal bankruptcy proceedings. McNall&rsquo;s financial problems led him to sell 72 per cent of the Kings to IDB Communications executives Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joseph Cohen for $60 million and an interest in a new arena the group plans to build. The sale closed May 16.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 18: Nick Beverley. GM, and Bob Owen, director of player personnel, fired. May 24: Sam McMaster named GM. &#9632;

McMaster gets seal of approval

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>The Russian is coming, but there&rsquo;s no news on the Canadian.The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who could have used the scoring touch of Valeri Karpov and Paul Kariya last season, are close to a deal with Karpov. General Manager Jack Ferreira says the Russian winger will probably sign a contract with the team during a visit to Anaheim in June.The Ducks tried to sign Karpov, their third-round pick last June, before their first season, but failed to reach terms. Karpov&rsquo;s desire to represent Russia in the Olympics was one factor.After recovering from a broken wrist prior to the Olympics, the 22-year-old right winger scored three goals and an assist for Russia at Lillehammer. He also played 32 games for Traktor Chelyabinsk last season, scoring 13 goals and 29 points.Karpov has changed agents since last year and is now represented by Jay Grossman. The negotiations between the two parties apparently have been smooth.&ldquo;We hope to have the deal done by June,&rdquo; Jack Ferreira said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s going to be a problem. He&rsquo;s coming over (from Russia) and we&rsquo;ll probably wait until he gets here to sign the contract.&rdquo;Ferreira said the Ducks remain &ldquo;far apart&rdquo; in negotiations with Kariya, their top pick last June, and the fourth overall. There was no tremendous progress during talks between Ferreira and agent Don Baizley at the World Championships, though the negotiations have not been acrimonious.The Ducks believe Kariya&rsquo;s asking price-up to $2 million per season according to some reports-is too high, but his performance for Canada in Italy proved he is worth more than the $850,000 a year they were offering earlier in the negotiations. Kariya led Canada in scoring with five goals and 12 points in eight games, second only to Mats Sundin of Sweden.THE OTHER RUSSIAN: The Ducks have yet to sign any of their top three picks from the 1993 draft, the team&rsquo;s first. The other is second-round pick Nikolai Tsulygin, a strapping 19-year-old defenseman.Tsulygin, who was described as &ldquo;raw&rdquo; when he was picked last June, has progressed to &ldquo;halfcooked&rdquo; in the eyes of assistant GM Pierre Gautheir and is getting very good reviews from other NHL team&rsquo;s scouts.The Ducks have brought Tsulygin-now 6-foot-4 and 209 pounds-to Anaheim for the summer to work out under the team&rsquo;s supervision. The idea is to ease his transition to North American culture so he&rsquo;ll be able to compete at his best in training camp this September-provided they sign him.Whether he is ready for the NHL is yet to be determined, and Gauthier said Tsulygin might end up with the Ducks, the San Diego Gulls in the International League, or even back with his Russian Professional League team, Salavat Ufa, next season.NOTEBOOK: Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Guelph Storm was ranked second-best prospect in North America by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau, but don&rsquo;t expect him to go No. 2 on June 28 in Hartford if the Ducks keep their pick. The Ducks are scheduled to pick second and don&rsquo;t rank O&rsquo;Neill that high. Their interest focuses on Radek Bonk of the International League&rsquo;s Las Vegas Thunder and Ed Jovanovski of the OHL&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires, though they haven&rsquo;t ruled out trading the pick. They&rsquo;re also very high on goalie Jamie Storr of the OHL&rsquo;s Owen Sound Platers, but their organizational depth at the position will probably rule out picking a goalie.Walt Kyle, who assisted Ducks&rsquo; coach Ron Wilson on the U.S. coaching staff at the World Championships, has been hired as coach by the San Diego Gulls, the Ducks&rsquo; primary affiliate in the 1HL. Kyle, the head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League the past two seasons, replaces former NHLer Harold Snepsts. &#9632;

