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.

February 23, 1996

The Hockey News February 23, 1996

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011456/6100205-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="379" height="531"></div>The list barely ever changes, which is good news for the old guys, but not such good news for the game.Brian Leetch. Ray Bourque. Chris Chelios. Larry Murphy. Paul Coffey. Gary Suter. Al MacInnis.Been there, seen them, over and over? Is there some fountain of youth behind the blueline that keeps the spring in their legs, the touch in their hands, their points on the board?Not if you ask Bourque, 35 years old, five Norris Trophies to his credit, not a gray hair in his head or a moment&rsquo;s hesitation in his step.&ldquo;It all comes down to how good you want to be,&rdquo; said Bourque, on target to break 1,300 points this season. &ldquo;It comes down to how hard you want to work. It&rsquo;s the hunger. It&rsquo;s the fire. Do you want to push yourself every night&hellip;or are you just another player who&rsquo;s satisfied with his game?&rdquo;Perhaps it is nothing more than tighten-your-laces determination, the will to keep on keepin&rsquo; on, but I&rsquo;m not buying it. Something has happened here. Something very telling and troublesome.Consider: just after the all-star break, the 27-year-old Leetch was the only North American-trained player under 30 to occupy the NHL&rsquo;s list of top 10 scoring defensemen. The six other North Americans, from our side of the Atlantic Ocean&rsquo;s blueline, were an average 33 years old.But look at the newcomers to the top 10 list: Roman Hamrlik, 21, Nicklas Lidstrom, 25, and Sergei Zubov, 25. There are still young, skilled blueliners entering the game, but they&rsquo;re not coming in from Moose Jaw or Minnesota. The leading Canadians and Americans still on the job are beginning to look a lot like Star Trek&rsquo;s Mr. Spock-long in the tooth, a touch of gray in the jowls, cherished now more than ever for their wisdom, their savviness and their points.What&rsquo;s going on here?&ldquo;Kick the can,&rdquo; said Ben Smith, coach of Northeastern University in Boston and assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic team in 1988. &ldquo;The touch-up rule is killing the way the game&rsquo;s taught nowadays.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a whole generation of defenseman who&rsquo;ve never been taught to do anything with the puck other than bash it in over the blueline-kick the can-and let the forwards worry about rushing back over the blueline to wipe out the offside. Where&rsquo;s the skill in that?&rdquo;Once again, we get to blame it all on TV-a print person&rsquo;s favorite scapegoat.In the interest of keeping flow in the game and making it more marketable as a TV commodity, the NHL&rsquo;s Lords of the Boards decided almost 10 years ago to streamline the product with the touch-up rule. Any player over the blueline before the puck would be absolved of the offside if he simply skated back to the neutral zone and made a re-entry.It was a great concept, and effective, but it severely reduced the need for defensemen to work with the puck. No more need to finesse in the neutral zone. No more need to stickhandle. Look for a breaking forward to spring someone over the blueline? Find a backline partner for an outlet pass? Forget it. Too risky. Fire the puck in like some heat-seeking missile and blame it on the forwards (&ldquo;Hey, I knocked it in, where were you?&rdquo;) when the puck came back out like a boomerang.&ldquo;There might not be any one reason,&rdquo; said Mike Smith, former GM of the Winnipeg Jets, reflecting recently on why the top 10 remains dominated by the over-30 North American defensemen. &ldquo;But what you&rsquo;ve got now is a game played where defensemen don&rsquo;t handle the puck anymore. They just drill it into the zone. The (puckhandling) skill has been lost.&rdquo;Bryan Berard, from Woonsocket, R.I., has been hailed as the heir apparent to Leetch, the next North American capable of dominating a game and piling up points from behind the blueline. He now has had two consecutive poor showings in World Junior Championships, which leaves him a suspect heir apparent. Nonetheless, the New York Islanders made their January trade for Berard in hopes he would be a dominant force, a possible all-star.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s true, we haven&rsquo;t been producing those kinds of defensemen,&rdquo; said Boston Bruins&rsquo; GM-president Harry Sinden, who once watched Bobby Orr give birth to the role of the revved-up and rushing defenseman. &ldquo;Maybe Berard can get there one day. A lot of people think he has the best shot. The point about the touch-up rule&hellip;before we changed the rule, a defenseman really had to know what he was doing with the puck.&rdquo;Not so anymore, at least not here in the Land of the Free and the Defensively Deprived. The old guys keep rolling along, followed only by a generation that much prefers a hammer to a thread and needle. &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

TV to blame for dearth of skilled defensemen

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02446/6101527-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="380" height="501"></div>Pssst. Hey, buddy. Looking for that can&rsquo;t-fail, get-rich-quick business venture?Well, turn off the silly info-mercial and listen up. Your retirement fortune awaits in aviation.Imagine a charter airline service between Worcester, Mass., and St. Louis, Mo.There are few requirements. Just that your plane hold four or five passengers and have a luggage compartment large enough to hold a couple equipment bags and some hockey sticks.Mike Keenan and the St. Louis Blues will take care of the rest.All the Blues&rsquo; coach-GM asks is that you allow open-ended bookings, that your lowest-priced ticket not require a Saturday stayover and that the scheduling timetable provide four hours between arrival and departure. That way the same passenger can get back on the plane, sometimes without even taking his equipment off.If you&rsquo;re not convinced of the profitability, just look at the transactions in your local newspaper. The Blues make an appearance virtually every day with moves to and from the American League&rsquo;s Worcester IceCats.Through early February, Worcester was involved in 72 player transactions. It&rsquo;s logical to assume the IceCats will have an inordinate number of transactions since they serve as a dual affiliate for the Blues and New York Islanders.But there&rsquo;s a difference between inordinate, say 35 moves, and preposterous.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going for a hundred, but I don&rsquo;t know if we&rsquo;ll make it,&rdquo; says IceCats&rsquo; coach Jimmy Roberts.Oh, please. A three-game losing streak in St. Louis and there might be five moves in a day.&ldquo;When I was in Springfield we had maybe 20 all year,&rdquo; Roberts remembered of his Calder Cup years: 1989-90 as the Islanders&rsquo; affiliate and 1990-91 as Hartford Whalers&rsquo; farm team.Now he&rsquo;s scared to answer the phone. He doesn&rsquo;t say &ldquo;Hi&rdquo; anymore, just, &ldquo;How many today, Mike?&ldquo;The good thing is,&rdquo; Roberts says, &ldquo;we now know all the telephone numbers for the airlines and the limousine companies. And we carry a lot of nametags.&rdquo;Of the 72 transactions, six involved the Islanders. The other 66 were made by St. Louis.Keenan may have been told to slash his payroll, but no one said anything about a travel budget. The recall/send-down airfare ledger has surpassed $25,000 and that&rsquo;s before meal money.&ldquo;Guys have over and under bets on how many transactions there will be while we&rsquo;re up here,&rdquo; says tough-guy winger Kevin Sawyer.Christer Olsson made three trips to St. Louis. The first two came in a span of four days in late January, including a send-down and call-up the same day.Sawyer has flown over the Gateway Arch more times than a Canada Goose. He was up and down five times, playing six NHL games. On two recalls, he never played.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather be going up and down than in the minors all year,&rdquo; Sawyer says. &ldquo;And even if you&rsquo;re not playing, it gives guys a taste and it&rsquo;s exciting.&rdquo;No IceCat could look forward to that last season, when the club was an independent.&ldquo;Mike is looking for better players all the time,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;He has given players an opportunity to go and show what they can do.&rdquo;Not to mention a ton of frequent flyer miles. &#9632;

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Worcester shuttle doing well

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01333/6102194-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01680/6101840-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

CLASSIFIED

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011353/6099809-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York statesmen: Captains Pat LaFontaine and Mark Messier face different fates. Pg. 10, 24.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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<h2>Two more join NHL grand club</h2>1. 1,000 and counting Vancouver defenseman Dave Babych, Dallas center Guy Carbonneau play 1,000th game.2. McSweet return Anaheim defenseman Don McSween returns to NHL after year off with nerve damage in hand.3. Big shots Las Vegas Thunder outshoots Utah Grizzlies 20-0 in first 13 minutes of International League game Feb. 2.4. Hot Hawks Chicago Blackhawks NHL&rsquo;s road warriors (16-7-6) string together nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2).5. Player of week Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; sniper Alexander Mogilny rides six-game goal-scoring streak.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021094/6099847-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="326" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don McSween</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03786/6099840-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="323" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alex Mogilny</figcaption></div><h2>Sit out five for elbow smash</h2>1. Take Five Montreal&rsquo;s Marc Bureau suspended five games for vicious elbow to head of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Petr Svoboda.2. Childish feud The Patrick Roy-Mario Tremblay pay-my-team-to-beat-your-team downright goofy.3. Home cooking fails Struggling Vancouver Canucks 1-4-0 at home after NHL all-star break.4. Shot down in shootouts Hampton Roads Admirals set dubious East Coast League record with 12th shootout loss.5. Cooling off Vitali Yachmenev of L.A. Kings slipping from rookie-of-year race with no goals in 14 games. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Edltor-ln-Chlel</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04564/6099878-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="339" height="426"></div>It appears the NHL has no future.More than ever it seems the present is what counts. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim became the first team in league history to package consecutive No. 1 draft picks, both under 20, for an established player. Of course, Teemu Selanne is so much more than that, but it seems beyond comprehension Anaheim dealt two of the league&rsquo;s most hyped young players-and deservedly so-even though Selanne came in return. Even more bizarre is the deal makes sense for the Mighty Ducks.They get a 25-year-old star who will help win games, provide comfort to Paul Kariya and sell sweaters. Cashing in two 19-year-olds would be preposterous, except Selanne is a low-mileage player-he did not come to the NHL until age 22 and could play another 10 years. Anaheim&rsquo;s exposure isn&rsquo;t as high as the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo;, but the latter&rsquo;s upside is greater. Selanne will deliver; that much is certain. You can&rsquo;t be as sure about defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and center Chad Kilger, although it would be a major surprise if one didn&rsquo;t become a star and a shocker if neither did. Tverdovsky has been projected as a player of Selanne&rsquo;s stature; Kilger, a notch below.It&rsquo;s way too early to assume they won&rsquo;t reach those levels, although you can be sure Anaheim GM Jack Ferreira has an opinion on that and has considered legendary GM Sam Pollock&rsquo;s old saw: you can&rsquo;t be sure about what you get in a trade, but you should be sure about what you give up. Tverdovsky has elite level skill&mdash;if not yet size and strength-and Kilger has elite level size and skating ability-if not yet NHL-level game maturity.Did Mighty Ducks&rsquo; coach Ron Wilson get enough out of the two teens? Will Jets&rsquo; coach Terry Simpson, or his successor, get more? The reluctance of today&rsquo;s coaches to live with young players&rsquo; mistakes, particularly defensemen&rsquo;s, leads one to wonder if we&rsquo;ll ever see another Paul Coffey. Coffey was allowed to make mistakes in Edmonton so he and the Oilers would later profit. Name one coach in today&rsquo;s game who would do the same-albeit at great personal risk.Ferreira&rsquo;s motivation was obvious. He seized the opportunity to get a marquee player. But has the need to get better in a hurry been magnified by the success of expansion mate Florida Panthers? And does this signal an intent by the Mighty Ducks to bid for free agents this summer? Don&rsquo;t be surprised, because much of the NHL now lives for today and leaves tomorrow for tomorrow. &#9632;

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Patience in short supply in new NHL

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-in-Chief</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011512/6099916-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="368" height="368"></div>Students at The Winchendon School received a history lesson on television Feb. 6. The next day they got a chance to earn extra credit in class by drawing a caricature of Dave Reece in goal.Some would have you believe the assignment was redundant. After all, Reece was a caricature in goal. Well, those people are wrong.Reece was the Boston Bruins&rsquo; goalie who surrendered six goals and four assists to Darryl Sittler Feb. 6, 1976. It was the 14th and last game of Reece&rsquo;s brief NHL career. His name has lived on in infamy since and while Reece has never hidden from his past, not everybody at the Massachusetts private school in Winchendon (near the New Hamp-shire border) knew the assistant headmaster and director of admissions had reached a 20th anniversary of sorts.At least they didn&rsquo;t until Sittler&rsquo;s NHL-record, 10-point night was featured Feb. 6 on TV. The following day, a history teacher at Winchendon offered students bonus points for the hockey artwork. Reece, 47, laughed harder than anyone at the assignment. He is as open about the assault on his goals-against average as was the Bruins&rsquo; net that fateful night. &ldquo;More of us should remember when we hit the banana peel and how we grew from it,&rdquo; Reece said.At first, there was silence on the telephone line when Reece was told The Hockey News wanted to speak with him. Reece thought a friend was playing a practical joke on him. &ldquo;Are you busting my chops?&rdquo; Reese asked. Assured that THN really was on the line, Reese immediately put the caller-uncertain about dredging up a distant memory-at ease.It was thought Reece might go to pieces at the prospect of yet another interview about the night the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Boston 11-4. But Reece could not remember the last time a journalist asked him about the night and welcomed the conversation. &ldquo;I have a very positive attitude about it,&rdquo; he said. Why? Because Reece knows just playing in the NHL was an enormous achievement for a kid from Troy, N.Y. He cherishes the memory of several strong performances during his brief stay with Boston and, best of all, he met his wife as a result of his subsequent demotion to the American League.&ldquo;The worst thing,&rdquo; Reece chuckled, &ldquo;is that I was trying to stop the puck. Some days you just stink. When you&rsquo;d played as long and as many games as I had, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. I felt good. I didn&rsquo;t ask to be pulled. I just said, &lsquo;Persevere.&rsquo; The funniest thing is I didn&rsquo;t know it was going on. I didn&rsquo;t know (Sittler) had four and five and six goals. And they were cheering. I thought, &lsquo;How many more do they want?&rsquo; I had no clue that Darryl was getting this many goals. Not that it would have made a difference.&rdquo;Reece said he should have received the tea service later presented to Sittler as a momento of the occasion because he played such a pivotal role in the game that clinched the Maple Leaf captain&rsquo;s eventual entrance to the Hall of Fame. The goalie&rsquo;s single regret is that he wasn&rsquo;t better prepared for his final scheduled NHL start. Gerry Cheevers had just returned from the World Hockey Association and Gilles Gilbert was returning from an injury, so Reece was slated for demotion to the Boston Braves.&ldquo;The only thing I have difficulty with is that I felt for some reason before the Toronto game, I didn&rsquo;t prepare myself the same way I had previous games,&rdquo; Reece said. &ldquo;I believe I was feeling a little sorry for myself. Cheevers had come back and I knew that I was going down. I played two nights before and had a great game against Pittsburgh.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021230/6099909-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1132" height="1652"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie Dave Reece is remembered for his part in NHL history.</figcaption></div>Reece was within four minutes of his third shutout in 13 games when Parker MacDonald scored in a 5-1 victory for the Bruins.&ldquo;I knew going into the (Toronto) game that I wasn&rsquo;t as mentally prepared as I had always been prior to that,&rdquo; Reece said. &ldquo;I really was an intense individual with a routine. I believe that chance favors the prepared. And I wasn&rsquo;t prepared because I felt it was my last game.&rdquo;Reece&rsquo;s last supper before his last game was with Bruins&rsquo; captain John Bucyk. Ordinarily, Reece dined alone. Then, Reece stayed on the ice too long at the morning skate-further messing up his routine. Reece, the state of Vermont&rsquo;s athlete of the year in 1971 for his play with the university Catamounts, was a respectable No. 2 goalie before the Sittler game lifted him to Hall of Shame status. &ldquo;In my first game against Montreal I got bombed,&rdquo; Reece said. &ldquo;And in my last game I let in 11. But in between I thought I was a pretty solid backup.&rdquo;Reece&rsquo;s goals-against average before Sittler was 2.68; after Sittler, it was 3.32. He retired in 1977 after playing goal for the U.S. at the World Championship in Vienna: &ldquo;Strange as it seems, it was like the Big Guy was talking to me. &lsquo;Go out the way you came in.&rsquo; I just felt what great closure to play for the U.S. team.&rdquo;Sittler and Reece have never met, although the goalie (inexplicably) wanted one more showdown with the shooter: &ldquo;The thing I would have loved to have done is have a shootout with Sittler.&rdquo; What Reece meant to say was that he wanted to have another shootout with Sittler.Reece hasn&rsquo;t played goal in 15 years, but helps out the Winchendon team. Is he the goaltending coach? &ldquo;Are you kidding?&rdquo; Dave Reece laughed. &#9632;

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Sittler game no nightmare

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03817/6099947-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="344" height="416"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.-Patrick Flatley pumps iron in the weight room as his New York Islanders&rsquo; teammates vacate the premises following the morning skate on the day of a big meeting with the crosstown rival New York Rangers.The 12-year veteran right winger won&rsquo;t play this evening, but he hasn&rsquo;t abandoned a sinking ship. He&rsquo;s just nursing an aggravated groin injury. In an era where it is fashionable for veterans to demand a trade when it becomes apparent their team is not a contender, the 32-year-old Flatley is staying put.&ldquo;I joined the Islanders when they were a winning team and I want to leave here when they are a winning team again,&rdquo; Flatley said. &ldquo;I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.&rdquo;The Toronto native joined the Islanders near the end of the 1983-84 season and was a big factor in helping them make it to the final for the fifth year in a row. He scored nine goals and 15 points in 21 post-season games, good for third best on a team with stars whose names were Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin and Clark Gillies. Now, with 157 goals and 482 points in 688 career games, he skates with guys named Chris Luongo, Mick Vukota and Alexander Semak.Because of injuries. Flatley has never played a complete season, but he has had a solid career and has been the Islanders&rsquo; captain since 1991-92. He hopes to stay with the Islanders for the rest of his career, which he hopes will last at least another three years.He has another year remaining on his contract and hopes a solid core of youngsters in Eric Fichaud, Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe and Brett Lindros will develop quickly to supplement the efforts of veterans such as himself, Wendel Clark and Mathieu Schneider.Flatley feels the team is moving in the right direction and said a solid bond is developing between the team and coach-GM Mike Mil-bury-even if things did get off to a shaky start.&ldquo;I think Mike felt he had to come in and create an atmosphere where nobody felt like they were on steady ground,&rdquo; Flatley said. &ldquo;If nothing else it brought the players together; gave us something to talk about. The fact is there is a great work ethic here and Mike realizes that now. We just needed to channel our energy in the right direction.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Flatley sees bright future

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011516/6099978-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="316" height="408"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Babych</figcaption></div>A weekly compendium of significant events and developments (Feb. 2-9).Feb 3: Peter Bondra of Capitals scores four goals as Washington beats Islanders 6-5.Ottawa&rsquo;s Alexandre Daigle lost for season after breaking arm in game against New Jersey.Montreal&rsquo;s Marc Bureau suspended five games for elbowing Philadelphia defenseman Petr Svoboda.Feb. 4: Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Aaron Gavey clipped in face with teammate&rsquo;s skate, sliced for 120 stitches.Chicago&rsquo;s Gary Suter earns 500th career assist in Blackhawks&rsquo; 4-1 win over Anaheim.Feb 5: Patrick Roy makes 37 saves as Colorado beats his old team, Montreal, 4-2.Feb. 6: Philadelphia acquires center Bob Corkum from Anaheim for minorleague left winger Chris Herperger.Feb. 7: Winnipeg trades right winger Teemu Selanne to Anaheim for defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and center-left winger Chad Kilger.Vancouver defenseman Dave Babych becomes 109th NHLer to play 1,000 career games. &#9632;

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Former Jet Selanne will now fly with Ducks

