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.

October 1, 1995

The Hockey News September 29, 1995

<div class="byline">By Lisa Dillman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02163/7121212-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="975" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Jim Leary/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01275/7121219-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="163" height="153"></div><p>Rebuilding or renovating?</p><p>The answer for the Los Angeles Kings appeared to come at the draft July 12 in Edmonton. Having been criticized for often trading away their future-a long, illustrious list of No. 1 draft picks&mdash;the Kings did it one more time by acquiring left winger Dimitri Khristich and goaltender Byron Dafoe from the Washington Capitals in exchange for first- and fourth-round picks in 1996.</p><p>You might say the Kings opted to shore up their crumbling house with a fresh coat of paint and a new lawn, rather than starting with a new foundation.</p><p>Indeed, the acquisition of the 26-year-old Khristich is a serious gamble. Should the Kings miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season, the Capitals would enter the draft lottery with a shot at the top selection overall.</p><p>&ldquo;I hope it&rsquo;s not going to be written that it was another case of us giving away another first-round pick,&rdquo; GM Sam McMaster said. &ldquo;I did trade a first-round pick, but I don&rsquo;t like trading picks because I&rsquo;m a scout and that&rsquo;s my nature. We have to produce on the ice right now and there&rsquo;s no question we&rsquo;ve gained a player who can help us win now.&rdquo;</p><p>Khristich&rsquo;s numbers have dropped steadily since his best season in 1991-92 when he scored 36 goals and 73 points in 80 games. In the lockout-shortened season, he had 12 goals and 26 points in 48 games, which would have ranked him fifth among the Kings in scoring; two goals and six points behind the since-departed Dan Quinn.</p><p>Last season, he played on a line with center Michal Pivonka and right winger Peter Bondra, but was sometimes benched late in games. His best year in Washington, although four years ago, had something to do with the leadership and star quality of Dino Ciccarelli, Khristich believes.</p><p>&ldquo;I think I played better with someone like that who leads the team and then I&rsquo;m getting more competitive,&rdquo; Khristich said. &ldquo;Since then, all the changes in Washington, it kind of screwed me up. Because of that, I produce not as much.</p><p>&ldquo;They changed everything around there. The offense. Even changed the uniform.&rdquo;</p><p>Khristich realizes what the Kings gave up to get him and said it will be easier to fit in with star players such Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Rick Tocchet.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to help me-it&rsquo;s like I like to play in a race,&rdquo; Khristich said. &ldquo;You like to chase whoever is in front. I like to chase the guys in front of me. All I can do is try to prove they were right to get me, to show what I can do.&rdquo;</p><p>New Kings&rsquo; coach Larry Robinson saw plenty of Khristich and the Capitals last season as an assistant with the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he had his best year last season,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;But when he&rsquo;s not having a good year offensively, he&rsquo;s such a valuable player defensively. He knows the game well and he&rsquo;s a big guy who can stand in front of the net on power plays.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably one of the better two-way players on the team. What he brings along as well is youth.&rdquo;</p><p>As for the Kings, all too often Wayne Gretzky was lacking someone with the finishing touch on the other end of a play last season. Three or four creative scoring opportunities would frequently go for naught.</p><p>Just two players scored 15 or more goals for the Kings last season-Tocchet (18) and John Druce (15). Once Tocchet was hobbled by a persistent back ailment, the Kings fizzled on the power play and eventually so did their playoff hopes.</p><p>Given the high price for Khristich, it was widely assumed the Kings simply needed someone to play on Gretzky&rsquo;s line and with The Great One on the power play. Eight of Khristich&rsquo;s 12 goals came with the man advantage last season.</p><p>But McMaster denied the Gretzky factor was the dominating motivation for the trade.</p><p>&ldquo;Not as much as you might have thought,&rdquo; McMaster said. &ldquo;He (Khristich) is a natural goal-scorer and capable of doing that.</p><p>&ldquo;Yet he&rsquo;s an extremely strong two-way player. If he&rsquo;s not scoring one night, he&rsquo;s not a real liability. We believe he is a 30-goal scorer at the worst of times.&rdquo;</p><p>Robinson takes a different approach in his expectations, whether it is for Khristich or Robert Lang or any other player.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a big fan of telling someone that I expect them to score 30, 40 goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If they&rsquo;re doing the right things, the goals will come.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-03112/7121205-1-eng-US/f0046-032.jpg" title="f0046-03" width="666" height="324"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Los Angeles&rsquo; top 21 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0492/7121198-1-eng-US/f0046-042.jpg" title="f0046-04" width="649" height="842"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0571/7121191-1-eng-US/f0046-052.jpg" title="f0046-05" width="663" height="154"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0662/7121184-1-eng-US/f0046-062.jpg" title="f0046-06" width="658" height="394"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0046-02

NHL TEAMS

Worth a Kings’ ransom?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011747/7119847-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="321" height="381"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Paul Kariya</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021335/7119840-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="318" height="384"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Adam Graves</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03966/7119833-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="325" height="386"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Luc Robitaille</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04498/7119826-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="323" height="387"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Tomas Sandstrom</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-05358/7119819-1-eng-US/f0008-052.jpg" title="f0008-05" width="314" height="383"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Steve Thomas</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>Tkachuk top portsider</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-06287/7119812-1-eng-US/f0008-062.jpg" title="f0008-06" width="1793" height="1295"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0008-01

IN THIS ISSUE

NHL’S TOP 20 LEFT WINGERS

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><p>Mountaineers know it and fear it and so will every other team in the Pacific Division. It&rsquo;s the cry of &ldquo;Avalanche!&rdquo;</p><p>The transplanted Quebec Nordiques, newly named but just as powerful, will bring a Colorado Rocky Mountain high to the sleepy Pacific.</p><p>Last season, only the Calgary Flames managed to play above .500. The season before that, the Vancouver Canucks and Flames were the only two teams over .500. This is not good. But this will change.</p><p>The Nordiques were 17 games above .500 in the lockout-shortened campaign. Colorado has an outstanding group of forwards, a terrific power play and a vastly improved defensive game, but still lacks a dynamic offensive defenseman and a proven goaltender. Don&rsquo;t be surprised if one (or two) of its quality forwards is moved to fill these needs.</p><p>If the Avalanche doesn&rsquo;t bury the rest of the Pacific, it&rsquo;s because Pat Quinn&rsquo;s grand gamble in Vancouver-re-uniting Russian stars Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny-is paying off for the Canucks.</p><p>Vancouver promises to be one the league&rsquo;s more interesting teams, but will it be better? There is warp speed in the forward ranks with Bure, Mogilny, Russ Courtnall, Trevor Linden, Martin Gelinas and Cliff Ronning, to name a half-dozen, but only Linden has any appreciable size.</p><p>The Canucks&rsquo; defense is far too soft and not terribly fearsome with Dana Murzyn coming in as their meanest blueliner. The Canucks&rsquo; goaltending is strong and it will have to be. This team isn&rsquo;t the league&rsquo;s most disciplined without the puck.</p><p>With Colorado on board and Vancouver improved, the Hames are likely headed for trouble in trying to defend their division title. They didn&rsquo;t help themselves by losing veteran Joel Otto to free agency and having Robert Reichel take his act to Germany.</p><p>Captain Joe Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s body is capable of breaking down on a moment&rsquo;s notice and Gary Roberts remains a mystery after shoulder surgery. The Hames appear headed for a flameout under new coach Pierre Page, who somehow managed to miss the playoffs in Quebec two years ago.</p><p>The remainder of the Pacific is looking pretty much the same with the three California teams and the Edmonton Oilers dreaming of a breakthrough season. Alas, it will be more of the same nightmare.</p><p>The San Jose Sharks have a crop of promising players, but not enough in mid-career to make them significantly better. Goalie Arturs Irbe will have to re-capture his form of two seasons ago if the Sharks are to have much bite.</p><p>The Oilers may finally make a move-from fifth to fourth-depending on what GM Glen Sather obtains for front-line goalies Bill Ranford or Curtis Joseph. He will need to obtain some established talent in return. Trading for promise only promises another out-of-playoff finish.</p><p>Down and out in L.A., the Los Angeles Kings and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim could be staging their own turtle derby to avoid Pacific purgatory.</p><p>The Kings&rsquo; best off-season move was the hiring of Larry Robinson as coach. Here&rsquo;s to you, Mr. Robinson, if you can get this team out of turmoil. Wayne Gretzky is 34. Kelly Hrudey is 34. Jari Kurri is 35. Even mighty Marty McSorley is 32. Maybe Dimitri Khristich will lead them out of the wilderness.</p><p>The Ducks are getting younger in the hopes that one day they will get better. That day is still a far-off tomorrow. Paul Kariya can&rsquo;t pass to himself and that&rsquo;s coach Ron Wilson&rsquo;s biggest problem.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

FEATURES

Cup quest leads through Rocky (Mountain) road

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><p>Call it whatever you want. Patrick or Atlantic, but for four of the last five seasons, it has been called Home of the Stanley Cup.</p><p>The smart money is betting that streak will be extended this year. The Atlantic has three legitimate Cup contenders in the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.</p><p>The manner in which the Devils dismantled teams on their way to the Stanley Cup last year makes them the team to beat. The 1994 champion Rangers, meanwhile, made a number of significant off-season moves to get back in the chase. And just down the road in Philadelphia, the up-and-coming Flyers added a few necessary role players to a potent lineup.</p><p>The Devils didn&rsquo;t make any personnel changes over the summer, but why mess with a good thing? Although they lost free-agent defenseman Bruce Driver to the Rangers, Jason Smith and Chris McAlpine are ready to step in. The biggest challenge for the Devils will be in singing restricted free agents Martin Brodeur and Scott Niedermayer and resolving their conflict with Claude Lemieux.</p><p>A sub-.500 regular season and a second-round sweep by the Flyers showed the Rangers some retooling was in order. New York GM Neil Smith revamped the whole toolbox with the acquisitions of Luc Robitaille and Ulf Samuelsson, but the big question is whether coach Colin Campbell can get the most out of a talented, but aging cast of veterans.</p><p>Goalie Mike Richter must have a return to 1994 form and Brian Leetch and Mark Messier cannot afford lengthy injuries. The addition of free-agent center Ray Ferraro should help.</p><p>The Eric Lindros-led Flyers finally broke through last season and gave the Devils their toughest test in the playoffs, but the loss exposed some weaknesses. GM Bob Clarke addressed those areas by signing free agents Kjell Samuelsson and Joel Otto. Both will help the Flyers&rsquo; miserable (18th overall) penalty killing.</p><p>The big area of concern is goaltending. Ron Hextall, 31, enjoyed a strong playoff run in 1995, but will be under the microscope by Philly fans who suddenly have high expectations.</p><p>The Washington Capitals&rsquo; uniforms have changed, but the storyline hasn&rsquo;t. Peter Bondra, the league&rsquo;s defending goal-scoring champ, is about the closest thing the Caps have to a go&mdash;to guy and he held out of training camp. Much will be expected of second-year goalie Jim Carey, a rookie sensation in 1994-95.</p><p>See that snarling fisherman on the New York Islanders&rsquo; new uniforms? You&rsquo;d be growling, too, if you had to work as hard as incoming coach Mike Milbury demands. GM Don Maloney made his big personnel move last season when he sent Pierre Turgeon to the Montreal Canadiens in a deal that brought Kirk Muller. Now Muller must get with the program and bring the Islanders back to respectability.</p><p>The Florida Panthers are on a youth and aggressiveness kick, led by new coach Doug MacLean. Much of their success depends on the state of mind of goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who wants out of Florida if they won&rsquo;t pay him what he wants. If he continues to steal games the way he has the past two years, the Panthers have an outside shot at a playoff spot.</p><p>The patient Tampa Bay Lightning can expect another difficult season. Youngsters such as Roman Hamrlik and Chris Gratton may begin to pay dividends, but it likely won&rsquo;t be enough, hi fact, the Lightning may be battling the Ottawa Senators to stay out of the NHL&rsquo;s basement.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Three Cup contenders, but Devils still team to beat

Cover-01

The Hockey News

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011530/7119667-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Jaromir Jagr Pittsburgh Penguins</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><i>1995-96 SEASON PREVIEW</i></h2><h2><b>FEATURES</b></h2><p><b>PUMPED UP GILMOUR&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;3</b></p><p><b>ZHAMNOV JETS TO TOP&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;6</b></p><p><b>RANKING BY POSITION&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;7</b></p><p><b>RETURN OF MARIO&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;14</b></p><p><b>TEAM CHALLENGES&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;16</b></p><p><b>CALDER CANDIDATES&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;18</b></p><p><b>SINDEN SETTING PACE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;20</b></p><p><b>PACT WITH THE DEVILS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;21</b></p><p><b>TKACHUK DEFENDS TITLE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;23</b></p><p><b>McMASTER&rsquo;S DISASTER?&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;24</b></p><p><b>NOLAN&rsquo;S BENCHMARK&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25</b></p><p><b>ATLANTIC DIVISION&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;26</b></p><p><b>NORTHEAST DIVISION&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;27</b></p><p><b>CENTRAL DIVISION&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;28</b></p><p><b>PACIFIC DIVISION&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;29</b></p><p><b>NHL PRIMER&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;63</b></p><p><b>HALL-OF-FAME INDUCTEES&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;79</b></p><h2><b>NHL TEAMS</b></h2><p><b>ANAHEIM&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;33</b></p><p><b>BOSTON&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;34</b></p><p><b>BUFFALO&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;35</b></p><p><b>CALGARY&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;36</b></p><p><b>CHICAGO&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;37</b></p><p><b>COLORADO&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;38</b></p><p><b>DALLAS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;39</b></p><p><b>DETROIT&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;42</b></p><p><b>EDMONTON&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;43</b></p><p><b>FLORIDA&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;44</b></p><p><b>HARTFORD&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;45</b></p><p><b>LOS ANGELES&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;46</b></p><p><b>MONTREAL&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;47</b></p><p><b>NEW JERSEY&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;48</b></p><p><b>N.Y. ISLANDERS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;49</b></p><p><b>N.Y. RANGERS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;50</b></p><p><b>OTTAWA&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;51</b></p><p><b>PHILADELPHIA&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;52</b></p><p><b>PITTSBURGH&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;53</b></p><p><b>ST. LOUIS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;54</b></p><p><b>SAN JOSE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;55</b></p><p><b>TAMPA BAY&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;56</b></p><p><b>TORONTO&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;57</b></p><p><b>VANCOUVER&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;58</b></p><p><b>WASHINGTON&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;59</b></p><p><b>WINNIPEG&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;60</b></p><h2><b>SCHEDULE</b></h2><p><b>NATIONAL LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;70</b></p><p><b>AMERICAN LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;72</b></p><p><b>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;73</b></p><p><b>EAST COAST LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;74</b></p><p><b>WESTERN LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;75</b></p><p><b>ONTARIO LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;76</b></p><p><b>QUEBEC LEAGUE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;77</b></p><p><b>HOCKEY EAST&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;78</b></p><p><b>CENTRAL COLLEGIATE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;78</b></p><p><b>WESTERN COLLEGIATE&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;78</b></p><p><b>EASTERN COLLEGES&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;78</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0002-01

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-in-Chief</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011730/7119712-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Claus Anderson/BBS)</span></figcaption></div><p>If the eyes are a window to the soul, then Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s is a dark and brooding place.</p><p>Perhaps not since Rocket Richard dominated the 1940s and &rsquo;50s with the Montreal Canadiens has a player been so identifiable by his eyes. Richard&rsquo;s were coal black and pierced the fainthearted to devastating effect. From the blueline in, nobody played with more ferocious intensity. He finished his storied career with 544 goals-a number enshrined in hockey history&mdash;and 965 points.</p><p>Gilmour&rsquo;s are not as intimidating, but equally revealing. Look into his dark brown eyes and you see the secret to his success. There resides a burning desire that separates the good from great, the great from truly great. He enters this season with, get this, 969 points.</p><p>For more than two years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Gilmour was in his wild-eyed glory. The center scored 287 points in 206 games and led the Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup semifinals twice, <i>a</i> feat no other team accomplished in that time. Wendel Clark was the captain, but it was Gilmour&rsquo;s team. He played upwards of 30 minutes a game and Toronto coach Pat Bums didn&rsquo;t even need to ask his superstar if he was ready to play after brief respites on the bench. The two merely exchanged glances and Bums came to recognize the answer in Gilmour&rsquo;s eyes.</p><p>Last year, however, they were strangely silent. Missing was the fire&mdash;and while he may have passed Rocket Richard (a soulmate from another life?) on the all-time scoring list, not much else good happened. &lsquo;Killer,&rsquo; so nicknamed by former St. Louis Blues&rsquo; teammate Brian Sutter because of the fearsome look in Gilmour&rsquo;s eyes, endured the worst season of his 12-year career. He earned just 33 points in 44 games-a 58-point pace over a full season-a year after scoring 111 in 199394. On paper his productivity fell off 53 points, the largest such drop in the NHL.</p><p>During the playoffs, when Gilmour has always raised his game a notch and led all scorers the 9 previous two years, he collected just six assists (no goals!) in a seven-game, first-round loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. It was the end of a season to forget. Of all the tangible things that undid the Maple Leaf captain&rsquo;s 1995-off-season foot surgery, the lockout, herniated discs in his back, a broken nose-none was as damaging as an intangible. &ldquo;I look back and there was no emotion,&rdquo; he says.</p><p>It is Day 3 of the Maple Leafs&rsquo; 1995-96 training camp and there has been no shortage of emotion. Gilmour scrapped with Bill Berg in a Day 1 scrimmage and could be heard cursing the opposition on Day 3. Now, Gilmour is sitting in the dressing room, calmly discussing the past year-giving no excuses, blaming nobody but himself.</p><p>He allows the lockout and subsequent uncertainty disoriented him. Gilmour is a hockey player-pure and simple. He doesn&rsquo;t need a day planner to tell him the ice season cometh; his body clock tells him when October is approaching. Last year, there was no continuity. I&rsquo; Training camp began on schedule in early September and came to an abrupt end Sept. 30. Gilmour simply never got into the kind of shape that allows him to play all out, all the time.</p><p>A sojourn to Switzerland was dismal. He scored just two goals and by the time Jan. 20 rolled around & and a truncated 48-game season began, Gilmour&rsquo;s rhythm may have been too discombobulated to correct. He spent the season thinking things would turn around the next shift, the next game. But they never did and the Maple Leafs, who started 1993-94 on a record 10-game winning streak, never won more than two in a row in 1994-95.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021384/7119705-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="697" height="913"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Maurice (Rocket) Richard</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>&lsquo;I don&rsquo;t think I have to prove anything&rsquo;</b></h2><p>Gilmour, whose greatest asset is on-ice imagination, created few scoring chances. Worse yet, he seemed a step behind the play-unable to find open ice either with his skates or passes. Speed has never been one of his major assets; quickness is the hallmark of his game. He moves most effectively in 20- to 30-foot bursts of energy and his speed, unlike that of some, isn&rsquo;t diminished by the prospect of body contact. &ldquo;I can get from here to that wall as fast as anybody,&rdquo; says Gilmour, pointing across the dressing room. In the past, he could be counted on to go through the wall if it meant scoring a goal or breaking up an opposition scoring opportunity.</p><p>&ldquo;The one major trait that Doug has had over his whole career is his competitiveness,&rdquo; says Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher. &ldquo;You say he lost a little bit of his quickness. I&rsquo;m not sure if it was that or if it was a little bit of the fire in the belly to do the job like he had done it in prior years.&rdquo;</p><p>Gilmour, 32, acknowledges something was missing. &ldquo;It was a weird year and I don&rsquo;t want that to happen again,&rdquo; Gilmour says. &ldquo;I learned my lesson from it. I&rsquo;m going to be focussed throughout the season.&rdquo; He remembers cruising through some games, more spectator than participant. &ldquo;The fire was there certain nights, but other nights it wasn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Gilmour says. &ldquo;Why? I don&rsquo;t know. I should have been into the games. There&rsquo;s no excuse for it. You can sit in here and talk and talk to yourself all you want, but if you don&rsquo;t have the fire and drive to go out-if I go into a corner, I&rsquo;ve got to fight for the puck, if a guy is ahead of me I&rsquo;ve got to skate back and backcheck. I don&rsquo;t know if I was just lazy or gave up or I&rsquo;d just take an easy (way) out, I don&rsquo;t know. That&rsquo;s not going to happen (again).&rdquo;</p><p>Clearly, Gilmour is pumped up for this season. One look at him tells you that. Gilmour has dynamite delts, perfect pecs and bulging biceps. He added several pounds of muscle during a rigorous off-season of training &mdash; and weighed a career-high 1 187 pounds on the first day of workouts. He expects to play at 178-180 pounds. Gone is the gaunt, pasty-faced forward who made it cool to look like a ghoul. In his place is a square-jawed center anxious to reassert himself this season as one of the NHL&rsquo;s best players. Gilmour says he merely looks healthy. It looks more like he&rsquo;s hell-bent for redemption-although he says that&rsquo;s not his motivation.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011667/7119698-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="624" height="646"></div><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go out and prove anything,&rdquo; Gilmour says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not what I&rsquo;m here for. I don&rsquo;t think I have to prove anything* What I want to do is come up and play for my peers. Certain people are counting on you&mdash;the guys in this room, the coaches, the upstairs management, the fans who pay the money to come see you play. If you can&rsquo;t provide that 100 per cent the way you&rsquo;re supposed to be playing, you&rsquo;ve got to answer some questions. I think I&rsquo;ve answered them all.&rdquo;</p><p>One more question persists: Sure, Gilmour is bigger than last season, but is he better? Fletcher has no doubt fans will see a rejuvenated Gilmour and Bums apparently believes the same. He says 1995 was an aberration not only for Gilmour and the Leafs, but the entire NHL. Burns&rsquo; plans this season hinge largely on the play of Gilmour and Mats Sundin. You&rsquo;ve heard of the two-goalie system? To hear Bums i tell it, he&rsquo;s working on a two-center system. He says each of them could play as many as 25 minutes a game. Gilmour&rsquo;s ice time dropped substantially last year; he says it went from 27 minutes to 19-20, although Bums disputes those numbers. Nonetheless, it&rsquo;s undeniable the coach couldn&rsquo;t rely on his star as he did in previous years. &ldquo;Bumsie counted on me in some games and I guess I didn&rsquo;t come through for him,&rdquo; Gilmour says.</p><p>Sundin lined up on Gilmour&rsquo;s left side much of the season, but it has been decided Sundin belongs in the middle. The big Swede was Toronto&rsquo;s best player in 1994-95 and that, too, may have resulted in a measure of dislocation for the captain. Gilmour yearned to be the No. 1 player, the go&mdash;to guy, and he responded by rising from star status to superstar stratosphere when he was traded from the Calgary Flames to Toronto in January, 1992.</p><p>It&rsquo;s not that Gilmour resents sharing the headlines, but the arrival of Sundin may have thrown off the incumbent&rsquo;s equilibrium. Sound like new-age philosophy? Maybe, but the balance between emotional and physical states in high-performance athletes is a delicate one. If Gilmour doesn&rsquo;t experience a return to elite-level form, it&rsquo;s likely the Maple Leafs are destined for disappointment. Fletcher has added two skilled defensemen, Larry Murphy and Dmitri Yushke-vich, and a rugged left winger, Sergio Momesso, to shore up weaknesses. But the key to Toronto fortunes this season is the play of Gilmour, goalie Felix Potvin and left winger Dave Andreychuk-all of whom played below career form.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re expecting a lot from me,&rdquo; Gilmour says. &ldquo;I hope I can come back and play the way I&rsquo;ve played in the past.&rdquo;</p><p>Fletcher says it may be unreasonable to expect Gilmour to produce as he did two or three years ago. Gilmour sees himself as a force to be reckoned with for several more seasons. &ldquo;I guess as time goes on I know my ice time is going to diminish,&rdquo; Gilmour says, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m hoping that it won&rsquo;t for another three years and if I&rsquo;m still going to play I&rsquo;ll take a backseat (then). But at this point in my career I still want to flourish and get better.&rdquo;</p><p>Toward that end, he busted his backside all summer. Gilmour, who tumbled from the precipice last season, spent the summer preparing for another peak performance. As part of his off-season training regimen, Gilmour regularly jogged to Christie Pits in the city&rsquo;s west end, went to the bottom of the onetime gravel quarry and ran up and down the hill 10 to 15 times. It&rsquo;s a familiar routine that ends with the onset of training camp.</p><p>But this season Doug Gilmour has one more hill to climb.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0003-01