Karpov ready to sign, but no sign of Kariya

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>How much is too much for one of the world&rsquo;s greatest goalies?Edmonton hockey fans, already sick to death of the ongoing Northlands Coliseum lease hassle that just won&rsquo;t die, may get another shot to the sensibilities if a cash-rich U.S. team answers that question by offering free-agent Bill Ranford more than $3 million (U.S.).&ldquo;If somebody offers Billy $3 or $4 million U.S., I&rsquo;ve got to take the compensation,&rdquo; said Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t afford to pay him 30 per cent more than that. Four million becomes $5 million in a big hurry. But I told Billy a long time ago I&rsquo;d do whatever I could to sign him.&rdquo;Sather would be helped in that department by a new Coliseum deal, but it hit another snag and has put the entire franchise on hold. Sather said he won&rsquo;t try to negotiate any free agent contracts or address the head coaching question until the lease deal is signed.He needs to know what his player salary budget will be for next season and that question can&rsquo;t be answered until at least June 1. That&rsquo;s the latest in a myriad of lease deal deadlines.Owner Peter Pocklington was supposed to post two letters of credit on May 16, one for $1.25 million to Northlands and another for $4 million to the city of Edmonton in order to hold up his end of the much-awaited deal. He missed the deadline, offering only a letter from Ogden Services promising the $4-million letter of credit if Ogden and Pocklington agree on a concessions contract for the Coliseum and the new Edmonton Trapper baseball park.Pocklington said he would guarantee the deal with $5 million worth of shares in a publicly-traded company.City council was upset Pocklington missed the deadline, but decided to give him the time to work out the deal with Ogden. Council will wait until June 14 to decide what it will do with the $15 million in infrastructure program money that is key to the completion of the Coliseum deal.In the meantime, Sather&rsquo;s hands are tied and Ranford&rsquo;s agent Tom Reich is waiting to see how things pan out.Reich wouldn&rsquo;t discuss dollars, but if he goes looking for the type of money the Montreal Canadiens are paying Patrick Roy, the Oilers will have seen the last of their MVP.&ldquo;Just because Montreal gave Patrick Roy $4 million, does that set the standard for goalies?&rdquo; Sather asked. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t afford to pay one guy $4 million. That&rsquo;s impossible.&rdquo;RENNEY IN RUNNING: Canadian Olympic team coach Tom Renney had been rumored as a candidate for the Oilers&rsquo; vacant head coaching post, but Glen Sather cooled some of that speculation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m impressed with him, but there is a big difference between coaching in the NHL and the World Championships, the Olympics or junior,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;I still think a guy has to put in his time in the minors to get the experience.&rdquo;Other more likely candidates are Oiler assistant coach Ron Low and George Burnett, who coaches the Oilers&rsquo; American League affiliate in Cape Breton.The Oilers also have to replace Cape Breton Oilers&rsquo; GM Dave Andrews, who takes over as AHL president. Brad MacGregor, an Oilers&rsquo; marketing representative and the son of assistant GM Bruce MacGregor, has surfaced as a candidate for the job.NOTEBOOK: The Oilers have been informed that center Mats Lindgren, obtained from the Winnipeg Jets in the Dave Manson trade, will not come to training camp this fall. He&rsquo;ll stay in Sweden and play for Djurgarden of the Swedish Elite League for another season&hellip; Glen Sather had written defenseman Ilya Byakin, 31, out of his future plans before the season ended, but saw him play for Russia at the World Championships and may yet invite him back or another camp, rather than trade him. &ldquo;Byakin played really well at the World Championships, but I&rsquo;d like to replace him with a younger guy,&rdquo; Sather said. &#9632;

Ranford hinges on lease deal

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>He finished the season as the team&rsquo;s career leader in games played, points and assists. He won a Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1989, the year the Calgary Flames won their only Stanley Cup.Twice he has made the first all-star team and twice the second.And yet, there is some question as to whether defenseman Al MacInnis will return to the Flames for a 12th season. On July 1, MacInnis becomes a free agent without compensation.If another team signs MacInnis, the Flames could retain his rights by matching the offer. Otherwise, they would lose him without compensation.The Flames say they will match any offer. Failing to do so would send the wrong signal to their fans; that they are not prepared to operate competitively anymore. That doesn&rsquo;t mean, however, they wouldn&rsquo;t trade MacInnis after matching the offer if they decide it&rsquo;s more than they want to pay him.&ldquo;We have to be competitive if we want the player to stay,&rdquo; said general manager Doug Risebrough. &ldquo;The choice is the player&rsquo;s. It always is. I can only go with what I think is fair. I can only talk if he&rsquo;s willing to talk.&ldquo;It has been a very positive negotiation so far. The player was able to perform and there has not been a tremendous amount of distraction created by coverage of the negotiations.&rdquo;Many top defensemen-Ray Bourque, Chris Chelios, Phil Housley-signed new deals this season, all above $2 million per season. However, teams usually pay a premium to sign a free agent. Marty McSorley received an offer sheet worth $9 million over five years from St. Louis Blues last summer. McSorley&rsquo;s team, the Los Angeles Kings, matched the offer, then traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins.For any team looking to jumpstart its power play, MacInnis would be an intriguing starting point. It&rsquo;s possible some team could offer $3 million (U.5.) with a hefty signing bonus to try to discourage the Flames from matching the offer.For his part, MacInnis says his preference is to stay with the Flames, the only NHL organization for which he has ever played.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be an interesting summer,&rdquo; MacInnis said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be tough decisions made on both sides. I&rsquo;m going to leave it up to (agent) Don Meehan. That&rsquo;s why he gets a percentage of everything I make.&ldquo;I want to stay with the Flames, but a lot of things are not in my control. As a free agent, I don&rsquo;t want to close the door on myself.&rdquo;GUY&rsquo;S SEARCH: Guy Charron, the Flames&rsquo; popular assistant coach, has a window in his contract that allows him to explore other NHL opportunities.Ideally, Charron is looking for a head-coaching position after three years as an assistant, plus a resume that includes coaching junior, in Europe and the Canadian Olympic team.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t mean I&rsquo;m unhappy with the Flames,&rdquo; Charron said. &ldquo;But if someone says, &lsquo;We&rsquo;d like to consider Guy Charron as a head coach,&rsquo; I&rsquo;d like the opportunity to apply.&rdquo;Charron has been an NHL head coach for only 16 games. In the spring of 1992, with the Flames teetering on the edge of playoff elimination, Doug Risebrough removed himself from the position and installed Charron on an interim basis.The next year, the Flames hired Dave King as head coach and Charron stayed on as an assistant.NOTEBOOK: Doug Risebrough made a quick trip to Sweden in early May to interview a number of prospects who could play in the team&rsquo;s minor-league system for a year before joining the big club. While overseas, he stopped off to see Hakan Loob, the only Swede ever to score 50 goals in the NHL. Loob has an open invitation to return to Calgary, but it sounds as if he&rsquo;ll stay in Sweden. Loob thinks that after a five-year absence, it would be difficult to readjust to the pace of NHL play. &#9632;