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-in-Chief</div>The NHL has taken a step toward settling the great skate debate.GMs have recommended goals directed into the net by skates, either purposely or accidentally, be counted as goals starting next season.There has been much controversy over the years as referees faced the problem of deciding whether players deliberately deflected pucks into the net. Currently, a goal isn&rsquo;t counted if it&rsquo;s determined a player purposely directed the puck into the net. Reading players&rsquo; minds has been a challenge for referees and video officials.League GMs hope to have a workable alternative. They have proposed goals going in off skates be counted &ldquo;absent a distinct kicking motion,&rdquo; said NHL vice-president, hockey operations Brian Burke.That recommendation was the most significant rule change to emerge from the annual GMs&rsquo; meetings, held this year in Tucson, Ariz., Feb. 5-7.All proposals are scheduled to take effect next season, pending approval by the board of governors in the summer.Also on the agenda, yet again, was the tag-up offside rule.&ldquo;There was extensive discussion of the tag-up rule,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a great deal of sentiment to change it, but the league is going to do more examination.&rdquo;The alternative being tested in the East Coast League the past couple of seasons is that players (usually defensemen) be forced to make at least one pass before firing the puck back into the offensive zone in tag-up situations.Some favor returning to the old offside rule; that is, play stops immediately once the puck is shot into the offensive zone with players trapped inside the blueline. Currently, players inside the offensive zone when a teammate shoots the puck in can avoid an offside call by leaving the zone or tagging up.GMs believe the tag-up rule has hindered the development of young defensemen trained to simply dump the puck into the zone, rather than make skillful plays outside the blueline.Another ongoing issue is application of rule 66 (a), which stipulates players leaving the bench legally or illegally to enter an altercation are subject to 10-game suspensions.There is a sense 10 games is too much for a player who enters a game legally and immediately gets into a fight without any effort to join the play.Other GM recommendations are:&#9633; Penalties resulting from differentials in simultaneous offenses be served at the front end, rather than the back as is now the practice. If, for example, one player received a five-minute major and an opponent, a two-minute minor, the resulting three-minute power play would begin immediately. Details are to be worked out, but GMs like the idea, in part, because teams will get power plays late in the game that otherwise might not be reached before the end of regulation time.&#9633; Maximum stick length be increased from 60 to 63 inches.&#9633; Officials be authorized to enact stricter enforcement of goalie equipment standards (i.e. width of pads, size of gloves, extra webbing in pants).&#9633; Game misconducts for verbal abuse of officials be considered a separate category from stick fouls and hitting from behind for purposes of cumulative suspensions. As with hitting from behind and stick fouls, verbal suspensions would kick in after the second offense.&#9633; The color of goal post pegs be changed from red. &#9632;

GMs put best foot forward

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div>Russian NHLers succeeded in getting coach Viktor Tikhonov ousted from the World Cup of Hockey.&ldquo;He will not coach,&rdquo; says Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, who took part in negotiations with the Russians.Led by Igor Larionov and Slava Fetisov of the Detroit Red Wings, the players gave the Russian Ice Hockey Federation an ultimatum: him or us.At one point when Russian federation president Valentin Sytch scoffed at the players&rsquo; resolve, he was asked whether he was ready to lace up his skates for the motherland.Sytch then understood the players.&ldquo;We have so many guys who really support us who will be on the roster,&rdquo; Larionov said. &ldquo;We have big support from Russian players on the team.&rdquo;PICKING UP TAB: The NHL is footing the bill for a $1-million shortfall in transfer payments to the IIHF.The payments go towards European teams as compensation for their players joining the NHL.The NHL revised its deal with the IIHF and has increased its payment by $1.3 million to $3.9 million a season.In doing so, the NHL and the IIHF have extended their treaty by four years to the 2000-2001 season. &#9632;

Tikhonov dismissed by players

<div class="byline">By Lou Friedman</div>Did you know that when Kate Smiths&rsquo; God Bless America blares through the speakers at the CoreStates Spectrum, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; record (heading into this season) is 63-15-3?And you think hockey writers aren&rsquo;t so smart.Well, we are&ndash;to a degree-but we do cheat. Each of the 26 NHL teams puts out a media guide, which you can buy for anywhere from $6-$l2.Here are a few bests and worsts:Best cover: For kitschiness, you can&rsquo;t beat the postcard motif of the Florida Panthers (Greetings from South Florida), but for elegance, the sweater history of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the memorabilia spread of the New York Rangers can&rsquo;t be beaten.Worst cover: The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; partially hidden logo. The word &lsquo;GUIDE&rsquo; appears three inches high splashed across the middle. Dull.Best photos: The New York Islanders have pictures of the players as juniors or collegiates and as youngsters.Worst photos: The Montreal Canadiens may make women swoon in their construction gear get-ups, but they look like bad imitations of the Village People.Just about every media guide has something that makes it unique. Here are a few of the notables:&#9633; Florida lists the Panthers&rsquo; record in each state and province (they&rsquo;re 12-3-1 in Canada).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011430/6100088-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="580" height="887"><figcaption class="caption-body">Florida&rsquo;s media guide</figcaption></div>&#9633; The Hartford Whalers have stats for the &ldquo;sixth attacker&rdquo; proficiency for the Whalers in each season. Their best mark was in 1989-90, when they were 4-24-0 with the goalie pulled.&#9633; The Rangers list the last trade made with each club. The last trade with the Islanders was getting cash for Ron Stewart Nov. 14, 1973.&#9633; In the Washington Capitals&rsquo; first season (1974-75), the team was a collective minus-1,077. Defenseman Bill Mikkelson was minus-82.&#9633; The only player in Montreal&rsquo;s history to wear No. 0 was Paul-Emile Bibeault (1942-43).&#9633; Heading into this season, Calgary (nee: Atlanta) and the Islanders have had only two GMs in their 23-years: Cliff Fletcher and Doug Rise-brough; and Bill Torrey and Don Maloney, respectively. Risebrough and Maloney were fired this season.&#9633; Colorado (formerly Quebec) and Buffalo have played 14 regularseason overtime games against each other. All have ended tied.And finally, some interesting, yet impertinent trivial items:&#9633; If you are a media visitor to the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; press box, your pregame meal is free. If you are a media local, you are charged $5.&#9633; Dallas minor-league goalie Manny Fernandez is the nephew of New Jersey coach Jacques Lemaire.&#9633; The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; advisory board includes Michael Keaton.&#9633; In his personal profile, Jets&rsquo; goalie Nikolai Khabibulin says he&rsquo;s &ldquo;very interested in English.&rdquo;&#9633; A policy at the Brendan Byrne Arena: &ldquo;Everyone who enters must be 12 months or older.&rdquo;&#9633; Media people better not show up late to the Auditorium in Buffalo. If they do, according to pg. 5, &ldquo;admittance privileges to the press box, lounge and working facilities will be suspended until the tardy individual can produce a momento from each of the 25 seasons the Sabres have played in the Aud.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

Guide to NHL guides: Don’t be late in Buffalo

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Attendance was down in 12 NHL markets, but the league isn&rsquo;t sounding the alarms.The attendance average through 682 games (Feb. 7) was 15,515 according to figures in NHL summaries. The average at a comparable point last season was 15,730.Despite four larger NHL arenas this season, attendance has dropped by 1.4 per cent over last season.The NHL isn&rsquo;t concerned with the drop for reasons pointed out by commissioner Gary Bettman: a comparison to 1994-95 isn&rsquo;t accurate because of last season&rsquo;s January start; attendance is up marginally from a comparable point in 1993-94; extenuating circumstances of franchise instability in Winnipeg and Florida.Larger facilities in Boston, Vancouver and Ottawa (effective Jan. 17) and the shift of the Quebec Nordiques (capacity 15,399) to Denver (16,061) belie the drop in average at-tendance.The most significant attendance drops compared to a similar point last season took place in Winnipeg (16.4 per cent), Tampa Bay (12.5 per cent), Long Island (12.1 per cent), Buffalo (12 per cent), Florida (9.3 per cent), Los Angeles (8.9 per cent), Dallas (7.8 per cent) and Edmonton (7.6 per cent).Aside from the increases in the four new arenas, notable hikes took place in Washington (2.6 per cent), Montreal (1.7 per cent) and Philadelphia (1.6 per cent).Attendance figures below are from a comparable point in both seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021031/6100119-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="592" height="1209"></div> &#9632;

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Attendance dip doesn’t worry NHL

I got home from work recently and found my young son, in his pajamas, watching the New York Rangers&rsquo; game. They were playing the Boston Bruins, who were also wearing their pajamas.I would later learn these third jerseys are being worn, for the most part, on Fox telecasts. Foxy hockey, if you will.Allow me to explain to the powers that be what the &lsquo;Hub&rsquo; logo on the Bruins&rsquo; jersey stands for. It stands for everything that was right with the NHL; for Gerry Cheevers&rsquo; stitches-covered mask; for Ray Bourque&rsquo;s class; for Frankie Brimsek, the original &lsquo;Mr. Zero.&rsquo;But most of all, that &lsquo;B&rsquo; in the center of the hub stands for May 10, 1970, and the one person who has most changed the game-Bobby Orr.He changed it within the confines of the boards, not in a boardroom.Foxy hockey? No thank you.Jeff Way, Beachwood, N.J.<h2>Rise and shine</h2>Good morning THN, this is the front desk with your wake-up call for the Jan. 26 issue.I couldn&rsquo;t wait to receive my issue, just knowing I was going to see Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s jubilation as the fans of Detroit helped him celebrate his 500th career goal.Instead, I got the same old front cover with a picture of Mario Lemieux slapped in the middle. This guy must have a 50 per cent interest in THN for all the coverage he gets.Yzerman executes all facets of the game whereas Lemieux floats through the neutral zone. Hockey is not all offense, THN.Dean A. Toukatly,&nbsp; Wilmington, N.C.<h2>Green&rsquo;s greed</h2>Forgive me for saying it, but I told you so.Almost three years ago in Letters (THN. April 9, 1993), I predicted Norm Green would sell the Dallas Stars shortly after moving them to Texas. Now it&rsquo;s official.Because one unscrupulous individual found a way to grab a short-swing profit, a great hockey state, Minnesota, remains without an NHL team.We can only hope the new owners are genuinely committed to the longterm health of the team and our sport.Peter G. Berryman,&nbsp; Columbus, Ohio<h2>Broten was right</h2>So Neal Broten of the New Jersey Devils thinks he should vacation with his family on a day most players anticipate having off instead of going to a punishment practice? How dare he?Well, I believe Broten did the right thing. He has a heart as big as Texas and no one has a right to fault him for loving his family more than the game of hockey.Susie Andersen,&nbsp; Dallas, Tex.<h2>Unfair dismissal</h2>To say the firing of coach Dave Allison was a gutless move by Ottawa Senators&rsquo; GM Pierre Gauthier is an understatement. Allison&rsquo;s firing is just another example of what has gone wrong with big-time hockey.Regardless of Allison&rsquo;s record with Ottawa, 25 games was nowhere near a fair shot, considering what he had to work with.Allison is a class act. He represents small-town, old-time, Canadian hockey. It probably doesn&rsquo;t mean anything to Gauthier, but Allison&rsquo;s firing cost the Senators about 10,000 fans in this northwestern Ontario community that Allison calls home-something the team can&rsquo;t afford to keep doing.So here&rsquo;s to Gauthier, the techno puck, mega salaries, Shark tanks and migration to the south.G. Madill, Fort Frances, Ont.<h2>No way, Jay</h2>I was surprised to see Herb Brooks ranked 10th on Jay Greenberg&rsquo;s list of the all-time greatest coaches (THN, Jan. 19).Brooks was a great coach for a few weeks in 1980 with the U.S. Olympic team and subsequently proved he couldn&rsquo;t win under pressure in the NHL.I&rsquo;m sure there would be more support for a man such as Roger Neilson, who took sub-par teams in the Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers and turned them into Stanley Cup and playoff contenders, respectively.All-time lists should focus on an entire career, not just a single event.Randy Murphy,&nbsp; Nepean, Ont.<h2>NewsTrax</h2>While watching the NHL&rsquo;s latest All-Star Game, it suddenly occurred to me editions of The Hockey News are not very large.To correct this problem I suggest THN spend approximately $3 million to develop a special type of print that glows a fluorescent blue. This way American readers should be able to spot the paper.Brandon Parlette, Gores Landing, Ont.<h2>Where&rsquo;s Rogie?</h2>Why isn&rsquo;t Rogie Vachon in the Hall of Fame?He was very good for the Montreal Canadiens before that college kid (Ken Dryden) showed up. He was outstanding in the 1976 Canada Cup and was phenomenal most nights for the Los Angeles Kings.It&rsquo;s time the Hall of Fame woke up and gave Vachon his due.Denis Carolin, Sanora, Calif.<h2>My son, my hero</h2>I&rsquo;m writing this letter not about a well-known, million-dollar-a-year pro player, but about a 3-foot-9, 60-pound, five-year-old who has more love for this game and is tougher than any man I know.Last November, my son Steven-a first year mini-mite in Parma, Ohio-was at an open-ice practice and lost the tip of his ring finger on his left hand when it was sliced by a skate.On the way to the hospital in the ambulance, he gritted his teeth (he didn&rsquo;t cry) and worried not about his finger, but how he was going to practise the next morning.Unfortunately, doctors couldn&rsquo;t save the tip of his finger, but Steven did make it to practice that next day. We taped a pad around his hand and put on an oversized mitten and he proceeded to score two goals in an intrasquad game. Since then, he has scored at least one goal in every game.He&rsquo;s now hoping his hockey hero-Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; prospect and Parma native Brian Holzinger-gets the opportunity to read this.Walter Samijlenko,&nbsp; Parma, Ohio<h2>Minor support</h2>I have the haunting feeling the time will come when Hartford will lose its NHL team.Perhaps this is treasonous, but I believe Hartford&rsquo;s long-term hockey future is probably in the minor pros.It&rsquo;s not as bad as it sounds. Other American League teams in the area only charge $6 to $11 per seat, compared to as much as $42 to see the Whalers.If the Whalers do abandon ship, I think Hartford should start thinking minor-league hockey.George A. Pashalis,&nbsp; Niantic, Conn.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-1641&nbsp;Write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 777 Bay St, Suite 2700, Box 148, Toronto, Ont., M5G 2C8&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947.&nbsp;E-mail us at <a href="mailto:THN@transc.com">THN@transc.com</a>. Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Pajama-like uniforms mock Bruin tradition

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011609/6100174-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were going nowhere and the Winnipeg Jets were going somewhere else soon.Together, that created the atmosphere that led to the Ducks&rsquo; first blockbuster trade when they acquired right winger Teemu Selanne and Winnipeg&rsquo;s fourth-round draft pick in 1996 for defenseman Oleg Tver-dovsky (second overall draft pick in 1994), center Chad Kilger (fourth overall in 1995) and the Ducks&rsquo; third-round pick in 1996.Anaheim GM Jack Ferreira always said the Ducks would build slowly through the draft and was emphatic he wasn&rsquo;t willing to part with Paul Kariya, Tverdovsky or Kilger. On Feb. 8, he parted with two of the three for a player the Ducks consider a superstar.&ldquo;You have your plan, you try to put things in perspective and figure out where you want to be in a couple years,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just that you don&rsquo;t have a chance to get a guy like Teemu every day of the week. We had to do it.&rdquo;The Ducks gave up poten-tial-Tverdovsky and Kilger are both 19-but got a proven star who has 147 career goals and 306 career points-24 goals and 72 points in 51 games this season-and is still only 25.&ldquo;Last time I heard, Teemu wasn&rsquo;t wheeling away to the old-age home,&rdquo; said Anaheim president Tony Tavares.The Jets decided to part with Selanne largely because even with three highly paid offensive stars in Selanne, left winger Keith Tkachuk and center Alexei Zhamnov, the Jets had missed the playoffs three years in a row and are in danger of doing it again.Tkachuk couldn&rsquo;t be traded for a year because the Jets had matched a free-agent offer sheet last summer to keep him. Zhamnov&rsquo;s uncertain contract status made him hard to move. That left Selanne and trade rumors swirled for months before a deal was finally made.&ldquo;The whole town is really upset,&rdquo; said Kelly Moore, the Jets&rsquo; radio play-by-play announcer. &ldquo;They feel that this is the final season and whatever positive aspect there was for this final two months has been taken away with the trade of Selanne.&rdquo;The Jets, of course, are moving to Phoenix next season after bids to keep the team in Manitoba proved financially unworkable. So from management&rsquo;s standpoint, any potential backlash would be brief. As for the fans in Phoenix, if they never got to watch Selanne, they wouldn&rsquo;t miss him.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011536/6100243-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="571" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Ducks say they hadn&rsquo;t given up on Oleg Tverdovsky.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021206/6100236-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="1056" height="1050"><figcaption class="caption-body">Teemu Selanne with Paul Kariya makes the Ducks mightier.</figcaption></div>It was a trade for the future-a future Winnipeg will never see.&ldquo;We were looking to make a change or changes that would be beneficial down the road for this franchise,&rdquo; said Jets&rsquo; GM John Paddock said. &ldquo;Teemu is a tremendous person with a lot of character, but what we&rsquo;re getting back is two future stars who are playing in the NHL right flow and contributing.&rdquo;Ferreira said he wrestled hard over giving up Tverdovsky and Kilger. Even though Tverdovsky hadn&rsquo;t made quite the step up the Ducks had hoped for in his second season (seven goals and 22 points in 51 games) and Kilger&rsquo;s pre-season wizardry faded into typical rookiedom (five goals, 12 points, 45 games), the Ducks still liked both players.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like we had given up on them, not at all,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;We were fortunate other people recognized the talent these two have. Because of that, we were able to do this deal.&rdquo;Kilger, with his big 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame and skating skill, still looks as if he could be an NHL standout.&ldquo;I think Chad is going to be a great hockey player,&rdquo; said Ducks&rsquo; coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;We were bringing him along slowly, trying to spoon-feed him. Because of injuries, we had to overuse him in December and he lost his confidence.&rdquo;As for Tverdovsky, whose speed and flashes of brilliance are sometimes countered by errors, Wilson said: &ldquo;He was always being compared to Bobby Orr, and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s a damn fair comparison. Bobby Orr was dominating at 18. Oleg was not dominating the competition. It takes time.&rdquo;It was a bold stroke for Ferreira and it was time for one. The Florida Panthers, Anaheim&rsquo;s expansion companion, have consistently iced a more competitive team, and the players Ferreira had chosen to help the Ducks through the lean years-Joe Sacco and recently traded Bob Corkum among them-were either disappointments or were overestimated in the first place.As a result, the Ducks were still scrambling to remain in playoff contention.It became time to reassess, or management might not have been around to see Kilger and Tverdovsky mature anyway. &#9632;