His eyes Have it

<div class="byline">By Ed Willes</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011854/7119743-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Think of Jean Ratelie with a slapshot and you&rsquo;ve pretty much got Alexei Zhamnov.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Dan Hamilton)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>N</span>othing the Winnipeg Jets do generates much excitement from the rest of the hockey world. But when Alexei Zhamnov boldly predicted last September he would score 120 points in the coming season, it caused most Manitobans to do a double-take.</p><p>Zhamnov, after all, had recorded modest 72- and 71-point seasons. True, there had been moments of brilliance. But there had also been more moments when he seemed uninterested and distracted. Couple that with a history of back problems and poor conditioning-he missed the last six weeks of 1993-94 with persistent back pain and was a pack-a-day smoker before he quit last year&mdash;and Zhamnov&rsquo;s chances of hitting 120 seemed as likely as Peter McNeeley&rsquo;s chances of hitting Mike Tyson.</p><p>But that was also before things started to fall into place for the former Russian national team star. In March and April of 1994, Zhamnov spent three weeks at the Kerlan-Jobe clinic in Los Angeles rehabilitating his wonky back. He emerged with a new training regimen and a new sense of determination. He also kicked the weeds and got into shape. And when players and management settled their tiff in January, a very fit and very focused Zhamnov was set upon the hockey world.</p><p>And it resulted in a monster season. Zhamnov ended up with 30 goals and 65 points in 48 games, which pro-rates to 114 points in an 84-game season. He finished third in league scoring, was the second-team all-star center and provided a compelling argument for greatness.</p><p>But the oh-so elegant, oh-so enigmatic Zhamnov also knows it&rsquo;s not that simple. Last year the hockey world was asking, &lsquo;Who is this guy?&rsquo; Now more questions await. And they don&rsquo;t get any easier. Is he really that good? Can he do it again? Zhamnov knows they&rsquo;re out there. But he also thinks he has the answers.</p><p>&ldquo;I want to show this isn&rsquo;t only for one year,&rdquo; Zhamnov said. &ldquo;This is important for me. If I have the same year like last year, there are no questions. I know the NHL is inside me.&rdquo;</p><p>It took him a while to get to this point. After two seasons which promised much, but delivered little, Zhamnov finally put in a full day at the office last year. Now he just has to do it again.</p><p>&ldquo;On any given night he&rsquo;s (Sergei) Fedorov or whoever you want,&rdquo; said Jets&rsquo; GM John Paddock, who suffered through Zhamnov&rsquo;s growing years. &ldquo;But you have to do it consistently and you have to lead your team. I think he finally got it.&rdquo;</p><p>With his play last season, Zhamnov vaulted himself into that new generation of stars who are taking over the NHL. Eric Lindros, Sergei Fedorov and Jaromir Jagr are all more recognizable than the re-headed Zhamnov, but there&rsquo;s no question he belongs with them.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost a shame he plays in Winnipeg because he had some incredible games that nobody knew about it,&rdquo; said <i>Hockey Night in Canada</i> analyst John Garrett. &ldquo;I mean if Sergei Fedorov had some of those games in Detroit, it would have been front-page news for a week. But not a lot of people know how good this guy is.&rdquo;</p><p>They&rsquo;ve got a pretty good idea in Los Angeles. On April 1 at the Great Western Forum, Zhamnov scored five highlight-reel goals in a 77 tie with the Kings, climaxing the performance with a one-handed, backhand deke which almost split Grant Fuhr in two. Four of the goals came while Zhamnov was matched against Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s line.</p><p>&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t just that he scored five goals,&rdquo; said teammate Kris King. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s impressive enough. But they were five great goals. I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like that.&rdquo;</p><p>Zhamnov scored more goals last season in 48 games than he had in either of his first two full seasons. One reason why is he finally seemed to grasp the co-relation between shooting the puck and scoring. The Jets&rsquo; coaching staff had spent two years begging Zhamnov to shoot more. For two years it had the same effect as asking a teenager to clean his room. But when the light finally went on, Zhamnov displayed one of the best one-time slapshots in the league and became a feared man on the point.</p><p>&ldquo;I changed my mind when I went on the ice,&rdquo; said Zhamnov, who averaged a little more than three shots on goal per game. &ldquo;I changed my game. Last year I shoot the puck. Two years ago, I never shoot the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>The Jets&rsquo; acquisition of his life-long buddy Igor Korolev also helped. Zhamnov and Korolev have been friends since they met as 10-year-olds at the Moscow Dynamo training center. They moved through the Dynamo system together and played on the same line with the Elite League champions in the early 1990s.</p><p>Korolev, who has a bit of Sutter in him, then spent two frustrating years on the bench in St. Louis before the Jets picked him off the waiver wire last January. After both players started indifferently, Paddock threw them on a line with another foot soldier, Dallas Drake. Zhamnov started scoring soon after. The line stayed together all season. And the theory in Winnipeg is Korolev&rsquo;s work habits rubbed off on his more-talented, less-motivated friend.</p><p>&ldquo;Igor helped for sure,&rdquo; Zhamnov said. &ldquo;I know how he plays. We know each other very well. And we&rsquo;re friends.&rdquo;</p><p>Zhamnov, in fact, displayed an almost gritty side to his play last season. While he&rsquo;s far too stylish to be mistaken for a grinder-think of Jean Ratelie with a slapshot and you&rsquo;ve pretty much got Zhamnov-he actually fought through checks last season and didn&rsquo;t flop like a beached pickerel when he was pulled down.</p><p>&ldquo;We never thought it wasn&rsquo;t going to happen with Alex,&rdquo; Paddock said, &ldquo;but we were sure wondering when it was going to happen. You have to show patience with players of that ability. Sometimes, that costs people their jobs. But you have to be patient.&rdquo;</p><p>Now Paddock may be well-advised to remember that counsel because the Jets&rsquo; relations with Zhamnov-a tenuous affair at the best of times-looked like they might mm again heading into this season. There was talk Zhamnov might hold out, but he showed up at training camp and will likely play out his option.</p><p>Still, for all the strides he has made on and off the ice in the last two years, there is one tendency of Zhamnov&rsquo;s which keeps Jets&rsquo; management reaching for the Maalox. The guy changes agents more often than most people change their underwear.</p><p>The trend started about the time Zhamnov signed his first pro contract. In the spring of 1992, the Jets thought they&rsquo;d negotiated a deal with Zhamnov&rsquo;s representative, Martin Heller of Athletes and Artists in New York, then were hit with a lawsuit by L.A.-based agent Ron Salcer, who claimed to be the official agent of record.</p><p>Don&rsquo;t blame the Jets for being confused., Zhamnov hired Heller and replaced him with Salcer twice, then went back to Salcer. He then dumped Salcer for Don Meehan, before dismissing Meehan and going back to Salcer recently.</p><p>Zhamnov, for his part, isn&rsquo;t overly concerned about the flap he has created. Business off the ice is one thing. Business on the ice is another. And he knows if he takes care of the latter, the former will take care of itself.</p><p>&ldquo;My first year (in the NHL) is tough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But this is life. Maybe this is my mistake. I wasn&rsquo;t serious about the NHL. In Russian league I&rsquo;m a good player. If I come to NHL I should still be good player. I didn&rsquo;t think about training camp. It was my fault.</p><p>&ldquo;Now I think I understand. I don&rsquo;t want to say how many points I get. I go on the ice and try to do my best job. If that means 120 or 130 points, why not?&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0006-01

Winnineg’s shooting star

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender and Steve Dryden</div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>here is a time in every sport, perhaps once every five or six seasons, when the torch is passed from the game&rsquo;s reigning king to the next.</p><p>It happened in 1979-80, Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s rookie year, when Gretzky tied for the league scoring championship with Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; star Marcel Dionne and went on to win the Art Ross Trophy for the next seven years.</p><p>It happened in 1987-88, when Mario Lemieux interrupted Gretzky&rsquo;s string by capturing his first scoring championship in his fourth year in the league. He has since added three more.</p><p>It will happen again in 1995-96.</p><p>Eric Lindros served ample notice he had arrived last year when he won the Hart Trophy and led the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup semifinals. Lemieux&rsquo;s return provides an opportunity for direct comparison; the first game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Flyers is Nov. 4 in Pittsburgh.</p><p>We anticipate Lemieux finding out first-hand what the rest of the league saw last season: that No. 88&rsquo;s development has progressed in leaps and bounds.</p><p>Lindros will never match Lemieux&rsquo;s pure offensive gifts, but he plays a more complete, more powerful game even when Lemieux is healthy. This is Lindros&rsquo; fourth NHL season. His time has come to assume the title of No. 1 center in the league&mdash;and No. 1 player.</p><p>We consulted team officials and writers from around the league in assembling our rankings of the best 20 NHLers at each position. Left wingers are found on pg. 8, right wingers, pg. 9, defensemen, pg. 10 and goalies, pg. 13.</p><p>There was little debate about the other position leaders:</p><p><b>Left wing:</b> Keith Tkachuk, Winnipeg Jets. Tkachuk, an unsigned free agent, and Brendan Shanahan of the Hartford Whalers are clearly the left wing elite. <i>(See story on pg. 23.)</i> They play a similar style: tough and gritty, with a sneer. Tkachuk gets the edge because at 23, he&rsquo;s only beginning to find his comfort zone.</p><p><b>Right wing:</b> Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins. The 1994-95 Art Ross Trophy winner is second only to Lemieux as the NHL&rsquo;s most dangerous individual offensive force.</p><p><b>Defense:</b> Chris Chelios, Chicago Blackhawks. The two-time Norris Trophy winner can perform at a higher level for more minutes per game than any of his peers.</p><p><b>Goal:</b> Dominik Hasek, Buffalo Sabres. Hasek has won the Vezina Trophy the past two seasons and last year led the league with a .930 save percentage.</p><p>Ranking the rest wasn&rsquo;t as easy.</p><p>Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; goalie Chris Osgood posed a dilemma. He was second in the league in save percentage and fourth in goals-against average last season. He has never played more than 41 games in a season and hasn&rsquo;t been a No. 1 goalie-although he&rsquo;s expected to get that chance. Osgood ended up ranked 15th.</p><p>Each position&rsquo;s ranking include the player&rsquo;s age, projected 1994-95 point totals over an 84-game schedule (1994-95 Proj.) and career points. The goalie ranking includes 1994-95 save percentage and career record.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011689/7119781-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="553" height="710"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Eric Lindros is THN&rsquo;s No. 1-ranked center in the league.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>The centers of attention</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021133/7119774-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="1789" height="1275"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0007-01

Lemieux to Lindros: Eric assumes No. 1

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011652/7119913-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="323" height="381"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Pavel Bure</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021153/7119906-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="321" height="380"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Theoren Fleury</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03711/7119899-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="317" height="378"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Owen Nolan</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04547/7119892-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="326" height="385"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Peter Bondra</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-05412/7119885-1-eng-US/f0009-052.jpg" title="f0009-05" width="320" height="380"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Stephane Richer</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>Jagr on the right track</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-06349/7119878-1-eng-US/f0009-062.jpg" title="f0009-06" width="1777" height="1273"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0009-01

NHL’S TOP 20 RIGHT WINGERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011721/7119979-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="322" height="387"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Chris Chelios</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021259/7119972-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="320" height="383"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Paul Coffey</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03785/7119965-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="322" height="387"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Derian Hatcher</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04534/7119958-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="318" height="383"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Al Maclnnis</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-05397/7119951-1-eng-US/f0010-052.jpg" title="f0010-05" width="320" height="382"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Eric Desjardins</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>Chilos No.1 on blueline</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-06303/7119944-1-eng-US/f0010-062.jpg" title="f0010-06" width="1784" height="1282"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0010-01

NHL’S TOP 20 DEFENSEMEN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011562/7120045-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="323" height="389"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Martin Brodeur</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021094/7120038-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="324" height="387"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Patrick Roy</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03812/7120031-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="328" height="388"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ed Belfour</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04687/7120024-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="327" height="388"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Kirk McLean</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-05547/7120017-1-eng-US/f0013-052.jpg" title="f0013-05" width="324" height="390"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Daren Puppa</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>Dominik still dominates</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-06456/7120010-1-eng-US/f0013-062.jpg" title="f0013-06" width="1809" height="1317"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0013-01

NHL’S TOP 20 GOALIES

<div class="byline">By Tom McMillan</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011667/7120083-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Mario Lemieux will carry his weight-since he&rsquo;s lifting them now.</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span> training-camp scrimmage and six sets of wind sprints were behind him, so Mario Lemieux-sweating profusely-headed straight to the weight room.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re killing me,&rdquo; he said, laughing. &ldquo;But this is what I need.&rdquo;</p><p>Lemieux is serious about this comeback business, which is good news for the Pittsburgh Penguins and bad news for the rest of the NHL. One of the game&rsquo;s unique talents, a four-time scoring champion and twotime Conn Smythe Trophy winner as most valuable player of the playoffs, Lemieux has grand visions of regaining his place of prominence after sitting out last season for medical reasons.</p><p>Two back operations. Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease. Radiation treatments. Anemia. The cumulative effects left him a mere shadow of his former self in the 1994 playoffs&mdash;the last time we&rsquo;d seen him on the ice.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve still got a long way to go, but I&rsquo;m hopeful,&rdquo; Lemieux said during his first week of camp at Southpointe, near Pittsburgh. &ldquo;It has probably been a year and a half or two years since I&rsquo;ve felt this good, both mentally and physically. It&rsquo;s nice to get up in the morning and feel good.&rdquo;</p><p>Gone are the days when Lemieux&rsquo;s back was so sore that he had to have a dressing room attendant lace his skates before each game-for now at least. Gone is the fatigue that slashed his ice time in the third period every night. But even Lemieux himself admits that questions remain. How many games can he play? How effective can he be? Will he ever be Le Magnifique again?</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to get used to the pace again,&rdquo; he said after his first camp scrimmage, his first competition against NHL players in 17 months. &ldquo;I felt like I lost a little speed. But those things will come with getting into hockey shape on the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>Off the ice, Lemieux&rsquo;s condition is superb, probably the best of his career. Personal trainer Tom Plasko worked with him on an extensive rehabilitation and conditioning program for the six months leading up to camp, including weights. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m lifting for the first time,&rdquo; Lemieux said.</p><p>The start of training camp Sept. 10 brought with it high-tempo skating drills in addition to the scrimmage work and Lemieux reported feeling no ill effects.</p><p>&ldquo;We talk all the time and we&rsquo;re going to make our decisions day-to-day,&rdquo; said Penguins&rsquo; coach Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;His goal has been to play 60 or 70 games this season and things are looking good right now. He&rsquo;s one of the first guys on the ice every day and one of the last ones off.&rdquo;</p><p>Others have been getting caught up in the optimism.</p><p>&ldquo;I was amazed when I saw him because there&rsquo;s some real definition in his body,&rdquo; said GM Craig Patrick. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen him look this good. He&rsquo;s getting good direction from his trainer and his doctors.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>&lsquo;Hopefully, I can be one of the best again&rsquo;: Lemieux</b></h2><p>No one-least of all Lemieux-is making any outrageous predictions. The Penguins are now well fortified at center with Ron Francis, Bryan Smolinski and Petr Nedved even if Lemieux can&rsquo;t play as many as 60 games. But hope has been the theme of the Penguins&rsquo; pre-season and hope remains as long as Lemieux keeps skating effortlessly and making those magnificent plays.</p><p>&ldquo;I hope he&rsquo;ll be the old Mario,&rdquo; said right winger Jaromir Jagr, who won the NHL scoring title last year in Lemieux&rsquo;s absence. &ldquo;I think he will be. Maybe he&rsquo;ll be better. He has been working out, which is a big plus. He never did anything like that before.&rdquo;</p><p>Lemieux, meanwhile, believes the upgraded off-ice conditioning may help him make up for lost time.</p><p>&ldquo;My goal is to get back to where I was before (the medical problems),&rdquo; said the two-time winner of the Hart Trophy as the league&rsquo;s most valuable player. &ldquo;Hopefully, I can be one of the best again.</p><p>&ldquo;A lot of people doubt that I can come back and be the player I was. That&rsquo;s motivation for me.&rdquo;</p><p>A motivated Lemieux can be a dangerous Lemieux. Remember, in his last full NHL season&mdash;by Lemieux&rsquo;s standards at least-he missed more than 20 games and still won his fourth scoring championship with 160 points. He had 69 goals in just 60 games.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to have him back,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;You can see the effect it has on the other players. The game needs a guy like him. And from what we&rsquo;ve seen, we&rsquo;re very hopeful about this season.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>MARIO&rsquo;S SCHEDULE</b></h2><p>There is something ironic about a player with chronic back problems planning not to play back-to-back games.</p><p>That&rsquo;s what Mario Lemieux says he&rsquo;ll do as a precautionary measure this season. He expects to play 60-70 games and the first casualties of Lemieux&rsquo;s campaign to remain healthy all season are games on consecutive nights.</p><p>The Pittsburgh Penguins have 15 such pairings during the season, including a month-high four in November.</p><p>Hopes are Lemieux will eventually feel confident and well enough to play in back-to-back games.</p><p>Lemieux says he will be judicious about West Coast trips as well. Long flights have been blamed for past problems.</p><p>The Penguins have four trips as far west or further than Calgary, including a three-gamer to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, Feb. 27-March 1.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011535/7120076-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="503" height="833"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0014-01

Optimism abounds as Lemieux returns to ice

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><p>Only one team can be up to the challenge of winning the Stanley Cup, but here are the most pressing challenges facing each team this season:</p><p><b>Mighty Ducks of Anaheim:</b> Improve the specialty teams. The Ducks were last on the power play and penalty killing. Further development from Paul Kariya and Oleg Tverdovsky is necessary.</p><p><b>Boston Bruins:</b> Adjust to a new home. Oh rats, the Bruins will no longer be able to count on the opposing teams suffering from claustrophobia in the old Boston Gawden. It&rsquo;s the FleetCenter now.</p><p><b>Buffalo Sabres:</b> Replace Alexander Mogilny&rsquo;s offense. It won&rsquo;t come from Dale Hawerchuk because he&rsquo;s gone too. Now is the time for Jason Dawe, Derek Plant and rookie Brian Holzinger to emerge.</p><p><b>Calgary Flames:</b> Play with more discipline. The Flames were the NHL&rsquo;s most-penalized team last season, averaging 26 minutes per game. That&rsquo;s bad news with a crackdown coming.</p><p><b>Chicago Blackhawks:</b> Restore peace in the family. Darryl Sutter is out; Craig Hartsburg and Bob Probert are in and Jeremy Roenick&rsquo;s status is uncertain. There were many questions as training camp opened.</p><p><b>Colorado Avalanche:</b> Find a leader. The Avalanche has an abundance of talent, but it needs a warrior. That was supposed to be Wendel Clark, but management wasn&rsquo;t happy with the job he did.</p><p><b>Dallas Stars:</b> Find a supporting cast for Mike Modano. The Stars&rsquo; defense ranks with the best in the league, but Modano, who is coming off a sub-par year, needs help up front.</p><p><b>Detroit Red Wings:</b> Add size at forward. The Red Wings dominated against medium-sized opponents last season, but it was clear in the final they were too small to handle the New Jersey Devils.</p><p><b>Edmonton Oilers:</b> Get some offense from the blueline. Igor Kravchuk scored 12 goals two years ago and a pro-rated 16 last season. The Oilers don&rsquo;t have any other offense-minded blueliners.</p><p><b>Florida Panthers:</b> Stick to the game plan. They fired Roger Neilson because he wouldn&rsquo;t develop their youngsters. It would be an insult to the good job he did if they scrap the youth movement when the losses pile up.</p><p><b>Hartford Whalers:</b> Prove they can score more. The Whalers have guys who are capable of filling the net, but have underachieved. One big factor will be Glen Wesley stepping up on the power play.</p><p><b>Los Angeles Kings:</b> improve the left side. It used to be a strength with Luc Robitaille and Tomas Sandstrom; now it&rsquo;s a huge concern with high expectations for Dimitri Khristich.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011451/7120121-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="535" height="770"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Edmonton must get blueline offense beyond Igor Kravchuk.</b></figcaption></div><p><b>Montreal Canadiens:</b> Find road success. Montreal fans will tell you there was nothing funny about missing the playoffs last season, but the truth is, their road record was a joke. It was worst in the league, in fact.</p><h2><b>Cup champs must deal with fat cat syndrome</b></h2><p><b>New Jersey Devils:</b> Shake the hangover. Assuming the Devils resign all their free agents&mdash;or receive something tangible in return for them-they still have to deal with the fat-cat syndrome.</p><p><b>New York Islanders:</b> Find a goalie. Tommy Salo dominated the International League last season and Eric Fichaud has potential. All of which puts holdovers Tommy Soderstrom and Jamie McLennan on report.</p><p><b>New York Rangers:</b> Meet high expectations. The Rangers have loaded up once again with veteran talent in a run for the Cup so anything less than a final four appearance will be considered a failure.</p><p><b>Ottawa Senators:</b> Gain some credibility. The Senators have been the laughingstock of the NHL for three years now. Another last-place finish would simply continue the tradition.</p><p><b>Philadelphia Flyers:</b> Get stability in goal. Led by the Legion of Doom line and an improved defense, the Flyers won&rsquo;t be a serious Cup threat until their goal crease is no longer the Legion of Gloom.</p><p><b>Pittsburgh Penguins:</b> Rebuild the blueline. Let&rsquo;s see, they lost Larry Murphy and Kjell and Ulf Samuelsson from last year&rsquo;s defense. Might replacing them be near the top of the Penguins&rsquo; priority list?</p><p><b>St. Louis Blues:</b> Replace Cujo. The Blues traded Curtis Joseph and placed faith in Grant (Meat Loaf) Fuhr. He repaid them by arriving to training camp overweight and was promptly asked to leave.</p><p><b>San Jose Sharks:</b> Win with a young defense. Six of the Sharks&rsquo; top eight defenseman are 26 or under, including Vlastimil Kroupa (20), Mike Rathje (21) and Michal Sykora (22).</p><p><b>Tampa Bay Lightning:</b> Find some offense. Only Rorida and Ottawa scored fewer goals than the Lightning last season. The emergence of Chris Gratton would certainly be a bonus.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011300/7120114-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="543" height="778"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>It&rsquo;s time for Chris Gratton to bust out offensively in Tampa.</b></figcaption></div><p><b>Toronto Maple Leafs:</b> Inject youth into the lineup. This will be difficult since the Leafs traded several blue-chip prospects. The young players expected to step in are not projected to be top-two line performers.</p><p><b>Vancouver Canucks:</b> Avoid dressing room conflict. If Russians Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny&mdash;the team&rsquo;s marquee players-fail to deliver, petty jealousies could surface and divide the team.</p><p><b>Washington Capitals:</b> Find a goal-scorer aside from Peter Bondra. His 34 goals led the NHL, but represented a quarter of his team&rsquo;s total output. A lot will be expected from Jason Allison and Pat Peake.</p><p><b>Winnipeg Jets:</b> Overcome outside distractions, namely the team&rsquo;s possible move to Minnesota for the 1996-97 season. Perhaps a call to the Dallas Stars, who faced the same scenario two years ago, is in order.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-01

Calling all teams: Here are your marching orders

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t&rsquo;s not that winners of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award have been total NHL flops. After all, Neal Broten, Tom Kurvers and Paul Kariya have won the Hobey. But then again, so have Scott Fusco, Tony Hrkac and Lane MacDonald.</p><p>Brian Holzinger was U.S. college hockey&rsquo;s best player last season and enters his first NHL training camp knowing what a checkered history Hobey winners have had in the NHL.</p><p>He&rsquo;ll give it the old college try. No Hobey winner has ever finished as high as second in voting for the Calder Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top rookie. And while Holzinger can&rsquo;t be considered a favorite, he is certainly among the top 10 candidates.</p><p>&ldquo;You almost wonder if you&rsquo;ve been honored with the kiss of death,&rdquo; said Holzinger, a 22-year-old native of Parma, Ohio. &ldquo;I hope to use it as a little added motivation to succeed.&rdquo;</p><p>Holzinger, a 23-year-oId center, does have several things working in his favor.</p><p>For starters, he played in four regular-season and four playoff games last season. And when the Sabres decided not to sign center Dale Hawerchuk, Holzinger moved up on the team&rsquo;s depth chart to No. 3. He might even work his way to No. 2 behind Pat LaFontaine if he proves himself to be a more dangerous offensive threat than Mike Peca.</p><p>Holzinger led Bowling Green in scoring with 35 goals and 68 points in 38 games and made a solid initial impression with the Sabres. He set up three goals in a late-season stint before adding two goals and an assist in the playoffs.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011335/7120159-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="543" height="781"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Brian Holzinger hopes the Hobey isn&rsquo;t the &ldquo;kiss of death.&rdquo;</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;Brian has excellent speed and hands and he goes to the net well,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; GM John Muckier. &ldquo;If there was one question we had about him it was, can he be productive at the NHL level? He seemed to answer that question in the playoffs last season.&rdquo;</p><p>Last year we told you Peter Forsberg of the Quebec Nordiques and Paul Kariya of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were the leading candidates to win the Calder. Forsberg won it and Kariya enjoyed a fine freshman season.</p><p>But Jim Carey, who placed second in voting, didn&rsquo;t even make our top 10. Carey seized an opportunity with the Washington Capitals and finished second in Calder voting. Given the same opportunity with the New York Islanders, Eric Fichaud could do the same.</p><p>The favorite entering the season is Saku Koivu of the Montreal Canadiens.</p><p>Under normal circumstances our top-10 list would include defenseman Bryan Berard, drafted No. 1 overall by the Ottawa Senators last July. But Berard&rsquo;s agent Tom Laidlaw said the 18-year-old rearguard would only play in the NHL this season if he were traded to another team.</p><p>Here are the nine players who join Holzinger as top candidates for the Calder, listed in alphabetical order:</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011237/7120152-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="1137" height="1465"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Eric Daze doesn&rsquo;t play a physical game, but he has a great touch.</b></figcaption></div><p><b>Eric Daze, RW, Chicago (20):</b> Daze is a natural goal-scorer who joined the Chicago Blackhawks for their run to the semifinals last season. At 6-foot-4 and 202 pounds, Daze doesn&rsquo;t play a physical game, but has a nice touch in close. He scored 54 goals with the Beauport Harfangs of the Quebec League last season.</p><p><b>Anders Eriksson, D, Detroit (20):</b> Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman isn&rsquo;t in the habit of giving rookies a lot of ice time, but he probably won&rsquo;t have a choice with the Red Wings&rsquo; first-round choice from 1993. The 6-foot-3 and 218-pound Eriksson was an all-star at the 1995 WJC, where he led Sweden in scoring.</p><p><b>Ed Jovanovski, D, Florida (19):</b> The No. 1 pick in the 1994 NHL draft averaged a point and four penalty minutes per game in two junior seasons with the OHL&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires. He takes chances offensively, which could cost him early in his NHL career, but has the potential to develop into a two-way threat. He will get ample opportunity under new Florida Panthers&rsquo; coach Doug MacLean.</p><h2><b>Koivu early favorite for first-year honor</b></h2><p><b>Chad Kilger, C, Anaheim (18):</b> Any team with any amount of depth would be tempted to return the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Kilger to junior for further developing. The Mighty Ducks are so shallow they could make him their No. 1 pivot. Which means he&rsquo;ll play with creative left winger Paul Kariya.</p><p><b>Saku Koivu, C, Montreal (19):</b> Koivu, recognized by THN as the best player not in the NHL last season, led TPS Turku with 74 points and was instrumental in Finland winning its first-ever World Championship. He&rsquo;s just 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, but had 73 penalty minutes in 45 games. He does everything at top speed and top intensity.</p><p><b>Viktor Kozlov, LW, San Jose (20):</b> A broken ankle slowed Kozlov last season, but all indications are the 6-foot-5 and 225-pound left winger is ready to live up to expectations. Kozlov&rsquo;s skating is excellent and he plays a finesse game.</p><p><b>Jere Lehtinen, RW, Dallas (22):</b> The Stars have been anxiously awaiting Lehtinen&rsquo;s arrival. Playing on a line with Koivu last season, he scored 19 goals and 42 points in 39 games for TPS Turku. The Stars hope pairing Lehtinen with center Mike Modano will be a boon for both players.</p><p><b>Jeff O&rsquo;Neill, C, Hartford (19):</b> With a one-way deal in the first year of his contract, O&rsquo;Neill will be given every opportunity to succeed with the Hartford Whalers. He is gritty, likes to get involved and is more of a setup man than a goal-scorer.</p><p><b>Brendan Witt, D, Washington (20):</b> The 6-foot-l and 205-pound defenseman took last season off in a contract dispute, but he could be an impact player. Witt likely won&rsquo;t put up Calder-type numbers-he had just eight goals in 56 games in junior two years ago-but if he can be a tough, steadying influence on the Washington Capitals&rsquo; blueline, he&rsquo;ll get some support.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-01

Rookie report: From Hobey to Calder for Holzinger?