Free-agent Maclnnis eyes lucrative payday

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The San Jose Sharks had more working against them than they let on during their first trip through the Stanley Cup playoffs.Although no Shark player missed a playoff game because of an injury, a few of them put pain aside to help the team come within one win of a berth in the Western Conference final.Among them was goalie Arturs Irbe, who played the second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs with a broken bone in the big toe on his left foot.Others were Sergei Makarov, who opened the playoffs with broken bones in his right foot; defenseman Shawn Cronin, who ignored a tom rotator cuff; and winger Johan Garpenlov, who nursed a ruptured bursa sack in his left elbow.Irbe and Cronin were each given pain-killer shots before games in the second round, when the Sharks were beaten 4-3 by the Leafs.Makarov was given similar shots during the first round, when the Sharks upset the Detroit Red Wings, but he recovered enough to play without the shots in the second round.&ldquo;It was the first time in my life I had to take shots to play,&rdquo; said Irbe, who sustained his injury when he made a toe save on a shot by Sergei Fedorov in Game 7 of the Detroit series. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it bothered me during games, but I couldn&rsquo;t feel the front part of my foot for a few minutes before the games. Then I got used to it.&rdquo;The Sharks kept quiet about the injuries partly because they didn&rsquo;t want their opponents to know about them and partly because they didn&rsquo;t want to use them as excuses.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say how much difference the injuries made without being able to go back and play the games over again with everybody healthy,&rdquo; said coach Kevin Constantine.Makarov had been playing hurt since March 22, when he was kicked on the top of the foot by Pittsburgh Penguin Kevin Stevens. The Sharks originally said X-rays revealed no broken bones in Makarov&rsquo;s foot, but a subsequent CAT scan showed the damage.SO CLOSE: Although playoff elimination officially came for the Sharks when they were beaten in Game 7 of their second-round series against Toronto, it was missed opportunities in a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 6 of that series that cost them a trip to the Stanley Cup semifinals.Among those chances was one in overtime, when Johan Garpenlov hit the crossbar with a shot in the first minute of the extra period.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll hear the sound of that puck hitting the crossbar for a long time,&rdquo; Igor Larionov said.Still, the Sharks insist they won&rsquo;t spend the summer wondering what might have been if Garpenlov&rsquo;s shot had gone in or if defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh had pulled the trigger on a shot from the deep slot after Larionov set him up.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way I&rsquo;m going to look back and second guess,&rdquo; Kevin Constantine said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud of what these guys accomplished.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Sandis Ozolinsh didn&rsquo;t score in 14 playoff games after scoring 26 during the regular season. He was only two behind Al MacInnis of the Calgary Flames, who led NHL defensemen with 28 regular-season goals&hellip;A crowd of about 10,000 turned out for a May 17 rally to honor the Sharks. Before making their successful playoff debut, the Sharks (33-35-16) made a 58-point improvement over their 11-712 finish from the 1992-93 season.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;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 Falloon. Rob Gaudreau. Jeff Odgers.LD-Jeff Norton, Shawn Cronin, Vlastimll Kroupa, Mike Rathje.RD-Sandis Ozolinsh, Jay More. Tom Pederson. Michal Sykora.G-Arturs Irbe, Jimmy Waite, Wade Flaherty.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

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June 10, 1994

SCOREBOARD

Expansion to Europe in RHI’s plans

Leetch shoulders load

Vintage Messier a force