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FEATURES

No sitting Ducks

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011477/6100288-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="383" height="537"></div>Perception is everything in the NHL and even if Wayne Gretzky didn&rsquo;t say so, the perception of the Ottawa Senators for the first four years of their existence was they were a Mickey Mouse operation.It began with a mediocre performance on expansion-draft day&ndash;the Senators selected three ineligible players, in part because of a computer breakdown-and the laughter didn&rsquo;t die until owner Rod Bryden cleaned house this season.The Senators&rsquo; new regime-GM Pierre Gauthier, coach Jacques Martin-haven&rsquo;t had perceptibly better results than the old dance team, Randy Sexton and Dave Allison. So what changed?Just this: the perception is Gauthier and Martin had paid their dues by moving through existing NHL channels and thus will know what they&rsquo;re doing. Now, the consensus around the NHL is there&rsquo;ll be better days ahead for Ottawa; that they&rsquo;ve bridged the credibility gap.Martin was asked for his views of the Senators prior to taking the job. &ldquo;Basically, I didn&rsquo;t have an opinion about Ottawa,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t close to the situation. When I came in, I wasn&rsquo;t concerned about what went on in the past. I think it&rsquo;s important to turn the page. This is a new regime. We have a plan, a vision. We know where we&rsquo;re going.&rdquo;So does everybody else. The Senators were in 26th place when they took over. There&rsquo;s nowhere to go but up. And when it does happen, it&rsquo;ll be-in part, anyway-because Gauthier had a head start. Someone else endured the growing pains. He inherited the spoils of all those last-place finishes.For years, the Senators played in a substandard building. Now, they&rsquo;re comfortably ensconced in the state-of-the-art Palladium. The Senators drafted second, first, third and first overall in their first four years of existence, harvesting a player crop that included Alexandre Daigle, Radek Bonk, Alexei Yashin and Bryan Berard (since traded to the New York Islanders for the rights to Wade Redden).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021049/6100281-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="511" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Martin</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03672/6100274-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="509" height="725"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Gauthier</figcaption></div>There isn&rsquo;t even any immediate pressure to become respectable right away. Basically, this is a lost year for Ottawa. Accordingly, the only expectation is to become more competitive and entertaining than they were, a modest goal and one they accomplished in their first nine-game Palladium homestand.Even though they only won once, they received more standing ovations than the Montreal Canadiens did all year.&ldquo;Our focus right now is towards the process instead of the results,&rdquo; Martin said. &ldquo;As long as we improve and progress and evaluate our personnel, we&rsquo;ll get ourselves in a situation where we can make the right decisions. From the point I came on until the end of the season, it&rsquo;ll be an evaluation process.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s also a different challenge. For the first half of the season, Martin worked as Marc Crawford&rsquo;s assistant with the Colorado Avalanche, a team poised to win the Pacific Division. Martin is realistic enough to know this year his season ends in mid-April.&ldquo;The bottom line is, I&rsquo;ve expert-enced this before,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you know what you&rsquo;re getting involved in, it prepares you for the situation. The key is to build a foundation, to make sure we put in place the building blocks and that the foundation is solid. From that, we&rsquo;ll move on.&rdquo;The fact is, a handful of the most important building blocks-young, talented, blue-chip prospects-were already in place before they got there. For that, they can thank the stumblers and bumblers that preceded them. Perception, right? &#9632;

f0009-01

Senators bridging credibility crevasse

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011539/6100326-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="375" height="530"></div>The Buffalo Sabres rolled into a midwinter night&rsquo;s meeting with the Flyers in Philadelphia and when Pat LaFontaine took the ice, the buzz through the crowd at the Spectrum was whether or not they were watching an opponent or a future Flyer.Just another stop for LaFontaine during the 1995-96 season when he had to answer questions about his future with the Buffalo Sabres; his long-term view of the team; his willingness to stay in Buffalo; and how he would feel about leaving a franchise which regarded him as its cornerstone when he was acquired from the New York Islanders in October, 1991.Since then, the Sabres have gone through one of the most amazing organizational about-faces in the history of the NHL. They have stopped writing huge checks to ensure some success and they have decided a leaner payroll and fewer stars on the team is the best way to deal with the NHL as it heads toward the next century.In a rather amazing organizational game plan, the Sabres have dumped payroll and lopped off such stars as Alexander Mogilny and Dale Hawer-chuk from their roster-all in the year before they are due to move into their new digs in the form of a huge new arena for the 1996-97 season.Take a look around, you&rsquo;ll see the Boston Bruins bulked up for their move into the new arena when they signed Kevin Stevens last summer (it didn&rsquo;t work out, but the Bruins were willing to spend the bucks); the St. Louis Blues spent like Valley girls in the summer before they moved into their new area; the Vancouver Canucks got Mogilny just before they moved into their new home; and even the Montreal Canadiens have made some dramatic changes as they prepare to move into their new place next month.Heck, even the Ottawa Senators got the situation with Alexei Yashin settled before they moved their operation from the little house to the Palladium. The Sabres&rsquo; game plan to downsize as they head for a bigger arena is unusual.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021156/6100319-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="502" height="875"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine</figcaption></div>But, as usual, LaFontaine answered the questions politely and without slinging any mud. And as usual, LaFontaine took the high road, refused to question the direction of his team in any manner for public consumption, and took the &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll-play-my-hardest-for-as-long-as-they-want-me&rdquo; approach instead.However, for the first time in his career, the answers sounded just a little bit hollow. Not that there would ever be a lack of effort, but it was obvious all the talk about his future was starting to wear a little thin.&ldquo;You play long enough, and you&rsquo;re bound to hear these things,&rdquo; said LaFontaine, who turns 31 Feb. 22 and who has played sparingly the past two seasons as the result of major knee injuries. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always taken the view it&rsquo;s out of my control, but it sure looks like a situation where the club is going to choose a direction.&ldquo;I mean, you read and hear everywhere: &lsquo;What are the Sabres going to do-go with youth, or are they going to move into their new building (next season) by adding some free agents and veteran players?&ldquo;I guess if they decide to go the youth route, then maybe myself and Dom (Hasek) are the likely guys to get moved.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I stopped thinking about it. It got to the point about a week ago that (GM) John Muckier made a statement that he hasn&rsquo;t had any talks about trading either of us, but when your name appears in just about every rumor column and hockey notes column across North America, you have to wonder if you aren&rsquo;t playing your final games as a Sabre.&rdquo;As for his personal condition, he can understand that a paycheck of about $4 million per season is lofty, but he thinks worries about his physical condition are not warranted.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any doubts that I can get back to where I was before (the injury),&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;You look around the league, there are a lot of guys who are well into their 30s and having great years.&rdquo;So will Pat LaFontaine-he just doesn&rsquo;t know where he will be having those great years. &#9632;

f0010-01

Will Sabres stand pat, or will they trade Pat?

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div>Over and over this season, the Philadelphia Flyers heard how they had no consistent offensive production behind the Legion of Doom.A valid knock? Well, yes and no.It&rsquo;s true that before an abdominal injury to left winger Mikael Renberg, the Legion accounted for just over half of all Flyer goals.It&rsquo;s also true you can&rsquo;t have second line scoring if you don&rsquo;t have a second line, which the Flyers, until recently, didn&rsquo;t.What they counted on instead was a second line center in Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour and a bunch of guys named Patrick and Rob and Shjon and Brent and Trent. That&rsquo;s until Pat and Dan came along.&ldquo;At least a million,&rdquo; was Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s response when asked how many linemates he had had this season. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not one guy I haven&rsquo;t been on a line with.&rdquo;Yet take a look at Philadelphia&rsquo;s scoring and, amazingly, there was Brind&rsquo;Amour with 15 goals and 59 points in 52 games, second only to Eric Lindros for the team lead.As of Feb. 9, not once had Brind&rsquo;Amour gone two games without a point. His consistency is more impressive considering he rarely played with either of the team&rsquo;s top two wingers, Renberg or John LeClair, and rarely went more than two or three games playing with the same linemates no matter who they were.So how was he doing it? What gives?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I (asked) him when I got here (in early February),&rdquo; said Dan Quinn, a linemate of Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s when both were with the St. Louis Blues, and subsequently traded to Philadelphia in the fall of 1991. &ldquo;&lsquo;You&rsquo;re 12th or 13th in the league in scoring. How did you get all your points if there&rsquo;s no second line?&rsquo; He just shrugged his shoulders.&rdquo;The short answer is that Brind&rsquo;-Amour, 25, manages to rack up his points by giving every scrap of ener gy he has, which judging by his sculpted physique, is an awful lot.Soon after he broke in with the Blues as an 18-year-old during the 1989 playoffs, he earned the nickname &lsquo;Rod the Bod&rsquo; because of the 208 pounds of rippled muscle on a 6-foot-1 frame.Now he is down to 198 pounds as his role has evolved from an up-and-down grinder into a scorer and playmaker, but his power in front of the net and ability to protect the puck along the boards is still much admired.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011398/6100357-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="952" height="1964"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s strength is well-known around the NHL.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Especially in the faceoffs and in the corner, he&rsquo;s very strong,&rdquo; said Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; rookie center Saku Koivu. &ldquo;You can feel it.&rdquo;Flyers&rsquo; coach Terry Murray said Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s conditioning is excellent motivation for young players who come to Philadelphia to train in the summer and see Brind&rsquo;Amour fiendishly working out. Now in his seventh season, he has missed only six games in his career.&ldquo;Not only is Rod a hockey player, he&rsquo;s an athlete,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;And he made that decision a long time ago. He just will not let himself go through a season without having good success.&rdquo;For Brind&rsquo;Amour, it&rsquo;s all part of being able to say there&rsquo;s nothing he could have done, but didn&rsquo;t, that might have made the difference. &ldquo;If you work hard off the ice,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re leaving the excuses behind.&rdquo;That also includes staying off the liquids that get served on ice.Back in 1988, Brind&rsquo;-Amour&rsquo;s agent Ron Perrick told another client, noted Blues&rsquo; tough guy and free spirit Craig Coxe, to make sure he took care of the new rookie in town. No problem, Coxe said.As Brind&rsquo;Amour later told Perrick, it turned out to be a good relationship for both of them. He said at the Blues&rsquo; year-end party that year, &ldquo;every time somebody passed me a drink, I passed it to Coxe and he drank it.&rdquo;Although Brind&rsquo;Amour doesn&rsquo;t have as many goals as he would like, Flyers&rsquo; teammates know his 23 to 30 minutes of ice time he receives a game are a recognition for much more than offense.&ldquo;You can see his statistics there,&rdquo; said Ron Hextall, &ldquo;but he is the guy who is out there in the last minute when we are winning by a goal. He kills penalties, takes big faceoffs, he is a great player and certainly he is underrated.&rdquo;He is a little frustrated, though, by a recent line juggle that saw him move to left wing on a trio with Quinn at center and right winger Pat Falloon.&ldquo;I think they know, I hope they know,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said, &ldquo;that I&rsquo;m a better center than winger.&rdquo;But if it&rsquo;s going to create a real second line, one that will stay together and score some goals&hellip;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot more fun when you win than it is when you lose,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;no matter what.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-01

Philly Strongman

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011488/6100388-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="159" height="160"></div>For everyone who had been wondering what kind of numbers Mighty Ducks of Anaheim star Paul Kariya might put up if he had a big, fast, skilled winger with whom to play&hellip;This Flash just in.Teemu Selanne became a Mighty Duck after GM Jack Ferreira pulled the franchise&rsquo;s first blockbuster trade Feb. 7, and he&rsquo;s going to play on a line with Kariya.Big surprise.&ldquo;This certainly is great for Paul,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;Paul sees that he doesn&rsquo;t have to wait two or three years for some other players to develop. Now the other teams in the league can&rsquo;t just key on Paul. Now they have to key on Teemu Selanne, too.&rdquo;At 21, Kariya scored 29 goals and 64 points with the slenderest of supporting casts. Now he has a 25-year-old linemate who scored 76 goals as a rookie in 1992-93.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tremendous deal right now,&rdquo; said Kariya, who met Selanne at the All-Star Game. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a classy, classy guy, very humble. He doesn&rsquo;t have a big ego despite all his accomplishments.&rdquo;Selanne didn&rsquo;t want to be traded, but he will like the passes Kariya will put on his tape.&ldquo;I have seen Paul play, last year and this year and I met him at the All-Star Game,&rdquo; Selanne said. &ldquo;I know he&rsquo;s a great player and I&rsquo;m really looking forward to playing with him.&rdquo;The Ducks gave up their past two first-round picks in the deal, center Chad Kilger and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky.&ldquo;They both have a bright future, but we get a guy like Teemu Selanne, a superstar, and he&rsquo;s only 25 years old,&rdquo; Kariya said.The Ducks&rsquo; power play-worst in the NHL for three years running-finally might have a chance to get better.Selanne led the Jets in scoring at the time of the trade with 24 goals and 72 points in 51 games. Selanne burst onto the NHL scene four years ago scoring 76 goals in 84 games to win rookie-of-the-year honors.In the next two seasons he recorded more modest totals of 25 goals in 51 games and 22 in 44.&ldquo;We really improved ourselves by going and getting a guy like Selanne,&rdquo; said goalie Guy Hebert. &ldquo;I think Paul had all the pressure to put the puck in the net. Teemu can come in and score goals and score on the power play or set people up.&rdquo;Between him and Kariya, it should be quite a contest.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Milos Hol-an was scheduled to enter the hospital Feb. 12 to undergo radiation and chemotherapy in preparation for a Feb. 20 bone-marrow transplant doctors hope will cure his leuke-mia. &ldquo;I know everything that will happen, but I don&rsquo;t know how my body will react,&rdquo; Holan said. &ldquo;This is not hockey. I know how to be tough on the ice. I don&rsquo;t know in the hospital.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Don Mc-Sween returned to the NHL Feb. 7, more than a year after suffering extensive nerve damage in his right hand when his wrist was cut by a skate blade. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tremendous what he has done,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how anybody could not be inspired by what he has gone through to get back.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

NHL TEAMS

Selanne deal boon to Kariya

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03802/6100419-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="568" height="721"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Oates</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021219/6100426-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="158" height="158"></div>It&rsquo;s the curse of quiet consistency. You&rsquo;re almost forgotten when you do the same excellent job as always, but hit a bump in the road and everybody seems to notice.That was the lot of center Adam Oates and the Boston Bruins&rsquo; No. 1 line as the team went 3-5-1 after the all-star break to fall out of the Eastern Conference top eight. The trio of Oates, right winger Cam Neely and left winger Todd Elik played a big part in the struggle.&ldquo;We play a lot and we&rsquo;ve got to get the job done,&rdquo; said Oates, Boston&rsquo;s scoring leader with 56 points. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t got it done and I&rsquo;m not happy about it.&rdquo;The line collected 23 points in the first nine games after the break, but was generally kept under wraps in the six games Boston failed to win.Oates was held to a goal and four assists in those six games and was blanked four times. Elik was shut out three times and had four points in the six non-wins while Neely, who missed two games with hip, wrist and foot injuries, was shut out twice.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really consider it a slump,&rdquo; Oates said, &ldquo;but a couple of games without goals&hellip;they count on us and we want to be counted on.&rdquo;The line&rsquo;s struggles were most pronounced on the power play. Boston scored eight power-play goals in its first nine post-break games, but ElikOates-Neely were only on the ice for three and endured a seven-game stretch when they were on for none.The line was on for three shorthanded goals in that span.The first line wasn&rsquo;t the only troubled trio. Boston lost 6-5 to the Pittsburgh Penguins Feb. 8 because it couldn&rsquo;t protect a lead. One night later, the Bruins scored just once on 41 shots at Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; goalie Dominik Hasek in a 2-1 loss.NOTEBOOK: Injuries, which hadn&rsquo;t been a big problem, came in a cluster to start February. In order, left winger Dave Reid (fractured finger), right winger Rick Tocchet (concussion), right winger Steve Leach (cracked thumb) and center Clayton Beddoes (broken nose) left the lineup, albeit briefly, over a four-game span. Goaltender Bill Ranford, meanwhile, had to rest a tender ankle after nine consecutive starts&hellip;The Bruins took a 6-13-4 road record on a seven-game trip that began Feb. 14 at Hartford&hellip;Boston fell to 0-10-1 in regular-season games at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Civic Arena since Jan. 2, 1990&hellip;Goalie Craig Billington played well in the loss to Buffalo before allowing a 40-foot wrist shot to beat him in overtime. &#9632;

f0012-03

No. 1 line takes slump heat

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011407/6100457-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="161" height="161"></div>Shaken by a seven-game road losing streak and a listless and uninspired performance in a home loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach Ted Nolan ripped into his team.&ldquo;There may be nothing I can do about it now, but I can assure you I have a long memory,&rdquo; Nolan said after a 5-2 setback to the Lightning.&ldquo;We have some people here who choose not to compete some nights. It&rsquo;s unacceptable.&rdquo;But it&rsquo;s not unusual and not something Nolan hasn&rsquo;t said before.As in the past, the team responded, beating the Boston Bruins 2-1 Feb. 7 on an overtime goal by Derek Plante, then edging the Philadelphia Flyers by an identical score the next night. It was the first time in five meetings this season the Sabres have beaten Boston and the first time in two meetings they&rsquo;ve logged a win versus Philadelphia.It was the third time in as many rantings that the Sabres have responded to Nolan&rsquo;s laments.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; said right winger Brent Hughes. &ldquo;For some reason we have nights where we&rsquo;re not all on the same page. We have some guys who haven&rsquo;t prepared themselves to play.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s a surprising problem for a team that&rsquo;s very thin on talent. Nolan at the start of the season promised his team would work hard every night and speaks out when he&rsquo;s proved wrong.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t demand a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I do demand an effort every time out. I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s demanding too much. I know if we stop competing there&rsquo;s going to be some awfully long nights out there.&rdquo;The prospect of a long season-ending tailspin is something Nolan has gone to great lengths to avoid. He shuffled the lineup a few times, but the team lacks offensive might and despite several pleadings to the front office, no help has been forthcoming.&ldquo;This is something we have to work out on our own,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;No one is going to get us out of this except ourselves.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Derek Plante&rsquo;s overtime winner against Boston was the first of his NHL career&hellip;Goalie Andre Trefilov got the win at Philadelphia in his first start since recovering from a knee sprain Dec. 23&hellip;Center Brian Holzinger, once thought to be a Calder Trophy candidate, was demoted to Rochester of the American League. Holzinger has had problems with his confidence and was getting little ice time&hellip;Defenseman Mike Wilson had two goals through early-February, both game-winners&hellip;Goalie Dominik Hasek became the NHL career leader in games played by a European bom and trained goalie with his 190th appearance. He also passed Jacques Cloutier for sixth place in games played by Sabres&rsquo; goalies. &#9632;

f0013-01

Nolan gets results from rave-again

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021006/6100488-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="159" height="160"></div>His teammate, Theo Fleury, fought a well-publicized bout with Crohn&rsquo;s disease, a gastrointestinal ailment of the lower bowel, for much of the 1995-96 season.Defenseman James Patrick has had to contend with colitis for the better part of two years now. It got so bad at times last season, Patrick wasn&rsquo;t sure if his NHL career was coming to a close.He was getting pains in his joints and couldn&rsquo;t see how that was related to his illness. So Patrick changed his diet and his living habits and thus far, he has come back strongly.He plays on the team&rsquo;s No. 1 power-play unit, had three goals and 21 points in 54 games and has been recognized as the team&rsquo;s most consistent defenseman.&ldquo;I felt I had a disappointing year last year and I wasn&rsquo;t healthy,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to use that for an excuse, but for 11 years, I did a lot of good things at both ends of the ice. I felt I could still play if I got healthy again. That&rsquo;s the way I feel this year.&rdquo;Coach Pierre Page described Patrick&rsquo;s play this season as &ldquo;consistent. When a veteran like him plays as consistently as he does, that&rsquo;s all you can ask,&rdquo; Page said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s in good shape. He practises the same way he plays. He hangs around with the young players and the Europeans. He does a lot of things that other players sometimes don&rsquo;t have time for.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After almost a month on the sidelines, right winger Ron Stern&rsquo;s shoulder injury was showing little improvement, so he flew to Los Angeles to consult with noted sports surgeon Dr. Robert Watkins. Stem&rsquo;s condition is similar to that of teammate Gary Roberts&rsquo; in that he too had bone spurs in the spinal column that have resulted in a weakness in the shoulder. The injury occurred when Stem was elbowed in the chest by Colorado&rsquo;s Chris Simon in mid-January. Surgery is a possibility if it doesn&rsquo;t improve and that would almost certainly end his season&hellip;Defenseman Steve Chiasson suffered a minor concussion when he took an errant stick in the mouth from Washington right winger Peter Bondra in a Feb. 8 4-4 tie. &#9632;

f0013-02

Patrick’s improved health behind turnaround in play

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04656/6100519-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="560" height="973"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Sutter</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03762/6100526-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="160" height="160"></div>If a team is only as good as its leaders, that explains the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; tear since mid-December.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important that our leaders are showing up every game,&rdquo; said coach Craig Hartsburg, citing veterans Chris Chelios, Bernie Nicholls, Brent Sutter, Jeremy Roenick and Denis Savard. &ldquo;The big key now is our leaders are leading the rallying cry and playing the games to win.&rdquo;Defenseman Chris Chelios was a big part of the Blackhawks&rsquo; 18-3-4 run since before Christmas, but he prefers to direct the attention elsewhere. He points to Sutter, who was playing his best hockey of the season with six goals and nine assists in a 13-game stretch.And then there was Nicholls, who had 10 goals and 18 assists in 20 games after returning from his spleen injury.&ldquo;Everyone can be a leader in his own way, but I don&rsquo;t think any of us are trying to do it,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;You can tell guys one thing, but you better be ready to go out and do it. I think what we&rsquo;re doing is staying composed on the ice and leading by example.&rdquo;Even through some inconsistent times earlier in the season, Hartsburg knew it was only a matter of time before the leadership of the club made a difference.&ldquo;I had all kinds of confidence in those guys,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;Early in the season it was there, it just wasn&rsquo;t there every night. It&rsquo;s just more consistent now.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Jeremy Roenick sustained a concussion and hairline fracture to his jaw after getting knocked out by a check from St. Louis right winger Geoff Courtnall during a 6-1 Hawks&rsquo; win Feb. 8. Roenick&rsquo;s helmet flew off and his head hit the ice as he fell. Some Hawks thought Courtnall caught Roenick with an elbow&hellip;Defenseman Steve Smith had two cortisone injections in his back and the club was hoping they would allow him to stay in the lineup. Smith had the injections while visiting Dr. Robert Watkins in Los Angeles for the third time this season&hellip;Center Jeff Shantz&rsquo;s goal Feb. 4 against Anaheim was his first in 48 games&hellip;Left winger Tony Amonte had a career-high five-point game against St. Louis. &#9632;