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><p>Harry Sinden didn&rsquo;t seem quite sure how to respond when told he has presided over more victories than any GM in NHL history.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s interesting,&rdquo; said the Boston Bruins&rsquo; president-GM with a slightly self-conscious chuckle. &ldquo;Not many general managers have had the chance, I guess. I&rsquo;ve been at it a long time.&rdquo;</p><p>Sinden has done it for 23 seasons and once the Bruins win the second game in his 24th year, he will have his 1,000th victory as a GM.</p><p>Sinden&rsquo;s job is not simple, but he subscribes to a philosophy that he says offers a simple explanation for nearly a quarter-century of success.</p><p>&ldquo;From my standpoint,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you have a responsibility to the fans to put a good team on the ice and a responsibility to your owner to manage his money properly.&rdquo;</p><p>Though Boston&rsquo;s fans, and perhaps even club owner Jeremy Jacobs, have not always been supportive of the way Sinden has fulfilled his responsibilities, he has stayed on the job longer than he ever dreamed when he took it Oct. 5, 1972. He has worked for three owners and four team presidents, overseeing a total of 11 coaches in the process. (That coaching list doesn&rsquo;t include Sinden, who twice has taken over for coaches he fired in mid-season.)</p><p>As with all success stories, there&rsquo;s a bit of irony. Denied the compensation and responsibility he sought after coaching the Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 1969-70, Sinden responded by leaving the game for two years. When team president Weston Adams Jr., lured him out of private business in 1972, it was with the understanding Sinden would be involved in all phases of the operation.</p><p>&ldquo;Some general managers are really only concerned with the player end of the business, and don&rsquo;t get me wrong, that&rsquo;s the most important end of it,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;They leave all the rest of the business up to somebody else. I didn&rsquo;t want that. I was very interested in getting involved in the management and business side of the team as it concerned radio, TV, selling tickets-all the rest of it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011122/7120197-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="537" height="694"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Harry Sinden</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>CHARTING GM WINS</b></h2><p>Harry Sinden inconspicuously became the winningest GM in 1993. He tops the all-time chart two regular-season wins from 1,000.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02765/7120190-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="512" height="674"></div><p>Sinden learned enough about how his team and the NHL operates to be added to the Hall of Fame as a builder in 1983. He passes much of the credit to Jacobs, who bought the Bruins in 1975.</p><p>&ldquo;If anybody could find, I&rsquo;m not going to say easier, but a better owner to work with than Jerry Jacobs, I&rsquo;d like to know who it is,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;What I get from him is direction, guidance and a great sounding board. He expects success, he loves the gamey, takes a great interest in the league and league affairs, but he doesn&rsquo;t run the team. There&rsquo;s a big difference.&rdquo;</p><p>Sinden has taken his share of beatings from fans and the local media for his and Jacobs&rsquo; policy of fiscal restraint in an era of skyrocketing player salaries. That philosophy has enabled the Bruins to sign their five valuable assets-defensemen Ray Bourque and Don Sweeney and forwards Cam Neely, Adam Oates and Kevin Stevens&mdash;to long-term contracts at reasonable salaries (none above $2.5 million) at a time when several teams are being forced to trim payrolls to stay afloat.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re the key players on the team and we think we&rsquo;re going to take them to the end of their careers here,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s important to us. They&rsquo;re key to the point that no matter who the supporting cast is, if they don&rsquo;t perform, we can&rsquo;t win.&rdquo;</p><p>Sinden has seen peaks (trades for Jean Ratelle, Rick Middleton, Neely and Oates) valleys (trading Bobby Orr) and nearly everything in between since moving behind a desk in 1972, but he hasn&rsquo;t won a Cup as GM.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re in it for,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the goal this year, as it is every year. We&rsquo;ve made a lot of changes to the team and we&rsquo;re moving into a new building (FleetCenter). It&rsquo;s an exciting time and I&rsquo;m excited about our chances.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-01

Dean of GMs Sinden on verge of 1,000 wins

<div class="byline">By Rich Chore</div><p class="dropcap"><span>N</span>othing gamers respect for an organization more than a Stanley Cup. But the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; triumph in the battle for legitimacy was born out of failure more than a year before.</p><p>The Devils truly began to turn things around in 1994 with their run to the Eastern Conference final and their classic seven-game, double over-time loss to the New York Rangers. They came within one goal of the Stanley Cup final and served notice they would be back before long.</p><p>&ldquo;We were legitimized that year,&rdquo; said Mike McCall, Devils&rsquo; vice-president, sales and marketing. &ldquo;There was a new respect from everybody in the New York marketplace for this team. The fact that we backed it up this past year has changed everything.&rdquo;</p><p>Since completing a four-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final June 24, the Devils have seen an increase in ticket sales, respect from the New York-New Jersey metropolitan business community and a rise in the self esteem of fans.</p><p>When Wayne Gretzky talks, people listen. And when The Great One called the Devils a Mickey Mouse organization in 1984, it attached a label to them that took more than 10 years to lose.</p><p>Most importantly, the Devils are still in New Jersey. When there were threats the team might be lured to Nashville by a multi-million dollar offer, Devils&rsquo; fans responded with banners such as the one which read: &ldquo;Nashville already has enough toothless people.&rdquo;</p><p>Many experts agree the value of the franchise is now about $60 million after the Cup victory, an improved Meadowlands Arena lease and promised improvements to the Meadowlands. <i>(Financial World</i> magazine estimated its value at $51 million last year.) That means the value of the franchise has almost doubled since John McMullen and two partners purchased the team in 1982.</p><p>On the ice, the Devils are in terrific shape. Their hockey department is among the best in the league. They have one of the best and most bountiful list of NHL prospects in their system and their American League affiliate, the Albany River Rats, captured the Calder Cup last season.</p><p>&ldquo;The years of how the Devils used to be perceived as an organization are gone,&rdquo; McCall said. &ldquo;I look at Lou Lamoriello as a general manager and he put together what we feel is the best organization in hockey from top to bottom. That is spilling over. We no longer have to sell people in what the Devils are. They&rsquo;re telling us.&rdquo;</p><p>The ugly battle for lease amendments and the threatened move to Nashville this summer delayed the anticipated surge in 1995-96 season-ticket requests. For a time, the team wasn&rsquo;t even accepting orders. However, that changed when a tentative agreement to keep the team in New Jersey was announced July 13.</p><p>Lamoriello said the Devils have already surpassed their 1994-95 season-ticket figures, estimated at just over 10,000. The team expected to enter this season with almost 14,000 full and partial season ticketholders.</p><p>Since adopting the team&rsquo;s new black, red and white colors in 1992 in place of the often-criticized red and green, Devils&rsquo; merchandise has consistently sold well. They ranked 12th among the 26 NHL teams for combined retail sales in the U.S. and Canada prior to their championship.</p><p>Retail sales numbers are issued at the end of the fiscal year in June. The last numbers do not reflect the Stanley Cup for the Devils.</p><p>The hit NBC sitcom <i>Seinfeld</i> used a Martin Brodeur sweater in one episode which featured an overzealous Devils&rsquo; fan. And rap star Queen Latifah was pictured on the cover of one magazine wearing a Devils&rsquo; sweater.</p><p>But for all their exposure, the Devils are still miles behind the New York Rangers in the public consciousness. It has been that way since they moved from Colorado in 1982 and many suggest it will always be that way no matter how many Cups they win, no matter whether Queen Latifah or Queen Elizabeth wears their sweaters.</p><p>&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t a theory, it&rsquo;s a reality that we&rsquo;ve been in the shadow of the Rangers,&rdquo; McCall said, &ldquo;but I feel like that has been lifted. You&rsquo;re not going to make up for 60 years in one year. I don&rsquo;t want to say it&rsquo;s gone, but we feel that kind of pressure less around here.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>NEW JERSEY&rsquo;S CHALLENGES</b></h2><p>Here are the main challenges and changes facing the New Jersey Devils as they defend the Cup.</p><p>&#9633; Coach Jacques Lemaire must adjust to the NHL crackdown on obstruction fouls, something that was brought on in part by the Devils&rsquo; success last season.</p><p>&#9633; Chris Nilan takes over as assistant coach from Larry Robinson, who left to become head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.</p><p>&#9633; Reliable defenseman Bruce Driver signed as a free agent with the New York Rangers.</p><p>&#9633; After playing just four games last year, left winger Valeri Zelepukin returns from a career-threatening eye injury.</p><p>&#9633; Three key players were not at camp because of contract problems: goalie Martin Brodeur, defenseman Scott Niedermayer and right winger Claude Lemieux.</p><h2><b>Times changing in New York market</b></h2><p>&ldquo;The only team New Jersey fans could root for 10-15 years ago was the Rangers,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;It takes time, but it is changing. I think people recognize what has transpired. When you hear the name New Jersey Devils now, you identify it with a winner. That&rsquo;s where the change is.&rdquo;</p><p>A high volume of Rangers&rsquo; souvenirs is still sold at the Meadowlands and the true test of the shift in fans won&rsquo;t come until the first few Rangers-Devils meetings in New Jersey. In the past, the Meadowlands was filled with Rangers&rsquo; fans, making it a road game for the Devils in their own building.</p><p>Unfortunately, the value of the team&rsquo;s radio broadcasts have not measurably increased. Although the Devils remain on a major 50,000 watt New York City station, WABC-AM, they rank far behind the New York Yankees and talk format.</p><p>Slightly different is the television situation. SportsChannel, a premium pay channel which owns the rights to Devils&rsquo; broadcasts, benefitted enough from the Stanley Cup season to aggressively pursue the possibility of getting on basic cable TV. Negotiations are currently taking place by SportsChannel to lock up the Devils on a long-term basis.</p><p>Even the Devils&rsquo; own landlord, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, has shown new respect. Of course, that came more from threats to move to Nashville than it did by winning the Stanley Cup.</p><p>In a tentative 12-year agreement, the Devils had their share of parking and concessions revenues increased from the previous 34.2 per cent of gross sales. They also received a promise from the Sports Authority for $12-15 million in renovations to the arena, including possibly lowering the ceiling for better acoustics, adding 14 luxury suites and renovating the existing 29 suites, adding a restaurant to the complex, adding 1,600 first-class seats and hanging additional advertising panels inside and outside the arena. They also began a search to rename the building from the Brendan Byrne Arena to a corporate name at an annual fee of $2-5 million for 10-20 years.</p><p>Continental Airlines and AT&T were among the corporations in the running for sponsorship of the arena.</p><p>&ldquo;Our corporate partners and sponsors are not just more anxious,&rdquo; McCall said. &ldquo;They have a whole different perspective of the Devils.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Winning Devils making gains all over

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div><p class="dropcap"><span>K</span>eith Tkachuk has &lsquo;No Fear&rsquo; written all over him. In the comers, on top of the crease, with a right cross to the jaw, the captain of the Winnipeg Jets is fearless.</p><p>Catch him walking the strip at Portage and Main or flirting with disaster on the 17th hole at Pine Ridge in Winnipeg, Tkachuk is just as fearless.</p><p>A casual wear clothing line called &lsquo;No Fear&rsquo; enlisted Tkachuk as its promotional model last year and the two fit together like fat on a pig, save for the unusual juxtaposition of Tkachuk traipsing around in casual wear.</p><p>At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Tkachuk is the antithesis of a casual player. He is not the best goal-scorer in the game, nor the nastiest neanderthal, but he does lead the league in issuing wake-up calls.</p><p>No player in the game combines skill and toughness better than the Jets&rsquo; left winger-at least according to the Intimidation Quotient. Tkachuk won the High IQ Award, edging Brendan Shanahan, then of the St. Louis Blues, for the second straight year.</p><p>The IQ statistic is calculated by multiplying a player&rsquo;s goal total by three and adding amended penalty minutes (total minutes minus game and 10-minute misconducts).</p><p>Players are required to have both a minimum 30 goals and 100 amended PIM to register on the IQ scale. The requirements were reduced to 15 goals and 50 PIM due to the shortened NHL season.</p><p>Tkachuk&rsquo;s winning calculation is: 22 (goals) x 3=66, plus 122 (152 PIM minus 30 in misconducts)=188. Shanahan&rsquo;s runner-up total is 20 (goals) x 3=60, plus 116 (136 PIM minus 20 in misconducts)=176.</p><p>Rick Tocchet, then of the Pittsburgh Penguins, was the first winner in 1992-93, with an IQ rating of 336. Tkachuk edged Shanahan 318-317 last season.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not something I think about during the season, obviously,&rdquo; Tkachuk said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s nice to win it again. When you look at who else is on the list, you realize it&rsquo;s a pretty good accomplishment.&rdquo;</p><p>The High IQ top-10 list is a who&rsquo;s who of the game&rsquo;s top-scoring power forwards. Theoren Fleury of the Calgary Flames is small, but he&rsquo;s always involved and he shared the High IQ goal-scoring lead with Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers at 29. They finished third and fourth respectively.</p><p>Rounding out the top-10 list were Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins, Gooff Courtnail of the Vancouver Canucks (now St. Louis), Joe Murphy of the Chicago Blackhawks, Jason Arnott of the Edmonton Oilers, Pat Verbeek of the New York Rangers, Tocchet of the Los Angeles Kings and Keith Primeau of the Detroit Red Wings.</p><p>Tkachuk, 23, said there&rsquo;s no real secret to maintaining his status as the game&rsquo;s best when it comes to brawn and brilliance.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a big kid, even in college, so my whole approach was to keep it simple,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Just go up and down the wing, bang a lot and work hard.&rdquo;</p><p>The Melrose, Mass., native always had a knack for scoring, but he wasn&rsquo;t what you would call a natural. Drafted 19th overall in 1990 from Malden High School, Tkachuk moved on to Boston University.</p><p>&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t help notice him when I was watching my son Nick at BU,&rdquo; said Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; executive Rogie Vachon. &ldquo;You could see he had good hands and a mean streak, but he was so overweight he couldn&rsquo;t skate all that great.</p><p>&ldquo;Look at him now and skating isn&rsquo;t a problem. He&rsquo;s (Winnipeg&rsquo;s) most valuable player because he can play any type of game. He can change tempos from an aggressive checker in a one-goal game to the guy you look for to score in a wide-open game. Only a few players in the game can do that.&rdquo;</p><p>Tkachuk was gracious when told about winning the High IQ award. Even with two outstanding seasons in the bank, he preferred to talk about achieving consistency and a desire to lead the Jets into the playoffs.</p><p>And he&rsquo;s still not so sure he&rsquo;s the best of a select lot.</p><p>&ldquo;Erie is Eric,&rdquo; Tkachuk said of Lindros, the NHL&rsquo;s Hart Trophy winner and the undisputed premier power forward. &ldquo;In my mind, there&rsquo;s no comparison. You build a team around a player like Eric. Everyone would want to be like him.&rdquo;</p><p>Despite the hard exterior of Tkachuk and Lindros, it&rsquo;s the soft side that endears them to new Winnipeg coach Terry Simpson.</p><p>&ldquo;Both are great players because of their consideration,&rdquo; said Simpson, who coached Lindros in 1993-94. &ldquo;They play an unselfish game. They always put the team ahead of themselves. They put the game into perspective. They play hard.&rdquo;</p><p>Almost too hard for some people.</p><p>&ldquo;When I was playing goal,&rdquo; Vachon said, &ldquo;it was guys like Gary Domhoefer who were always in my face. I used to have nightmares about him. Now it&rsquo;s Tkachuk.&rdquo;</p><p>As Tkachuk&rsquo;s reputation grows, so do the number of opponents coming after him.</p><p>&ldquo;As captain, I have to be smart about what I do out there,&rdquo; Tkachuk said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to help the team by being stupid. Guys are coming after me more so I have to be careful about picking my spots.&rdquo;</p><p>One thing Tkachuk can&rsquo;t change is the way he approaches a game. Take golf for example. He prefers to pulverize the ball with wild swings and slam-dunk putts rather than with persuasion and gentle taps.</p><p>&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m a bit of a Hailer,&rdquo; Tkachuk said, &ldquo;but that&rsquo;s me.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>POWER PLAYERS</b></h2><p>Players with 15 goals and 50 penalty minutes received consideration for the THN High IQ Award. An allowance was made for the shortened season. By last year&rsquo;s standards, which work out to 17 pro-rated goals and 57 PIM. only six players qualified.</p><p><b>Player, position, team</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01905/7120252-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="521" height="1532"></div><p>*Shanahan is now with Hartford</p><p>**Courtnall is now with St. Louis<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0023-01

‘Fearless’ Tkachuk retains High IQ title

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><p>Sam McMaster can smell a punch line the way a lunging halfback can sense the goal line.</p><p>&ldquo;Will the Los Angeles Kings make the playoffs this year?&rdquo; the team&rsquo;s second-year GM is asked.</p><p>&ldquo;Is there snow in the Yukon?&rdquo; comes the answer.</p><p>After a tumultuous season as a rookie GM, McMaster can at least maintain his sense of humor.</p><p>The Kings staggered to a 16-23-9 record last season, finished 20th overall and missed the playoffs for the second straight season. For many, the reason was McMaster.</p><p>His swap of Luc Robitaille for Rick Tocchet prompted fan outrage, but was largely a saw-off. But on Valentine&rsquo;s Day, McMaster traded defensemen Alexei Zhitnik and Charlie Huddy, backup goaltender Robb Stauber and a fifth-round draft choice to the Buffalo Sabres for goalie Grant Fuhr and defensemen Philippe Boucher and Denis Tsygurov.</p><p>None of the players McMaster acquired helped. Fuhr was a bust in Los Angeles-although he did piece together an excellent string near the end of his tenure&mdash;and the Kings did not attempt to re-sign him as a free agent. Boucher broke his hand and was out for the season shortly after arriving in Los Angeles and Tsygurov continued his unimpressive play.</p><p>McMaster was roasted for the deal. Critics dubbed him McMaster the Disaster and the firestorm compounded when he fired coach Barry Melrose, who had led the Kings to the Stanley Cup final in 1993. Few noted Zhitnik&rsquo;s mediocre play in Buffalo.</p><p>McMaster said the experience stung, but did not change him.</p><p>&ldquo;When things go wrong and you are being blamed, you&rsquo;re not a human being if it doesn&rsquo;t affect you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Do you question your abilities, does it affect your confidence level? Maybe. You worry, you lose sleep. I&rsquo;m a big worrier, but I only worry for 24 hours. After that you forget about it and go on with the job.&rdquo;</p><p>McMaster still feels the key to the deal is Boucher, a hard-shooting 6-foot-1 offensive defenseman.</p><p>And as if to prove he hadn&rsquo;t been criticized into inaction, he swung another controversial deal at the entry draft, packaging his first- and fourth-round picks in 1996 to the Washington Capitals for Dimitri Khristich and minor-league goalie Byron Dafoe.</p><p>Theoretically, the Kings may have traded the first overall pick for a goalie who couldn&rsquo;t stick with Washington and a dependable 30-goal scorer who slumped to a dozen goals over 48 games last season.</p><p>McMaster scoffs at the notion that he has traded a possible first overall selection.</p><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t make trades thinking you&rsquo;re going to be a loser. I&rsquo;m not sitting around thinking about my job,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to make the playoffs and I&rsquo;m trying to improve the Los Angels Kings. You&rsquo;re talking about a proven upper-echelon player. Khristich is worth a first-round pick. I can&rsquo;t go to the draft and get a 30-goal scorer.&rdquo;</p><p>The other end of the deal, Dafoe for a fourth-rounder, is a natural, McMaster said, since it boosts the club&rsquo;s quotient of young talent in goal and provides a cushion between incumbent stopper Kelly Hrudey and goalie of the future Jamie Storr.</p><p>Clearly, the Kings landed the most coveted coaching prospect in the game in Larry Robinson. Barring injuries, those moves will be enough, McMaster said, to help the Kings return to the post-season.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m an eternal optimist,&rdquo; McMaster said. &ldquo;I walk into a dark room and look for the light. I learned more in one year of being an NHL general manager than most people learn in four.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Kings’ GM McMaster out to avoid disaster

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><p>Ted Nolan has walked into one of the toughest coaching jobs in the NHL, but he has already won.</p><p>One of only a handful of native people to play in the NHL, he is the second native to coach there. Nolan hopes to outshine the only other, former Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; captain and coach George Armstrong, who won just 17 of 55 games.</p><p>Nolan has won out over those critics who said he must pay a lengthy apprenticeship in the minors. &ldquo;I said if I was going to ride the buses, I would ride them in junior,&rdquo; Nolan said.</p><p>He has won a Memorial Cup with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and bolstered long-held and long-term political aspirations. &ldquo;This is a man who wants to be chief of the First Nations,&rdquo; said longtime friend Sherry Bassin, the assistant GM of the Colorado Avalanche.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01882/7120307-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="547" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ted Nolan is the second native to become an NHL head coach.</b></figcaption></div><p>Nolan is 37, widely admired for both his personal integrity and work as a role model for aboriginal people on both sides of the border.</p><p>He was hired by Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; president Dick Moss and GM John Muckier to preside over the reconstruction of the Sabres and change their chemistry from bob and weave to grip and grin. Last season, spent with the Hartford Whalers, was his first as an NHL assistant coach. He is not an Xs and Os wizard. Tempo and commitment, not schemes and game plans, are his team&rsquo;s trademarks.</p><p>&ldquo;The bottom line is I like aggressive hockey,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;Buffalo is a blue-collar town and that&rsquo;s the thing I&rsquo;m used to. You&rsquo;re not going to see anything fancy.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s good because fancy fled west when the Sabres traded Alexander Mogilny to the Vancouver Canucks and let Dale Hawerchuk flee to the St. Louis Blues as a free agent.</p><p>Those moves are the result of payroll decisions and not long-term planning so the lunch pail gang Nolan is being asked to direct is identifiable as considerably less talented, not discerably bigger and a whole lot cheaper. This is a team, in the shortterm at least, that seems poised for a nosedive.</p><p>All coaches, of course, are hired to eventually be fired, the question is the time frame. Nolan said he has heard the whispers. &ldquo;John Muckier hires people to be successful,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that I&rsquo;m going to be in tough.&rdquo;</p><p>Nolan, who played eight seasons and 76 games in the NHL, has converted doubters throughout his career with his track record in junior (186154-28) and three consecutive Memorial Cup appearances. Those who know him say behind his respectful demeanor is a charged competitor who demands honesty.</p><p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t take advantage of Ted Nolan,&rdquo; Bassin said. &ldquo;He knows what winning is about and he knows what the game is about.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0025-01

Sabres’ Nolan a winner in more ways than one

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div><p>The Northeast is unique among NHL divisions.</p><p>How so, you ask? With the Quebec Nordiques headed for Colorado, there is no Stanley Cup champion anywhere in sight.</p><p>Think about it. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux? Mario could make the greatest comeback since Lazarus and the Penguins will still have to win every game 123-122. The Boston Bruins with Kevin Stevens? Or Montreal Canadiens with Saku Koivu? Stanley Cup champs? C&rsquo;mon. You&rsquo;re smoking wacky weed with the Garden leprechauns and Forum ghosts.</p><p>The truth is the best team in the Northeast may be the ninth-best team in the NHL. This is why the Hartford Whalers could finish first in the Northeast. They won&rsquo;t, but the point is they could. The Whalers will make the playoffs for the first time since 1992, conceivably finishing between fourth and seventh in the conference.</p><p>&ldquo;We have added the leadership and a major impact player with Brendan Shanahan,&rdquo; said Whalers&rsquo; GM Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;The franchise needed it for a long, long time.&rdquo;</p><p>Mix Shanahan into a maturing team led by a goalie Sean Burke and we&rsquo;ll pencil the Whalers in at No. 3 in the division. Boston gets a slight nod over Pittsburgh because of better balance.</p><p>But we are damning everyone with the slightest of praise. Ninety points could win the division. Montreal, the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators will follow in order.</p><p>The Bruins were impotent against the New Jersey Devils in the playoffs. But before the doomsayers could deliver the wrecking ball to the Bruins as hard as it will hit the Garden, GM Harry Sinden delivered a beauty: Stevens and Shawn McEachern for Bryan Smolinski and Glen Murray. At 30, Stevens is no longer the No. 1 power forward in the game. But the Boston kid gives the Bruins help where they need it most: Scoring depth. The addition of Todd Elik is an understated, yet needed move.</p><p>The huge concern is Al Iafrate. Wild Thing we think we love you, but nobody knows for sure how your knee is and which direction the spirit will move you. Without him, the Bruins&rsquo; defense hurts after Ray Bourque and Don Sweeney.</p><p>Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson, Stevens, McEachern, Luc Robitaille, Larry Murphy, Joe Mullen and John Cullen are gone from the Penguins. Petr Nedved, Sergei Zubov, Smolinski, Murray and Dmitri Mironov are in.</p><p>Despite solid goaltending, that Penguins&rsquo; defense is softer than the toilet tissue at Civic Arena.</p><p>After jumping on the Montreal bandwagon annually for the last 15 years, we have fallen way off. This little munchkin Finn Koivu might be terrific, but Patrick Roy better be the best player in the division or the Canadiens might miss the playoffs for the second year in a row.</p><p>The Sabres&rsquo; decision to slash payroll and rebuild might work, but no Dale Hawerchuk and no Alexander Mogilny? And Richard Smehlik is lame for the season? Pat LaFontaine better be healthy and Dominik Hasek better stay spectacular. Both will have to be great to give new coach Ted Nolan and the Sabres a shot.</p><p>Watch out Sunshine state teams. We don&rsquo;t buy the argument the Senators will out and out stink again on their way to last in the conference. Sure, that Alexei Yashin trade stuff won&rsquo;t go away. But adding Steve Duchesne and Jaroslav Modry to the defense helps goalie Don Beaupre and lifts them above an American League blueline.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Retooled Bruins best of an average bunch

<div class="byline">By Jeff Gordon</div><p>Once last season actually started, the Detroit Red Wings dominated the Western Conference, as expected, and rolled to the Stanley Cup final.</p><p>Now the frustrated Wings want to complete their quest. The New Jersey Devils spanked them in the final, suddenly making Detroit&rsquo;s defense look soft and goalie Mike Vernon ordinary.</p><p>The otherwise loaded Wings will have to address those concerns to hold off the rebuilt St. Louis Blues, the retooled Toronto Maple Leafs and the balanced Chicago Blackhawks.</p><p>Vernon did a nice job last season, but doesn&rsquo;t rank among the elite net minders anymore. It seems clear the Wings hope to upgrade yet again in goal-either from within the organization (Chris Osgood) or via a trade.</p><p>At one point in the off-season, the Blues had the best team in the NHL. But then coach-GM Mike Keenan got goofy, dealing power forward Brendan Shanahan to the Hartford Whalers for raw defenseman Chris Pronger, Curtis Joseph to the Edmonton Oilers for the draft picks he spent to sign Shayne Corson and Steve Duchesne to the Ottawa Senators for a second-round pick.</p><p>The Blues are much better up front with Dale Hawerchuk at center and Corson, Geoff Courtnail and Brian Noonan joining Brett Hull and Esa Tikkanen on the wings. Their defense is bigger with Pronger, but less skilled without Duchesne, Bill Houlder and Doug Lidster. Their most desperate situation is in goal. Grant Fuhr showed up at camp overweight and Jon Casey isn&rsquo;t No. 1 material.</p><p>How anxious is Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher to return to the NHL&rsquo;s final four? He sacrificed elite goaltending prospect Erie Fichaud to get supplemental scorer Benoit Hogue from the New York Islanders last season, then spent a first-round pick on defenseman Dimitri Yushkevich from the Philadelphia Flyers this summer.</p><p>That&rsquo;s plenty of future to mortgage to add two skilled, but flighty performers. Newcomer Sergio Momesso does add size up front and 34-year-old Larry Murphy should provide the power-play quarterback the Leafs have long lacked. But the real keys for the Leafs are the returns to form of center Doug Gilmour and goalie Felix Potvin.</p><p>Chicago has a bright new coach in Craig Hartsburg, but the same old soap opera with Jeremy Roenick. Will Roenick ever get that long-term contract that will make him content with the Blackhawks?</p><p>The rest of the team is set. The Hawks have bulwark goaltender Ed Belfour, a big and skilled defense and a big and skilled set of forward lines.</p><p>Mike Modano is feeling like the lone Star in Dallas these days. The departure of sniper Ulf Dahlen two seasons back and speedy Russ Courtnail last season left him short of playmates.</p><p>Busy Bob Bassen was a nice pickup for Bob Gainey&rsquo;s diligent check-first system, but Dallas seems stuck in its mucking mode while the division leaders continue to advance. That point will become even more apparent if the league is serious about cracking down on interference.</p><p>Winnipeg&rsquo;s celebration after saving the Jets was short-lived. The franchise saviors couldn&rsquo;t assemble a purchase deal after all and the team is staring at a $30-million loss in this lame-duck season. Unless the league or a prospective buyer bails this team out, the right to free-agent stars Tkachuk and Teemu Selanne will have to be sold to the highest bidder so the franchise can finish this season.</p><p>And that would be a blight on an otherwise excellent division of teams.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Red Wings get edge in close four-team dogfight