f0013-04

Great play by leading men

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021140/6100564-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="571" height="760"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Roy</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011489/6100571-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="160" height="160"></div>Since he came to the Colorado Avalanche in the biggest trade to rock Canada since Wayne Gretzky was dealt, goaltender Patrick Roy had insisted there was no animosity toward the Montreal Canadiens or anybody in the organization.Well, maybe just a little.The only person from the Canadiens&rsquo; organization Roy may never be seen eating dinner with is coach Mario Tremblay.Roy felt humiliated by Tremblay last Dec. 2 when he wasn&rsquo;t yanked soon enough from a blowout at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings. The incident led to his being traded to Colorado along with Mike Keane for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky and Andrei Kovalenko.Roy played brilliantly against his former team in his first game against Montreal Feb. 5, then added just a touch of humiliation for Tremblay as he skated off the McNichols Sports Arena ice.After making 37 saves in Colorado&rsquo;s 4-2 victory, Roy raised his arms in triumph-whereas the last time he raised them in mock appreciation to the fans at the Montreal Forum-and flipped the puck at Tremblay as the coach walked off the ice.Roy sported a devilish grin at the packed post-game news conference when asked why he made the flippant gesture at Tremblay.&ldquo;That was for the fans; I think the fans love it as much as me,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;Every athlete has got pride, and I wanted to show my new fans I could give them good hockey and show that Montreal made a mistake.&rdquo;Tremblay remained stoic after the game. &ldquo;What can I say?&rdquo; Tremblay said. &ldquo;Maybe he was frustrated. I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Injured center Mike Ricci (back spasms) skated with the team for the first time in more than a month and might be ready to return to the lineup when the Avalanche plays two games in Florida Feb. 15-16. Ricci had just 13 points in 36 games&hellip;Goalie Patrick Roy, 30, will become the second youngest goalie behind Terry Sawchuk to win 300 games. Eleven others have managed 300 wins&hellip;After not having scored a goal in 22 straight games, defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh had an excel-lent run with five points (two goals) in three games. Ozolinsh pointed to the full recovery of a shoulder problem as the reason for his resurgence&hellip;Before Colorado&rsquo;s Feb. 9 game against Hartford, the Avalanche was unbeaten in 18 of its previous 22 games (12-4-6).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03782/6100557-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="571" height="758"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Ricci</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0014-02

Roy hopes beating Montreal becomes Hab-it in Colorado

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04525/6100602-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="157" height="157"></div>Dallas Stars&rsquo; center Guy Carbonneau could think of just one thing that would have made his 1,000th NHL game more special-playing it one night later.That&rsquo;s because Game 1,001 was in Dallas against the Montreal Canadiens, the team with which he enjoyed so much success for 12 seasons.As it was, No. 1,000 was pretty spe cial. Carbonneau chipped in an assist for a 5-2 win in St. Louis against the Blues Feb. 6.&ldquo;You have to be awful good for an awful long time to get 1,000,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;He has done the things that make a team win and he&rsquo;s still doing those things.&rdquo;What the 35-year-old Carbonneau has always done best is prevent the other team from scoring. He won three Selke Trophies with the Canadiens as the NHL&rsquo;s top defensive forward and contributed to two Montreal Stanley Cups. He also experienced tough times in Montreal toward the end of his tenure there. When he wasn&rsquo;t playing well, the team captain couldn&rsquo;t escape the wrath of the media, the fans or even the comer store employee.&ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t help but see it,&rdquo; Carbonneau said. &ldquo;From the papers to the guy who sold you milk&hellip;you heard about it.&rdquo;Mind you, Carbonneau doesn&rsquo;t necessarily think being on the hot seat is always a bad thing. &ldquo;While it was a problem at times, I miss it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was really important to (the fans) and that was a nice feeling.&rdquo;Two trades later to a non-traditional hockey market, Carbonneau is getting that nice feeling in Dallas.&ldquo;Ever since I&rsquo;ve been down here I feel like I have fit in more,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It has been a little tough for my family to move twice in two years, but I&rsquo;m happy here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Stars got just their second win of the season against a Central Division rival with a 5-2 triumph in St Louis Feb. 6. Among NHL teams, only Ottawa had as few as two wins against teams in its own division&hellip;After a poor start with the Stars, center Joe Nieuwendyk had 16 points in a 19-game stretch&hellip;The Stars faced a tough decision with goalie Allan Bester, who had played so well (4-4-1) in an emergency situation. With Darcy Wakaluk back and Andy Moog close to returning, a three-goalie rotation may be in the offing. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just going to have to take this whole thing one day at a time,&rdquo; said coach Ken Hitchcock&hellip;The Stars were mired in an eight-game home winless streak, the franchise&rsquo;s longest home skid since the 1977-78 season. &#9632;

f0014-04

Carbonneau happy at 1,000, but misses intense scrutiny

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011376/6100633-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="158" height="160"></div>Scotty Bowman doesn&rsquo;t want to hear about it anymore. He has reached his breaking point as far as talk of the beasts in the east and how his Detroit Red Wings may have trouble matching up against them come playoff time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of it,&rdquo; said the Red Wings&rsquo; coach. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not that big a difference between the east and west. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s as big a disparity as some make it out to be.&rdquo;A rather common perception is the Red Wings aren&rsquo;t big enough to compete in a playoff series against one of the eastern powerhouses. That school of thought hit stride in the Stanley Cup final last spring, when the New Jersey Devils out-muscled the Wings in taking the series four straight. And with an average size of 6-feet, 191 pounds, the Wings are among the NHL&rsquo;s smallest teams.But the Red Wings split their two-game season series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Florida Panthers and the Devils this season.&ldquo;The east has a bigger, more physical brand of hockey, no doubt,&rdquo; said Panthers&rsquo; coach Doug MacLean. &ldquo;But the Red Wings don&rsquo;t typify the west. They&rsquo;re in a class by themselves.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Detroit&rsquo;s 3-1 loss to Florida Feb. 8 ended the Wings&rsquo; 10-game unde-feated streak (9-0-1), tied for highest in the league this season&hellip;Goalie Chris Osgood&rsquo;s attempt for his sixth shutout of the season ended in a humorous way in the third period of Detroit&rsquo;s 4-2 victory over Florida Feb. 6. Radek Dvorak&rsquo;s shot from beyond the blue line bounded off the back boards and bounced off the back of Osgood&rsquo;s leg into the net. &ldquo;I was just laughing,&rdquo; Osgood said. &#9632;

f0015-01

Bowman: Let the beast die

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02962/6100664-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="160" height="160"></div>Glenn Anderson, in his first incarnation as an Edmonton Oiler, did his talking on the ice.But the 35-year-old forward has matured-he no longer avoids the media as he did in his youth, for in-stance-and his impact in the dressing room, particularly on the team&rsquo;s youngest players, has already been incredible.Anderson has criticized the team for sloppy skills, poor concentration, mistakes junior teams don&rsquo;t make. He has challenged them to find an identity. He has taken center stage at team meetings. Only a respected veteran gets away with that stuff.&ldquo;Maybe the biggest thing coming from Andy&rsquo;s mouth is, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not an NHL player just because you&rsquo;re in the NHL. It&rsquo;s a privilege to play in the NHL and you&rsquo;ve got to be committed to play there every day,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; coach Ron Low.Anderson said nobody hands the Stanley Cup to you on a platter.&ldquo;You have to earn it,&rdquo; Anderson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the hardest thing you&rsquo;ll ever do. To win you have to put more on the line than you could ever dream of and if you think you&rsquo;ve put it all on the line, you&rsquo;re wrong, because you need more.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to have that burning desire in your gut to want it more than anything in the world. It&rsquo;s a learned condition.&rdquo;Anderson looks at this year&rsquo;s Oiler team and isn&rsquo;t exactly certain what he sees.&ldquo;This team needs an identity, whatever it might be,&rdquo; Anderson said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is because we haven&rsquo;t won a game since I&rsquo;ve been here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Rangers and Philadelphia made inquiries about the availability of Bryan Marchment, but he has been the Oilers&rsquo; steadiest defenseman and GM Glen Sather was in no hurry to peddle him&hellip;Center Doug Weight suffered a back injury in late January and it was still bothering him in mid-February. He had played every single game since joining the Oilers in March, 1992. Weight had 51 assists in 51 games, topping his singleseason high of 50 in 84 games in 1993-94. The Oilers had scored 136 goals with Weight in on exactly 50 per cent of them, with 68 points&hellip;Left winger Zdeno Ciger&rsquo;s 22 goals in 49 games matched his single-season high in 84 games in 199394. &#9632;

f0015-02

Anderson speaks out

<div class="byline">By Dave Joseph</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02991/6100702-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="573" height="913"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Vanbiesbrouck</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011265/6100709-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="159" height="160"></div>Leave it to Beezer.After struggling in goal for six weeks-he was pulled from four of 11 games-Florida Panthers&rsquo; goalie John Vanbiesbrouck played what might have been his most impressive game of the season Feb. 8 when he stopped 29 shots in a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.Just 48 hours prior to the big home win, Vanbiesbrouck allowed three goals on six shots in his hometown of Detroit and was given what the star goalie had called, &ldquo;the old yank city,&rdquo; by coach Doug Mac Lean.Despite Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s performance in Detroit and the fact the goaltender had beaten only the San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning since Jan. 1, MacLean stuck with his veteran in net.&ldquo;John has been one of the main reasons we are where we are,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;But (in Detroit) he was playing in his hometown, we weren&rsquo;t playing very good, and we were in awe of them the first seven minutes of the game.&rdquo;But in Miami, the Panthers played a more physical game and Vanbiesbrouck changed his approach. He played deeper in the net and tried to cut down on lateral movement around him.&ldquo;I guess you can kind of call it a message to myself,&rdquo; said Vanbiesbrouck, who sported a 20-10-5 record and 2.63 goals-against average. The 32-year-old called his performance in Detroit a &ldquo;somewhat embarrassing circumstance.&rdquo;During the previous 11 games he had started, Vanbiesbrouck had been lifted for Mark Fitzpatrick against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens and the Red Wings. His losses were mounting and his goals against was climbing.&ldquo;Even though my stats were going down, all that crap really didn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said. &ldquo;I wanted to contribute to this team because they&rsquo;ve contributed so much to me.&rdquo;Vanbiesbrouck smiled.&ldquo;It just goes to show you that no matter how bad you play, you&rsquo;re really never that bad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And no matter how good you play, you&rsquo;re really never that good.&rdquo;But for at least one game against the Red Wings, Vanbiesbrouck really was that good.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Geoff Smith, who didn&rsquo;t dress for 27 of 37 games earlier this season, continued to play rocksteady. The veteran played seven consecutive games between Jan. 27 and Feb. 8, and scored key goals against Tampa Bay and Detroit. Smith&rsquo;s play was all the more important since the Panthers were playing without defenseman Gord Murphy. Murphy, who plays about 30 minutes a night, had missed five games with a sprained right ankle&hellip;The NHL, which is helping negotiate the sale of the Panthers, may have an interested local buyer. Bruce Frey, a Palm Beach developer, and Lowell Paxson, founder of the Home Shopping Network, have apparently shown interest in purchasing the team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03737/6100695-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="574" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body">Geoff Smith</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0016-02

Vanbiesbrouck shows signs of emerging from long funk

<div class="byline">By Michael Arace</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04539/6100740-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="159" height="159"></div>Robert Kron was sitting in a stroller when the Soviets rolled through Brno, Czechoslovakia, on their way to Prague in 1968.&ldquo;My mother threw rocks at the tanks,&rdquo; Kron said. &ldquo;Well, maybe not exactly. But she was there and she did not like what was going on.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s 28 years later and Kron is sitting in the visitors&rsquo; dressing room at General Motors Place, reminiscing. Kron used to play for the Vancouver Canucks, but it was only a temporary port in a long journey. After Brno he considers Hartford his home. It is with the Hartford Whalers Kron has finally found a comfortable fit. It is with the Whalers Kron has finally found some luck.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s called being in the right place at the right time,&rdquo; Kron said, &ldquo;with the right guys playing with you.&rdquo;As the words left his mouth, Kron glanced across the room and saw Jeff O&rsquo;Neill, a 19-year-old rookie, yukking it up without a care in the world.&ldquo;Honestly, I am happy for guys like him,&rdquo; Kron said. &ldquo;When I was 19, you were either a communist or you were a non-entity. I could have defected in 1986, I had been drafted and I had a five-year offer from Vancouver. But I could not leave home. I had a one-month-old son and I was scared what could happen to my family.&rdquo;In 1989, a bloodless coup opened up the new Czech Republic. His mandatory stint in the army was drawing to a close, he was in his 23rd year and he was just young enough to see if he could forge a career in the NHL.Kron&rsquo;s effectiveness during his first 2 1/2 seasons in Vancouver was hampered by injuries and sporadic playing time. As a result, the Canucks sent him to the Whalers in 1993 as part of the Murray Craven trade.This season, Kron has been united on the third forward line with center Andrei Nikolishin and left winger Paul Ran-heim. Kron was the Whalers&rsquo; fourth-leading scorer with 16 goals and 33 points.At that point, Kron was in the midst of a 20-game span in which he had 11 goals and 18 points. He and Nikolishin have provided a telling boost to the Whalers&rsquo; power play, which had helped the team to a 10-4-2 run.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so happy with where I ended up,&rdquo; Kron said. &ldquo;I thought I&rsquo;d never even get the chance.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Sean Burke suffered his second episode of back spasms this season and removed himself in the first period of a 5-3 victory over Vancouver Feb. 7. It wasn&rsquo;t clear how long he&rsquo;d be out of the lineup&hellip;Goalie Jason Muzzatti replaced Burke in the Canucks&rsquo; game, the Whalers scored four unanswered goals in the third period and Muzzatti had his first NHL victory after five years of trying. &lsquo;It has been a long, long time waiting for this,&rdquo; said Muzzatti, whose NHL career record stood at 1-3-2. &ldquo;There are so many people I want to thank.&rdquo;&hellip;Chuck Kaiton, the only radio voice the Whalers have had in their 17-year NHL history, recently called his 1,500th game. &ldquo;There is no telling how many eardrums he has damaged,&rdquo; joked Kevin Dineen. &#9632;

f0016-04

Productive Kron has taken long journey to happiness

<div class="byline">By Lisa Dillman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02848/6100771-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="566" height="971"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Robinson</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011119/6100778-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="162" height="160"></div>Larry Robinson tried the loud, forceful approach way back on Nov. 24 after the first period of a game against the Boston Bruins. From now on, he intends to leave out the force.Why?&ldquo;I hurt my hand hitting the table,&rdquo; he said, smiling.Little has gone right for the rookie head coach since the Los Angeles Kings went undefeated in their first seven games (4-0-3) and were 10-5-5 on Nov. 18. Robinson&rsquo;s four-line system has been criticized by the players and his line combinations lately don&rsquo;t stick long enough to take effect.On top of that, the Wayne Gretzky controversy has helped push the team into a prolonged freefall. And Robinson hardly has any guidance from his scrambling management team.After a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 6-leaving the Kings with one win in 13 games-Robinson hit a new low in frustration.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if they care,&rdquo; Robinson said of his team. &ldquo;You have to have some desire.&rdquo;He spotted some measure of effort from a couple of fourth-liners, Gary Shuchuk and Barry Potomski. both of whom started the season with the Phoenix Roadrunners of the International League.&ldquo;When some of your most aggressive players are guys who are spot players-when they end up with more chances than guys who are playing 2526 minutes-there&rsquo;s a problem,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;(Blackhawk) Jeremy Roenick probably hit more guys in the last three games than our team has all season.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Tony Granato, suffering from a blood clot in his brain, was released from a local hospital and mainly confined to bed rest at home until late-February. At that point, he is expected to have another MRI to see if the clot has dissipated. Until then, his future remains in limbo. He was still suffering from severe headaches&hellip;Left winger Kevin Stevens, who missed two games with a strained back, returned to the lineup Feb. 3 in Calgary. In his first three games after being acquired from Boston, Stevens had one assist&hellip;The same day cross-town rival Anaheim traded for Teemu Selanne, the Kings recalled two minor-leaguers from Phoenix-center Steve Larouche and right winger Dan Bylsma. &#9632;

f0017-02

Trying times for Robinson

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02860/6100816-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="575" height="916"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Tremblay</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011161/6100823-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="159" height="160"></div>The feud between Patrick Roy and Mario Tremblay certainly didn&rsquo;t end with Roy&rsquo;s trade to the Colorado Avalanche. In fact, it might just be starting to get interesting.Roy made 37 saves in a 4-2 Colorado Avalanche victory Feb. 5 at Mc-Nichols Arena. It marked the first time Roy had faced the Canadiens since he was part of a five-player trade to the Avalanche last December.Roy was handed the puck at game&rsquo;s end, but instead of keeping it as a souvenir, tossed it at Montreal coach Mario Tremblay as Tremblay walked across the ice towards the Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room. Roy then skated away.&ldquo;Did he flip the puck at me? Yes,&rdquo; admitted Tremblay. &ldquo;I was surprised.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really disappointed in what happened. He did it and he has to live with it. He&rsquo;s a great goalie who played a great game, but I don&rsquo;t want to talk about it anymore.&rdquo;Roy&rsquo;s dissatisfaction with Tremblay led to the end of his career in Montreal last Dec. 2. On that night, Roy was left in net for nine Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; goals before being removed from an 11-1 loss at the Forum.A humiliated Roy brushed past Tremblay twice at the Canadiens&rsquo; bench, walked toward team president Ronald Corey and vowed to never play another game for Montreal. Four days later, Roy and Mike Keane were traded for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Ru-cinsky and Andrei Kovalenko.Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman Lyle Odelein lashed out at Roy following the loss in Denver.&ldquo;That was brutal,&rdquo; Odelein said. &ldquo;Making easy shots look hard at the end&hellip;playing to the crowd.&ldquo;The guy played a great game. Why didn&rsquo;t he just leave it alone? Now all they&rsquo;ll be talking about is what happened at the end, rather than the way he played to help his team win. It doesn&rsquo;t make a lot of sense.&rdquo;Roy admitted the move was arrogant, but said that&rsquo;s part of his personality. Indeed, prior to the game, Roy promised his Colorado teammates he would contribute $3,000 toward a team party if the Avalanche won.When Tremblay learned of the bounty, he walked into his team&rsquo;s dressing room and promised Canadiens&rsquo; players a $5,000 gift to be spent as they wished.NOTEBOOK: Center Marc Bureau was suspended five games after administering an elbow to the head of Petr Svoboda that knocked the Philadelphia defenseman unconscious for 10 minutes during a Feb. 1 game. &ldquo;I wish it hadn&rsquo;t happened,&rdquo; Bureau said, &ldquo;but there&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it now except forget about it. I play hard, but I don&rsquo;t go out to hurt people. It was scary watching him out on the ice.&rdquo; Bureau also was fined $1,000&ndash;the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement. He won&rsquo;t be paid during the suspension, meaning he&rsquo;s out $26,914. He&rsquo;s eligible to return Feb. 15&hellip;Left winger Andrei Koval-enko hit the 20-goal plateau for the second time in his career with two goals in a 4-2 win over Dallas Feb. 7.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03598/6100809-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="578" height="913"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lyle Odelein</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0018-02

Coach Tremblay disappointed as Roy flips out after big win

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04371/6100854-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="160" height="159"></div>Stephane Richer wouldn&rsquo;t have been the least bit surprised had his face appeared on the side of a milk carton. For much of this season, the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; sharpshooting right winger has been missing in action.Even coach Jacques Lemaire, with his obsession for defense and low-scoring games, was baffled by Richer&rsquo;s inability to put the puck in the net on a consistent basis.&ldquo;Everyone talks about making a trade for a scorer,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;We have our scorer and he&rsquo;s going to come out and score goals soon. Our scorer is Steph.&ldquo;I know he will and he&rsquo;ll do it for the Devils and this year. I just have that confidence in him.&rdquo;That made one person confident in Richer, who had 10 goals and 17 points in 44 games.&ldquo;My confidence is pretty fragile right now,&rdquo; Richer admitted. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m struggling. I really don&rsquo;t know what I&rsquo;m doing in front of the net.&rdquo;That hasn&rsquo;t been a problem for the 29-year-old native of Ripon, Que., for most of his career. He has never failed to reach the 30-goal plateau in a season in which he played at least 70 games and twice in his career he scored 50 or more goals.In last year&rsquo;s lockout-shortened campaign, he had 23 goals in 45 games-a 40-plus-goal pace.But the goals weren&rsquo;t coming for Richer this season, which troubles the talented winger.&ldquo;The last few years I always used to score the big goal for this team, but this year has been tough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I get the puck, I feel like I want to give it to someone else to shoot.&rdquo;Part of the reason for his slump was a concern about being traded. His name-as well as defenseman Scott Niedermayer&rsquo;s-has been mentioned often in trade rumors.&ldquo;When you play hockey, you shouldn&rsquo;t think about where you are going to play next week. I make jokes about it, but I&rsquo;m thinking about it inside,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;Jacques told me every day I have to stay positive, not to worry about the first 40 games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s another season coming up, the part of the season I usually play best and that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m looking forward to.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With a 1-1 tie against Pittsburgh Feb. 7, the Devils set a team record by playing five straight overtime games&hellip;The Devils quietly signed defenseman Jason Smith (three years for $1,075 million) and left winger Reid Simpson (three years for $725,000) to new one-way contracts&hellip;Defenseman Scott Stevens, in the second year of a four-year contract, indicated he would welcome an extension offer to allow him to finish his career in New Jersey&hellip;Coach Jacques Lemaire said the Devils wouldn&rsquo;t be getting center Pat LaFontaine from Buffalo&hellip;Center Petr Sy-kora (one goal in eight games) dropped off in his pursuit of the team record for goals by a rookie. Kevin Todd and Jeff Larmer share the record of 21. Sykora had 15. &#9632;

f0018-04

Season-long scoring slump shakes Richer’s confidence

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02783/6100892-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="576" height="915"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ziggy Palffy</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011084/6100899-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="161" height="161"></div>New York Islanders&rsquo; assistant coach Guy Charron put Ziggy Palffy through a punishing series of skating drills at training camp and the coaching staff has harped all season on the need for him to be responsible defensively.Palffy&rsquo;s response?He has responded by being the Islanders&rsquo; best player.After 52 games, the right winger had 21 goals, 52 points and a minus-1 rating-not to mention a club-high 164 shots on goal. Still, Charron and coach-GM Mike Milbury were not satisfied with Palffy&rsquo;s consistency. After going pointless in a 6-5 road loss to the Washington Capitals Feb. 3, Palffy had a goal and two assists, six shots on goal and was plus-3 in a 5-3 home win over the Dallas Stars the next night.&ldquo;Ziggy&rsquo;s much better defensively,&rdquo; Milbury said, &ldquo;but his tendency to be inconsistent still raises its ugly head.&rdquo;In the previous two seasons, Palffy, 23, totalled 45 goals in 90 games with the Islanders&rsquo; International League affiliates in Salt Lake and Denver. He was pointless in five games with the Islanders in 1993-94 and had 10 goals and 17 points in 33 games last year.Palffy was the only Islander to play in all nine pre-season games this year, leading the team with 11 points. Since camp, he has been on a line centered by Travis Green. Palffy played the left side early on with Todd Bertuzzi on the right. Then Milbury switched Palffy to right wing, which he prefers, putting Wendel Clark on the left. When Clark missed five games with a sore back, rookie Niklas Andersson replaced him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really happy,&rdquo; Palffy said. &ldquo;I like to use everything I have. I like to score goals and make points. When you kill penalties and play on the power play it means the coach trusts you.&rdquo;Earning $275,000 in the last year of a contract, Palffy is in line for a big raise.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to talk about my contract,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to just win games and make the playoffs. I&rsquo;ll talk about my contract after the season. This is a problem for my agent (Edmonton-based Petr Svoboda).&rdquo;Palffy said he is working very hard to smooth out his rough spots in his game.&ldquo;Every game you have to play defensively or you can&rsquo;t play,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: With five of their top six defensemen in the lineup for the first time this season, the Islanders went 2-5-0 in a seven-game span. The five-Mathieu Schneider, Scott Lachance. Bryan McCabe, Darius Kasparaitis and Rich Pil-on-combined for three goals, seven assists, 38 shots on goal and a minus-9 rating. Pilon then suffered a groin injury on Feb. 4&hellip;Left winger Wendel Clark said he has not had back trouble since 1986-87, but was encour-aged his problem is muscular, not due to a nerve or disc condition. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect it to be that much longer,&rdquo; coach-GM Mike Mil-bury said of Clark&rsquo;s absence&hellip;Associate coach Rick Bowness ran the team against Dallas while Milbury attended GMs&rsquo; meetings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03517/6100885-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="577" height="913"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rich Pilon</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-02

Palffy getting his points while tending to defense

<div class="byline">By Rick Carplniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04407/6100930-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="160" height="160"></div>In January and the early part of February, the New York Rangers collected on the insurance policy they&rsquo;ve held since the summer of 1993.Glenn Healy, arguably the best backup goalie in the business, stepped in for injured Mike Richter and the Rangers started 1996 with a 7-1-4 record.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m surprised,&rdquo; said Rangers&rsquo; coach Colin Campbell.Healy finished off a home-and-home sweep of his former team, the New York Islanders Feb. 6-8, just as Richter was getting ready to return from a tom groin muscle he suffered Dec. 30.&ldquo;(Rangers&rsquo; assistant coach) Mike Murphy was just saying, &lsquo;Not bad for a backup,&rsquo;&rdquo; Campbell said.Healy was named the team&rsquo;s player of the month of January, when he and they went 5-0-4, the franchise&rsquo;s first full unbeaten month since 1939.Healy&rsquo;s streak ended with the Rangers&rsquo; worst loss of the season, a 7-1 drubbing in Denver by the Colorado Avalanche. Healy wasn&rsquo;t good in that game, but his teammates were awful in falling behind 4-0 in the first period. And Healy rebounded quickly with the two wins against the Islanders.Healy said the Colorado game was forgotten immediately.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t dwell on that stuff,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Considering what I&rsquo;ve been through this year, it really wasn&rsquo;t paramount for me to worry about one period of one game.&rdquo;He was referring to the death of his father, Joseph, from cancer during the pre-season.Campbell has always respected Healy as a goalie, but he is realistic enough to go back to his original plan when Richter returns to the Rangers&rsquo; lineup-that being Richter getting the lion&rsquo;s share of games down the stretch.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always being compared to Mike Richter,&rdquo; Campbell said, &ldquo;and Mike Richter is a guy, as they say in sports, &lsquo;You pay a guy you play the guy.&rsquo; But we&rsquo;ve never had the opportunity to play Glenn Healy this long and he has gotten some points for us.&rdquo;Healy, who played two years for the Los Angeles Kings, four years for the Islanders and is in his third year with the Rangers, had a 13-4-7 record with a 2.81 goals-against average and 90.2 save percentage.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Mike Richter, out since Dec. 30 with a tom groin muscle, was upgraded to day-to-day and was hoping to return for a game in Tampa Bay Feb. 11&hellip;The Rangers&rsquo; win over the Islanders Feb. 8 put them within striking distance of the franchise record for consecutive home games without a loss, 24, set in 1970-71. They were 18-0-5 with their last home loss coming against Ottawa Oct. 22. The &lsquo;70-71 Rangers went 17-0-7 in a 24-game home stretch&hellip;The Rangers won three straight at Nassau Coliseum after going 1-14-3 in their previous 18 regular-season visits to Long Island&hellip;In his haste to get home after a recent road trip, Rangers&rsquo; assistant coach Dick Todd backed his car over defenseman Brian Leetch&rsquo;s suitcase. &#9632;

f0019-04

Backup Healy saves the day while Richter goes on mend

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02635/6100968-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="573" height="909"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre Daigle</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01958/6100975-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="160" height="159"></div>Alexandre Daigle was turning the comer-in both the literal and figurative sense-when his season was cut short after his left forearm was shattered in a collision with a goalpost.Daigle, who had been criticized for pulling up short when he had a chance to drive to the net, was barreling toward the New Jersey goal when Devils&rsquo; defenseman Ken Daneyko cut him down and sent him hurtling into the post.The collision broke his ulna in two places and broke the radius, requiring a three-hour operation which saw team orthopedist Dr. Don Chow insert a plate and six screws in each bone.He&rsquo;s finished for the season, but Chow expects Daigle will be fully recovered in time for training camp.Daigle, who had been playing with more fire after Jacques Martin had taken over as coach, admitted to feeling a little jinxed as he suffered the first serious injury of his career.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always the case when you&rsquo;re playing good, you don&rsquo;t want to talk about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you talk about it, it stops right away. Maybe I talked too much. Maybe you (reporters) talked too much about it. That&rsquo;s life.&rdquo;He was asked if the fact he had been playing better lately would make it a little easier to handle his inactivity, that knowing his game had been on an upswing might remove thoughts of selfdoubt.&ldquo;You could also look at it the other way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re playing well, you want to keep it going. That could make it tougher.&rdquo;Chow said he was able to recreate the curvature of the bone in Daigle&rsquo;s forearm which should enable him to recover his range of motion.&ldquo;Sometimes the bone is shattered so badly, you can&rsquo;t get the bone realigned,&rdquo; Chow said. &ldquo;But in Alexandre&rsquo;s case, you almost can&rsquo;t see the fracture line. We&rsquo;re very fortunate to get it back in. He has excellent range of motion. He has already been working on his own.&ldquo;I think my biggest goal is going to be slowing him down. He wants to push, to do more. Most are too cautious and guard it too much. He&rsquo;s an eager beaver. Six hours after he was out of the anesthetic, he was already looking to see what he could do.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With the Palladium now up and running, Senators&rsquo; majority owner Rod Bryden is focusing his attentions on finding a partner for a cash infusion into the financially strapped franchise. The club needs to raise $20 million to sustain itself through the start of the 1997-98 season. When asked if the club was in danger of bouncing any cheques, Senators vice-president, finance Bernie Ashe replied: &ldquo;Not even close.&rdquo;&hellip;Bryden said he rejected a $75-million purchase offer from American interests before the 1993-94 season. Bryden said the party wanted to move the Senators south of the border&hellip;Defenseman Kerry Huffman is out for the season after breaking his wrist in the same game center Alexandre Daigle suffered his season-ending injury.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03425/6100961-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="571" height="908"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kerry Huffman</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-02

Daigle out, but not down after year-ending injury

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04264/6101006-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="161" height="158"></div>Rub the &ldquo;new&rdquo; Eric Lindros the wrong way and he can still get mad and even.Lindros, who has made an effort to stay away from unnecessary confrontations, was upset with the way St. Louis Blues&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan sent tough guy Tony Twist out to shadow his every move in a Feb. 3 game at the Kiel Center.So the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; center responded by scoring his first hat trick of the season to fuel a 7-3 victory.At the same time, Lindros repeatedly turned away from invitations by Twist to mix it up.&ldquo;Hey, better him than someone who can skate,&rdquo; said Lindros after netting his eighth career hat trick in three-plus seasons.Lindros has a slightly longer fuse than he did as a 19-year-old, thanks to discretion preached by the Flyers.But in the Flyers&rsquo; next game, against the Buffalo Sabres, Lindros finally lost it for the first time in nearly two months.Buffalo defenseman Bob Boughner poked Lindros four or five times and the gloves finally fell to the ice.Lindros&rsquo; seeming lack of desire to fight and bodycheck with reckless abandon have been hot topics of discussion in the Philadelphia media and radio talk shows this season.Fans apparently believe Lindros needs to be more physical in order for the Flyers to win on a consistent basis.Of course, the Flyers subscribe to no such logic. They know they can&rsquo;t succeed with their best player shuttling back and forth from the penalty box.But while Lindros has been doing his best to refrain, the kinder, gentler theory doesn&rsquo;t always work in practice. With 94 penalty minutes in 45 games, Lindros was on pace for the highest penalty total of his career. But he is picking his spots.In the case of the Boughner fight, coach Terry Murray had no problem with Lindros going at it.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of those situations where he&rsquo;s challenged four or five times, the guy pushes on his chest and it ends up where he has to do something He feels he has to and he did the right thing.&rdquo;&ldquo;I was just trying to spark something,&rdquo; Lindros said.It didn&rsquo;t work. The Flyers lost the game 2-1.NOTEBOOK: The trade to acquire center Bob Corkum from Anaheim Feb. 6 paid immediate dividends. Corkum, who came to the Flyers in exchange for minor leaguer Chris Herperger and a 1997 seventh-round entry draft pick, scored on his first shift in the Flyers&rsquo; 2-1 loss to Buffalo Feb. 8. Right winger Mikael Renberg aggravated his strained abdominal muscle during a practice Feb. 6. Renberg, who suffered the initial injury in a Jan. 22 game, said he would be more careful before attempting his next comeback&hellip;The Flyers have put together four designs as possible third uniforms for next season. The color schemes are basically the same as the existing uniforms, but the new sweaters feature bigger logos and stripes on the arms instead of shoulders. &#9632;

f0020-04

Lindros tries to play it cool by steering clear of trouble

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01720/6101037-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="160" height="161"></div>The Pittsburgh Penguins opened the season by scoring seven goals in a victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs and it took nearly four months for their offense to cool off.The league&rsquo;s highest-scoring team hit a goal drought in mid-February, scoring just nine goals in a five-game stretch-and four of those came during a 4:25 span in a 6-5 victory over the Boston Bruins. Not coincidentally, the Penguins went 1-3-1 during that stretch.&ldquo;When we can&rsquo;t score goals, we struggle out there,&rdquo; said center Petr Nedved. &ldquo;Once we get the offense going, we have a chance to win.&rdquo;Still, the Penguins gave some indication they can play defense well enough to get by. A 1-1 tie with the New Jersey Devils Feb. 7 was the byproduct of a better defensive effort.&ldquo;Everybody can do it if they concentrate,&rdquo; said right winger Jaromir Jagr. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t play only offense or only defense. You have to put it together. That&rsquo;s what makes a great team.&rdquo;Whether the Penguins have the discipline to play a conservative game more than once every few months remains to be seen, but they know all too well that focusing strictly on offense won&rsquo;t take them very far in the playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important that we play the way we did (in New Jersey),&rdquo; said goalie Ken Wregget. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been having a tough time, but I think we&rsquo;re starting to realize things and come around a little bit.&rdquo;The Penguins&rsquo; offense had begun to sputter long before they showed any interest in playing well defensively, however, and even stars such as Jagr, Mario Lemieux and Ron Francis were struggling. As a result, everyone was pressing harder instead of relying on their instincts.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re on a roll, everything goes so easy,&rdquo; said left winger Markus Naslund. &ldquo;I know that myself. You don&rsquo;t have to think at all. Once you start thinking, it&rsquo;s tough.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: An arrest warrant was issued for center Petr Nedved in connection with a sexual assault alleged to have been committed against a Coquitlam, B.C., woman in her home Dec. 2, 1994. Nedved, in a statement issued by the Penguins, &ldquo;vigorously denies&rdquo; he was involved in such an incident, but declined further comment&hellip;GM Craig Patrick said that contrary to numerous rumors around the league, he has no interest in leaving Pittsburgh. &ldquo;As long as Pittsburgh wants me, I&rsquo;m staying here,&rdquo; he said. Patrick&rsquo;s contract runs until Feb. 1, 1997&hellip;Right winger Jaromir Jagr hit the 100-point mark for the first time in his career when he scored the game-winning goal against Boston Feb. 6. &#9632;

f0021-01

Goals hard to come by for change

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02387/6101068-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="162" height="162"></div>Brett Hull may no longer be team captain, but that hasn&rsquo;t stopped him from speaking his mind.After an embarrassing 5-2 loss at home to the Dallas Stars Feb. 6 left the St. Louis Blues below .500, their star right winger took issue with the way the team was playing.&ldquo;I feel a lot of complacency.&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no fear of losing games. There&rsquo;s a group of guys who know they&rsquo;re going to play because there&rsquo;s no one to replace them. They&rsquo;ll be in the lineup the next game.&rdquo;Hull also believes the Blues are thin on talent. They had scored just 142 goals in 52 games, more only than the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers among NHL teams.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have enough skill to compete at this level,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to win consistently and we never help the goalie.&rdquo;Coach-GM Mike Keenan didn&rsquo;t necessarily disagree with Hull&rsquo;s assessment. but wasn&rsquo;t happy the right winger expressed his opinion.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed,&rdquo; Keenan said of Hull&rsquo;s remarks. &ldquo;Brett is out of line to make those comments. I don&rsquo;t think he really knows. He has never been on a championship club and he doesn&rsquo;t know fundamentally what it takes.&ldquo;I can agree with him completely that this is not the most skilled team in the league. But that being said, there&rsquo;s no reason we can&rsquo;t be one of the most competitive or hardest-working teams in the league.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After beating Toronto 40 Jan. 31 at Maple Leaf Gardens, the Blues failed to win once on a four-game homestand. They blew a lead and tied Vancouver 2-2 Feb. 1, then were blown out by Philadelphia (7-3), Dallas (5-2) and Chicago (6-l)&hellip;Coach-GM Mike Keenan blasted referee Terry Gregson after the loss to the Flyers, saying he had a bad night and set the tone for the game with a questionable early interference call on right winger Brian Noonan. Keenan took a tape of the game to the GMs&rsquo; meetings&hellip;Right winger Geoff Courtnall said his hit that broke Jeremy Roenick&rsquo;s jaw Feb. 8 after Roenick scored the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; last goal was not an elbow as some contend, but a clean hit. &#9632;

f0021-02

Keenan less than amused as Hull sneaks out again

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04144/6101099-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="565" height="972"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Tancill</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03204/6101106-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="161" height="161"></div>The San Jose Sharks found a scoring line, as well as a much-needed emotional lift, from the most unlikely of sources during a recent five-game homestand.The previously nondescript trio of center Jamie Baker, left winger Chris Tancill and right winger Jeff Odgers combined for 10 goals and 19 points as the Sharks gained two wins and a tie in a 10-day span.&ldquo;That particular unit has been inspiring,&rdquo; said coach Jim Wiley. &ldquo;They have been damn impressive.&rdquo;Tancill, who spent the first 2 1/2 months of the season with the Kansas City Blades of the International League, led San Jose scorers with eight points during the homestand. He established a career high with a three-point game in a 6-6 tie with the Los Angeles Kings Feb. 1, then matched the one-goal, two-assist performance in a 6-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs four nights later.Baker equaled a personal best with three-point efforts in the same two games, scoring two goals in each.&ldquo;The goals are a bonus,&rdquo; Tancill said. &ldquo;We just try to jump-start things.&rdquo;&ldquo;Tancill, Odgers and Baker are a pretty good example of how every guy in this room needs to play,&rdquo; said veteran defenseman Jayson More.The hope was the Baker line&rsquo;s work ethic, if not offensive production, would carry over during what Wiley called &ldquo;the road trip from hell,&rdquo; an eight-game monster that began Feb. 10 against the Kings and runs through Feb. 25 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.NOTEBOOK: The Sharks recalled left winger Alexei Yegorov-a third-round entry draft pick in 1994-from Kansas City of the International League after right winger Ray Sheppard suffered a partially separated shoulder in the game against Toronto. Sheppard was expected to miss at least two games&hellip;Center Jamie Baker snapped a Sharks&rsquo; streak of 29 consecutive power-play failures with a goal against Toronto&hellip;After being a healthy scratch in three consecutive games, defenseman Vlastimil Kroupa was assigned to Kansas City Feb. 4&hellip;Goalie Chris Terreri picked up his third assist of the year in the win over Toronto, setting a single-season club record for goalies in just 33 games after being acquired from New Jersey Nov. 15. &#9632;