<h2><i>GLOSSARY</i></h2><p>Here&rsquo;s a key to abbreviations, short forms and statistial designations that appear in Season Preview team stories.</p><h2><i>STATISTICS</i></h2><p>GP: games played, G: goals, A: assists, PTS: points; W-L-T: wins, losses, ties; SP: save percentage, GAA: goals-against average, POS: position; +/-: plus-minus;</p><h2><i>LEAGUES & COUNTRIES</i></h2><p>American Hockey League (AHL); Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA); East Coast Hockey League (ECHL); Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC); Hockey East (HE); International Hockey League (IHL); Ontario Hockey League (OHL); Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL); Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA); Western Hockey League (WHL).<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

GUIDE TO ABBREVIATIONS

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02584/7120486-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="979" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Chris Relke)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01862/7120493-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="158" height="159"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>here were moments last season when Tverdovsky would do something on the ict made people sit up in their seats and stare, turn to each other with wide-eyed gazes.</p><p>His most spectacular rushes often ended with him losing the puck near the net, unable to get off a shot or find a player to whom he could pass, but the spectacle of it all is what people remember.</p><p>There were also times when Mighty Ducks of Anaheim coach Ron Wilson would keep his 18-year-old defenseman on the bench in the crucial late going and stretches when he wasn&rsquo;t in the lineup at all.</p><p>But Tverdovsky&rsquo;s potential was hard to miss&mdash;especially in a late-season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens that left many people, including Anaheim GM Jack Ferreira, very impressed.</p><p>&ldquo;He just showed flashes of where he could dominate a particular shift, take it and go end-to-end, control the play and almost be like a quarterback,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;Not that he did it the entire game, but he showed flashes of that happening.&rdquo;</p><p>Tverdovsky has already had to dodge the hype of being compared to former Boston Bruins&rsquo; great rushing defenseman Bobby Orr, the best rearguard of all-time.</p><p>Thankfully, such comparisons have been tempered. Still, some people figure it&rsquo;s only a matter of time before Tverdovsky, the No. 2 pick in the 1994 entry draft behind Ed Jovanovski of the Florida Panthers, wins the Norris Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top defenseman.</p><p>&ldquo;He has the potential. He&rsquo;s not going to do it in the next couple of years,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;But he has got that type of potential, that&rsquo;s why we drafted him. Talking to Oleg, I think that&rsquo;s what he expects of himself.&rdquo;</p><p>Tverdovsky expected more of himself last season, even though he overcame a bundle of obstacles and finished with three goals and 12 points in 36 games. Being one of the youngest players in the league ought to have been enough, but the native of Donetsk, Ukraine also had to learn English, a project he took care of during the lockout.</p><p>He also had to adjust to North American culture and learn how to play the most difficult of positions at the pro level.</p><p>On top of all that, he was afflicted with a joint ailment, Reiters Syndrome, that made it painful even to put on his skates. The antibiotics he took made him anemic, sapping him of his strength.</p><p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel good for other season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I got better and it will let me play better. This season I&rsquo;m OK. I&rsquo;m fine.&rdquo;</p><p>Tverdovsky returned in September stronger and more fit and said his joint ailment no longer bothers him.</p><p>His more muscled body reflects his off-season dedication and even during the weeks before Ducks&rsquo; training camp opened, Tverdovsky showed up before the players&rsquo; informal practices to hit the ice for his own workout at 7:30 a.m.</p><p>&ldquo;I want to be a real part of this team, not like last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you play a couple of games and then don&rsquo;t play, I don&rsquo;t feel good about it. I hope I can show I should be in the lineup. We&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;</p><p>With last season&rsquo;s difficulties behind, the Ducks think Tverdovsky will make strides.</p><p>&ldquo;I think the first year is always the most difficult,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;Then I think he&rsquo;ll develop exponentially. Where you&rsquo;ll really see him blossom is Year 3, Year 4.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a 19-year-old defenseman,&rdquo; said David McNab, the team&rsquo;s director of player personnel. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying this is his year, you just want him to get better year by year.</p><p>&ldquo;If you look at some of the better defensemen in the league, they were 21, 22 before they got to that level. We&rsquo;ve thought of him more along the lines of Scott Niedermayer, and last year was really his coming out.&rdquo;</p><p>Like Tverdovsky, the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Niedermayer was a high draft pick-No. 3 overall in 1991 behind Eric Lindros and Pat Falloon.</p><p>&ldquo;When (Niedermayer) was 18 he went back to juniors and he&rsquo;s only starting to emerge,&rdquo; McNab recalled. Niedermayer played only four games for New Jersey and 35 for the Kamloops Blazers of the Western League in the 1991-92 season.</p><p>&ldquo;(Tverdovsky) would be ahead of where Niedermayer was at the same point,&rdquo; McNab said, &ldquo;and Niedermayer is going to be a fabulous player in the league.&rdquo;</p><p>So, too, is Tverdovsky, if the projections become reality.</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03437/7120479-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="672" height="327"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Anaheim&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 199596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04339/7120472-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="653" height="987"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05282/7120465-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="662" height="123"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06246/7120458-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="660" height="389"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0033-02

Tapping into Tverdovsky

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02664/7120552-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="973" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01965/7120559-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="161" height="158"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span>s the Boston Bruins sifted through the wreckage of last May&rsquo;s first-round playoff loss to the New Jersey Devils, they quickly identified two major weaknesses: Their forwards, as a group, weren&rsquo;t big enough and didn&rsquo;t score enough.</p><p>That hole in the lineup was more like a crater when Boston looked at its left wing.</p><p>Kevin Stevens, raised just south of Boston in Pembroke, Mass., was obtained in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins to help plug both gaps.</p><p>Stevens, acquired by the Bruins Aug. 2 with Shawn McEachern for Bryan Smolinski, Glen Murray and a third-round pick in the 1996 entry draft, last played in the area from 1983-84 to &rsquo;86-87, as a member of the Boston College Eagles.</p><p>He&rsquo;s big and powerful at 6-foot-3 and 217 pounds and has filled the net well enough to put together consecutive 50-goal, 100-point seasons for the Penguins in 1991-92 and&rsquo;92-93.</p><p>The Bruins were thrilled to add those qualities to their lineup, but believe there&rsquo;s more in the package. The organization sees Stevens as a leader and while he doesn&rsquo;t dispute that, he&rsquo;d rather be known as something else: a winner.</p><p>&ldquo;The game has to be fun,&rdquo; Stevens said, &ldquo;or it&rsquo;s not even worth coming here.</p><p>&ldquo;The game also has to be hard work, and you have to win. The name of the game around here is winning. I hate to come here when we&rsquo;re not winning.&rdquo;</p><p>It would be a lot easier for Stevens to prop himself up on a cliche and say he just hopes to fit into the mix and find a way to help.</p><p>Of course he hopes to do that, but both he and the Bruins expect much more from him. He always had the Bruins&rsquo; respect when he played against them.</p><p>&ldquo;The biggest thing about him that I don&rsquo;t think people realize is how big a competitor he is, how much he likes to win,&rdquo; said veteran defenseman Don Sweeney. &ldquo;He has been part of a winning organization, so I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d stand for much else.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to him taking control of some situations and dominating in areas where, outside of Cam (Neely), we haven&rsquo;t really had someone to do that. He&rsquo;s imposing as hell.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I think Kevin is going to do a lot for us,&rdquo; said Bruin&rsquo;s president-GM Harry Sinden. &ldquo;He reminds me a lot of Cam. He&rsquo;s a pretty up-front guy. I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s the type to put up with a lot of nonsense.&rdquo;</p><p>Stevens isn&rsquo;t intimidated by the prospect of acting as an on- or off-ice leader for the Bruins, who believe they already have two of the NHL&rsquo;s best in that department in Neely and captain Ray Bourque.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m expected to do a lot,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I was expected to do a lot in Pittsburgh. It&rsquo;s not really any different here. If I don&rsquo;t do it, I&rsquo;m the only one to blame for that. You&rsquo;ve got to put pressure on yourself, too.&rdquo;</p><p>If the Bruins get something close to the high-scoring, board-crashing, no-nonsense Stevens of the early 1990s, the NHL may be treated to the sight of Sinden cartwheeling through his new Fleet-Center. With a bit of luck, Stevens doesn&rsquo;t see why it can&rsquo;t happen.</p><p>He acknowledges he has suffered a string of injuries. Prior to a frightening collision with New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Rich Pilon in the 1993 playoffs that left Stevens with major facial injuries, he had posted back-to-back of 50-plus goals and more than 110 points. In 1994-95, Stevens dipped to 41 goals. He recorded 15 in 27 games last season.</p><p>&ldquo;I played something like 270 games in a row before I hurt my knee (199293), and that was really nothing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then I hurt my head, but I didn&rsquo;t miss any time with that. Last year, I got hit with a shot just right and broke my ankle. Maybe I&rsquo;ve been a little unfortunate, but I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m a guy who&rsquo;s always out.&rdquo;</p><p>Stevens is 100 per-cent healthy as he heads into 1995-96, and relishes the prospect of adding a Stanley Cup ring to the two he won in Pittsburgh.</p><p>&ldquo;When you can sit in a locker room and see Cam Neely, Ray Bourque. Adam Oates, Blaine Lacher&hellip;those guys can play,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;We have to build on that group, get better every day and build confidence by winning.</p><p>&ldquo;When we used to play the Bruins in Pittsburgh, we&rsquo;d have them beat before they even got on the ice. I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s the approach we&rsquo;U take here now. We feel we can beat anybody. Hopefully, we&rsquo;re going to build the attitude that other teams will have to worry about us, because we&rsquo;re not going to worry about them.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03522/7120545-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="661" height="323"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Boston&rsquo;s top 24 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04406/7120538-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="645" height="987"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05328/7120531-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="664" height="125"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06292/7120524-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="653" height="391"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0034-02

Even Stevens wants to win

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02646/7120618-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="973" height="1495"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01912/7120625-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="156" height="157"></div><p>The money is good, much better than a ninth-round draft choice could ever imagine when he came to the NHL out of a small town in Quebec.</p><p>It&rsquo;s also something Donald Audette has wanted, wanted for a long time. He has a wife and a young child. Security these days is very much on his mind.</p><p>But the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; right winger isn&rsquo;t satisfied yet. Money is good, security is important, but so is respect. And gaining respect is what&rsquo;s next on Donald Audette&rsquo;s list of things to accomplish.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m signed and it feels good,&rdquo; Audette said of his contract, reported to be worth $2.6 million (U.S.) over three years. &ldquo;I waited a long time for something like this, but with the money comes expectations, too. They&rsquo;ll be looking to me for goals and I have to deliver.&rdquo;</p><p>With the July 12 trade that sent Alexander Mogilny to the Vancouver Canucks for Mike Peca and prospects Mike Wilson and Jay McKee, Audette goes from being a second-line right winger and sometimes performer on the power play guy to the &ldquo;go-to&rdquo; position. He&rsquo;s likely to team with rehabilitated center Pat LaFontaine on the Sabres&rsquo; first scoring line.</p><p>Audette could well be the gunner that new coach Ted Nolan will throw over the boards whenever the Sabres need to get on the scoreboard.</p><p>It&rsquo;s a big jump for a 5-foot-8, 175-pounder who has twice battled back from serious knee injuries, but Audette is determined to make the leap.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard it all before,&rdquo; he said without the least bit of cockiness in his voice. &ldquo;At every level someone would always say I was too small, but I never believed it. Size isn&rsquo;t just how tall you are or how much you weigh. You have to take a look at what&rsquo;s in here, too.&rdquo;</p><p>Audette pounded his fist on his chest when he said that. For a little guy, he plays a whole lot bigger-not that it was always that way.</p><p>In the beginning, Audette was simply a goal-oriented player. The 183rd overall choice in the 1989 entry draft, he scored 31 goals in 63 games in 1991-92, his first nearly full season in the NHL.</p><p>Two major knee injuries, including one tom anterior cruciate ligament, and a series of well-publicized trips to then-coach-GM John Muckier&rsquo;s doghouse, slowed him down considerably at times.</p><p>But he rebounded with 29 goals in 77 games in 1993-94 and led the team in goal-scoring last season with 24 in 46 games, five more than Mogilny scored in 44. He also had a team-high 37 points.</p><p>&ldquo;Donald is one of our better goal-scorers right now and he has always had that ability, but he has also been working hard in other areas and that&rsquo;s important,&rdquo; Muckier said when he rewarded Audette with his new pact. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect players not to make mistakes now and then, but I do expect they try not to make them, that they make that effort.&rdquo;</p><p>It took Audette a long time to see it from Muckier&rsquo;s point of view, but just making the effort has enabled Muckier and Audette to reach a bit of an understanding. From there came some trust and when called upon, Audette responded.</p><p>&ldquo;I like to score goals, everyone does, but what has happened before, I hope that&rsquo;s all behind me,&rdquo; he said of the numerous benchings for poor defensive play. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m a better person, a stronger person for it all. I feel like I&rsquo;ve been through a lot when I look back at it all and I feel like I&rsquo;ve accomplished a lot. I know what it takes to be a part of this team and I try to remember that every day.&rdquo;</p><p>Most of that centers around being a team player. Last season, Muckier used Audette in some critical situations, something he didn&rsquo;t like to do in the past.</p><p>Audette responded not just by scoring, but by coming back with his checks, working to clear the puck before he cleared the zone and generally getting with the program of team goals before individual goals.</p><p>It definitely served a purpose in that it&rsquo;s the kind of hockey new coach Nolan is preaching for the rebuilding Sabres. Audette knows that kind of play must continue.</p><p>&ldquo;Everyone has a role,&rdquo; Audette said. &ldquo;I like to think mine is scoring goals, but I&rsquo;m not Alex. A guy like him (who scored a clubrecord 76 goals in 1992-93) will be treated differently for sure, but I hope some day I will be the player that he is in that he was a kind of guy that other people say, &lsquo;Look, we need him.&rsquo;</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a big role on a team and not everyone can do that.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03526/7120611-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="668" height="322"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Buffalo&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04421/7120604-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="653" height="991"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05353/7120597-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="659" height="157"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06321/7120590-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="658" height="387"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0035-02

Audette faces challenge

<div class="byline">By George Johnson</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02588/7120684-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="981" height="1493"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Dan Hamilton)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01873/7120691-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="159" height="158"></div><p>The fleet Phil Housley has, on occasion, been known for getting caught <i>ahead</i> of the play.</p><p>He steadfastly refuses, however, to be caught getting ahead of himself, despite his unrestricted free-agent status following this season.</p><p>&ldquo;That,&rdquo; Housley said bluntly, &ldquo;is a long ways away.&rdquo;</p><p>Hard to believe, but hockey&rsquo;s Huck Finn turns 32 on March 9.</p><p>With Housley, you get what&rsquo;s advertised, pro and con. The telepathic passing has lost none of its beauty, those powerful legs none of their spring.</p><p>He&rsquo;ll see what those pros can fetch on the open market in a few months.</p><p>&ldquo;Teams have such control over you during your career,&rdquo; said Housley at training camp in Saint John, N.B. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll probably be kind of exciting to finally have a bit of control of my own.</p><p>&ldquo;But I try not to think about that. Right now, I&rsquo;m just happy to spend this season here&hellip;I mean in Calgary, not Saint John.&rdquo;</p><p>Housley&rsquo;s in the final year of an agreement the club inherited from the St. Louis Blues that earns him $2.2 million (U.S.) per year. He was the organization&rsquo;s highest-paid employee last year.</p><p>So far, as expected, there has been no rush by the Flames to get anything done contractually. But they&rsquo;ll eventually have to make a decision, after taking a lot of heat this off-season for losing both Joel Otto and Robert Reichel while receiving nothing in return.</p><p>Following yet another disastrous Calgary playoff, Housley&rsquo;s name invariably surfaced during the summer speculation season. The most persistent report had him moving to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Wendel Clark. Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix adamantly denied anything was in the works.</p><p>&ldquo;I hear them,&rdquo; said Housley, who has been traded three times in his 13-year career. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t affect me. Why let them bother you? One way or the other, you can&rsquo;t do anything about that side of the business.&rdquo;</p><p>That doesn&rsquo;t mean Housley likes being traded. Deals from the Buffalo Sabres to Winnipeg Jets (1990), Winnipeg to St. Louis (1993) and St. Louis to Calgary (1994) have been hard on him and his family.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think people, fans, understand what being traded means,&rdquo; Housley said. &ldquo;They say, &lsquo;Oh, look at the money he&rsquo;s making. He should just shut up and go.&rsquo; But you&rsquo;re picking up your Tamily, pulling your kids out of school. It&rsquo;s a real upheaval. I hate moving.&rdquo;</p><p>He doesn&rsquo;t see that happening during this season.</p><p>&ldquo;I honestly can&rsquo;t see any team dealing for me now, knowing my contract situation. But what I learned in the trade from Buffalo to Winnipeg is this: Accept what happened, go into a situation aiming to make it a successful one.&rdquo;</p><p>Housley wasn&rsquo;t so accepting when the Blues sent him back to Canada last year, balking at the deal initially. But he was convinced by Flames&rsquo; management he might find the situation to his liking after all.</p><p>And, yes, 43 points in 45 starts didn&rsquo;t turn out too shabby. But he joined a lot of teammates on the scaffolding of the public gallows after that post-season pratfall.</p><p>&ldquo;Right now, I&rsquo;m just focussed on having a good season and a successful playoff,&rdquo; said Housley, who underwent two surgeries to repair a broken pinky in the off-season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m convinced we should&rsquo;ve won that series against San Jose. But I can talk all I want. We didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p><p>The Flames haven&rsquo;t advanced past the first round in six years. Housley hasn&rsquo;t advanced past the first round since his rookie season. Fairly or not, they&rsquo;ve been branded. He has been branded.</p><p>&ldquo;Losing in the play offs&hellip; it&rsquo;s devastating when it happens. But you can&rsquo;t dwell on it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you sit at home all summer thinking about it, it&rsquo;ll eat you up.&rdquo;</p><p>Incoming Flames&rsquo; coach Pierre Page is excited about the mobility of his defense, spearheaded by Housley, particularly if the league cracks down on the hooking, holding and interference, as promised. Of course, that vow has proven hollow in the past.</p><p>&ldquo;No, this time I think they really mean it,&rdquo; Page predicted. &ldquo;Fans and media did a lot of complaining last season.&rdquo;</p><p>If the league does solve the interference dilemma, especially through the neutral zone, teams will have more headaches solving the mercurial Housley. It may also give Housley a chance to drive his marketability up, but he prefers not to think about that just yet.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just ready to go out and play,&rdquo; he said. Whatever happens later, happens.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03484/7120677-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="672" height="324"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Calgary&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 199596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04367/7120670-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="648" height="994"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05309/7120663-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="667" height="154"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06267/7120656-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="660" height="394"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0036-02

Has team had its Phil?

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02534/7120750-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="981" height="1488"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Tony Biegun/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01782/7120757-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="159" height="156"></div><p>Bernie Nicholls felt a twinge of jealousy watc ing the New Jersey Devils parade around with the Stanley Cup last June.</p><p>&ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying i said anything differently. It&rsquo;s most disappointing when they&rsquo;get rid of you because they say they don&rsquo;t need you, then halfway through the season they go get someone to fill that spot. The bad news is they didn&rsquo;t need to get that player because they had him all along.&rdquo;</p><p>Neal Broten is the player the Devils went out and got in a trade with the Dallas Stars. He filled the void at center created when New Jersey gave up on Nicholls and allowed him to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks as a free agent.</p><p>Wouldn&rsquo;t it have been interesting if it had been Nicholls and the Blackhawks facing New Jersey in the final instead of the Detroit Red Wings?</p><p>That might have been the case had Nicholls and company scored a few more goals for goalie Ed Belfour, who was sensational in the Western Conference finals against the Red Wings.</p><p>The Hawks scored 12 goals in their five-game series against Detroit, five of them coming in the only game they won. They were beaten 2-1, 3-2, 4-3 and 2-1 by the Red Wings with Nicholls getting just one goal in the series.</p><p>That goal came in Game 3 and was Nicholls&rsquo; first in 30 games, dating back to the 32nd game of the season.</p><p>The drought that included the final 16 games of the season and the first 13 of the playoffs was the only blemish on a season where Nicholls did nearly everything the Hawks hoped he&rsquo;d do when they signed him to a two-year, $2.1-million contract last summer.</p><p>Nicholls was one of the NHL&rsquo;s best players during the first half of the abbreviated 1995 season. He scored 21 goals in the Hawks&rsquo; first 30 games, twice getting four in one game.</p><p>But after getting his 22nd goal in Game No. 32, Nicholls didn&rsquo;t score another one and had just eight assists in the final 16 games.</p><p>The question going into this season is what can the Hawks expect from their 34-year-old center, who again is being counted on to supply the offensive punch behind Jeremy Roenick.</p><p>Can Nicholls produce consistently over a full schedule or will he do his scoring in bunches?</p><p>Nicholls says those who point to his 29-game goal drought last season probably didn&rsquo;t notice the other aspects of his game that stayed on course, such as his defense, penalty killing and ability to win faceoffs.</p><p>&ldquo;I feel there&rsquo;s more to my game than just putting the puck in the net, like my defense and my ability on faceoffs,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;Those are the little things that are big when it comes to winning games and I feel I didn&rsquo;t let that part of my game slip.</p><p>&ldquo;Players go through streaks like that and I&rsquo;ve done it many times. I never let it bother me and my teammates didn&rsquo;t either. That&rsquo;s all that matters. People want to see goals and if you don&rsquo;t score they don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;re doing the job. But I never ran into that in Chicago.&rdquo;</p><p>Nicholls wound up with 12 points in 16 playoff games. Twice he set up overtime goals in the four-game sweep of the Vancouver Canucks.</p><p>&ldquo;Bernie was doing a lot of things for us that people didn&rsquo;t notice,&rdquo; said assistant coach Dirk Graham, who played with Nicholls in 1995. &ldquo;People from the outside were probably looking more at his goals, but Bernie impressed me with his leadership and defense.&rdquo;</p><p>Nicholls&rsquo; 51 points during the 48-game season led the Hawks. That was better than a point-a-game clip, which is what Nicholls said he expected of himself prior to the season when he was asked repeatedly how much gas he felt he had left in the tank offensively.</p><p>&ldquo;What I said was if I didn&rsquo;t get a point a game I wouldn&rsquo;t be helping the team,&rdquo; Nicholls said.</p><p>That 51-point season would have translated into 90 points over a full schedule. Since 1988-89 when he scored 150 points for the Los Angeles Kings, the closest Nicholls has come to 90 points was 75 with the Kings in 1989-90.</p><p>&ldquo;Bernie would be happy if he didn&rsquo;t get a point and we won a lot of games,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;You want your stars to put up big points, but as long as the team wins there are a lot of other ways to help a club and Bemie does.&rdquo;</p><p>Nicholls went to training camp slotted as the Hawks&rsquo; No. 2 center behind Roenick, although there was expected to be some competition for playing time between himself, Denis Savard, Brent Sutter and Jeff Shantz.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always good for a coach to have to make decisions,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;I think we have five great centers and it&rsquo;s going to be a tough battle.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03412/7120743-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="669" height="327"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Chicago&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1 994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 199596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04338/7120736-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="651" height="987"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05303/7120729-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="656" height="155"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06267/7120722-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="651" height="386"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0037-02

Nicholls for your thoughts?