f0021-04

Surprise line provides pop

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01852/6101137-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="157" height="159"></div>Aaron Gavey sat up on the medical table in the Tampa Bay Lightning dressing room just moments after his face had been cut open by a teammate&rsquo;s skate blade and calmly uttered a monumental understatement.&ldquo;I guess I got it pretty good, huh?&rdquo; Gavey asked.Guess so. The cut on Gavey&rsquo;s face required more than 120 stitches and three hours of plastic surgery to repair. But the results of that work were as alarming as Gavey&rsquo;s calm reaction.&ldquo;They did an incredible job, I mean really remarkable,&rdquo; said Lightning trainer Larry Ness. &ldquo;I was really impressed.&rdquo;Ness said the C-shaped gash that ran from the top of Gavey&rsquo;s right cheek across his upper lip will likely not leave a noticeable scar after healing.Ness said Gavey, who was remarkably calm after the Feb. 4 incident in Buffalo, will probably be out until late-February as a result of the surgery. He said he will recommend that Gavey wear a full face shield upon his return, but doubts Gavey will go for that.After finally seeing the results of the surgery Gavey seemed pleased, despite the frightening circumstances surrounding the injury.&ldquo;It was pretty scary.&rdquo; said Gavey, who was cut when Michel Petit tumbled over as Gavey skated by him chasing a loose puck. &ldquo;But it looks like everything is going to be all right.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Tampa Bay&rsquo;s 5-2 victory over Buffalo Feb. 4 gave it a 4-2-1 record in games at the Auditorium. Tampa is the only team in the NHL with a winning record in games at Buffalo&hellip;Left winger Petr Klima broke a nine-game scoreless slump against Colorado Feb. 7&hellip;Goaltender Daren Puppa continued to play spectacularly. He had a 2.08 goals-against average and a 93.5 save percentage in a 17-game stretch through early-February&hellip;Center Chris Gratton was turning a disappointing season around. An assist on Klima&rsquo;s goal against Colorado gave him five points in four games&hellip;Center John Cullen was another hot player for the Lightning. He had five goals and eight points in five games. &#9632;

f0022-01

Little scarring for Gavey after frightening incident

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03420/6101168-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="564" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Burns</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02589/6101175-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="158" height="160"></div>In a season that saw five coaches removed from their posts by the all-star break, it&rsquo;s not surprising even the NHL&rsquo;s longest serving bench boss was feeling the heat.Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach Pat Bums actually shares that distinction with Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s Terry Crisp, with both men having been with their current clubs since 1992-93. But while Crisp&rsquo;s Lightning was one of the NHL&rsquo;s pleasant surprises into February, Bums&rsquo; Leafs had won just once in 11 games, which led to speculation about his immediate future.GM Cliff Fletcher put an end to rumors, saying Bums definitely will finish this season and will be with the Leafs next season if a new contractual agreement can be reached.&ldquo;Coaching isn&rsquo;t the issue.&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;Pat&rsquo;s the same coach who got us to the semifinals two years in a row.&rdquo;Burns&rsquo; contract runs out at the end of the season and the two sides have a non-binding &ldquo;letter of intent&rdquo; in place for next season that gives Burns a 21-day window at the end of the season to look at other employment possibilities.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s a couple of players wondering if I&rsquo;ll be gone,&rdquo; Burns said. &ldquo;Some might be happy about that, some not. But I won&rsquo;t quit.&rdquo;Burns&rsquo; players came rushing to his defense after weeks of failing to heed his commands.&ldquo;What a bunch of crap,&rdquo; said captain Doug Gilmour when asked about the Bums&rsquo; rumors. &ldquo;He has been with us four years, a good long time. He cares and he wants to win.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Sergio Mo-messo broke a 22-game goal-less streak Feb. 8 against Los Angeles with his seventh goal of the season&hellip;Defenseman Todd Gill missed games in Anaheim and Los Angeles Feb. 7 and 8 with back spasms&hellip;In his second start with the Leafs Feb. 5 in San Jose, goaltender Don Beau-pre was pulled early in the second period after giving up three goals on 16 shots&hellip;Seven years after being drafted as a forward by Pittsburgh, Jamie Heward played his first NHL game as a defenseman for the Leafs Feb. 3 at home against Montreal&hellip;Left winger Kirk Muller wasn&rsquo;t immediately the spark the Leafs were looking for. In his first eight games with the Leafs, the club was 1-5-2. &#9632;

f0022-03

Fletcher kills Burns rumors

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02481/6101206-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="566" height="974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Babych</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01758/6101213-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="160" height="158"></div>Dave Babych may have lost his hair, but 1,000 games into his NHL career he hasn&rsquo;t lost any enthusiasm for the game.Babych reached the 1,000-game milestone Feb. 7 against the Hartford Whalers, one of three teams whose colors he has worn.&ldquo;What do I aim for after 1,000? Maybe I&rsquo;ll look at 1,500,&rdquo; said Babych, who was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets (second overall) in 1980.Babych remembers his first NHL game against the Washington Capitals, but says the rest is pretty much a blur. Now 34 and in his 16th NHL season, he has yet to play on a Stanley Cup winner.&ldquo;Still, I think it has been a pretty good career,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t last this long without enjoying the game and accomplishing something.&rdquo;Babych spent five-plus years in Winnipeg before he was dealt to the Whalers for Ray Neufeld. Hartford then gave up on him after nearly six seasons and left him unprotected in the San Jose Sharks-Minnesota North Stars expansion draft of 1991. The Canucks acquired him in a three-way swap with Tom Kurvers going to the New York Islanders and Craig Ludwig moving to the North Stars.Babych was an integral part of the Canucks&rsquo; 1994 run to the Stanley Cup final, scoring the winning goal in Game 5 of a series Vancouver lost in seven to the New York Rangers.&ldquo;The best part of this game is being on the ice with the guys,&rdquo; Babych said. &ldquo;To me, it still feels like I&rsquo;m on the outdoor rink in Edmonton with my buddies after school.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Kirk McLean, whose minor knee surgery Jan. 16 was expected to keep him out until early-February, will be out at least until the end of the month&hellip;Sophomore defenseman Jassen Cullimore, a healthy scratch for 24 of 26 games through Feb. 7, has twice refused conditioning stints to Syracuse of the American League. Rookies Adrian Aucoin. Dean Malkoc and Leif Rohlin were all playing ahead of Cullimore&hellip;Home sweet home? The Canucks, one of the NHL&rsquo;s best road teams, were one of the worst at home. Following the all-star break, the Canucks went 2-0-2 on the road, but were 1-4-0 at home, including two losses in overtime and two when they led entering the third period. &#9632;

f0023-02

Babych still enjoys game

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.-Mark Messier is holding court in his home.He&rsquo;s not at his summer retreat on Hilton Head Island. S.C., or his Manhattan winter residence.It&rsquo;s in the center of the visitors&rsquo; dressing room at the Nassau Veterans&rsquo; Memorial Coliseum on Long Island. It could be any dressing room in any NHL city. Messier is at home when he&rsquo;s surrounded by 200 feet of ice.Reporters have flocked to The Messiah, not to discuss this evening&rsquo;s 4-2 win by the New York Rangers over the rebuilding New York Islanders, but to get his spin on a 7-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche three nights earlier which snapped a nine-game unbeaten string.&ldquo;Sure it was a 7-1 loss, but we had 49 shots, we had as many good scoring chances as they did and there isn&rsquo;t a guy in our room who feels it was a lopsided defeat,&rdquo; Messier says calmly, the media hanging on his every word and nodding in agreement.There, Messier says things are all right. So they are. All is well in Rangerland once again.Messier is happy, committed to the cause and convinced the Rangers can win the Stanley Cup. Make no mistake about it, how the Rangers fare goes hand-in-hand with how Messier feels about the team&rsquo;s chances.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost to the point where he&rsquo;s giddy,&rdquo; says Rangers&rsquo; president-GM Neil Smith. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s rejuvenated, the way he was in his first year with the Rangers. What motivates him is he wants so badly to see his teammates accomplish what he has accomplished. He wants to see the look on Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s face when he hands him the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;At 35, at an age where he should be slowing down, Messier is picking up steam.He is a man possessed, scoring goals like never before, and on the verge of becoming the oldest player ever to score 50 goals in a season. Johnny Bucyk was 35 years and one month old when he scored his 50th goal of the season for the Boston Bruins March 16, 1971. Messier had 37 goals in 54 games for the Rangers and was on pace for a career-high 56 this season. Messier&rsquo;s 35th birthday was Jan. 18.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01827/6101265-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="414" height="535"><figcaption class="caption-body">Neil Smith</figcaption></div>His only 50-goal year came in his second NHL season when he was 21. In recent years Messier had become primarily a set-up man.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been placed in a position to score more goals since coming to New York, but I&rsquo;m not making a more conscious effort to score more this season,&rdquo; Messier says. &ldquo;I take what is there and the puck is going in for me. That&rsquo;s all there is to it.&rdquo;Actually, there is a slight change in the way he operates. Last season, when he scored 14 goals in 46 games, Messier took an average of 2.7 shots per game. This season he was averaging 3.3 shots a night.This was a pivotal year for Messier, but not in terms of his place in hockey history. With six Stanley Cups, two Hart Trophies as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player, three Canada Cup triumphs and a Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Messier has done it all. He is second all-time in playoff points, miles behind his friend and former teammate Wayne Gretzky, with 272 in 210 games.This year is important more in relation to where he would like to spend the remaining days of his career. The Rangers had until two days before the all-star break to pick up the option on Messier&rsquo;s contract that would pay him $6 million next season. Had he gotten off to a slow start, it would have been difficult to justify committing so much money to a player in his twilight years. Messier made things easy for the Rangers.Messier, who says he&rsquo;s a &ldquo;New York kind of guy,&rdquo; wants to remain with the Rangers the rest of his career, however long it lasts.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02558/6101258-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="407" height="536"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Graves</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I knew Mark could play in 199697 and I put my name on the line with the ownership that there was no risk at all in offering Mark the original contract,&rdquo; Smith says. &ldquo;By time we extended the contract, it was a no-brainer.&rdquo;Messier had 16 goals and 33 points in 28 games when Smith slipped him an envelope with his new contract Dec. 5-a good month before the deadline. Two months later he was sixth in league scoring with 74 points and running neck-and-neck with Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins for another Hart Trophy.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want (the contract) to become a distraction,&rdquo; Messier says. &ldquo;The Rangers did the classy thing by doing it before it became an issue.&rdquo;Just when you thought Mess-mania had reached its zenith, he takes it to a higher level. He captured the hearts of hockey fans everywhere two years ago when he guaranteed a victory in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup semifinal against the New Jersey Devils with his team trailing the series 3-2. Then he went out and scored a third-period hat trick to ensure it happened.Messier pointed to the fence and then slugged the ball over it. His performance that night will go down in history.&ldquo;We had an opportunity to finish them off and he wouldn&rsquo;t let us,&rdquo; says Devils&rsquo; right winger John MacLean. &ldquo;It was so obvious in that game he had been there before. He called on his playoff experiences to beat us. Only a special player could say what he did and then have the puck bounce for him the way it did that night.&rdquo;Messier is doing it again this season and his teammates feed off his enthusiasm and dedication.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go out and skate like Mark,&rdquo; said Adam Graves, who has been Messier&rsquo;s left winger for five years. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t shoot as hard as he does and I can&rsquo;t see the ice the way he does. But what I can do is try to emulate his no-quit attitude.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03358/6101251-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="1959" height="3713"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04222/6101244-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="2426" height="1570"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York Rangers&rsquo; captain Mark Messier is scoring at a pace that would make him the oldest player in NHL history to record a 50-goal season.</figcaption></div>Asked if he has ever been teamed with a player like Messier, right winger Pat Verbeek scoffs at the suggestion.&ldquo;Not even close,&rdquo; Verbeek says. &ldquo;Not even close.&rdquo;Verbeek, who was waging a friendly competition with Messier to see who would lead the team in goals, was on pace for his first 50-goal season.Messier joined the Rangers Oct. 4, 1991 after 12 years and five Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers. He was 30 years old and many thought his best days had passed, especially since four times with the Oilers he played in excess of 95 games in a season.Many were dead wrong.&ldquo;I played against him in his first game with the Rangers in Montreal,&rdquo; says Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Mathieu Schneider. &ldquo;I figured he had two, maybe three years left. The thing about Messier and other older players who are still productive, guys like Mike Gartner, Chris Chelios and Guy Carbonneau, is they were the best skaters in the league when they were young and they&rsquo;re still the best skaters in the league.&rdquo;Messier&rsquo;s mandate was clear: bring the Cup to Manhattan. Many men had tried since 1940, all failed. It took him four years, but he finally did it. Now he appears poised to do it again.While Gretzky faded in terms of being able to carry the team on his back as he hit his mid-30s, Messier is still able to elicit high-level performances out of his teammates. To be fair, The Great One doesn&rsquo;t have near the supporting cast Messier does.Not much has changed in Messier&rsquo;s game over the years. He averages 2830 minutes a game playing a regular shift, killing penalties and playing the power play. He isn&rsquo;t as mean as often as he was in his youth, but there&rsquo;s still a little Gordie Howe in him.To wit, Dec. 26 when he knocked Ottawa Senators&rsquo; defenseman Frank Musil out cold and out of the game with an elbow, then forced defenseman Kerry Huffman to the sidelines for a period when a stick to the head. He wasn&rsquo;t penalized on either play.Referees afford Messier preferential treatment and so do the Rangers. If the team practises the day after a game, Messier skips it.In games, Messier doesn&rsquo;t waste motion or energy. He can be invisible some nights, then pop up with two goals in the third period. He remains one of the league&rsquo;s most powerful, yet graceful skaters.On Nov. 6, with the Rangers on a two-game losing streak and trailing the Calgary Flames 2-1 at home in the third period, Messier fired three straight goals. The game-winner was the 500th goal of his career.&ldquo;Mess took total control of that game,&rdquo; Verbeek says. &ldquo;It was incredible to see.&rdquo;Messier is considered one of the greatest inspirational leaders of alltime in team sports. Surprisingly, he says it doesn&rsquo;t come as naturally to him as some might suspect.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spent some sleepless nights wondering how I can affect things,&rdquo; Messier says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had a huge supporting system beginning with my family and spreading to people like Wayne, Glen Sather, Ted Green, John Muckier. I&rsquo;ve learned from all those people.&rdquo;There are those who believe Messier is Superman.&ldquo;I wish he&rsquo;d lift his shirt and show me the &lsquo;S&rsquo; on his chest,&rdquo; says Islanders&rsquo; captain Patrick Flatley.Messier claims there is no secret to his endurance. It&rsquo;s all in his approach. He converted a garage at his summer home into a workout center and works out vigorously in the off-season.&ldquo;Everything came pretty naturally to me when I was younger,&rdquo; Messier says. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s no longer enough just to start thinking about games on game day. I made a commitment to myself a few years ago to be in better condition. I realized I couldn&rsquo;t be in the same shape as everyone else and accomplish what I wanted.&rdquo;If the Rangers win the Stanley Cup this season, it will be because of Messier. He sets the tone and the others follow his lead-in the dressing room, in dealing with the media, in his performance on the ice.&ldquo;You have to be amazed by him,&rdquo; says Rangers&rsquo; TV analyst John Davidson. &ldquo;How he deals with life, period. The sport, his family, his teammates, the responsibility of being captain and he does it all without a head so swollen it wouldn&rsquo;t fit through a doorway.&rdquo;Messier doesn&rsquo;t show off his prizes. You won&rsquo;t find him wearing one of his six championship rings and the replica Stanley Cups he has received are packed away in boxes.&ldquo;I used to have a trophy case in Edmonton, but I haven&rsquo;t found the time to build one since I moved,&rdquo; Messier says. &ldquo;I guess if I haven&rsquo;t made the time, it&rsquo;s not a high priority.&rdquo;What is a high priority is winning Stanley Cup No. 7. That would tie him with Jean-Guy Talbot and Serge Savard in career Cups and put him behind just Maurice Richard, Jacques Lemaire and Red Kelly (eight), Claude Provost (nine), Yvan Coumoyer, Jean Beliveau (10) and Henri Richard (11).&ldquo;Winning Stanley Cups just becomes a part of who you are,&rdquo; he says.It&rsquo;s a big part of Messier. &#9632;

f0024-01

Mess-menzing performance Messier still dominant

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01795/6101296-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="160" height="161"></div>It seems the Washington Capitals can&rsquo;t get serious about a game until they fall behind.Playing catch-up must be more fun than coaches ever realized.Against the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome Feb. 8, the Caps had a quick 3-1 first period lead before finessing that into a 4-3 deficit in the third. They managed a 4-4 road tie.In Edmonton a night earlier, the Caps trailed the Oilers by a goal for most of the game until scoring twice within 2 1/2 minutes to get a 2-1 win.Against the New York Islanders at home Feb. 3, Washington trailed 2-0 in the first and 4-1 and 5-2 in the second before deciding it was time to get started. They won, of course, 6-5 in overtime.The Caps are doing their best to defy conventional logic which dictates the team that scores first is going to win the vast majority of games.Through 53 games this season, the opposition had scored before the Caps 34 times, yet Washington came away with points in nearly half of those games (11-19-4). The club was 15-2-2 when it scored first, making that part of conventional wisdom pay off.The game against the Islanders was a classic case in point. New York led by three goals with less than 15 minutes left in regulation and Islanders&rsquo; goalie Tommy Soderstrom had been playing a whale of a game. But the feeling was the game was winnable.Right winger Peter Bondra. who pretty much has made his streak a season-long thing this year, caught fire, scored three times in less than seven minutes, center Michal Pivonka added the overtime score at 1:21 and it was game over.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like you know they&rsquo;re going to score,&rdquo; said coach Jim Schoenfeld, trying to explain his team&rsquo;s ability to suddenly turn things around. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t know who the goals were going to come from, but we felt we were going to get them.&rdquo;Naturally, falling behind early is never in the game plan, but the Caps were getting pretty good at recovering.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard coming from behind,&rdquo; said captain Dale Hunter. &ldquo;You read the stats where teams are trailing by even one goal in the third period and they come back&hellip;it&rsquo;s very seldom. Only good teams can come back from a deficit like that.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s becoming a little bit of a trademark or signature,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld, his orange hair not showing a hint of grey. &ldquo;All we have to do is rectify the first period (lapses) and then we should have a lot more wins.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Jim Johnson&rsquo;s stay at his customary position, defense, was shortlived. Johnson who has played right wing much of the season, was moved back to the blueline when defenseman Brendan Witt broke his wrist, but coach Jim Schoenfeld decided he preferred Johnson up front and Ken Klee, another natural rearguard who was playing forward, was moved back to defense&hellip;Right winger Peter Bondra celebrated his 28th birthday with the game-winning goal against the Oilers. He also had a six-point night against the Islanders Feb. 3, a career high&hellip;The Capitals&rsquo; only two games against Calgary this season came within six days of each other&hellip;Center Pat Peake missed three games with a sore joint in his right shoulder. &#9632;

f0026-01

Caps perfect art of comeback

<div class="byline">By Scott Taylor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02524/6101327-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="159" height="161"></div>Oleg Tverdovsky didn&rsquo;t pull any punches. He&rsquo;s thrilled to be in Winnipeg and has no problem with a trade from the Mighty Ducks to the Lame Ducks.Tverdovsky, dealt to the Winnipeg Jets with Chad Kilger and a third-round draft pick for Teemu Selanne and fourth-round draft pick, said he and Anaheim coach Ron Wilson did not see eye-to-eye and a change of scenery was the best solution.&ldquo;I am happy to be out of there,&rdquo; Tverdovsky said. &ldquo;I had to leave.&rdquo;Despite some kind words from Wilson, all was not well in Anaheim. The Ducks had soured on 19-year-olds Tverdovsky and Kilger, their first-round picks in 1994 and 1995, and pulled the trigger after getting an offer they couldn&rsquo;t refuse.Tverdovsky and Kilger also happen to be prospects recommended by Ducks&rsquo; former assistant GM Pierre Gauthier. Once Gauthier moved on to become the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; GM, other members of the Ducks&rsquo; organization felt it was time to rid themselves of Gauthier&rsquo;s young draft choices.Tverdovsky is pleased with the way things worked out.&ldquo;I was really excited to get to Winnipeg,&rdquo; said Tverdovsky, who had seven goals and 22 points in 52 games. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t need me anymore in Anaheim that&rsquo;s fine. (Wilson) is a good coach, but we had some misunderstandings. He wants us to play real well right away, but I think it was impossible. We were a young team and we just didn&rsquo;t have the experience.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t want us to make a lot of mistakes, but we are young and we have to make mistakes if we&rsquo;re going to learn.&rdquo;Jets&rsquo; coach Terry Simpson admitted the trade was one that had the future, not necessarily the present, in mind.&ldquo;I think this is a situation that has potential to be very good for the franchise in the long term,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;What it will also do is put the responsibility on all the other players. We can&rsquo;t realistically expect two young players to come in like this and turn the team around.&ldquo;I think they&rsquo;ll play hard and they&rsquo;re committed to winning. But I do think our other players are going to have to step up and pick up some of the slack.&rdquo;Kilger, a rookie who had five goals and 12 points in 46 games, wanted Jets&rsquo; fans to accept the trade with caution.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s unfair to compare Oleg and me to Teemu Selanne,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re only 19. In the future, this organization will be very happy with this trade.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Jets took advantage of their best schedule break over the last four months of the season to hold their third annual ice-fishing derby Feb. 5 at Garson, Man., about 40 minutes north of Winnipeg&hellip;The Jets&rsquo; toughest month of the entire schedule is March, when they play 16 games, 10 of them on the road&hellip;Scoring droughts for left winger Darrin Shannon and right winger Dallas Drake continued. Shannon hadn&rsquo;t had a goal since Oct. 27, while Drake&rsquo;s last marker was Dec. 3&hellip;After collecting a goal and two assists against Ottawa Feb. 8, enforcer Kris King, not known for his offensive contributions, was asked when he&rsquo;d last enjoyed a three-point game. &ldquo;I think it was during a peewee tournament,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0026-02