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02599/7120816-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="981" height="1485"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Dan Hamilton)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01855/7120823-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="162" height="155"></div><p>You&rsquo;re 22 years old and such a hero in your native country that they decided to put your likeness on a postage stamp.</p><p>Now, you play in the NHL and make about $2 million a year and can expect to make at least that much for many years to come. You were the league&rsquo;s rookie of the year last season and many people think you&rsquo;re one of the most talented players in hockey.</p><p>For Peter Forsberg, life is good.</p><p>But just how good Forsberg will become in the NHL is what a lot of people are wondering.</p><p>After a Calder Trophy rookie season with the Quebec Nordiques when he had 15 goals and 50 points in 47 games-which placed him at the top of the freshman class and 17th overall-many are predicting the shy center from Omskoldsvik, Swe., will be the NHL&rsquo;s next superstar.</p><p>But one who won&rsquo;t say as much is Forsberg. Trying to get the Colorado Avalanche second-year player to say good things about himself is a monumental task.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a lot harder this year,&rdquo; said Forsberg, whose goal that won the 1994 Olympic gold medal for Sweden was commemorated on a postage stamp. &ldquo;Guys have been telling me what to expect and I know it will be harder. They&rsquo;re going to come at me a little harder, and I know that.&rdquo;</p><p>But it&rsquo;s unlikely Forsberg&rsquo;s opponents are relishing having to go after him harder this season.</p><p>Forsberg flew all over the ice in the Avalanche&rsquo;s first few days of training camp, just like he did last season with the Nordiques.</p><p>Most NHL observers expected Forsberg to be one of the league&rsquo;s better young rookies, but they didn&rsquo;t expect him to dominate so soon. And many also didn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d be so tough on the ice.</p><p>&ldquo;A lot of Europeans have that knock on them that they&rsquo;re soft, but Peter would give as much as he&rsquo;d take,&rdquo; said Avalanche coach Marc Crawford. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just one of those players that don&rsquo;t come around very often.&rdquo;</p><p>Many are curious to see what kind of season Forsberg will have in the thin air of Denver. Forsberg admitted, even though he liked the city and the fans there, that Quebec was at times a strange land to him. He couldn&rsquo;t understand the French newspapers, for one thing. And the media pressure in a city with only one major league sport was sometimes overbearing for the young man.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really like talking about myself, so that was tough,&rdquo; Forsberg said.</p><p>Although he may never reach the exalted status oi a jonn ciway in ucnvcr, roisueig tiguies not to go unrecognized for long, either.</p><p>&ldquo;This kid is really going to be something in this league,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;The people of Denver are in for a real treat.&rdquo;</p><p>But the Pacific Division isn&rsquo;t. With the Avalanche moving to the more wide-open Western Conference from the Northeast Division, some think Forsberg might run wild.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s going to be interesting to see, even though I think it&rsquo;s a very strong division,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;But it probably is a little more open, and that can only help Peter.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, I just have to work hard and not think about things like that,&rdquo; Forsberg said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got enough problems just getting used to the air out here right now without thinking about stuff like that.&rdquo;</p><p>So far, Forsberg seems to have taken well to Denver despite the burning in the lungs that characterized his first few days there.</p><p>Ask him a question pertaining to anything about the Mile High City and Forsberg is just as likely to ask a question in return.</p><p>&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s the best place to go in the mountains?&rdquo; or &ldquo;what are the winters like?&rsquo; are just some of the things Forsberg has been curious about since he arrived.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very dry here and I think I&rsquo;m going to have to drink a lot more water, but I like it here,&rdquo; Forsberg said. &ldquo;It seems like there&rsquo;s a lot to do and see.&rdquo;</p><p>Forsberg has two more years left on a contract that will pay $2.2 million (Cdn.) this year and about $1.6 million the following year. He made close to $3 million last season, but money doesn&rsquo;t really seem to have much of an impact on Forsberg.</p><p>Good friends, a good place to fish and playing on a winning team seem to be more important.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a pretty simple guy,&rdquo; Forsberg said. &ldquo;I just like to do my job and that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;</p><p>Nice work if you can get it.</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03482/7120809-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="671" height="319"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Colorado&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04377/7120802-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="659" height="990"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05290/7120795-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="669" height="127"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06247/7120788-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="662" height="393"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0038-02

The stamp of excellence

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02531/7120882-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="981" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Dan Hamilton)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01804/7120889-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="159" height="153"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>hose who watched Bobby Clarke win three Hart Trophies and two Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1970s know he played just one way-with passion.</p><p>Clarke would use his 5-foot-10, 185-pound frame with reckless abandon and was admired for his ability to combine skill, grit, attitude and determination.</p><p>Some observers have seen of those traits in 5-foot-ll, 190-pound Todd Harvey of the Dallas Stars. He had a solid, but not spectacular rookie season.</p><p>If the sophomore jinx is looking for Harvey this season, a few words of caution: Stay out of the corners.</p><p>The feisty right winger has laid down the rules for training camp.</p><p>He&rsquo;s fighting for a spot at first line right wing and he&rsquo;ll be darned if he doesn&rsquo;t get it. Challenging Harvey is rookie Jere Lehtinen from TPS Turku in Finland and newly acquired free agent Nikolai Borschevsky from the Calgary Flames.</p><p>Harvey said the strategy for retaining &ldquo;his&rdquo; position is simple.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m here to play on one of the first two lines and if one of those guys is going to stand in my way, I&rsquo;m going to run them over,&rdquo; Harvey calmly stated through spits of chewing tobacco.</p><p>&ldquo;I think I looked at it differently when I first got here. But now I have a job and every time out there I&rsquo;m playing to keep my job.&rdquo;</p><p>So much for getting too comfortable. So much for the sophomore jinx. So much for what could have been a disastrous start last season.</p><p>Harvey said he feels 100 per-cent better starting his second year than he did his first.</p><p>For some inexplicable reason, he came to training camp a year ago overweight and out of shape and was probably saved by the NHL lockout, which gave him three months to work with Stars&rsquo; conditioning coach Norm Temno-grad.</p><p>This year, he spent most of the summer in Dallas working with Temnograd and already is ahead of the game, physically speaking.</p><p>He&rsquo;s also well ahead in the mental aspect as well.</p><p>Throughout last season, Harvey didn&rsquo;t miss a lesson. He learned from Temnograd, from frequent workouts with teammates such as Derian Hatcher and Mike Modano, and eventually from NHL opponents.</p><p>By season&rsquo;s end, he was playing on the first line and logging some of the Stars&rsquo; most effective shifts in the playoffs.</p><p>&ldquo;He really took advantage last year,&rdquo; said linemate Dave Gagner. &ldquo;He got a lot of opportunities guys his age don&rsquo;t usually get and he met the challenge. I think he picks the game up a lot quicker than most.&rdquo;</p><p>Harvey finished with 11 goals and 20 points in 40 games. Beyond statistics, his effect was more pronounced. He often was named one of the game&rsquo;s three stars despite not registering a point.</p><p>&ldquo;I did that in juniors at times and would sometimes get first star of the game and I really didn&rsquo;t understand it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was the same way last year. I wouldn&rsquo;t think I did anything special and I still would get named a star of the game.</p><p>&ldquo;I realize now that there are a lot of things I can do within my game that can make a difference every night. And I have to continue to work on those things.&rdquo;</p><p>But there also will be pressure to up his offensive numbers.</p><p>&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s one of the players who has it in his ability to really help us offensively,&rdquo; Gagner said. &ldquo;Offensively, I think he has to put more pressure on himself.&rdquo;</p><p>Stars&rsquo; coach-GM Bob Gainey said the challenge to score may, for Harvey, be the biggest difference between this season and last.</p><p>&ldquo;People have started to slot different levels for him to attain, and I think that creates a different kind of pressure and a different kind of stress,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;But all the same, it&rsquo;s a challenge that he&rsquo;s going to have to reach for.</p><p>&ldquo;He has played in spurts. Now, he has to work at filling the gaps until he gets to a point where he says, &lsquo;This is my level and I won&rsquo;t go below it.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Harvey already has a little experience on which to base this season. In his second season of major junior play with the Detroit Jr. Wings of the Ontario League, he came up with his best offensive season ever, tallying 50 goals and 100 points in 55 games.</p><p>Nobody is expecting those kinds of numbers, but he should be able to improve.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about the pressure, because if I play hard the rest of it will take care of itself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I plan on playing hard.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03400/7120875-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="669" height="322"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Dallas&rsquo; top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04323/7120868-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="656" height="987"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05271/7120861-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="666" height="159"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06231/7120854-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="667" height="390"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0039-02

On brink of Stardom

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02272/7120948-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="973" height="1491"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by xxx Hart/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01437/7120955-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="163" height="156"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen the Detroit Red Wings drafted Chris Osgood four years ago, chuckles rippled through the organization. Osgood&rsquo;s physical appearance was more than just youthful. It was downright child-like.</p><p>Osgood still can&rsquo;t grow a beard-at least not a real one-but the impression of him is no longer that of a wide-eyed child. Now Osgood is the man, the man to whom the Red Wings will look for their answer in goal this season. That, the organization says, will hold true regardless what other goaltender the team might sign.</p><p>&ldquo;We think he&rsquo;s ready,&rdquo; said Red Wings&rsquo; assistant GM Ken Holland. &ldquo;He needs to be given a chance. We believe he can get the job done. Now is the time to find out.&rdquo;</p><p>The off-season and training camp contract situation with former No. 1 goalie Mike Vernon did not necessarily accelerate Osgood&rsquo;s progress and standing within the organization. Even last season, when Vernon was posting solid numbers and leading the Wings to the Stanley Cup final, the talk was about Osgood and when he would move into the No. 1 job.</p><p>It looks like that time is now. For all intents and purposes, the No. 1 job is Osgood&rsquo;s to lose this season. After two seasons of backing up the regulars-Tim Cheveldae and Bob Essensa and Vernon-Osgood has not only emerged as a talented young goalie, but one on whom the organization wants to construct its future.</p><p>&ldquo;It excites me,&rdquo; said the 22-year-old. &ldquo;It excites me to play hard and have this chance. But I still have to prove I can do it. It&rsquo;s one thing to say I have the chance to be the No. 1 guy; it&rsquo;s another to prove I can handle it.&rdquo;</p><p>Osgood has readily handled his past two seasons with the Wings. Two years ago, in 41 games, he had a 23-8-5 record and a 2.86 goals-against average. But he was also in the net for Detroit&rsquo;s first-round loss to the San Jose Sharks, giving up the puck to Jamie Baker for the game winner in Game 7.</p><p>Osgood took a heavy emotional fall after that series, probably shouldering more of the blame than was due. The scene of a tearful Osgood sitting in front of his stall in the Detroit dressing room was an image that lasted the whole off season. Now Osgood shrugs off the display as part of the learning process.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more mature on the ice now, more interested in just playing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more mature off the ice, too. I don&rsquo;t worry about what everybody thinks, what management thinks, what the fans think.&rdquo;</p><p>He has no worry with the last two. The Detroit management, from team owner Mike Ilitch down to senior vice-president Jimmy Devellano, coach Scotty Bowman and Holland, all believe Osgood is the real deal. And the fans? Osgood, with his emotional display after the loss to San Jose, endeared himself to the fans, who felt the same way.</p><p>He is the Red Wing fans&rsquo; favorite son.</p><p>&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t even supposed to be our goalie in the playoffs,&rdquo; Holland said. &ldquo;Here he was, a rookie, coming into a pressure situation like that.&rdquo;</p><p>So the Wings bought Osgood more time, trading for Vernon before last season. It was commonly accepted then that Vernon would be the goalie come playoff time and he was, despite Osgood&rsquo;s 14-5-0 regular-season record and 2.26 GAA. But that is no longer the case.</p><p>&ldquo;Everything that has happened to me so far has worked out well,&rdquo; Osgood said. &ldquo;I sat back and watched and learned. I learned different angles, different ways of playing. Hopefully, this year I can show some of that.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, the Wings aren&rsquo;t looking for anything new from Osgood. In the hierarchy&rsquo;s eyes, Osgood has paid his dues and learned his lessons.</p><p>&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have to play any better than he has already played,&rdquo; Holland said. &ldquo;Look at his stats from last year. He was second in save percentage (.917) and fourth in goals-against. We just need Chris to go out there and do what he has been doing all along.&rdquo;</p><p>The early statistics on Osgood out of training camp were a little suspect. In the first three scrimmages of camp, he gave up a total of 14 goals in 120 minutes played.</p><p>&ldquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t look at the numbers during the camp games like this,&rdquo; said coach Scotty Bowman. &ldquo;You try and divide the squads up to have enough rookies, enough veterans and scorers. Sometimes it just doesn&rsquo;t work.</p><p>&ldquo;No, I look at the pre-season games. That&rsquo;s where you really start to see how a guy is playing.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03212/7120941-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="666" height="326"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Detroit&rsquo;s top 23 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04164/7120934-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="653" height="963"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-05147/7120927-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="659" height="120"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-06133/7120920-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="650" height="392"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0042-02

How good is Osgood?

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02304/7121014-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="975" height="1485"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Scott Levy/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01451/7121021-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="158" height="156"></div><p>Jason Arnott&rsquo;s second NHL season was a rollercoaster ride of emotion.</p><p>All too often, the rage and frustration threw him from the car, leaving the Oilers to fend for themselves while he cooled his heels in the penalty box or the dressing room.</p><p>If he is to emerge as a breakthrough player in the final year of his contract, the fiery forward from Wasaga Beach, Ont., must harness his temper. This is not news to him.</p><p>&ldquo;I know what I&rsquo;ve got to do. I took the summer to realize it. In talking it over with my family, they said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got to stay out of the box and do what you do best and that&rsquo;s definitely not fighting and playing stupid hockey.&rsquo; I&rsquo;ve got to go out, play smart and not let the opposition get to me.&rdquo;</p><p>In the first four games of last season Arnott already had 27 penalty minutes, thanks to a 23-minute performance against the Chicago Blackhawks. He finished with 128 minutes in 42 games, tied for 22nd in the league and second on the team only to Bryan Marchment&rsquo;s 184. His total would have topped nine other NHL teams.</p><p>It is hard to say just what was at the heart of this angry young man&rsquo;s problems. There is no question he and former coach George Burnett disagreed on many things and it boiled over. It is just as clear that Arnott struggled under the weight of enormous expectations created by a rookie season that saw him surprisingly challenge for the Calder Trophy.</p><p>To his credit, Arnott did not set up Burnett as the fall guy.</p><p>&ldquo;It was definitely frustrating,&rdquo; Arnott said. &ldquo;We disagreed on a lot of items, but we agreed on a lot, too.</p><p>&ldquo;He was a different coach. It just didn&rsquo;t click. It just didn&rsquo;t happen and a lot of the guys felt that way. When you get that, some guys aren&rsquo;t going to play their best or they&rsquo;re going to take frustrations out on the other team. But I&rsquo;m not blaming anything on George. He stuck there through the thick and thin and he did help us out with a lot of things.&rdquo;</p><p>Arnott admitted nobody could help him handle the pressure of being looked upon as a franchise player. He tackled the subject again before he was due to meet coach Ron Low for a pre-camp chat in early September.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on guys to go out there and lead your team. Everybody looks at me and says, &lsquo;Go out there and do it all,&rsquo;&rdquo; Arnott said. &ldquo;Sometimes I forget how old I am. But I want that role on this hockey team. And with the help of (Kelly Buchberger, Doug Weight, Bill Ranford and Luke Richardson), we can have a great team. If we all play for each other and for the heart of the team, we&rsquo;ll do a lot better.&rdquo;</p><p>Low has moved Arnott from center to right wing and planned to put Doug Weight into the middle and Zdeno Ciger on the left side. The coach said Arnott will be better off to enjoy the game again. And if his 20-year-old star thinks playing hockey at this level has its pressures, Low had a message for him.</p><p>&ldquo;If you think this game is pressure, well, pressure is trying to feed a family on $24,000 a year on the farm and you just got hailed out. That&rsquo;s pressure,&rdquo; said Low, who endures the rigors of farm life every summer in Foxwarren, Man.</p><p>&ldquo;This is a game. Let&rsquo;s not forget we&rsquo;re men playing a boys&rsquo; game, or in some cases boys playing a boys&rsquo; game. You can go out and enjoy it on a nightly basis and it&rsquo;s a hell of a lot easier to play that way. I&rsquo;d like to see Jason Arnott having fun playing the game again. I didn&rsquo;t see much of it last year. I expect him to be that intense individual on most nights, but I also expect to see a smile at practice.&rdquo;</p><p>Arnott has to prove he&rsquo;s having fun again, but that&rsquo;s about all. Low knows what the former Oshawa Generals&rsquo; junior can give him almost every night: a great shot from the point, good passing and skating skills, a thirst for the physical game and a reliable work ethic.</p><p>&ldquo;I saw Jason Arnott in the first year and I saw him in the second year and I liked him in the first year a whole lot more, but he doesn&rsquo;t have to prove anything to me,&rdquo; said Low. &ldquo;He has already proved he can play the game.&rdquo;</p><p>How much better can he be than last year&rsquo;s disappointing 15-goal, 37-point performance that saw him score just one game-winning goal and finish minus-14? Can he be as good as his 33-goal rookie season, or even better?</p><p>&ldquo;No question he&rsquo;s going to be a star in this league,&rdquo; said teammate Buchberger. &ldquo;I can see him scoring 35 or 40 goals a season. He has the size, the skills and he&rsquo;s handling the puck way better than he has in the past.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03247/7121007-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="659" height="324"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Edmonton&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04168/7121000-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="651" height="989"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05145/7120993-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="661" height="150"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06117/7120986-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="651" height="390"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0043-02

Arnott vows to rein it in

<div class="byline">By Dave Joseph</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02191/7121080-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="969" height="1493"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by R. Lewis/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01347/7121087-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="159" height="158"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>E</span>d Jovanovski stood in the Greensboro Memorial Coliseum just one hour after the Florida Panthers&rsquo; first training camp scrimmage and talked of relief.</p><p>He also talked of happiness and contentment. Until recently, he hadn&rsquo;t experienced those things in quite some time.</p><p>A season removed from being the No. 1 overall pick at the 1994 entry draft&mdash;and just weeks since having charges of sexual assault dropped against him after they had consumed his life since February-Jovanovski was preparing for what should be the best time of his life.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so relieved,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-2 and 205-pound defenseman, who recently purchased a home in Boca Raton, Fla., where he&rsquo;ll live this season with his mother, Liljane.</p><p>&ldquo;My contract is done, the legal thing is over and I&rsquo;m just so happy. There&rsquo;s nothing on my back except to play hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>And, finally, Jovanovski will get that opportunity.</p><p>After spending last season with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires, where he collected 23 goals and 65 points, Jovanovski begins his NHL career Oct. 7. That&rsquo;s when the Panthers play their season opener against the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.</p><p>It&rsquo;s a moment Jovanovski has waited for since his name was called out by team president Bill Torrey at the draft in Hartford.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really looking forward to it,&rdquo; Jovanovski said. &ldquo;I really think I&rsquo;m ready. I think I&rsquo;ve got to play smart and not try to do too much. But I think with the help I&rsquo;ll get from the other players and coaches, I&rsquo;ll be ready&rdquo;</p><p>Torrey, who drafted Jovanovski ahead of other top-rated players such as defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and forward Radek Bonk, believes Jovanovski&rsquo;s time is now.</p><p>&ldquo;Ed is a total, complete player whom we hope can lift us from a non-playoff team to a playoff team.&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;He plays with the kind of strength other players feed off. He&rsquo;s a major-league puckhandler, he has an excellent shot and he&rsquo;s very offensive-minded. You just don&rsquo;t find the kind of raw-boned players who have hand skills like him.</p><p>&ldquo;He has also matured, partly due to the unfortunate circumstances he had to go through. But let me tell you, every time this kid is on the ice&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>Torrey stops and slams his right fist into the palm of his left hand.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s bang, bang, bang.&rdquo;</p><p>No question Jovanovski will supply the Panthers with two things they have desperately needed: A physical force on the blueline and a mobile defenseman who can rush the puck up ice. But early in the season there could be problems.</p><p>&ldquo;The problems he could encounter early are on defense,&rdquo; said Panthers&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little worried defensively with Ed because we don&rsquo;t want him running around the defensive zone,&rdquo; said coach Doug MacLean. &ldquo;We also want him to identify his man, but you&rsquo;re always concerned about a young kid on defense, especially with a kid like Ed, because he likes to move the puck up.&rdquo;</p><p>MacLean and Murray are already thinking about damage control. Jovanovski isn&rsquo;t likely to see much time on the power play&mdash;the Panthers plan to use defensemen Robert Svehla, Jason Woolley and Magnus Svensson on the point&mdash;and the plan is to pair Jovanovski with veteran Gord Murphy as much as possible.</p><p>&ldquo;Sort of like his one-ice tutor,&rdquo; MacLean said.</p><p>Jovanovski will listen to his tutor, but realizes there are some things he must start working on-especially in the defensive zone-that really can&rsquo;t be taught to him.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to try to do too much,&rdquo; Jovanovski said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to try and overhandle the puck and then goof up. I want to try and work with my defensive partner.</p><p>&ldquo;I think I play best when I&rsquo;m playing physical, keeping things simple and getting a fresh pass out. I&rsquo;ve got to play the game like that and play confidently.&rdquo;</p><p>If Jovanovski can do those simple things on the ice, Murray believes the big defenseman will live up to the Panthers&rsquo; expectations for him.</p><p>&ldquo;Really, he just has to be a regular player,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;There will be problems he encounters early on defense, but we&rsquo;re just hoping as time goes on he&rsquo;ll be a regular, solid player.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03137/7121073-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="666" height="323"></div><h2><b><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></b></h2><p>Here are Florida&rsquo;s top 24 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-04103/7121066-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="653" height="996"></div><h2><b><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0588/7121059-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="667" height="128"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0679/7121052-1-eng-US/f0044-062.jpg" title="f0044-06" width="664" height="389"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0044-02

Florida’s designated hitter

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02152/7121146-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="977" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Diane Sobolewski)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01281/7121153-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="160" height="153"></div><p>Was this a one-day media mirage or was it legitimate?</p><p>There were more TV cameras and tape recorders whirring at a Hartford Whalers&rsquo; workout than at any time since Pete Karmanos plunked down $47.5 million to buy the NHL club in June, 1994.</p><p>Whether the media horde returns or exits at the first scent of the University of Connecticut basketball team&rsquo;s sneakers remains to be seen. But for Day 1 of the camp, everybody in the state wanted a piece of Brendan Shanahan.</p><p>&ldquo;You guys are going to love him,&rdquo; said coach Paul Holmgren. &ldquo;He speaks straight from the heart.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unbelievable he&rsquo;s here,&rdquo; said winger Kelly Chase, a former teammate of Shanahan&rsquo;s with the St. Louis Blues. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to demand respect from other teams. He&rsquo;s our leader. A captain. He wants guys to push themselves because he pushes himself. He&rsquo;ll grab you by the hair and kick you in the rear when you need it. And we&rsquo;ll need it sometimes.&rdquo;</p><p>Shanahan, who had two 50-goal seasons with St. Louis, already set one Whalers&rsquo; camp record: Most interviews, opening day. A zillion.</p><p>&ldquo;We have a good group of guys with a lot of character,&rdquo; said Whalers&rsquo; GM Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;We needed a game-breaker and a leader to bring that character out of our guys.&rdquo;</p><p>Without a captain since trading Pat Verbeck to the New York Rangers last spring, the Whalers are fully expected to give Shanahan the &lsquo;C&rsquo; before the season opener against the Rangers Oct. 7.</p><p>When Shanahan was traded on July 27, he was a mess. It took him 24 hours to speak publicly. He loved St. Louis, even if he didn&rsquo;t love coach-GM Mike Keenan. But a strange thing happened. The more derisive things he heard about Hartford, the easier it became for him to overcome the shock and pain of leaving the banks of the Mississippi.</p><p>&ldquo;I got angry during the summer,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;I hadn&rsquo;t met the guys here. I hadn&rsquo;t played for the team. But I was angered how people were so disrespectful toward Hartford, to the Whalers. You really don&rsquo;t know my personality yet, but that&rsquo;s a great way to make me feel like a part of this team. That&rsquo;s great incentive for me to stick it in their faces.&rdquo;</p><p>Chase, the Whalers&rsquo; resident enforcer and Shanahan&rsquo;s deputy pitbull, loved to hear this talk. It is right up his alley.</p><p>&ldquo;People laugh at Hartford, but just you wait and see,&rdquo; Chase said. &ldquo;Guys here were happy just being close in the past. That&rsquo;s not the way it&rsquo;s going to be anymore. We&rsquo;re going into rinks and we&rsquo;ll leave hated.</p><p>&ldquo;No more Andrew Cassels and Geoff Sanderson on the ice being slapped on the side of the head and everybody looking around waiting for somebody to do something. Somebody slashes, Cass, Sandy, Robert Kron, Andrei Nikolishin, Shanahan is going to beat the spit out of him. Gerald Diduck and Glen Featherstone will rush in. Mark Janssens, me, Scott Daniels are going to be there.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re all going to be together. Everybody&rsquo;s hanging together. The tougher your tough guys are, the better your skill players play.&rdquo;</p><p>Chase and Shanahan, captains of their respective scrimmage teams, growled at each other after Shanahan slashed him on opening day. But what really had Chase growling was a couple of Keenan statements in the St. Louis <i>Post-Dispatch.</i> Keenan said Shanahan someday would be honored to say he was traded for Chris Pronger.</p><p>Although Keenan wasn&rsquo;t nearly as critical of Shanahan as he was of Curtis Joseph (&ldquo;lowest fitness rating of any professional athlete we ever tested&rdquo;), he did take a backhanded slap.</p><p>&ldquo;There was concern about Brendan&rsquo;s health in that he wasn&rsquo;t getting the proper rest.&rdquo; Keenan said. The implication was Shanahan partied late into the night. Friends said Shanahan found Keenan&rsquo;s comments insulting.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen Brendan split for 42 stitches,&rdquo; Chase said. &ldquo;Lip stuck out. Cut into the nose. It was a 0-0 game with Winnipeg. (Keith) Tkachuk high-sticked him. Brendan went in, got stitched up, came back and scored both goals in a 21 win. He went after Tkachuk and Tkachuk turtled.</p><p>&ldquo;Brendan was sick at the start of the year. What Keenan says is bull. When I left, he wasn&rsquo;t even drinking beer. Brendan takes care of himself. He&rsquo;s a leader. A warrior.&rdquo;</p><p>Shanahan wants to bury the past.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no sense in me insulting Keenan,&rdquo; Shanahan told the <i>Post-Dispatch.</i> &ldquo;Everybody wants to hear me talk bad about him. But I have no intention of doing that. It doesn&rsquo;t give me any personal satisfaction or revenge.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03111/7121139-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="670" height="322"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Hartford&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 199596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0487/7121132-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="658" height="985"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0574/7121125-1-eng-US/f0045-052.jpg" title="f0045-05" width="661" height="116"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0665/7121118-1-eng-US/f0045-062.jpg" title="f0045-06" width="666" height="393"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0045-02

How do you spell respect?

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02205/7121278-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="989" height="1499"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Robert Laberge/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01308/7121285-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="160" height="157"></div><p>It will go down as one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; 1995 season: What happened to Vincent Damphousse?</p><p>The left winger, known for offense throughout his nine-year career, went missing in action last season. Meanwhile, the Canadiens, only two years removed from a Stanley Cup championship, missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years.</p><p>And unless Damphousse gets on track this season, the Canadiens could be facing another long summer.</p><p>The durable Damphousse played all 48 games, but produced only 10 goals and 40 points, career lows for both goals and points. Pro-rated over an 84-game season, Damphousse still would have scored only 18 goals.</p><p>His 10 goals placed him fourth on the team, behind Pierre Turgeon (24), Mark Recchi (16) and rookie Brian Savage (12), and in a tie with Mike Keane. The underachieving Damphousse scored only four power-play goals and four game-winning goals.</p><p>&ldquo;It was frustrating and very hard for me. I couldn&rsquo;t get going,&rdquo; Damphousse said. &ldquo;I knew we needed my goals and I took it hard. I took a lot of things personally and put a lot of the blame on myself.&rdquo;</p><p>Others blamed Damphousse, too. He became the favorite whipping boy. frequently assailed by both the demanding Montreal media and Forum spectators. The fans&rsquo; braying was a new experience for Damphousse, one which clearly unsettled him.</p><p>Canadiens&rsquo; GM Serge Savard-in the midst of the lockout and with many owners complaining of a lack of resources-signed Damphousse to a four-year, $10million contract.</p><p>&ldquo;Obviously when you sign a contract like I did there are expectations,&rdquo; Damphousse admitted. &ldquo;(The money) was no big thing for me, but it was a factor because the team wanted me to produce quicker.&rdquo;</p><p>A first-round pick (sixth overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1986 entry draft, Damphousse scored 33 goals for Toronto in 1989-90 and 38 for the Edmonton Oilers in 1991-92. But he saved the best for his return to his hometown, blossoming following an August, 1992 trade to Montreal for Shayne Corson, Brent Gilchrist and Vladimir Vujtek.</p><p>Damphousse produced back-to-back seasons of 39 and 40 goals for the Canadiens, both career highs. Canadiens&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers predicted before the lockout Damphousse would reach the 50-goal mark.</p><p>The lockout ended any hopes of that, but one year later, uncertainty continues to surround Damphousse.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not questioning my ability,&rdquo; Damphousse said. &ldquo;I still feel I can score. There&rsquo;s no question I can have my best year ever. This should be the best time of my career. I&rsquo;m 27.&rdquo;</p><p>Damphousse was one of the few Canadiens to play in Europe during the lockout, spending time in Germany. Yet he still didn&rsquo;t seem prepared for the start of the season in January. He has been a notoriously slow starter throughout his career, but never seemed to get out of a funk last season.</p><p>&ldquo;It was a tough year because we didn&rsquo;t know when things were going to start,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;You try and peak for September, but no one knew what was going on.</p><p>&ldquo;I went to Europe, but I was back by Dec. 21 and we didn&rsquo;t start until January. Then things started badly. I&rsquo;ve always been a slow starter, but you can&rsquo;t afford that over a 48-game schedule.&rdquo;,</p><p>Demers has no worries about Damphousse producing this season, but has been careful to avoid predictions.</p><p>&ldquo;He has been known as a slow starter and he learned a tremendous lesson,&rdquo; said the coach. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s well prepared this year. I think the constant mentioning of the slow start got to him.</p><p>&ldquo;I want him to be consistent from Oct. 7.&rdquo;</p><p>A full season with Turgeon and Recchi as linemates should benefit Damphousse and the Canadiens.</p><p>Damphousse requires a center who can feed him the puck, taking advantage of his tremendous shot once he gets into position.</p><p>Turgeon played 15 games with Damphousse following his arrival from the New York Islanders April 5 and in only four of those games was Damphousse held without a point, posting 2-11-13 totals.</p><p>&ldquo;I know that with the guys I play with we can be talented offensively,&rdquo; Damphousse said. &ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ll get more ice to work with and it&rsquo;ll give me more room. Playing with skilled players should benefit my stats.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m motivated, I&rsquo;ve prepared hard and I&rsquo;ve left nothing to chance.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03157/7121271-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="668" height="325"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Montreal&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 199596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-04110/7121264-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="646" height="991"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0583/7121257-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="662" height="96"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0668/7121250-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="655" height="393"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0047-02

’95 dud dogs Damphousse

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02130/7121344-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="979" height="1483"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by
Bruce Benet/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01204/7121351-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="160" height="159"></div><p>Stephane Richer&rsquo;s days as a 50-goal scorer may not be over.</p><p>Despite his concessions to the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defense-oriented style and coach Jacques Lemaire&rsquo;s four-line approach, Richer enters his 11th NHL season as a threat to challenge the magic number 50 for the third time in his career. He scored 50 in 1987-88 with the Montreal Canadiens and 51 with Montreal in &rsquo;89-90.</p><p>Still speedy and with a shot that draws gasps from arena crowds, Richer led the Stanley Cup champion Devils with 23 goals (and 39 points) last season in 45 games. Over an 82-game schedule, that would translate to 42 goals.</p><p>&ldquo;When you reach a plateau like 40 or 50, you always hope you can get close again. It&rsquo;ll be tough here because we play four lines, but that&rsquo;s why it is fun,&rdquo; said Richer.</p><p>More than volume, the quality of Richer&rsquo;s goal-scoring has made him New Jersey&rsquo;s most dangerous offensive player. He led the team with five game-winning goals last season and has topped the Devils in that department for three consecutive seasons.</p><p>There is, however, the constant reminder from Lemaire that the game is played at both ends of the ice.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to score 40 or 50 goals, but you see guys get traded around the NHL because they don&rsquo;t do anything defensively for their team. They score goals, but they don&rsquo;t help their team very much,&rdquo; said Richer. &ldquo;What I&rsquo;ve learned is I can be a better hockey player all-around. Jacques told me last year that I could do more things for the team. He said if I want to be a better player and last in the NHL, I have to play both ways. I&rsquo;m lucky to have a coach like Jacques.&rdquo;</p><p>In the playoffs, Richer skated on a line with Conn Smythe Trophy winner Claude Lemieux and center Bobby Carpenter. Both are excellent defensive players, which Lemaire felt was necessary with Richer&rsquo;s wandering tendencies.</p><p>Richer has begun to look at the entire picture instead of living day-to-day. Although he entered the final season on his contract and voiced his desire to negotiate a new long-term deal, the 29-year-old native of Ripon, Que., reported to training camp on time and in perhaps his best off-season condition since being traded from the Canadiens in September of 1991.</p><p>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have that much time to be out of it, but I tried to not gain much weight,&rdquo; Richer said, reminding that the Devils completed their four-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings on June 24. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say I&rsquo;m in top shape, but compared to the last couple of years I&rsquo;m in great shape. The last few years I haven&rsquo;t been in very good shape when I came to camp.&rdquo;</p><p>Lemaire noticed.</p><p>&ldquo;Richer, (Shawn) Chambers and (Tom) Chorske all reported in good shape and in a good frame of mind,&rdquo; said the coach.</p><p>It was feared that Richer might join unsigned free agents Martin Brodeur and Scott Niedermayer, along with Lemieux, and not show up for training camp. In the final season of a three-year contract that will pay him a base salary of $905,000, Richer had the choice of going to salary arbitration or announcing his choice to play out his option.</p><p>&ldquo;Steph made the decision to play out his option and I respect that decision,&rdquo; said Devils&rsquo; GM Lou Lamoriello. &ldquo;We have talked and we will continue to talk and work out a new contract. He&rsquo;s an important part of our team and always has been.&rdquo;</p><p>The contract is not an immediate concern for Richer, who said he wants to remain with the Devils.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking to have a good season no matter what happens with my contract. I think we have a great hockey team here. I believe we can win another Stanley Cup,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I would love to stay here for the next couple of years but, on the other hand, I&rsquo;ll be a free agent in one year. From what I know, they want to sign me and they want to do it as soon as possible. I hope they don&rsquo;t wait until Christmas. I don&rsquo;t want to start anything, but I&rsquo;m not a rookie. I know my value.&rdquo;</p><p>His value was never more evident than in the playoffs, when he led the Devils in scoring with six goals and 21 points.</p><p>Richer said he would leave his contract negotiations to agent Richard Teoli, who is believed to be looking for a three-year deal that would pay Richer between $5-$6 million.</p><p>&ldquo;Nobody believed we could beat Pittsburgh, the Flyers and the Red Wings,&rdquo; Richer said of last season. &ldquo;But we did.&rdquo;</p><p>Richer won his first Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1985-86. There could be a third Stanley Cup ring in his future along with, perhaps, his third 50-goal season.</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0388/7121337-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg" title="f0048-03" width="661" height="327"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are New Jersey&rsquo;s top 23 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0469/7121330-1-eng-US/f0048-042.jpg" title="f0048-04" width="648" height="917"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0552/7121323-1-eng-US/f0048-052.jpg" title="f0048-05" width="661" height="127"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0641/7121316-1-eng-US/f0048-062.jpg" title="f0048-06" width="661" height="391"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0048-02

Richer could hit 50 again

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02121/7121410-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="991" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01177/7121417-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="162" height="153"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span> combination of inexperience and injuries have conspired to hold Scott Lachance back as an offensive force in his first three-plus NHL seasons, but the New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman could be ready to bust loose.</p><p>&ldquo;Scotty is on the verge of a breakthrough year,&rdquo; said GM Don Maloney. &ldquo;If he plays consistently over the entire season the way he teased us the first 15 games last year, then he&rsquo;s going to be a very good player.&rdquo;</p><p>Naturally, that&rsquo;s what the Islanders saw in Lachance when they made him the fourth overall pick in the 1991 entry draft. He&rsquo;d just come off a freshman season at Boston University in which he had five goals and 24 points in 31 games.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;ll ever get 50 or 60 points,&rdquo; Lachance said, &ldquo;but when I was younger and in my first year of college I always joined the play. You&rsquo;re the element of surprise when forwards are looking the wrong way and you come down.&rdquo;</p><p>In his first two pro seasons, Lachance learned defense under coach Al Arbour, who kept Lachance&rsquo;s offensive game under wraps.</p><p>&ldquo;We told him he has to start from his own end and work his way up-not start from the offensive end and work his way back,&rdquo; said Arbour, now an Islanders&rsquo; vice-president.</p><p>&ldquo;Al and (former assistant coach) Rick Green helped me with subtle things,&rdquo; Lachance said, &ldquo;like being strong on your stick and forcing the play where you want it to go.&rdquo;</p><p>Lachance entered the NHL quietly at the end of the 1991-92 season, collecting a goal and four assists in 17 games. The following season he made a little more noise (seven goals, 24 points in 75 games), but tore ligaments in his left wrist in the last week of the regular season and missed the Islanders&rsquo; run to the conference final.</p><p>The 1993-94 season was a disappointing one (3-11-14 in 74 games), while the lockout-shortened 1994-95 campaign was a frustrating one. The 6-foot-l and 197-pound rearguard had six goals and 13 points in 26 games, but missed 22 contests with a broken left ankle.</p><p>&ldquo;He was really starting to come around and bingo, he&rsquo;s injured again,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;Hopefully, the gods will smile on him and he&rsquo;ll be injury free. It&rsquo;ll take a while but I think as he goes along he&rsquo;s going to get better and better.&rdquo;</p><p>For his part, Lachance just wants a full and healthy season to show what he can do.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had some frustrating injuries the past few years that have stopped me from improving,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Last year it was kind of a freak thing. I was chasing the puck on an icing, spun around the wrong way and ended up with my feet facing away from the boards. My left foot popped up and I broke my ankle.&rdquo;</p><p>While Lachance cannot lug the puck end-to-end like the Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils, he probably is as quick and equally as adept at receiving passes from the blueline in and getting shots on net.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a lot more gifted skater,&rdquo; Lachance said of Niedermayer, &ldquo;but I think I&rsquo;m stronger than him defensively&rdquo;</p><p>Ken Morrow, the Islanders&rsquo; director of pro scouting, is as excited as anyone at the prospect of seeing a full season from the 23-year-old blueliner.</p><p>&ldquo;There are no weak parts to his game. I guess you&rsquo;d say he&rsquo;s kind of the complete package,&rdquo; Morrow said. &ldquo;He was on the verge of breaking through last year. Staying healthy has been his biggest problem. And along with that there have been a couple of years of maturity.</p><p>&ldquo;Defense is a position you don&rsquo;t learn right away. The biggest thing for him to learn is to become a take-charge player. I think his role will evolve into that. The other players will look for him to do that.&rdquo;</p><p>Lachance is the Islanders&rsquo; second most valuable defenseman behind Mathieu Schneider, whom he will join on power plays.</p><p>&ldquo;I want to improve on what I did last year,&rdquo; Lachance said. &ldquo;Last year, I felt myself starting to feel like I wanted to-not so much with the points, but playing solid defensively and being able to help out offensively. Not so much by lugging the puck out like Schneider, but by becoming the fourth forward. That helps out the forwards a lot when there&rsquo;s an extra man to pass to.</p><p>&ldquo;And you being there might open up something for the forwards. It&rsquo;s something Brian Leetch does well.&rdquo;</p><p>Said new Islanders&rsquo; coach Mike Milbury: &ldquo;I think all our defensemen should (attack). I think Scotty is a pretty gifted player. I think he, more than anybody else, should be able to take advantage of situations.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0378/7121403-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="666" height="320"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are the Islanders&rsquo; top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0467/7121396-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="648" height="986"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0542/7121389-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="666" height="152"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0631/7121382-1-eng-US/f0049-062.jpg" title="f0049-06" width="666" height="393"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0049-02

It’s time for Great Scott

<div class="byline">By John Dellapina</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02112/7121476-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="981" height="1479"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Bruce Benet Studios)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01175/7121483-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="157" height="156"></div><p>It took Ulf Samuelsson all of five minutes into his first official act as a New York Ranger to issue his first threat of mayhem.</p><p>Asked during his introductory conference call if he plans to take it easy on Mario Lemieux the first time his former Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; teammate carry the puck down his side, Samuelsson replied: &ldquo;No. I know just where his back is hurt and I&rsquo;m going to go for it.&rdquo;</p><p>Okay, so Samuelsson was joking-at least it sounded like he was. But the 31-year-old defenseman wasn&rsquo;t fooling around at all 10 minutes into his first Rangers&rsquo; practice.</p><p>That is when, having watched his intra-squad scrimmage teammate Pavel Komarov get cut by another Rangers&rsquo; rookie, Rick Willis, Samuelsson first cracked Willis with crosscheck and then leveled him with a bodycheck. Such uncharacteristic venom from a veteran in a pre-season scrimmage was the buzz of training camp for the first couple of days.</p><p>Clearly, Samuelsson neither revels in nor recoils from his reputation as one of the most aggressive (filthy?) players in the game. He also makes no apologies.</p><p>And why should he? As often as rival coaches and GMs have complained about him over the years, they lined up to make pitches to Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick this summer when Samuelsson&rsquo;s contract expired and it became clear the cost-cutting Penguins weren&rsquo;t going to re-sign him.</p><p>&ldquo;Some people know what they&rsquo;re talking about; some people don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Samuelsson says of his unseemly reputation. &ldquo;I know I deserve most of it. I don&rsquo;t know whether I like it or not. That&rsquo;s just the way it is.&rdquo;</p><p>This is the way it was during the Wales Conference final in 1991: Samuelsson and Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins collided in open ice. Neely suffered a deep thigh bruise that calcified, leading to knee problems that have ravaged what was developing into a monster career.</p><p>Just as New York Islander Denis Potvin became to Ranger fans after wrecking Ulf Nilsson&rsquo;s career with a hit, Samuelsson became public enemy No. 1 in Boston. Unlike Nilsson, though, Neely has never absolved Samuelsson from blame.</p><p>Thus, his &ldquo;dirty&rdquo; hit on Neely has come to be the defining moment of Samuelsson&rsquo;s career. While he believes there is some record-straightening to be done, Samuelsson insists he isn&rsquo;t tom up about the incident.</p><p>&ldquo;It never bothered me once,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know exactly what happened in that incident. I never talked to him about it. But if you have one guy 200 pounds going one way and another guy 240 pounds going the other way, sometimes, something is going to break. And next time, it might be my knee, my ankle. That&rsquo;s how I think.</p><p>&ldquo;Then again, you hate to see a guy, no matter who it is, be hurt for an extended period of time. That&rsquo;s not in my thinking.&rdquo;</p><p>What is in Samuelsson&rsquo;s thinking is making life as difficult and downright dangerous for opponents as possible.</p><p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to be intimidating every game, day-in and day-out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Otherwise, you&rsquo;re not going to get that little edge like I sometimes have with players.&rdquo;</p><p>The Rangers, perennially criticized for being too soft, obviously don&rsquo;t mind&rsquo;t if Samuelsson&rsquo;s view of &ldquo;game-in, game-out&rdquo; includes intra-squad scrim-mages on the first day of training camp.</p><p>&ldquo;Ulf is exactly what we thought he I would be.&rdquo; said grinning Rangers&rsquo; coach Colin Campbell. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s as miserable in training camp as he is in a regular game. That&rsquo;s exactly what we want.&rdquo;</p><p>Of course, amid all the rule-bending and body-crunching, Samuelsson manages to work in a fair measure of outstanding defensive play. While his 1,914 penalty minutes entering this season rank him 25th on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time list-sixth among active defensemen-he also has finished seven straight seasons with a positive plus/minus rating. In fact, he is a combined plus-127 since the beginning of 1988-89.</p><p>The Rangers are hoping Samuelsson, I can teach that combination to 23-year-old Mattias Norstrom. a fellow Swedish defenseman cut from very much the same aggressive cloth.</p><p>&ldquo;I think the thing that gets overlooked with with Ulfie all the time because he is so SUMI aggressive is that he&rsquo;s extremely talented too,&rdquo; said Rangers&rsquo; captain Mark Messier. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he gets enough recognition for how good a player he is not only defensively, but also with the puck.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy we really needed to take a lot of the pressure off (Jeff Beukeboom). And now maybe he can tutor Norstrom and we&rsquo;ll have Slam and Bam back there.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0361/7121469-1-eng-US/f0050-032.jpg" title="f0050-03" width="664" height="324"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are the Rangers&rsquo; top 24 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0450/7121462-1-eng-US/f0050-042.jpg" title="f0050-04" width="652" height="995"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0532/7121455-1-eng-US/f0050-052.jpg" title="f0050-05" width="658" height="124"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0625/7121448-1-eng-US/f0050-062.jpg" title="f0050-06" width="665" height="394"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0050-02

Grand Slam Samuelsson

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-02115/7121542-1-eng-US/f0051-022.jpg" title="f0051-02" width="975" height="1477"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Jim Mclsaac/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01165/7121549-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="163" height="157"></div><p>It&rsquo;s not hard to know when Stan Neckar is around the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; dressing room.</p><p>Typically one of the last players off the ice after practice, he often has the dressing room almost to himself.</p><p>That&rsquo;s when he takes over the stereo, sending an earth-shaking wall of sound, usually his favorite metal band, Pantera, sometimes Metallica, reverberating in the room.</p><p>He&rsquo;ll stand in the middle of it all, smiling slightly, his blond mane bobbing to the beat.</p><p>After quietly becoming the Senators&rsquo; most dependable defenseman last year as an 18-year-old, this could be the year when Neckar (pronounced Nets-Cash) starts to make some noise of his own in the NHL.</p><p>Despite his youth and the fact he was playing for the worst team in the league, Neckar had a solid rookie season, though it went largely unnoticed outside Ottawa.</p><p>While offensively-gifted rookies such as Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya got the headlines, Neckar scored just one goal and three assists in 48 games, but succeeded by using his solid instincts for the game.</p><p>He moves the puck well and is an underrated skater. He often played against the opponents&rsquo; top players and held his own.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s so reliable, so consistent,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just the way he plays. He has very few peaks or valleys.&rdquo;</p><p>Neckar was taken in the second round of the 1994 draft and is shaping up as one of the most astute picks by former director of player personnel John Ferguson.</p><p>Neckar was a highly regarded prospect, but mononucleosis forced him to miss the 1994 World Junior Championship and he slipped in the scouts&rsquo; rankings and out of some people&rsquo;s minds.</p><p>The Senators jumped on him with their first pick of the second round (29th overall) and Neckar has made them look good.</p><p>He is a tireless worker and has an unabashed love for the game.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve taken a couple of rookies who don&rsquo;t know how to work aside here in camp and said to them, &lsquo;You stay here with me and watch him,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Bowness during the Senators&rsquo; training camp in Canton, N.Y.</p><p>&ldquo;Whatever he does, he does it 100 per cent, but for Stan it&rsquo;s a labor of love. You just let him play. He has got so much you&rsquo;re not able to teach, so much desire. As a coach you just have to let that come out. You don&rsquo;t want to give him too much to think about.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a joy to coach and to have on the club. His teammates love him.&rdquo;</p><p>Ask the Senators&rsquo; players about Neckar and first you get a smile, then words of respect.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of guy who had some bumps and bruises, but didn&rsquo;t run to the coach and ask to be taken out of the lineup. That&rsquo;s character. He&rsquo;s that type of guy,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; captain Randy Cunneyworth.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always willing and able and very enthusiastic about everything he does. That&rsquo;s all you can ask from a player.&rdquo;</p><p>Neckar said he&rsquo;s expecting this year to be tougher than last season.</p><p>He&rsquo;s well-armed to wrestle with any sophomore jinx, however. He&rsquo;s up to 6-foot-2 and 212 pounds and is a workout fanatic. He was either first or second in most of the Senators&rsquo; training camp fitness tests.</p><p>&ldquo;The second season is always hard for every player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I like to work. Work is good for you, you will be a better player,&rdquo;</p><p>Neckar could benefit as well from having his father, Stanislav Sr., living with him in Ottawa this season.</p><p>They share a love of hockey (Stan Sr., coached his son for his first eight years of hockey) and music. Stan Sr., plays a mean guitar, according to Neckar, at one time cranking out some Deep Purple tunes for a rock band back in the Czech Republic.</p><p>And Stan Sr., according to his son, is not bad in the kitchen.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good cook,&rdquo; said Neckar. &ldquo;Last year it was just me and I&rsquo;m bad. There were a lot of times last year when I would come home and be too tired to cook, so I ate at restaurants a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>Neckar gets the most out of anything he does.</p><p>He loves his hockey and he loves his music. He plays guitar and is planning to buy drums.</p><p>He bought a sports car last year and shipped it by boat back to the Czech Republic so he would have it during his visit home.</p><p>&ldquo;I love fast driving,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And it has got a good stereo.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0377/7121535-1-eng-US/f0051-032.jpg" title="f0051-03" width="660" height="323"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Ottawa&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0458/7121528-1-eng-US/f0051-042.jpg" title="f0051-04" width="647" height="988"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0540/7121521-1-eng-US/f0051-052.jpg" title="f0051-05" width="655" height="157"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0633/7121514-1-eng-US/f0051-062.jpg" title="f0051-06" width="649" height="394"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0051-02

Neckar’s star on the rise

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0288/7121608-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg" title="f0052-02" width="973" height="1467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01160/7121615-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="156" height="150"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>K</span>evin Haller didn&rsquo;t have to think twice. Having played with Eric Desjardins with the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers, he knows exactly where his blueline buddy fits into the Flyers&rsquo; scheme of things.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the No. 1 &lsquo;D&rsquo; for sure,&rdquo; Haller said, &ldquo;and he has to play an important role. He&rsquo;s the most consistent defensemen out there, always there to play hard every night and he almost never gets beat.&rdquo;</p><p>Not everybody shares Haller&rsquo;s certainty about Desjardins, but more and more are becoming believers.</p><p>After being ticketed for great things on the strength of his play for the host nation at the 1991 Canada Cup, Desjardins&rsquo; didn&rsquo;t accelerate at the projected speed. Instead of becoming an all-star, he was just a good, steady defenseman who stayed out of the limelight.</p><p>That changed last season after his early-season trade from the Canadiens. The 25-year-old Rouyn, Que., native seized his new opportunity and collected five goals and 23 points in 34 games after a 0-6-6 start in nine games with Montreal. His stats projected to 55 points in an 84-game season which, while not in Paul Coffey or Ray Bourque territory, would have been a career-high.</p><p>People around the league began to take notice as Desjardins was voted to THN&rsquo;s second all-star team and was named on several NHL post-season all-star ballots.</p><p>Now the question people in Philadelphia are wondering is can Desjardins take the next step and join the league&rsquo;s very best?</p><p>Perhaps, but don&rsquo;t count on him making much noise on his way to greatness.</p><p>&ldquo;His personality isn&rsquo;t as flamboyant as some of the other top guys in the league,&rdquo; Haller said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s more silent in his play, just the way he is in his speech. He&rsquo;s not a real vocal guy, just as you don&rsquo;t always notice him on the ice.</p><p>&ldquo;But he&rsquo;s always doing his job. He might not make that most amazing play, like a (Brian) Leetch or (Chris) Chelios would, but he&rsquo;s there solid as a rock. Plus, he&rsquo;s good in all three zones.&rdquo;</p><p>Desjardins credits his sturdiness, in part, to the tutelage of Larry Robinson. The Hall-of-Fame rearguard, who is now coaching the Los Angeles Kings, was on the Canadiens&rsquo; blueline when Desjardins broke into the NHL as a 19-year-old in 1988-89.</p><p>&ldquo;I admired Larry Robinson,&rdquo; Desjardins said. &ldquo;He was a quiet guy, didn&rsquo;t say much in the room. But when he was talking, everybody was listening.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the kind of guy who never made declarations or was big in the press. When I see him now, he&rsquo;s still a gentleman and that&rsquo;s what I admire about him.&rdquo;</p><p>While Desjardins has taken many of his cues from Robinson, his on-ice style has Flyers&rsquo; fans comparing him to one of their own-Mark Howe.</p><p>The locals liken the two players&rsquo; ability to see the ice and read plays quickly, along with their skating, shooting and stickhandling skills.</p><p>If Desjardins is to attain the acclaim of a Howe or a Robinson, he&rsquo;ll have to measure up in another area-leadership. His ability to make others better is critical. So far, Desjardins has been doing an admirable job.</p><p>Young defensemen such as Chris Therien and Karl Dykhuis matured quickly in a shortened 1994-95 season and some point to Desjardins&rsquo; dressing room example as a big factor. Again, Desjardins credits Robinson for laying the groundwork.</p><p>&ldquo;I was a kid (in 1988), but Larry didn&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; Desjardins recalled. &ldquo;He took care of me, he was great. That&rsquo;s the way I would like to be.&rdquo;</p><p>The way he is right now isn&rsquo;t bad. Desjardins is quiet and easy-going and that&rsquo;s not likely to change whether he wins a Norris Trophy or not.</p><p>&ldquo;I just think it&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s inside of me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was raised like that.&rdquo;</p><p>Desjardins has already tasted his share of individual success. There was a big overtime goal to win a Stanley Cup final game against the Kings in 1993 and another overtime goal to help the Flyers in their extended playoff run last year.</p><p>&ldquo;Lots of good things have happened to me-like the Canada Cup and the Stanley Cup-but it&rsquo;s just that I&rsquo;ve stayed on the modest side because that&rsquo;s what I believe in. I believe I can do well, but you have to make sure you know your limits.&rdquo;</p><p>Thankfully for the Flyers, those limits in Desjardins&rsquo; case are high.</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0352/7121601-1-eng-US/f0052-032.jpg" title="f0052-03" width="660" height="321"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Philadelphia&rsquo;s top 23 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0441/7121594-1-eng-US/f0052-042.jpg" title="f0052-04" width="646" height="945"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0529/7121587-1-eng-US/f0052-052.jpg" title="f0052-05" width="653" height="153"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0622/7121580-1-eng-US/f0052-062.jpg" title="f0052-06" width="653" height="389"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0052-02