Tverdovsky happy to escape

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>Eric Lindros and Mario Lemieux are on opposite sides of one of the NHL best rivalries, but they&rsquo;re on the same team when it comes to hockey cards.As was reported in the Dec. 22 edition of Collectors World, Lindros has signed a multi-year deal to be a spokesman for Donruss Hockey Cards, joining Lemieux in that capacity. Look for both Lemieux and Lindros to be prominent in Series II for both Leaf and Donruss and Donruss Elite later this season.&ldquo;We are pleased to have a player of Eric&rsquo;s calibre on our Donruss Hockey Cards team.&rdquo; said Donruss president John Williams. &ldquo;We believe his passion for the game will translate well. The collectibility and excitement of an Eric Lindros Donruss Elite hockey card is sure to appeal to youngsters and collectors.&rdquo;While Lemieux and Lindros give Donruss an outstanding 1-2 punch in terms of spokesmen, rumor has it their tenure may not last very long. Lemieux is rumored to be in the final year of his agreement with Donruss and there is speculation the company will go with just Lindros next season.Donruss would not reveal Lemieux&rsquo;s contract status with them, &ldquo;but our desire is to be with Mario Lemieux for as long as possible,&rdquo; said Donruss spokesman Chris Malone.Lindros and Lemieux, meanwhile, will participate this season in the Donruss Hockey Charity Challenge. From Jan. 17 to the end of the season, Donruss will donate to charity $200 per point scored by Lemieux and Lindros. The company will donate a minimum of $25,000 to the charities of the players&rsquo; choice-Big Brothers and Big Sisters for Lindros and the Lemieux Foundation for cancer research on Lemieux&rsquo;s behalf.Lemieux and Lindros were deadlocked with 11 points in seven games each.FORUM AUCTION: Everything from Stanley Cup banners to Ronald Corey&rsquo;s seat will be on the auction block when the Montreal Canadiens hold a public auction for Forum artifacts March 12.In all, 150 items will be on the block, with proceeds from the auction going to Centraide in Montreal and to the Canadiens&rsquo; alumni association. Each group has been guaranteed a minimum of $100,000 from the team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01746/6101358-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="576" height="805"><figcaption class="caption-body">The OHL has its own card set for the first time in four years.</figcaption></div>The most popular items are sure to be the Canadiens&rsquo; Stanley Cup banners, which are too small for the new building. Other items of note include the door to the Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room; the seat Corey was in when he was told by Patrick Roy that Roy had played his last game for the Canadiens; and the seat occupied by former NHL president Clarence Campbell, the very place he sat when the Richard Riot broke out in 1955.Season ticket holders were allowed to purchase their own seats, but others are being sold separate from the auction. Collectors interested in buying a Forum seat should call 1-800-3614594.The Forum auction gets under way at 6:30 p.m. There will be no phone bids for the event.OHL GETS SET: After four years without a league-wide set, the Ontario League finally has a set to call its own.Slapshot Images of Kitchener, Ont., was licensed to produce a league set this season and its 440-card set is due for a mid-February release.The most impressive aspect of the set is that it was able to keep up with all the trades that were made at the Jan. 10 trade deadline. Because of that, several players appear with two teams in the set.Slapshot has done team sets the past three seasons and produced a Memorial Cup set last season. Slapshot president Dan Graham hopes this leads to a Canadian Hockey League set in the future.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;d like to see,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;Hopefully this will put a good feeling in people&rsquo;s minds about junior hockey cards.&rdquo;Slapshot produced 10,000 cases. The product will retail for $1.50 per pack and about $65 per box.KRAMER LEAVES: Jon Kramer of Pinnacle Brands has left the company after almost six years to join the Florida Panthers&rsquo; public relations department.Kramer, 32, was hockey director for the company and was in charge of writing card backs, putting together sets and media relations. Kramer had been working with the company on a freelance basis for the past six months. &#9632;

f0027-01

Lindros joins Lemieux on Donruss team

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Only in Europe, eh? Pity.Parkhurst has moved from geriatrics to geography. The Toronto-based card company has already run its course with retro sets and now has its sights set on unexplored territory with its first set geared entirely to the European card market. There is no doubt some of the product will make its way back to North America and that&rsquo;s good news for collectors on this side of the ocean.The biggest strength of the 232-card set is the appearance. The regular cards in the set look dard, with another shot and biographical and statistical information.As expected, there is a heavy emphasis on European players in the set with a total of 78 regular cards, but you&rsquo;re just as likely to find Gary Valk as Gary (Igor) Kravchuk.The set itself is straightforward-each of the league&rsquo;s 26 teams in se-quence-and the concepts behind the chase and insert cards are nothing to write to Europe about, but the cards are magnificent looking. Parkhurst prides itself first and foremost on appearance and that is clearly evident in this set.The cards themselves feature a closecropped photo of the player on the front with a blaze of team colors, along with a team logo and a close-up shot of the player in the background. The card backs are fairly stanan excuse to profile some of the league&rsquo;s best players on a chase card. The other chase cards include trophy winners, Goal Patrol and International All-Stars.The chase cards are great to look at, but they lack substance. They are also a little confusing. One set-Crown Collection-doesn&rsquo;t seem to have any real meaning other than as good or better than many chase cards in other sets. The look is almost too much for so many cards, but we&rsquo;re the first ones to lament the predictable appearance of most regular cards so we&rsquo;re certainly not going to complain too loudly about too much of a good thing.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01778/6101403-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="460" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">Europeans are treated to great looking cards.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02524/6101396-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="458" height="638"><figcaption class="caption-body">Teemu Selanne is an International All-Star.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03368/6101389-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="455" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sergei Fedorov is prominent in the set.</figcaption></div>Speaking of which, not a single player on the first or second team is a North American. Doesn&rsquo;t that mean it&rsquo;s really a European allstar team and not an international one?And how on earth can you have an international set and not include cards from events such as the World Junior Championship, World Championship and the Four Nations Tournament? It seems like a natural tie-in for a set that is trying to appeal to a market which is tuned into international hockey.Another good idea for a sub-set-and it would have cost some money-would be to have cards of players playing for their club teams prior to joining the NHL. And with so many NHL players toiling in Europe during the lockout last season, there was another chance to get established players in European uniforms. Care to venture a guess what a card of Doug Gilmour in a Rapperswil sweater would be worth?Parkhurst does, however, merit high marks for its first effort. It is slick, complete and varied.It also deserves credit for once again coming up with a novel idea. Obviously, the company is banking on the European market being a fertile one that is on the cusp of exploding, just as the North American market did about six years ago.If that happens, Parkhurst could be sitting on a gold mine. If it doesn&rsquo;t, you&rsquo;ll probably see a lot more of the product make its way back to North America than expected as dealers in Europe unload the product.And that would be a shame because Parkhurst might be tempted to cut its losses in Europe and go on to a project that will fill another niche in the collecting world. &#9632;

f0028-01

Parkie has hit with Euro set

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Memo from collectors to Upper Deck: Please, please, please learn how to collate hockey cards. Your product is really good, probably the most reliable and collectible in the industry, but your collation is abysmal. Hire a bunch of people to do it by hand, get a Ouija board or put the cards in a cement mixer, but please, do something.Now that we&rsquo;ve got that perennial complaint about Upper Deck off our chests, let&rsquo;s focus on what is good about Upper Deck&rsquo;s Series I. Just as collation has always been a problem, Upper Deck also has some things about it that are constantly strong.One is photography. The shots on the cards are very strong and while some of them may lack great content, the quality is there in reproduction. There is also an excellent mix of vertical and horizontal shots on the cards.The regular set consists of 270 cards. The cards themselves are fullbleed on the front and back. But the best thing about them is that the players they feature are actually wearing the uniforms of the teams for which they play. Because of its later release date, Upper Deck has managed to include the first look at players who were traded or signed as free agents with other teams during the off-season and the new uniforms belonging to the New York Islanders, Colorado Avalanche and Washington Capitals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04261/6101434-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="570" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">As always, Upper Deck&rsquo;s photography is outstanding.</figcaption></div>The subset cards in the set feature a few interesting wrinkles. The first insert set is the Fifth Anniversary set which features a reproduction of the player&rsquo;s 1991 card on the front and a current photo on the back. There is also a subset featuring the league&rsquo;s top rookies for this season.Mike Milbury&rsquo;s Scouting Report is one subset that is long on potential, but comes up way short on quality. As one of the NHL&rsquo;s most volatile and outspoken figures, Milbury is a natural for this sort of thing. The collector expects candid and thoughtful analysis, but gets really nothing more than a regurgitation of statistics and/or fluff.Consider what Milbury has to say about Teemu Selanne: &ldquo;If he stays healthy, Selanne will be an integral part in the Jets&rsquo; quest to make the playoffs.&rdquo; Or Owen Nolan: &ldquo;He is an exciting player to watch and should be a crowd-pleaser for his new Colorado fans in 1995-96.&rdquo; Or Jeremy Roenick: &ldquo;If Roenick can recover from his knee injury, the sky is the limit. If not, Chicago could be in trouble.&rdquo;Here&rsquo;s a good idea for next year&rsquo;s set. Have Milbury do the same thing, but have him do a scouting report on Kirk Muller.The Predictor Series, which awards collectors with the entire chase set if the players they have finish in the top two in specific categories, is an excellent way to keep collectors involved. &#9632;

f0028-04

Awful collation mars another strong effort

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>First, a dream sequence with requisite special effects:You open a box of hockey cards and get every single card in the set and enough chase cards to actually justify the $100 you spent.Dream on, because chances are it will never happen. But this year&rsquo;s Leaf Series I is as close to a dream come true as you&rsquo;re going to see. The set is 330 cards, but Leaf manages to give collectors a fighting chance at completing the set. The box I opened was just two cards short of a full set.That may not sound like an extraordinary accomplishment, but it&rsquo;s music to the ears of collectors who constantly find themselves dozens of cards short, but with six or seven cards of their favorite fourth-liners.With so many cards, it was pretty tough for Leaf to miss the boat on player selection. Pretty well everyone you&rsquo;d ever want-and a bunch of guys you don&rsquo;t-are in the set.Leaf may have other companies beat hands-down on collation, but it shares the others&rsquo; penchant for outdated cards. The set came out in midNovember, but there were 28 players who were traded, signed with other teams or retired before the season even started.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05207/6101465-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="572" height="808"><figcaption class="caption-body">You can expect close to a full set from a box of Leaf Series I.</figcaption></div>The cards in the regular set will certainly not send anyone into a frenzy-static, isolated shot on the front accompanied by another static, isolated shot on the back. But the text on the cards is a definite strength in this set.The capsules on the backs of the cards are, for the most part, quite informative. For example, bet you didn&rsquo;t know that Jeremy Roenick&rsquo;s 159 goals over the past four season are the eighth most in the NHL over that period, Radim Bicanek was plus or even in all six games he played last season and Ian Laperriere was the only NHL rookie to score both 20 points and record 75 penalty minutes last season.Curiously, there are no subsets in the regular set. That&rsquo;s certainly not a prerequisite for success, but a couple of them would have brightened up an otherwise dull set.The chase cards are a different story. The Studio Rookies chase cards look very original and contain replica signatures of each player. Remember, that&rsquo;s a replica signature, not the real thing.Included in the set are Jim Carey, Peter Forsberg, Paul Kariya, David Oliver, Blaine Lacher, Oleg Tverdovsky, Jeff Friesen, Todd Marchant, Todd Harvey, Ian Laperriere, Eric Daze, Jason Bonsignore, Jamie Storr, Brian Holzinger. Brian Savage, Roman Oksiuta, Mariusz Czerkawski, Sergei Krivokrasov, Jason Wiemer and Radek Bonk. &#9632;

f0028-05

Few doubles, few troubles with Leaf’s Series I issue

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01679/6101496-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brantford Smoke center Paul Polillo is the first Colonial Leaguer to score 500 points.</figcaption></div>BRANTFORD, Ont.-Paul Polillo has scored 99 assists for the Colonial League&rsquo;s Brantford Smoke in each of the past two seasons. He has done it wearing a No. 9 on his back and a &lsquo;C&rsquo; on the front of his tucked-in sweater, while using a short, left-handed Titan stick and wearing a wafer-thin, non-certified Jofa helmet.He is terrible on breakaways. Smoke coach Larry Trader routinely holds off using him until six other skaters have tried during overtime shootouts.Before taking a faceoff, Polillo, 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, skates around in a tight circle with his stick on his knees, checking out his teammates. In this league, he is too elusive to get checked himself.He makes cross-ice, tape-to-tape backhand passes. On a 2-on-1 he carries the puck down the right side, where he can make the soft backhand flip pass or take a slapshot with his lead right foot pointing toward the goal.A Monday night crowd of 1,200 at the Brantford Civic Centre is used to all this, but to a firsttime visitor the resemblance to you-know-who is downright spooky.Wayne Gretzky left Brantford more than 20 years ago and people here are lucky if they see him once a year. But they can see the Wayne Gretzky of the ColHL any time they want. He&rsquo;ll even stop to sign an autograph or renovate your home in the summer.&ldquo;In the offensive zone, from the red line to the net, (Gretzky and Polillo) are very similar styles,&rdquo; says Polillo&rsquo;s teammate Herb Raglan, a former NHLer, &ldquo;(but) on two different levels.&rdquo;Polillo agrees. The similarities, he says, are &ldquo;only in looks, not in performance. I watched the guy and idolized him. I have the satellite at home and watched as many L.A. and Edmonton games as I could.&rdquo;Like Gretzky did in his prime, Polillo is making a mockery of the scoring race. With 40 goals and 127 points in 54 games, he was 41 ahead of the second-place scorer. He was well on pace to break his league record of 146 points and recently became the first player in the ColHL&rsquo;s five-year history to record 500 career points. In true Gretzky form, the milestone goal was an empty netter.Many of those points originated from Polillo&rsquo;s customary spot behind the net. He does his best work there, just like the Great One. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to try to find ways where I can buy a little time,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s Gretzky&rsquo;s whole game, buying time.&rdquo;The ColHL is not where guys with Gretzky-like talent or instincts go to play. Weekly salaries range from $350 to $1,200 and there is a weekly team salary cap of about $13,000. It is a place for guys who love the game or who don&rsquo;t love anything else enough to leave it. Raglan is here, hoping to get a chance with an International or American League team down the stretch run. There are some longshot prospects scattered among the nine teams, one or two of whom may make it to the NHL. Trent McCleary of the Ottawa Senators is the prime example.But Polillo isn&rsquo;t going anywhere. He turns 29 in April and has given up dreaming or desiring to be any place else. The Pittsburgh Penguins took Polillo in the 1988 supplemental draft, but offered him only an invitation to training camp and not a contract in 1990. Polillo&rsquo;s father, Guy, still has the airline tickets and hotel reservations.Instead, he took an offer to play in Italy and returned in 1992 after the team folded. He came home to Brantford and married his high-school sweetheart. He and Marcia bought a home four doors down from where his parents live and they are expecting their first child in July.Growing up, Polillo was on the same all-star teams as Keith Gretzky, where they were always 1-2 in scoring (Keith, then Paul). They played the same position, center, and the same game modeled after Wayne&rsquo;s.Few dispute Polillo could play in the AHL or IHL, but he&rsquo;d rather get 25 shifts a game than five.&ldquo;I think people realize I&rsquo;m not interested in going anywhere, either,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the type of guy that&rsquo;s really too comfortable away from home.&rdquo;Polillo knows almost everyone who comes to the games in Brantford, including the most famous father in hockey history.On this night, Walter Gretzky has come out to see Paul play against the Thunder Bay Senators. Polillo is his favorite.When someone mentions the similarity between Paul and Wayne, Walter breaks into a wide grin.Polillo has a quiet first period, but scores a hat trick in the second. In the third period, with the Smoke up 4-3, Polillo sets up on the power play near the mid-boards on the right side of the rink, just in front of Walter. There is a scramble and the puck comes to him and Walter is excited.&ldquo;Shoot it, Paul,&rdquo; he urges. &ldquo;Shoot it. Paul.&rdquo;Polillo won&rsquo;t shoot it. He feeds a teammate in the slot and a scramble ensues. Ten seconds later, the puck is back on his stick. As the defenders converge, Polillo passes it back to a defenseman for a clear drive from the point. He steps in and rifles it wide.In the third period, with the Smoke up 4-3, Polillo is on the bench with 1:50 showing on the clock and a faceoff in the Smoke end. Walter makes a prediction. Polillo will come out with 45 seconds to score the empty netter.The goalie leaves with 1:32 left. With 51 seconds left, the puck is lifted over the boards and Polillo steps on to the ice for the faceoff in Brantford&rsquo;s end. But a timeout is called and when the teams come back on the ice, Polillo is on the bench. Walter is as surprised as everyone else.It is a good move by Trader. Polillo is just too small, too helpless physically to deal with six men storming the net, too much Polillo and not quite enough Gretzky.&ldquo;I would have to be a guy that could score 150 points in the NHL to justify my stay there,&rdquo; Paul says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot tougher to get 150 points there than it is here. I realized that.&rdquo;With one second left in the game, Herb Raglan steps over center and fires the puck into the empty net. &#9632;