Desjardins’ silent ascent

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0297/7121674-1-eng-US/f0053-022.jpg" title="f0053-02" width="973" height="1489"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01159/7121681-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="159" height="156"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>B</span>ryan Smolinski spent his first two-plus NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, where he labored in the considerable shadows cast by superstars such as defenseman Raymond Bourque, right winger Cam Neely and center Adam Oates.</p><p>During his college days, as a freshman at Michigan State University, he played behind the top player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association-eventual Hobey Baker Award winner Kip Miller.</p><p>His surroundings-but not his circum-stances-changed this summer, when Smolinski was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Suddenly, the third-year forward is sharing a dressing room with the likes of center Mario Lemieux (a two-time Hart Trophy winner), right winger Jaromir Jagr (last season&rsquo;s NHL scoring champ) and center Ron Francis (the 1995 Selke and Lady Byng Trophies winner).</p><p>Smolinski has moved into a different part of the hockey galaxy these days, but there still are stars everywhere he looks.</p><p>Being overshadowed by such high-profile talent could strain the ego of some quality young players, but Smolinski, 23, has no problem with it.</p><p>&ldquo;I have no (complaints) about anything like that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great honor to play behind those types of players.</p><p>&ldquo;If I can just keep my mouth shut, watch what they&rsquo;re doing and mirror them, I&rsquo;m going to have some success here. And if I can work well with them, the team&rsquo;s going to be very successful.&rdquo;</p><p>For his part, Pittsburgh coach Ed Johnston believes Smolinski actually has benefitted from playing without any undue pressures from the media and public during the early stages of his career.</p><p>&ldquo;He has been able to do his work and improve his skill level and plays as well as he did without getting the fanfare,&rdquo; Johnston said.</p><p>Smolinski, who has toiled most of his young career at center, figures to spend much of this season on the wing since the Penguins are already deep down the middle.</p><p>Lemieux, Francis and Petr Nedved-acquired along with defenseman Sergei Zubov in an offseason trade with the New York Rangers-are penciled in as the top three pivots on a Penguins&rsquo; outfit that has undergone a dramatic offseason facelift.</p><p>&ldquo;Those are three great centermen,&rdquo; Smolinski said. &ldquo;Whatever they have for me here is OK by me. I prefer center, but playing wing is not a problem. I did it all last year.&rdquo;</p><p>If he has to play a wing, Smolinski said he prefers the left side, but the native of Toledo, Ohio doesn&rsquo;t sound like he plans to make an issue of it.</p><p>The Penguins acquired Smolinski, who scored 31 goals in his first full NHL season (199394), and right winger Glen Murray from the Bruins for left winger Kevin Stevens and center Shawn McEachern. Both players figure to get ample opportunity to contribute with their new team, although Smolinski declined to detail his objectives.</p><p>&ldquo;I have some personal goals,&rdquo; said Smolinski, who scored 18 goals in 44 games last season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to submit them (to the public) right now. I just want to do my share and maintain what I&rsquo;ve done in the past couple of years. And just fill the (role) this team needs and that they traded for.&rdquo;</p><p>Smolinski, the Bruins&rsquo; first-round choice (21st overall) in the 1990 entry draft, clearly enjoyed his time in Boston and acknowledges he had been excited about the team moving from the storied Boston Garden into the Fleet Center this fall.</p><p>&ldquo;I was disappointed (to be traded),&rdquo; Smolinski said. &ldquo;I was really looking forward to the new building and all that. I had no quarrels with Boston. I did everything they asked me to.</p><p>&ldquo;But in this game, obviously, it happens. If (Wayne) Gretzky can get traded, anyone can be traded. I didn&rsquo;t have a problem with that. If I could have chosen to come to any team, it would be Pittsburgh, and I got lucky there.&rdquo;</p><p>The Penguins seem to feel pretty much the same way about landing Smolinski. Johnston said he will be pleased if Smolinski produces 30 goals and 80 points and recognizes that not all of his contributions will be recorded on the stats sheet.</p><p>&ldquo;He plays so well without the puck,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;He does a lot of picking and a lot of little things I like in a hockey player. We&rsquo;re looking forward to him having a great year for us.&rdquo;</p><p>Maybe, just maybe, the Penguins have a player who will finally cast a few shadows of his own.</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0358/7121667-1-eng-US/f0053-032.jpg" title="f0053-03" width="660" height="323"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Pittsburgh&rsquo;s top 22 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0449/7121660-1-eng-US/f0053-042.jpg" title="f0053-04" width="654" height="918"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0534/7121653-1-eng-US/f0053-052.jpg" title="f0053-05" width="659" height="155"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0627/7121646-1-eng-US/f0053-062.jpg" title="f0053-06" width="660" height="391"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0053-02

Smolinski’s star trek

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0282/7121740-1-eng-US/f0054-022.jpg" title="f0054-02" width="965" height="1501"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Bruce Benet/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01162/7121747-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="159" height="157"></div><p>St. Louis Blues&rsquo; coach-GM Mike Keenan has compared third-year defenseman Chris Pronger to Hall-of Famer Larry Robinson.</p><p>He has compared Pronger&rsquo;s off-season acquisition from the Hartford Whalers for left winger Brendan Shanahan to the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; pick-up of Chris Chelios for Denis Savard in 1990.</p><p>That was before training camp. But when Pronger finished 44th out of 46 players in cardiovascular testing at the Blues&rsquo; training camp, Keenan was comparing Pronger to a couch potato.</p><p>&ldquo;Are you serious?&rdquo; He asked Pronger. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re 20 years old. Do you know who I traded for you?&rdquo;</p><p>Pronger doesn&rsquo;t need to be reminded. Shanahan was one of the most popular players on the team and had back-to-back 50-goal seasons for the Blues. He was also a civic treasure because of his charitable work and community interest.</p><p>If that wasn&rsquo;t enough, the Blues reworked Pronger&rsquo;s contract shortly after acquiring him to the tune of $13 million over six years. Pronger is said he won&rsquo;t let the comparisons bother him.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty laid back,&rdquo; said the native of Dryden, Ont., whom the Whalers made the second overall pick at the 1993 draft. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that will be a problem.&rdquo;</p><p>Constant questions about what it&rsquo;s like to replace an icon might be, though. That&rsquo;s all he ever hears. &ldquo;Sooner or later, I&rsquo;ll snap and then you&rsquo;ll know I&rsquo;m tired of it,&rdquo; he said with a laugh.</p><p>For now, Pronger is handling it with aplomb. He admits it will be &ldquo;a little bit tough,&rdquo; but insists that he&rsquo;s &ldquo;not going to worry about it.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go out there and play my game and not worry about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to score 50 goals, so we don&rsquo;t have to worry about that. It&rsquo;d be nice to chip in 15 or 20.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to play my game, not worry about the fans, but I&rsquo;m sure they will come over to my side sooner or later.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s what happened with Shanahan, who replaced another popular Blues&rsquo; player, Scott Stevens. In a controversial ruling in 1991, an arbitrator awarded Stevens to the New Jersey Devils as compensation for losing Shanahan to the Blues. A year earlier, the Blues had surrendered five first-round picks to the Washington Capitals as compensation for signing Stevens.</p><p>&ldquo;I talked to (Shanahan) about that,&rdquo; Pronger said. &ldquo;Everybody was a little upset when Scott had to leave.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in a similar situation as Brendan. It took a few games, but everyone warmed up to him. You can&rsquo;t change what has already happened. I just have to show why they traded for me.&rdquo;</p><p>Keenan traded for Pronger because the coach is convinced he acquired the next Robinson. At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Pronger possesses a combination rarely seen in young defensemen: A big frame, mobility and offensive ability with a mean streak.</p><p>&ldquo;He brings us a player who has tremendous size and skills on defense,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He can move the puck well from his own net. He can protect the front of the net relatively well. He&rsquo;ll get better with that as he grows. He&rsquo;s not even finished growing yet.</p><p>&ldquo;He can shoot the puck well. He can score from the blueline. I don&rsquo;t know if I can compare him quite with (Blues&rsquo; teammate) Al Maclnnis, but he&rsquo;s not far off.&rdquo;</p><p>Keenan is obviously looking beyond Pronger&rsquo;s first two NHL campaigns, which were mediocre at best. After entering the league amid much hoopla, Pronger had five goals and 30 points in 81 games his first season and followed that up with a five-goal, 14-point performance in 43 games last season.</p><p>If Pronger doesn&rsquo;t progress this season, it shouldn&rsquo;t be from a lack of work. Keenan plans to give him plenty of ice time alongside defense partner Maclnnis. And Keenan is convinced Pronger is ready to become one of the game&rsquo;s best rearguards.</p><p>&ldquo;My instincts tell me that he&rsquo;s on the horizon about to move from there,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting close to being over the rookie syndrome. He&rsquo;s very capable of playing in every situation.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very talented, young hockey player. We look forward to having him as a cornerstone defenseman for years and years to come.&rdquo;</p><p>Just as Robinson was for the Montreal Canadiens. Pronger shrugs off the comparison.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t compare myself to him,&rdquo; Pronger said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;d be nice to have a career as long and as good as his, but he&rsquo;s Larry Robinson and I&rsquo;m Chris Pronger. I have to focus and concentrate on being myself, not Larry Robinson, Ray Bourque or whoever I&rsquo;m compared to. Just go out and be myself.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0352/7121733-1-eng-US/f0054-032.jpg" title="f0054-03" width="664" height="321"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are St. Louis&rsquo; top 23 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0434/7121726-1-eng-US/f0054-042.jpg" title="f0054-04" width="654" height="904"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0525/7121719-1-eng-US/f0054-052.jpg" title="f0054-05" width="659" height="118"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0620/7121712-1-eng-US/f0054-062.jpg" title="f0054-06" width="649" height="389"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0054-02

Under the microscope

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-02100/7121806-1-eng-US/f0055-022.jpg" title="f0055-02" width="971" height="1481"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by L. Murdoch/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01155/7121813-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="160" height="156"></div><p>In his first seven NHL seasons, Craig Janney had an easy time staying in the shadows of teammates when it came to filling leadership roles.</p><p>But when he was traded to the San Jose Sharks last season, Janney suddenly became the veteran star on a young team struggling to find its identity.</p><p>That makes Janney&rsquo;s presence off the ice as important as his on-ice contributions. The Sharks need him to be a team leader as much as they need him to perform his magic as one of the top playmaking centers in the league.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a key veteran for us,&rdquo; said Sharks&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine. &ldquo;We hope he becomes a spokesman for the team. Not necessarily in terms of being the guy who is always talking to the press, but more in terms of sharing his knowledge. We trust his instincts about what things are going right and wrong.&rdquo;</p><p>Janney, who turns 28 Sept. 26, was able to keep himself in the background while playing for the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues because those teams had players such as Ray Bourque or Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan to act as spokesmen. And that was fine with Janney, who isn&rsquo;t one to seek attention.</p><p>&ldquo;To me, you just play and try to win,&rdquo; said Janney, who fell out of favor with St. Louis coach-GM Mike Keenan last season. &ldquo;When it comes to speaking to the media, I&rsquo;ll do it, but I&rsquo;ve never been that great at it. Some guys enjoy that daily rapport, but that isn&rsquo;t me.&rdquo;</p><p>That doesn&rsquo;t mean Janney can&rsquo;t be a leader. He just tends to fill the role more quietly and when nobody is looking.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy who likes to do his job and get it done,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;Ultimately, that&rsquo;s a great leadership quality.&rdquo;</p><p>Janney displayed his leadership skills after being obtained for defenseman Jeff Norton last season. At the time, the Sharks were in turmoil because several popular veterans had been traded and the team was in danger of missing the playoffs, which has never happened to Janney.</p><p>A lack of chemistry was a concern for the Sharks when Janney arrived. Factions had developed in the dressing room, where remaining veterans were uneasy about their status and young players were nervously trying to fit in.</p><p>But Janney helped pull everyone together by emphasizing the importance of team unity and the Sharks managed to qualify for the playoffs, where they upset the Calgary Flames in the opening round before being swept by the Detroit Red Wings.</p><p>&ldquo;When I got here, there did seem to be a problem,&rdquo; Janney said. &ldquo;I learned in Boston there are no &lsquo;young guys&rsquo; or &lsquo;old guys.&rsquo; That old-school thinking that guys have to &lsquo;pay their dues&rsquo; is (garbage). As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, if you play hard and you&rsquo;re part of the team, then I you&rsquo;ve paid your dues.&rdquo;</p><p>Winger Pat Falloon said Janney&rsquo;s off-ice actions are subtle but effective.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a guy who yells a lot, but he definitely gets his point across,&rdquo; Falloon said. &ldquo;He makes you think about the things he says.&rdquo;</p><p>Part of the camaraderie of being a team involves players being able to make fun of one another, but Janney said not all of the joking in the dressing room was playful when he arrived.</p><p>&ldquo;There was a little more edge to it than necessary,&rdquo; Janney said. &ldquo;It took awhile for the chemistry to develop.&rdquo;</p><p>On the ice, the Sharks hope to see a chemistry develop between Janney and Falloon, who has struggled to live up to the billing of being the second overall pick in the 1991 entry draft.</p><p>The hope is Janney&rsquo;s skills as a playmaker-in the past five seasons, only Wayne Gretzky, Adam Oates, Doug Gilmour and Paul Coffey have supplied more assists than Janney&rsquo;s 305-will translate to goals for Falloon, who has never had such a quality set-up man.</p><p>&ldquo;Patty scored a lot of goals at the tail end of last season and Janney was on the ice for most of them,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;They probably will be combined together again at the start of this year.&rdquo;</p><p>Janney&rsquo;s presence for a full season also figures to boost a power play that was awful last season, when the Sharks ranked 25th in the league with a success rate of only 11.8 per cent.</p><p>Janney was criticized by Keenan for being too soft a player, but Sharks&rsquo; director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi said Janney, who had 106 points for the Blues in 1992-93, isn&rsquo;t afraid to pay a price to make a play.</p><p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t score 100 points in a season in the NHL without taking hits,&rdquo; Lombardi said.</p><p>Now Janney is being asked to help draw the most from a team with a dozen players 23 or younger. And he likes what he sees.</p><p>&ldquo;There is a lot of good, young talent here,&rdquo; Janney said. &ldquo;As these players keep getting experience, this team is going to get better.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0365/7121799-1-eng-US/f0055-032.jpg" title="f0055-03" width="662" height="327"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are San Jose&rsquo;s top 24 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 199596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0442/7121792-1-eng-US/f0055-042.jpg" title="f0055-04" width="662" height="987"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0526/7121785-1-eng-US/f0055-052.jpg" title="f0055-05" width="662" height="155"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0618/7121778-1-eng-US/f0055-062.jpg" title="f0055-06" width="658" height="387"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0055-02

Unlikely leader of pack

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0287/7121872-1-eng-US/f0056-022.jpg" title="f0056-02" width="974" height="1478"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Bruce Benet/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-01130/7121879-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg" title="f0056-01" width="160" height="158"></div><p>Phil Esposito looks back on the 1992 draft now and sometimes wonders what was going through his mind.</p><p>The Tampa Lightning GM was a big Todd Warriner fan back then. He had a new team to sell in a non-traditional hockey market and like many around him thought Warriner&rsquo;s good looks and offensive flair would be just the thing to put in front of the Tampa fans.</p><p>His scouts thought differently, though, and Esposito has them to thank for Roman Hamrlik.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question we made the right choice,&rdquo; Esposito about the decision to take Hamrlik first overall in 1992 over Warriner and Alexei Yashin. &ldquo;We thought about Warriner, thought about a couple of kids. But Roman was the guy. Now we know that.&rdquo;</p><p>For two years, the Lightning wasn&rsquo;t so sure. During his indoctrination into the NHL, Hamrlik struggled early and often. He continued to struggle early in his third season as well, but after a couple of games, Hamrlik turned it on. His third pro season was a charming breakthrough campaign in which he established himself as one of the game&rsquo;s most promising young defensemen.</p><p>&ldquo;Everything we thought he would become, everything we envisioned him being, we started seeing that last year,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;There were glimpses the year before-a trace here and a trace there. But he didn&rsquo;t have the consistency. Last year he had that.&rdquo;</p><p>The Lightning expects the improvement to continue, as its contract with Hamrlik suggests. Over the next four years, Hamrlik will earn $8.6 million, a figure that puts him among the league&rsquo;s top 15 paid rearguards.</p><p>&ldquo;Look what he can do,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;He can control a game, offensively and defensively. He can shoot the puck, clear his net. And he does it as well as anybody, or he soon will. He can do it all.&rdquo;</p><p>And the Lightning asks him to do it all. He sees lots of time on both special teams and is often matched against the opposition&rsquo;s top line.</p><p>&ldquo;We decided early last year we were going to run with him and see where he takes us,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;I really liked what I saw. This year, he&rsquo;ll get even more responsibility.&rdquo;</p><p>Some youngsters might crack under the weight of so much responsibility, but like many of the game&rsquo;s elite players Hamrlik seems to thrive on it.</p><p>&ldquo;He wants to be out there for the big face-offs,&rdquo; said assistant coach Wayne Cashman. &ldquo;He wants to be out against the best. He loves it. And he handles it well.</p><p>&ldquo;So far I haven&rsquo;t seen anything he can&rsquo;t handle and I think very soon now you&rsquo;re going to start hearing his name mentioned with those of the real top guys.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not at (Ray) Bourque&rsquo;s level quite yet and he may never get there. But he&rsquo;s already doing things Bourque does&mdash;the way he controls a game, especially. There are only a few players in this league who can do that and he&rsquo;s one of them.&rdquo;</p><p>But, as Hamrlik can attest, he has paid his dues. There were times during his first two NHL seasons that his confidence sunk so low the team seriously considered sending him to the minors.</p><p>&ldquo;Adjusting to NHL was very difficult,&rdquo; said the 22-year-old Czech Republic native. &ldquo;The language I didn&rsquo;t know and the game was so much different than what I was used to.&rdquo;</p><p>The arrival of countryman Petr Kli-main Tampa two years ago helped Hamrlik. He and Klima are are virtually inseparable and there&rsquo;s no question it has helped Hamrlik realize his potential quicker.</p><p>&ldquo;I think Petr has been very good for Roman,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;He has given him somebody to hang around with, somebody that knows his language and whom he can communicate with.&rdquo;</p><p>Hamrlik&rsquo;s parents tried to fill that role. They lived with their son during his first two years in Tampa Bay, caring for him the way they did in the Czech Republic. Eventually, the Lightning suggested the Hamrlik&rsquo;s supervision was retarding their son&rsquo;s development. Like his mother and father, Hamrlik doesn&rsquo;t see the connection, but there are those who find it more than coincidence Hamrlik&rsquo;s breakthrough came after he made a break with his parents last summer.</p><p>Left in Tampa to rehabilitate a knee he&rsquo;d injured during the World Championship the previous spring, Hamrlik seemed to grow both as a person and a player while his parents were back home.</p><p>&ldquo;He was a different person and a different player,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;Maybe he just grew up. I don&rsquo;t know. All I know is, I&rsquo;m awfully glad we took him with that first pick.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0346/7121865-1-eng-US/f0056-032.jpg" title="f0056-03" width="662" height="320"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Tampa Bay&rsquo;s top 23 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0437/7121858-1-eng-US/f0056-042.jpg" title="f0056-04" width="646" height="954"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0526/7121851-1-eng-US/f0056-052.jpg" title="f0056-05" width="660" height="125"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0621/7121844-1-eng-US/f0056-062.jpg" title="f0056-06" width="647" height="391"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0056-02

Hamr time has arrived

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0285/7121938-1-eng-US/f0057-022.jpg" title="f0057-02" width="983" height="1487"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Claus Anderson/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01119/7121945-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="157" height="156"></div><p>The return trip to success for Dave Andreychuk while far from guaranteed, should be a smoother journey this season.</p><p>While much of the speculation over the new rule changes on interference and other misdemeanors has many suggesting life may become easier for smaller, quicker players, the Clydesdale-like Andreychuk figures the revamped regulations are made for him.</p><p>&ldquo;Every shift I have to tell myself to get to the front of the net and the new rules should help me get there,&rdquo; said Andreychuk in the opening days of the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; training camp. &ldquo;If I can continue to get speed in the neutral ice instead of being held up, I can get there better. It&rsquo;s hard to get to the net when you always have a stick in your belly.&rdquo;</p><p>If that&rsquo;s the case, it could spell major trouble for other NHL clubs, who watched Andreychuk score 107 goals over two seasons from 1992 to 1994, mostly with his butt clogging up the opposition goalie&rsquo;s crease.</p><p>That changed last year, when the left winger found himself more on the periphery than where angels fear to tread, and his goal total, while hardly dreadful at 22 goals in 48 games, nonetheless marked a more than 20 per-cent drop in production from his two previous seasons.</p><p>Why that happened remains an issue of some conjecture in Toronto. There was his five-year, $12-million contract. There was some extra weight, maybe as much as 10 pounds on his 220-pound frame, that he brought with him to camp after the NHL lockout and contributed to a dreadfully slow start with one goal in his first nine games.</p><p>Then there was the end of his two-year partnership with linemate and center Doug Gilmour, which had produced career numbers for both players.</p><p>They still saw each other on power plays, but Gilmour often found himself working with Mats Sundin while Andreychuk collaborated with the since departed Mike Ridley.</p><p>&ldquo;When I was going good, I had somebody who was going great with me,&rdquo; said Andreychuk. &ldquo;I think we can always use that combination. I think it&rsquo;s always in the back of everybody&rsquo;s mind that that combination will work. You know, my best years were playing with Doug Gilmour.</p><p>&ldquo;But if it means splitting us up to get some consistency in our lines, that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve got to do. I think everybody realizes we didn&rsquo;t have much past that one line in scoring two years ago.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there was a decision that it was over, and we weren&rsquo;t going to play together anymore. We still may.&rdquo;</p><p>Leafs&rsquo; coach Pat Bums pinpoints the extra weight Andreychuk carried into last season was the major factor in his production drop.</p><p>&ldquo;He has to stay light because he has to skate,&rdquo; said Bums. &ldquo;His forte is in the area around the net, but he couldn&rsquo;t get there.&rdquo;</p><p>GM Cliff Fletcher was hailed as a genius for virtually stealing Andreychuk and a first-round pick, ultimately defenseman Kenny Jonsson, from the Buffalo Sabres for goalie Grant Fuhr, but picked up some flak last year for inking Andreychuk to the long-term contract when the big winger had trouble scoring.</p><p>But Fletcher said Andreychuk may have come under more fire than he deserved. After all, Andreychuk still finished the season second in goals and total points on the Leafs to Mats Sundin.</p><p>&ldquo;He got better as the season progressed. He&rsquo;s was a little heavy, he&rsquo;s not that quick to start with,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;He is what he is.&rdquo;</p><p>Andreychuk, who suffered a slight shoulder injury skating in Buffalo three days before camp began and had to be held out of early scrimmages, said he learned about his own training requirements during the lockout.</p><p>&ldquo;I skated every day during the lockout and I thought my level of conditioning was good, but (the lockout) definitely hurt me,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>&ldquo;I thought it would be more beneficial to me because of the extra rest and the fact it would only be a half-season, but I realize now that I have to be on the ice all the time.&rdquo;</p><p>It will be intriguing as to whether Andreychuk returns to being the consistent 30-40 goal scorer he was during his years with Buffalo, or can recapture the magic that brought him back-to-back 50-goal campaigns.</p><p>&ldquo;Consistency I would feel is a strong part of my game,&rdquo; Andreychuk said. &ldquo;But now that it has dropped off, there&rsquo;s more of an urge to get back to where I was. Or even get better.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0359/7121931-1-eng-US/f0057-032.jpg" title="f0057-03" width="664" height="323"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Toronto&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1 99596 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0447/7121924-1-eng-US/f0057-042.jpg" title="f0057-04" width="651" height="989"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0531/7121917-1-eng-US/f0057-052.jpg" title="f0057-05" width="657" height="117"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0622/7121910-1-eng-US/f0057-062.jpg" title="f0057-06" width="649" height="392"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0057-02

Big test for Super Dave

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0278/7122004-1-eng-US/f0058-022.jpg" title="f0058-02" width="973" height="1489"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Art Foxal/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-01127/7122011-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="162" height="154"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>F</span>or as long as he can remember, Russ Courtnall has always been able to skate fast. He&rsquo;s not sure how it all came about, whether it was technique or ability, but the speed was always there.</p><p>Maybe, he suggested, it was the hand-me-down figure skates from older sister Cheryl.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how I started,&rdquo; Courtnail said, &ldquo;with figure skates from my sister. And the bad thing was my dad wouldn&rsquo;t paint them black.&rdquo;</p><p>Black or white, it didn&rsquo;t matter. Little Rusty learned how to fly on ice.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a good skater,&rdquo; he said without the trace of a boast. &ldquo;When I was young I was probably a better skater than most. I didn&rsquo;t learn to skate with all the equipment and by leaning on the stick. I just learned with skates and nothing else.</p><p>&ldquo;I also played a lot of soccer and ran a lot, which I think helped, and as I started to gain muscle, I started to get faster and faster. I always wanted to be the first one down the ice and the first one back in all the drills.&rdquo;</p><p>Courtnall, 30, now has some serious competition on the Vancouver Canucks, a couple of quicksilver Russians named Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny. Is Courtnail faster? It&rsquo;s hard to say.</p><p>&ldquo;I know if this was five years ago, I would have beaten them both,&rdquo; he smiled. &ldquo;I did beat Alex at the All-Star Game in New York in &rsquo;94. But I had this pelvic injury a couple of seasons ago that slowed me down just a bit.&rdquo;</p><p>With his speed and ability to keep pace with Bure and Mogilny, there were some suggestions that Courtnall, who broke into the NHL as a center, might return to the middle to soar with the Russians. He doesn&rsquo;t see that happening.</p><p>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s incredible we have two of the best players in the league and to see the explosiveness we have,&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;I feel I&rsquo;m more of a support guy. When there is a lot of attention on them, it can open up ice for me, or Cliff Ronning, or Mike Ridley, or Trevor Linden.&rdquo;</p><p>On many teams, these players could form a first line. In Vancouver, they figure to be one tremendous support unit.</p><p>&ldquo;Look at Edmonton in their big years,&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;Look at the line they had playing behind Wayne Gretzky. It was Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson. Sure it sounds funny to call Mark Messier a support player, but that&rsquo;s what he was in those days.&rdquo;</p><p>Vancouver represents Courtnail&rsquo;s fourth stop, but fifth city, since he broke into the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs following the 1984 Winter Olympics. He was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens for John Kordic in 1988, then moved to the Minnesota North Stars for Brian Bellows in 1992. When the North Stars headed south to Dallas, Courtnall changed area codes once more. Finally, there was last April&rsquo;s deal to the Canucks for Greg Adams and minor leaguer Dan Kesa.</p><p>Along the way, Courtnall has improved his defensive game and now feels he is competent at both ends of the rink.</p><p>&ldquo;I came off the Olympics and played a lot for Toronto when I first got there but the next season I watched a lot,&rdquo; said Courtnall, a native of Duncan, B.C. &ldquo;Dan Maloney was the coach and he stressed the defensive side of the game.</p><p>&ldquo;Then when John Brophy took over (1986-87), he liked to skate us hard. We would skate for 45 minutes on the morning of a game. My second year under him I fell apart in the second half of the season after starting out well. By Christmas and January I had no strength left and I struggled.&rdquo;</p><p>Early the next season, with Brophy still coach, Courtnall was shipped to Montreal where then-coach Pat Bums changed his position and role.</p><p>&ldquo;Pat moved me to the right side and I played on a checking line with Guy Carbonneau and Mike McPhee,&rdquo; Courtnall recalled. &ldquo;In Montreal, the defensive side of the game became more important than the offensive side, but I was still able to score my 20-odd goals. So my game kind of evolved from there. But I still felt I could come out of the chute and create a little excitement.&rdquo;</p><p>With the Canucks, he created a lot of excitement, collecting 30 points in 24 games. He killed penalties with Bure and the two devastated the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs. He had a blast.</p><p>&ldquo;When I came to Vancouver, I went from a system to where you kind of sat back to more of an attacking system,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It makes more sense for me, with my speed, to try and jump up on the other team&rsquo;s defense.&rdquo;</p><p>If speed does indeed kill, then Courtnall and Russians Bure and Mogilny could drive a stake through the hearts of many an opponent this season.</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0342/7121997-1-eng-US/f0058-032.jpg" title="f0058-03" width="659" height="324"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Vancouver&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0432/7121990-1-eng-US/f0058-042.jpg" title="f0058-04" width="641" height="994"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0525/7121983-1-eng-US/f0058-052.jpg" title="f0058-05" width="657" height="127"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0618/7121976-1-eng-US/f0058-062.jpg" title="f0058-06" width="655" height="392"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0058-02

Courtnall co-stars in Speed

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0268/7122070-1-eng-US/f0059-022.jpg" title="f0059-02" width="985" height="1475"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Bruce Benet/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-01107/7122077-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="159" height="158"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>ast season was a series of stunning blurs for Jim Carey, the Washington Capitals&rsquo; goaltender, who went from a collegiate junior to a Vezina Trophy finalist in one year-with a very successful pit stop in the American League along the way.</p><p>He opened with the Portland Pirates and ran off 16 games before finally tasting defeat.</p><p>Carey then joined a woeful collection of Capitals at the beginning of March and went 6-0-1 in the NHL before he lost 5-1 to the Florida Panthers.</p><p>It was a game his older brother, Paul, a first baseman in the Baltimore Oriole organization, came to see.</p><p>The next day, the Flonda game was completely out of his mind. The following night he had no trouble with the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers and a storybook season was unfolding&mdash;The Hockey News rookie of the year, runner-up in the Vezina voting, three awards forwarded from the AHL, etc.</p><p>Only the playoffs left a bitter taste.</p><p>Fortunately one of Carey&rsquo;s strong points is his ability to completely block out what happened the previous night, not hanging around to dwell on the good or bad, always looking ahead instead.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been like that,&rdquo; said Carey, who turned 21 during the offseason. &ldquo;I never take what happens on the ice off the ice with me. It&rsquo;s just a gift I was given and I&rsquo;ve been like that ever since I was a kid. That goes for any games I play, whether it&rsquo;s a shutout or whatever, I don&rsquo;t let it influence me the next time out.&rdquo;</p><p>Gravediggers had a hole ready for the 3-10-5 Capitals when Carey arrived March 1. Goaltending had been a problem in Washington for a while and pessimists could be forgiven for not taking a 20-year-old fresh out of college seriously.</p><p>Carey backstopped the club to a 19-8-3 record from that point on into a playoff spot, but by time the post-season rolled around, he had played 83 pro games, more than any other NHL goalie.</p><p>It was too much as it turned out.</p><p>&ldquo;I think it was a situation where he may have run out of physical, mental and emotional gas,&rdquo; said coach Jim Schoenfeld.</p><p>The Capitals had a 3-1 series lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins and led four times in Game 5 before losing in overtime. The Penguins picked up momentum and captured the series in seven games. The Capitals were shocked with the result.</p><p>&ldquo;The team played very well when Jimmy first got here; it didn&rsquo;t play as well when Pittsburgh elevated its game. It wasn&rsquo;t all Jimmy when we were winning, it wasn&rsquo;t all Jimmy when we lost,&rdquo; Schoenfeld said.</p><p>For reasons never determined, the Capitals played much better as a team from the moment Carey arrived.</p><p>The club seemed to perform with much more confidence despite Carey&rsquo;s somewhat laid-back approach. Most importantly, the goalie was making the big stop at critical times, something the Capitals hadn&rsquo;t been getting prior to his arrival from Olaf Kolzig and Rick Tabaracci.</p><p>Nonetheless, Carey had detractors, people who looked at his 13-0-3 start in Portland and 30-14-11 record when he was called up and wonder what went wrong in the end.</p><p>They look at his 18-6-3 NHL record and 2-4 playoff mark and wonder the same thing.</p><p>Carey has little time for them.</p><p>&ldquo;The way I started off in Portland, it&rsquo;s impossible to keep that up,&rdquo; Carey said. &ldquo;I started 12-2-1 in the NHL and you can&rsquo;t keep that up every night. I&rsquo;ll point-blank say I&rsquo;m not that good of a goalie to have a save percentage of .950 and a goals-against around 1.00, not for a whole season. There&rsquo;s not a guy in the world who can do that.</p><p>&ldquo;If you want to say I evened off by finishing (third) in the league with a goals-against of 2.13 and 18 wins or so, if that&rsquo;s evening off then I&rsquo;m pretty happy with evening off. You can&rsquo;t be great every night and that&rsquo;s part of it, understanding that.&rdquo;</p><p>He isn&rsquo;t thrilled about what happened in the playoffs, but isn&rsquo;t ready to cut his wrists, either.</p><p>After all, nobody expected the Capitals to even be there.</p><p>&ldquo;The atmosphere changed more than anything else,&rdquo; Carey said. &ldquo;The pressure didn&rsquo;t get to me, we just played a great team seven games in a row.</p><p>&ldquo;We beat them three times and lost once in overtime so we were only one goal away from going to the next round. We put up a good fight, it could have been a lot worse.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0348/7122063-1-eng-US/f0059-032.jpg" title="f0059-03" width="664" height="322"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Washington&rsquo;s top 23 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0439/7122056-1-eng-US/f0059-042.jpg" title="f0059-04" width="657" height="955"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0529/7122049-1-eng-US/f0059-052.jpg" title="f0059-05" width="664" height="152"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0622/7122042-1-eng-US/f0059-062.jpg" title="f0059-06" width="661" height="387"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0059-02

Can Jim Carey load again?

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0255/7122136-1-eng-US/f0060-022.jpg" title="f0060-02" width="975" height="1483"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Walt Kaiser/BBS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0198/7122143-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="160" height="157"></div><p>Terry Simpson thinks he has identified the chain reaction that caused Dave Manson&rsquo;s self-destruction season of 1994-95.</p><p>And of course, the blowout didn&rsquo;t stop with Manson. It carried right through the Winnipeg Jets and another out-of-the-playoffs year.</p><p>For the team&rsquo;s final season in Winnipeg, Simpson gets to see how good his science is. He has some ideas about reviving Manson, something he calls an &ldquo;absolute must.</p><p>&ldquo;I think a lot of the problem was in his focus and his conditioning to some degree,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;Through the lockout, I think he was one of the players who didn&rsquo;t think we were going to play again and wasn&rsquo;t prepared to play and was still wondering a bit about his injury.&rdquo; (Manson sustained a severe groin pull late in the summer of 1994.)</p><p>Despite all those instances where defensive gaffes led to goals, Simpson said he was just as disappointed with another element of Manson&rsquo;s game. The theory goes that because Manson&rsquo;s offensive numbers tailed off, it made him look even worse.</p><p>&ldquo;Maybe we didn&rsquo;t give him the right direction as to what we needed from him,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s considered to be a big, strong, tough defenseman, but really what we need out of him is a better offensive performance and a better power-play performance in shooting the puck. Those are things he can also do well&mdash;the skills part of the game.&rdquo;</p><p>Manson had only three goals and 18 points last season. He had a high of 18 goals and 54 points in 1988-89 with the Chicago Blackhawks.</p><p>&ldquo;Maybe this trouble began back in Edmonton when we started losing and we tried to concentrate on keeping the puck out of our own net,&rdquo; Manson said. &ldquo;Maybe I got hypnotized by that. I don&rsquo;t mind carrying the puck. Skating is not the worst part of my game. But we need to be better collectively. This is not just up to our defense.&rdquo;</p><p>The Jets, and Manson in particular, have been reviled for their defensive record of 1994-95. With 177 goals against, it was second-worst in the league and Simpson is not sticking his neck out too far in saying the club will not improve unless its defensive record does-dramatically.</p><p>In Manson&rsquo;s case, an important first step may already have been taken.</p><p>GM John Paddock, who went out on a limb to get Manson in the controversial trade with the Edmonton Oilers in March, 1994, cut to the chase when asked about the big defenseman.</p><p>&ldquo;There are no two ways about it,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;He has to be way better. But I think he has shown that he has finally done some off-season work. Over the long run, that&rsquo;s going to help.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;We know he can play. I&rsquo;ve had people from other organizations tell me that they never saw him play better than those (13) games he played for us after the trade.&rdquo;</p><p>After the trade, which sent Boris Mironov, Mats Lindgren and a first-round pick to Edmonton, there was much anticipation that the Jets had finally found a bona fide tough defenseman who could play the game and protect the club&rsquo;s skill players at the same time. He was projected as a hero before his plane even landed that day.</p><p>But after 44 games of the short season, Manson was being labeled a bust and the trade a disaster.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s out of my control, but was it such a bad trade?&rdquo; Manson said. &ldquo;Who did Edmonton get? One guy that&rsquo;s in the NHL now. I don&rsquo;t know why it&rsquo;s rated as such a bad trade and I don&rsquo;t see how you can judge that after 57 games. That&rsquo;s not fair. But it&rsquo;s out of my hands, who I&rsquo;m traded for.&rdquo;</p><p>He said his critics have been harsh for more than just last season.</p><p>&ldquo;I think that started in Edmonton, when they saw the big salary and just said, &lsquo;He&rsquo;s not a million-dollar player.&rsquo; If they drill it at you enough, maybe you start to believe it. Well, I&rsquo;m going to forget all about that and just go play. I&rsquo;m not going to let people put me in a category.&rdquo;</p><p>Simpson&rsquo;s remedy seems to have a simple approach.</p><p>&ldquo;My experience with him before was a long time ago, really but it&rsquo;s better to leave him alone and let him play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of player who will always make mistakes. But if you start to focus on those and pay undue attention to them and not keep going back to him, I think you&rsquo;ll diminish his performance.&rdquo;</p><p>The major worry now is that the negatives from last season will become an obstacle this season.</p><p>&ldquo;I am concerned about that,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;I know he tries to let on that this doesn&rsquo;t bother him. But it does and he has just got to deal with that.&rdquo;</p><h2><i>TEAM COMPARISON</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0334/7122129-1-eng-US/f0060-032.jpg" title="f0060-03" width="660" height="322"></div><h2><i>1994-95 VETERANS&rsquo; SCORING</i></h2><p>Here are Winnipeg&rsquo;s top 25 NHL veterans, listed in order of 1994-95 regular-season scoring. Veteran newcomers are included on the list; their previous teams are listed in parentheses. 1994-95 rookies are included where appropriate and may be listed among 1995-96 rookie candidates.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0426/7122122-1-eng-US/f0060-042.jpg" title="f0060-04" width="645" height="988"></div><h2><i>1994-95 GOALIE RECORDS</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0520/7122115-1-eng-US/f0060-052.jpg" title="f0060-05" width="665" height="123"></div><h2><i>1995-96 ROOKIE CANDIDATES</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0616/7122108-1-eng-US/f0060-062.jpg" title="f0060-06" width="653" height="392"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0060-02

Holding out for Manson

f0061-01

CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div><p class="dropcap"><span>S</span>o you think Microsoft has come a long way with Windows &rsquo;95. That&rsquo;s nothing. Last year at this time the two biggest names in hockey were Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow. Today they&rsquo;re Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Now <i>that&rsquo;s</i> progress.</p><p>Yes, hockey is back&mdash;in prime time, full-time, on time. The first puck drops Oct. 6 between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche in a new city, Denver, with new rule interpretations designed to speed up the game and increase scoring, and with the two best players of the past decade both healthy for the first time since 1991-92.</p><p>Here&rsquo;s what you need to know about the &rsquo;95-96 NHL season.</p><p>&#9633; Each team plays 82 games (41 home, 41 road) for a total of 1,066. It&rsquo;s the first 82-game schedule in NHL history. Neutral-site games have been scrapped. The last possible date for the Stanley Cup to end is June 17.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0197/7122569-1-eng-US/f0063-012.jpg" title="f0063-01" width="545" height="699"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Colorado winger Wendel Clark was a training camp holdout.</b></figcaption></div><p>&#9633; Holdout replaces lockout as hockey&rsquo;s early-season dirty word. Colorado left wingers Wendel Clark and Chris Simon, Ottawa Senators&rsquo; center Alexei Yashin, New Jersey Devils&rsquo; right winger Claude Lemieux and Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; right winger Dallas Drake all have contracts, but were training camp no-shows because they want to renegotiate.</p><p>Two western Canadian teams were missing their captains in training camp&mdash;left winger Keith Tkachuk of Winnipeg and and Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; center Trevor Linden were Group II free agents.</p><p>Others in the same position included Avalanche right winger Scott Young, Calgary Flames&rsquo; right winger Theoren Fleury, Washington Capitals&rsquo; center Michal Pivonka and &rsquo;94-95 goal-scoring king right winger Peter Bondra, New York Islanders&rsquo; right winger Steve Thomas and Devils&rsquo; goalie Martin Brodeur and defenseman Scott Nieidermayer. Not one received an offer I sheet this summer, which had some I player agents thinking about another I dirty word: collusion.</p><p>&#9633; A crackdown on interference is imminent. We&rsquo;ve heard it before, but this time coaches, GMs, and league officials all say it&rsquo;s definitely for real.</p><p>Referees have been instructed to strictly enforce Rule 62, which assesses a minor penalty to a player &ldquo;who interferes with or impedes the progress of an opponent who is not in possession of the puck.&rdquo; Neutral-zone hooking and holding and roadblocks against attacking forecheckers in the offensive zone are targeted for specific attention. Recommended rule changes call for an end to player substitutions at even-strength faceoffs in the neutral zone, except in the last minute; a minor penalty for hits below the knee; and the option to call a four-minute double-minor for crosschecking in addition to the available two-minute minor or five-minute major.</p><h2><b>Colorado&rsquo;s entry churns languid Pacific waters</b></h2><p>&#9633; The Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins will have new homes. Boston&rsquo;s home opener is at the 17,500-seat FleetCenter Oct. 7, while the Canadiens are scheduled to open the new Forum in mid-March. The Montreal Forum and Boston Garden, with 137 years of service to NHL teams between them, were the site of 23 Stanley Cup presentations. The Vancouver Canucks also are moving, into GM Place, while the Ottawa Senators are scheduled to enter their new arena, The Palladium, in January.</p><p>&#9633; West Coast road trips are no longer a pleasant stroll on the beach. The skilled Avalanche, formerly the Quebec Nordiques, will play in the Pacific Division, which last year was the NHL&rsquo;s worst. The Northeast Division drops to six teams, while the Central and Atlantic Divisions remain the same.</p><p>&#9633; Washington, Colorado and the Islanders have new uniforms. The Bruins made minor changes to their uniform, but the spoked-B is back.</p><p>&#9633; Mario Lemieux, Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Al Iafrate and Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; left winger Bob Probert are back after one-year absences.</p><p>&#9633; Two notable players are sporting notable new numbers. Probert will wear 95 to commemorate the year he turned his life around, while Pavel Bure of the Canucks will wear 96 in honor of the year he receives his American citizenship.</p><p>&#9633; Three St. Louis Blues, who started the 1993-94 season with the team&mdash;Brett Hull, Basil McRae and Murray Baron&mdash;are back this season.</p><p>&#9633; The 500-goal club, which has 19 members, will grow. Barring injury, Lemieux (494), Mark Messier (492), Dale Hawerchuk (489), Joe Mullen (487), Steve Yzerman (481) and possibly Brett Hull (442) and Dave Andreychuk (448) should hit the mark. Other active players on the list are Dino Ciccarelli (529), Jari Kurri (565) and Mike Gartner (629).</p><p>&#9633; A trio of Toronto Maple Leafs are the only players likely to hit the 1,000-point mark. Doug Gilmour needs 31, Andreychuk 54 and Larry Murphy 55. Pat LaFontaine needs 148 points&mdash;without Alexander Mogilny&mdash;to put a Buffalo Sabre in the Leaf sweep.</p><p>&#9633; There are seven new head coaches: Doug McLean with the Florida Panthers, Mike Milbury with the Islanders, Larry Robinson with the Los Angeles Kings, Pierre Page in Calgary, Steve Kasper in Boston, Ted Nolan in Buffalo and Craig Hartsburg in Chicago.</p><p>&#9633; There may be six new No. 1 goalies. Look for Chris Osgood to emerge in Detroit, Tommy Salo or Eric Fichaud with the Islanders, Jon Casey in St. Louis, Nikolai Khabibulin to battle Tim Cheveldae in Winnipeg, Wade Flaherty to duel Arturs Irbe with the San Jose Sharks and Jocelyn Thibault to press Stephane Fiset in Colorado.</p><p>&#9633; There are no new GMs.</p><p>&#9633; There is one lame-duck city: Winnipeg. The Jets are moving at the end of the season, most likely to Minneapolis. If they aren&rsquo;t contenders come March, Winnipeg Arena will be just another cold, lonely arena.</p><p>&#9633; The salary-cap rookies are playing a waiting game. Europeans Aki-Petteri Berg and Radek Dvorak were the only first-round 1995 draft picks to sign contracts before training camp. They had to sign by Aug. 15 with the Kings and Panthers, respectively, to be NHL-eligible this season.</p><p>No. 1 overall pick Bryan Berard walked out of the Senators&rsquo; camp to protest slow-moving contract talks. His agent, Tom Laidlaw, said Berard will return to junior rather than play for Ottawa this season.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0063-01

Holdouts in, holding-up out for ’95-96 season

<p>Mama, don&rsquo;t let your son grow up to be an NHL coach&hellip;if job security is high on your list of priorities.</p><p>Better to be a GM.</p><p>Seven of 26 teams have new coaches this season, a turnover rate of more than 25 per cent, but not a single team has a new GM. All are back for another season.</p><p>Teams with new coaches this season are the Boston Bruins (Steve Kasper), Buffalo Sabres (Ted Nolan), Calgary Flames (Pierre Page), Chicago Blackhawks (Craig Hartsburg), Florida Panthers (Doug MacLean), Los Angeles Kings (Larry Robinson) and New York Islanders (Mike Milbury).</p><p>All but Page and MacLean are former NHL players of varying note.</p><p>For coaches, regular-season success in 1994-95 was no guarantee they&rsquo;d be invited back. Four of the teams which changed coaches finished among the league&rsquo;s top 12 in the overall standings.</p><p>Listed below are each team&rsquo;s season-ending 1994-95 coach, 1995-96 coach, the consecutive year this season represents with the current team. 1995-96 GM and the consecutive year this represents with the current team.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-01107/7122635-1-eng-US/f0065-012.jpg" title="f0065-01" width="312" height="537"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Colin Campbell</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0278/7122628-1-eng-US/f0065-022.jpg" title="f0065-02" width="314" height="543"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Eddie Johnston</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0353/7122621-1-eng-US/f0065-032.jpg" title="f0065-03" width="315" height="542"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Terry Murray</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0438/7122614-1-eng-US/f0065-042.jpg" title="f0065-04" width="317" height="544"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Larry Robinson</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0526/7122607-1-eng-US/f0065-052.jpg" title="f0065-05" width="310" height="541"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Pierre Page</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>Roster of coaches, GMs</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0619/7122600-1-eng-US/f0065-062.jpg" title="f0065-06" width="1673" height="1145"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0065-01

Turnover rate incredible

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0193/7122785-1-eng-US/f0066-012.jpg" title="f0066-01" width="558" height="719"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Colorado&rsquo;s Joe Sakic</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0255/7122778-1-eng-US/f0066-022.jpg" title="f0066-02" width="541" height="714"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Detroit&rsquo;s Sergei Fedorov</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>G</span>P-</b>games played; <b>W-</b>wins; <b>L-</b>losses; <b>T-</b>ties; <b>GF-</b>goals for; <b>GA-</b>goals against; <b>Diff.</b>-difference between goals for and against; <b>P-</b>points; <b>Pct.-</b> percentage of actual points versus possible points.</p><h2><b>EASTERN CONFERENCE</b></h2><h3><b>NORTHEAST DIVISION</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0318/7122771-1-eng-US/f0066-032.jpg" title="f0066-03" width="1203" height="278"></div><h3><b>ATLANTIC DIVISION</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-048/7122764-1-eng-US/f0066-042.jpg" title="f0066-04" width="1198" height="285"></div><h2><b>WESTERN CONFERENCE</b></h2><h3><b>CENTRAL DIVISION</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-053/7122757-1-eng-US/f0066-052.jpg" title="f0066-05" width="1204" height="249"></div><h3><b>PACIFIC DIVISION</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-063/7122750-1-eng-US/f0066-062.jpg" title="f0066-06" width="1200" height="255"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF RESULTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-072/7122743-1-eng-US/f0066-072.jpg" title="f0066-07" width="1194" height="784"></div><h2><b>SEASON LEADERS</b></h2><h3><b>TOP SCORERS</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-082/7122736-1-eng-US/f0066-082.jpg" title="f0066-08" width="573" height="688"></div><h3><b>TOP DEFENSEMEN</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-092/7122729-1-eng-US/f0066-092.jpg" title="f0066-09" width="571" height="330"></div><h3><b>TOP ROOKIES</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-102/7122722-1-eng-US/f0066-102.jpg" title="f0066-10" width="573" height="331"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF LEADERS</b></h2><h3><b>TOP SCORERS</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-112/7122715-1-eng-US/f0066-112.jpg" title="f0066-11" width="575" height="559"></div><h3><b>TOP DEFENSEMEN</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-12/7122708-1-eng-US/f0066-122.jpg" title="f0066-12" width="575" height="478"></div><h3><b>TOP ROOKIES</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-13/7122701-1-eng-US/f0066-132.jpg" title="f0066-13" width="569" height="307"></div><h2><b>GOALS-AGAINST AVG.</b></h2><p><b>GP-</b>games played; <b>Min.-</b>total minutes; <b>GA-</b>goals-against; <b>SO-</b>shutouts; <b>GAA-</b>goals-against average; <b>League average</b> is average GAA of all goalies who have played minimum 540 minutes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-14/7122694-1-eng-US/f0066-142.jpg" title="f0066-14" width="576" height="689"></div><h2><b>SAVE PERCENTAGE</b></h2><p><b>GP-</b>games played; <b>Min.-</b>total minutes; <b>Sh.-</b>shots on goal; <b>GA-</b>goals-against; <b>SV%-</b>save percentage; <b>League average</b> is average save percentage of all goalies who have played minimum 540 minutes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-15/7122687-1-eng-US/f0066-152.jpg" title="f0066-15" width="580" height="968"></div><h2><b>TEAM PENALTIES</b></h2><p><b>PIM-</b>total penalty minutes including <b>BMI</b> bench penalty minutes; <b>Avg.-</b>average penalty minutes per game.</p><p><b>League Average&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;19.6 min.</b></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-16/7122680-1-eng-US/f0066-162.jpg" title="f0066-16" width="1039" height="391"></div><h2><b>POWER PLAY</b></h2><p><b>Adv-</b>total advantages; <b>PPG-</b>power-play goals; <b>Pct-</b>power-play goals divided by total advantages.</p><p><b>League Average&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;17.7%</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-17/7122673-1-eng-US/f0066-172.jpg" title="f0066-17" width="993" height="397"></div><h2><b>PENALTY KILLING</b></h2><p><b>TSH-</b>total times shorthanded; <b>PGA-</b>power-play goals allowed; <b>Pct-</b>Penalty-killing percentage.</p><p><b>League Average&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;82.2%</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-18/7122666-1-eng-US/f0066-182.jpg" title="f0066-18" width="951" height="395"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0066-01

1994-95 FINAL STANDINGS

<p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>ayne Gretzky has sizeable leads in all offensive categories among active players. Here are the leaders entering the season. Information includes goals per game (GPG), assists per game (APG) and points per game(PPG).</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0169/7122858-1-eng-US/f0067-012.jpg" title="f0067-01" width="552" height="650"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Wayne Gretzky has more than a 1,000-point lead on his peers.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>GOALS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0231/7122851-1-eng-US/f0067-022.jpg" title="f0067-02" width="558" height="713"></div><h2><b>ASSISTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0319/7122844-1-eng-US/f0067-032.jpg" title="f0067-03" width="567" height="705"></div><h2><b>POINTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0413/7122837-1-eng-US/f0067-042.jpg" title="f0067-04" width="549" height="709"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-059/7122830-1-eng-US/f0067-052.jpg" title="f0067-05" width="425" height="365"></div><h2><b>NHL DIVISION ROUND TRIPS</b></h2><p><b>Here&rsquo;s the round-trip mileage for flights around each of the league&rsquo;s four divisions.</b></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-068/7122823-1-eng-US/f0067-062.jpg" title="f0067-06" width="1426" height="272"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-076/7122816-1-eng-US/f0067-072.jpg" title="f0067-07" width="426" height="362"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0067-01

NHL ACTIVE CAREER LEADERS

f0070-01

1995-96 NHL SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>arry Robinson hadn&rsquo;t even finished his first day in training camp as coach of the Los Angeles Kings when 51 players burst into an ovation before his very eyes.</p><p>Kings&rsquo; GM Sam McMaster just finished announcing that Robinson, one of the best defenseman to ever play the game, received unanimous approval to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Low-key and self-effacing as always, Robinson graciously accepted the applause for two, maybe three seconds.</p><p>&ldquo;Defensive coverage,&rdquo; Robinson then said, looking at his clipboard, &ldquo;let&rsquo;s get started on that&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>Robinson, make no mistake, was honored by the Hall of Fame induction. He&rsquo;s just not one to jump and click his heels about it.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0079-0147/7123809-1-eng-US/f0079-012.jpg" title="f0079-01" width="544" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Larry Robinson won his seventh Stanley Cup last spring.</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ecstatic about everything,&rdquo; Robinson said during a conference call Sept. 11. &ldquo;Coming off a Stanley Cup season (as assistant coach of the New Jersey Devils), getting my first head coaching job, my son (Jeffrey) getting married. Then along comes the Hall of Fame.&rdquo;</p><p>Robinson won two Norris Trophies, one Conn Smythe Trophy and six Stanley Cups in 17 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens from 197289. He holds the NHL record for most playoff games (227) and was a first-team and second-team all-star three times each during his career.</p><p>&lsquo;Big Bird&rsquo; played three more season with the Kings and finished with career regular-season totals of 1,384 games, 208 goals, 958 points and 793 penalty minutes.</p><p>The Hall of Fame&rsquo;s 15-member selection committee unanimously approved Robinson. Other players considered during 2 &frac12; hours of discussion were Clark Gillies, Bernie Federko, Rick Middleton and the late J.C. Tremblay. A player must be retired three years to be nominated. Only nominated players are considered.</p><p>In the veteran players&rsquo; category, the late Fred (Bun) Cook was inducted, while Dr. Gunther Sabetzki and Bill Torrey were welcomed in the builders&rsquo; category.</p><p>Jack Gatecliff received the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for excellence in hockey journalism, while Brian McFarlane won the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for excellence in hockey broadcasting.</p><p>Cook scored 302 points and won two Stanley Cups in 11 NHL seasons, mainly with the New York Rangers. He was credited with being the first player to perfect the drop pass.</p><p>Sabetzki served for 19 years as president of the International Ice Hockey Federation and was a major player in the growth of hockey in Europe.</p><p>Torrey was GM of the New York Islanders for 20 years, leading them to four Stanley Cups.</p><p>He&rsquo;s now president of the Florida Panthers.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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October 1, 1995

Worth a Kings’ ransom?

NHL’S TOP 20 LEFT WINGERS

Cup quest leads through Rocky (Mountain) road

Three Cup contenders, but Devils still team to beat