f0029-01

Brantford’s other Great One

<div class="byline">By Dave Emlnian</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01774/6101558-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="394" height="436"></div>The Las Vegas Thunder has a version of Simon Says that is helping it make child&rsquo;s play of International League opponents.When Chris McSorley took over as coach last summer, he gave GM Bob Strumm a specific shopping list.&ldquo;Get big, physical defensemen and lots of skill,&rdquo; McSorley said after his team was ousted by the Milwaukee Admirals in the playoffs last season.After watching his team avenge that loss with a 7-3 thumping of the Admirals Feb. 4, McSorley recalled the conversation. &ldquo;We got beat by Milwaukee in the playoffs last season for two reasons.&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Defense and depth of skill.&rdquo;Strumm looked at the clampdown on obstruction for the 1995-96 season and decided to take a gamble.&ldquo;We had to hope the direction the game was (supposed to be) going would really happen,&rdquo; Strumm said. &ldquo;We anticipated the changes and we knew what kind of guys we had to get&rdquo;Center Todd Simon was one of the prime off-season additions to a team that had a league-high 134 wins over the past two-plus seasons.The 5-foot-10, 188-pound ninth-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 1992 led the IHL scoring race through much of January and stood third overall as February started.Simon, 23, had 26 goals and was tied for second in assists with 48 through 52 games.That offense is no surprise. He followed an Ontario League season in which he scored 53 goals and 146 points in 66 games with a rookie pro season for the American League&rsquo;s Rochester Americans in which he put up 93 points.He scored 58 goals in 124 games the past two seasons with Rochester.But an unsuccessful 15-game call-up with the Sabres in 1993-94-he had only one assist-even-tually led to free agency and a path to Las Vegas.Simon hopes his time with the Thunder is a step in the right direction.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t given up on the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You get called up and have to play behind (Dale) Hawerchuk and (Pat) LaFontaine and it&rsquo;s hard to get ice time. I really had no chance.&ldquo;This team is a good opportunity to be seen with great players in a good team situation. The better the team does, the better everyone&rsquo;s chances are to make it back up there.&rdquo;Simon, 23, has a two-year deal with Las Vegas that includes a player&rsquo;s option to seek financial renegotiation for the second year if he reaches certain performance levels this season.&ldquo;To be honest, I really didn&rsquo;t know how offensive a league this was going to be,&rdquo; Simon said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been on teams with talented guys, but we have more weapons here than I&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo;McSorley grins at the mention of his No. 1-ranked offensive powerhouse. &ldquo;When our thoroughbreds want to run,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s really no stopping them.&rdquo;TRADE WHIRLWINDS: Sleeper candidate Indianapolis Ice went 7-1-3 in January by averaging 4.36 goals per game. The parent Chicago Blackhawks added to that firepower by acquiring winger Danton Cole from the New York Islanders and moving him from the Utah Grizzlies to Indianapolis in early February.Cole, an IHL all-star, had 28 goals and 43 points in 34 games with Utah. He was moved as compensation for defenseman Bob Halkidis, who was sent to Utah in January.IHL all-star defenseman Duane Joyce, meanwhile, was effectively traded for himself. The Kansas City Blades sent him to the Cincinnati Cyclones in July for a player to be named later. The Blades then selected Joyce from a list of compensation candidates submitted by the Cyclones in late January before dealing him to the Orlando Solar Bears for defenseman Jeff Sirkka.I-OPENERS: Las Vegas hammered division rival Utah and rookie goalie Mark McArthur 60-19 in shots-including a 20-0 run in the first 13:10 of the game-and squeezed out a 4-3 victory Feb. 2 in Nevada. &#9632;

f0030-01

LEAGUES

Thunder claps in Vegas from Simon’s hot hand

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02526/6101589-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="509" height="334"></div>Of all the teams in the East Coast League, the Knoxville Cherokees were one of the least likely to run off eight straight wins. After all, this was an outfit bogged down with a 14-21-4 record and meagre playoff hopes.&ldquo;The first half of the year we struggled,&rdquo; said coach Barry Smith. &ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t have a good flow. Now things are clicking.&rdquo;Thanks to a change in goaltending that seemed to rekindle the enthusiasm of the club, the Cherokees were back in playoff contention.Rookie goaltender Brad Guzda, who joined the club in mid-January when Cory Cadden took some time off to attend to personal problems, came in and reeled off six straight victories, compiling a 3.33 goals-against average and 91.7 save percentage.&ldquo;It just so happened that at the same time Guzda came in, we started on a roll,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a kid that came in with a lot of energy and he has done a very good job for us. The guys responded to his enthusiasm in practice and the games.&rdquo;Guzda, 22, a native of Edmonton, played at Concordia University last season and &ldquo;was looking for a place to play,&rdquo; Smith said.The Cherokees&rsquo; winning ways ended Feb. 4 when the Wheeling Thunderbirds beat them 42. But at 22-22-4, Knoxville had risen to fifth place in the South Division. The top five clubs in each of the three divisions, plus one wildcard team, qualify for post-season play.Leading the offensive charge for Knoxville was the line of center Jim Brown and wingers Kim Maier and Frank LaScala. Brown led the Cherokees in scoring and ranked second in the ECHL with 31 goals and 77 points, while Maier was third in the league in goals with 36 and had 33 assists.&ldquo;Our defense has really stabilized,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Doug Searle has really picked his game up and played much, much better the second half.&ldquo;We want to go to the playoffs. If we continue to play the way we have, we&rsquo;ll make the playoffs. We finally started to get a full effort from all our players. Everyone has done the things they&rsquo;re here to do. Winning is habitforming, just like losing is.&rdquo;BILOXI BOUND: Roanoke Express majority owner John Gagnon and his GM, Pierre Paiement, have signed a five-year lease agreement with the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Miss., for the purpose of putting an ECHL expansion club in the building.Gagnon and Paiement made the announcement at a news conference in Biloxi Feb. 2, in conjunction with Mississippi Coast Coliseum executive director Bill Holmes and assistant executive director Matt McDonnell. The coliseum would seat 10,738 for hockey.If the league owners approve the Biloxi bid, Gagnon intends to have a team in the Gulf Coast city by next season.The owners are expected to vote on applications for expansion clubs in Biloxi and Pensacola, Fla., in a conference call Feb. 15.TIRED OF SHOOTOUTS: After losing back-to-back shootouts on the road against the Jacksonville Lizard Kings and Tallahassee Tiger Sharks, the Hampton Roads Admirals and coach John Brophy probably wish they had never heard of the method of deciding games tied after regulation.The shootout loss to Tallahassee was Hampton Roads&rsquo; 12th this season, breaking the previous league record of 11 shootout defeats set by the Toledo Storm in 1992-93. The Admirals also tied the mark for most games decided after regulation (19 by the Richmond Renegades last season).50-GAME RECORD: With a ledger of 346-10, the Renegades had the best mark at the 50-game mark in the eight-year history of the league. Richmond&rsquo;s 78 points was two more than Knoxville posted en route to a 36-10-4 start in 1990-91. &#9632;

f0030-02

Cherokees back in hunt thanks to goalie Guzda

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03355/6101620-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="537" height="355"></div>Marko Tuomainen knows he chose the unorthodox route for his hockey career.A native of Kuopio, Fin., Tuomainen turned down offers to play professionally at home in the Finnish Elite League and instead enrolled at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.Now, five years later with a marketing degree in hand, Tuomainen has established himself as one of the American League&rsquo;s top rookies. He was second in AHL rookie scoring with 22 goals and 55 points in 49 games for the Cape Breton Oilers.&ldquo;He has great potential to play in the NHL,&rdquo; said Cape Breton coach Lome Molleken.Going to Clarkson in 1991-92 helped Tuomainen adjust to the small rinks and North American game, a calculated move in his development.&ldquo;I thought it would be better for me to make the jump to the NHL from college,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Tuomainen, who signed with the Edmonton Oilers and played four NHL games after a 23-goal, 61-point collegiate season last year.&ldquo;I took a big chance because not too many guys from Europe go to college hockey. But I thought I could learn to play on the smaller rinks and handle the physical game.&rdquo;Oilers&rsquo; scouts saw Tuomainen in Europe and at Clarkson and drafted him in the ninth round in 1992 (205th overall). He&rsquo;s an exceptional passer and shooter.&ldquo;The negative thing for him right now is his foot speed,&rdquo; Molleken said. &ldquo;He thinks the game very well, all the other things are there, he just has to, improve on his skating.&rdquo;Tuomainen, 23, played in the AHL All-Star Game for the Canadian team. The busy pro schedule has been an adjustment, but he says he&rsquo;s happy with his development. He plays the point on the power play and also kills penalties.&ldquo;I always like to work on my shot after practice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I try to be more accurate and work on things to surprise the goalie.&rdquo;WALZ LEAVES: Disgruntled center Wes Walz left the Adirondack Red Wings Feb. 3 and returned home to Calgary in hopes of prompting a trade by the parent Detroit Red Wings.Walz, who was suspended indefinitely by the team, is upset at what he believes to be broken promises by Detroit concerning NHL playing time. He has spent the entire season in the AHL and led the Wings in scoring with 20 goals and 55 points in 38 games.&ldquo;This is a crucial time in my career,&rdquo; Walz said.Detroit assistant GM Ken Holland said the Wings will try to accommodate Walz.&ldquo;We will suspend him until the end of the season if necessary,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m willing to make a trade if we can acquire a player we&rsquo;re comfortable with, but until then, Wes will have to stay home.&rdquo;Earlier this summer, Walz turned down a oneway contract worth $350,000 from the Calgary Flames, sources said. He then signed a two-year, two-way deal with Detroit worth $350,000 in the NHL and $75,000 in the AHL.60 YEARS LATER: When the Syracuse Stars won the inaugural AHL championship in 1936-37, there wasn&rsquo;t even a Calder Cup to carry around the rink. The trophy came into existence the following year.The Syracuse Crunch thought the Stars deserved their time in the spotlight, especially since this is the AHL&rsquo;s 60th anniversary season.In a ceremony Feb. 9, the Crunch presented the Cup to George Parsons, one of the two living members of the 1936-37 Stars. Parsons is 81. The other living member, Murray Armstrong, 80, had prior commitments at home in Florida and was unable to attend.Parsons&rsquo; only previous remembrance of his club is a photograph.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a picture, but I&rsquo;m not sure it&rsquo;s exactly the team. It&rsquo;s the only thing I have from winning the championship,&rdquo; said Parsons, who lives in Oakville, Ont., and played three NHL seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs. &#9632;

f0030-03

Finn flying from Kuopio to Potsdam to Cape Breton

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01713/6101651-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="691" height="241"></div>Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; defenseman Richard Jackman would rather help his team in the Ontario League standings than play in a game designed to showcase his talent.The 12th rated prospect for this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft pulled out of the Canadian Hockey League&rsquo;s top prospects game Feb. 15 at Maple Leaf Gardens.Some scouts will view his decision as a noble gesture to help his team while sacrificing a chance to shine against other top prospects. Others may see it as indifference.Jackman said he felt it would be more important he remain with his team for league games Feb. 15-16 at home against the Detroit Whalers.The Sault, Detroit and Samia Sting are battling for first in the West Division.&ldquo;Although it would be a great challenge to play with the best junior players in Canada, I feel it is important to stay in the Sault and help my team in a crucial game against Detroit. I believe my teammates can use my help in our quest for top spot in the West Division,&rdquo; Jackman said in a prepared statement.Teammate Jason Doyle, rated in the second round by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau, chose to play in the game on a night of four scheduled OHL games, all having a bearing on playoff positions.Seven teams playing that night have players involved in the prospect game, which was originally Feb. 13, but changed when a conflict arose at Maple Leaf Gardens.Greyhounds&rsquo; GM Dave Mayville said no OHL games were scheduled for the Feb. 12-13 period &ldquo;because we&rsquo;ve been brought up that the all-star break is a league thing and we can all get together. Now, eight coaches aren&rsquo;t going to be there to talk about their players to the NHL people at the game. The CHL and the NHL put these young players in an unfortunate position.&rdquo;TOP DOG: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; star Joe Thornton took advantage of Alexandre Volchkov&rsquo;s injury to assume the rookie scoring lead with 23 goals and 59 points in 50 games.Volchkov had 34 goals and 55 points before breaking his ankle Jan. 22.NHL scouts say Thornton is a sure-Tire first-rounder in 1997 and the possible first pick overall.Volchkov is rated No. 1 for this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft.Thornton, 16, hopes to be in the same situation as Volchkov at this time next season-rated No. 1, not recovering from a broken ankle.&ldquo;I thought I would come in and get a feel for the league, then make the jump next year,&rdquo; said Thornton, 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m on Cloud 9 right now. There have been no lows.&rdquo;STING STUNG: Samia city council, seeking to make up a $4-million shortfall in provincial payments, will wait until after the March 5 budget to vote on a new arena.That leaves the Samia Sting in a precarious position as the team must give the league an assurance for a new arena by March 15 or be forced to move. Samia Arena holds only 2,290 people.The OHL requires a minimum 4,000 seats for a new franchise or a transfer and a new arena was a condition set by governors in approving the team&rsquo;s move from Newmarket in 1994.&ldquo;In this particular instance, the league might be very forceful,&rdquo; said commissioner Dave Branch. &ldquo;Facilities will be the largest matter we have to address over the next 10 years.&rdquo;The sale of 23 private boxes with 10-year leases has generated $2 million, but mayor Mike Bradley said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more concerned about satisfying the taxpayers of Samia (than the OHL).&rdquo;WHALER DIGS: Detroit Whalers&rsquo; owner Peter Karmanos has tentative approval from Plymouth Township to build a 4,000-plus seat arena.The arena, 20 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, could be ready for next season. &#9632;

f0031-01

Greyhound Jackman pulls out of prospect game

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02473/6101682-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="584" height="298"></div>A few good, little men are putting up some big numbers in the Quebec League this season.Hull Olympiques&rsquo; center Martin Menard became the league&rsquo;s second player to reach the 50-goal plateau when he scored once in a 6-3 victory over the Moncton Alpines Feb. 5.That left the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Menard with 116 points, second in the QMJHL scoring race by 13 points. Occupying first place was 5-foot-9, 160-pound Drummondville Voltigeurs&rsquo; center Daniel Briere.Menard and Briere aren&rsquo;t the only little big men in Quebec. In fact, the average size of the top-five scoring leaders through Feb. 5 (which included Christian Dube and Etienne Beaudry of the Sherbrooke Faucons and Allan Sirois of the Rimouski Oceanic) was 5-foot-9 and 171 pounds. Sirois is the biggest of the group at 6-feet and 190 pounds.&ldquo;In the Quebec League, I think they give more of a chance to small guys,&rdquo; Menard said.That&rsquo;s not the case among NHL scouts who view size as an important commodity. Menard, who will turn 20 March 29, is undrafted, while 18-year-old Briere was rated 16th by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau for this year&rsquo;s draft.&ldquo;Every team likes a guy who is big and good more than someone who is small and good,&rdquo; Menard said. &ldquo;But if you&rsquo;re small and smart&hellip;it doesn&rsquo;t hurt to have guys like that on your team as long as you surround them with big guys.&rdquo;Menard was not even selected in the QMJHL midget draft. Instead, he played for the Ottawa Senators of the Central (Ont.) Jr. A League and was ready to accept a scholarship to St. Lawrence University when he received an invitation to Hull&rsquo;s training camp last season. He made the team and had 44 goals and 100 points in 64 games as a rookie.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just a good little hockey player,&rdquo; said Hull GM Charlie Henry. &ldquo;He comes to play every night.&rdquo;Menard, in fact, had played every night, or at least in every one of Hull&rsquo;s first 57 games this season. In those contests, he was held off the scoresheet only nine times while having 32 multiple-point games. During Hull&rsquo;s team-record 24-game winning streak from Nov. 22 to Jan. 28, Menard had 22 goals and 55 assists.Despite his scoring prowess, Menard realizes his chances of making it in the NHL are, like him, small. But he hasn&rsquo;t given up.&ldquo;I just need to get a break like I did here to play junior,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s the way it goes for me in life.&rdquo;GRAND GRANBY: The Granby Predateurs were on fire after acquiring center Benoit Gratton and defenseman Jason Doig from the Laval Titan Jan. 6.After a 4-0 win over Drummondville Feb. 6, the Predateurs had an 11-1-0 record following the trade. Gratton was also named the league&rsquo;s offensive player of the month for January after collecting eight goals and 28 points in 10 games.&ldquo;Benoit has taken the pressure off (Martin) Chouinard and (Xavier) Delisle at center,&rdquo; said Granby coach Michel Therrien. &ldquo;He is always playing against the best centerman on the other team because he&rsquo;s able to play both ways. He&rsquo;s good in his own end and on faceoffs&hellip;he&rsquo;s like a Doug Gil-mour-sfyle player.&rdquo;Granby defenseman Jimmy Drolet, meanwhile, was named the top defensive player in January after posting 3-9-12 totals.NOTEBOOK: The Val d&rsquo;Or Foreurs, who extended their team-record unbeaten streak to eight games with an 8-2 win over Laval Feb. 7, clinched a playoff spot for the first time in their three-year history. With 64 points in their first 55 games, the Foreurs were already 20 points ahead of their total output for last season&hellip;The Olympiques avoided a season sweep by beating Halifax 4-2 Feb. 4. It was Hull&rsquo;s first win ever in Halifax (1-2-1). The Olympiques, who led Halifax by 44 points in the standings, lost their first three games this season against the Mooseheads. &#9632;

f0031-02

Hull’s diminutive Menard making huge contribution

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03338/6101713-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="360" height="367"></div>Call them the Calgary Hurtmen.Of the seven veterans the Calgary Hitmen chose in last summer&rsquo;s Western League expansion draft, five were injured for a substantial period.&ldquo;In all my years in hockey,&rdquo; said Hitmen coach-GM Graham James, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever seen so many injuries.&rdquo;With a record of 15-37-3 in their first season, the Hitmen&rsquo;s record was also hurting. But James still looks at this season as a success.&ldquo;You always want to win more games, but given the circumstances, I&rsquo;ve seen enough development in the players,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no easy way to succeed in this league. I&rsquo;m talking about ultimate success. It&rsquo;s great to make the playoffs. But the ultimate goal is winning the whole thing.&rdquo;James should know.He guided the Swift Current Broncos to the 1989 and 1993 Memorial Cup tournaments. Swift Current claimed the Canadian Hockey League title in 1989.The Hitmen ended a 15-game winless streak Feb. 3 by defeating the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-1.As for the playoffs, Calgary was a longshot at best. It trailed the Red Deer Rebels by 11 points for the final spot in the Central Division.During the losing skid, Calgary traded WHL veterans such as centers Derek Wood and John Kachur (both to Medicine Hat), defenseman Ryan Bast and left winger Ryan Tobler (both to Swift Current) and goalie Rod Branch (Prince Albert Raiders).&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re going to have a season where you don&rsquo;t light it up or get a lot of wins, I&rsquo;d rather do that early than in Year 3 or 4,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;I think fans understand the nature of expansion.&rdquo;The Hitmen, who are based at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome, averaged 4,302 spectators over their first 25 home games.&ldquo;The attendance is better than we thought,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;There have been a lot of kids, so the average ticket revenue is not what we&rsquo;d like because of the preponderance of children&rsquo;s tickets. But that&rsquo;s an important base for us.&rdquo;James&rsquo; biggest concern-creating a junior hockey atmosphere in the 20,000-seat Saddle-dome-hasn&rsquo;t been a problem.&ldquo;That was one reservation I had,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But the atmosphere is much better than I thought. That has been a surprise. If we ice a contending team, there&rsquo;s lots of potential for big crowds. &ldquo;NO RESPECT: Swift Current has led the Central Division for most of this season.Even so, the Broncos-who had a 29-23-4 record-are not regarded as one of the WHL&rsquo;s elite teams. All the same, Swift Current carried an 8-2-1 run into early February, when it was seventh overall in the 17-team league.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s sometimes better not to be respected,&rdquo; said Broncos&rsquo; coach Todd McLellan. &ldquo;People could take us lightly and we could surprise some people.&rdquo;The Broncos&rsquo; chances are greatly enhanced with high-scoring left winger Brad Larsen in the lineup.Swift Current was 27-14-4 in Larsen&rsquo;s first 45 appearances, but went 2-8-0 while he played for Canada at the World Junior Championship.Larsen, 18, recently saw his NHL rights traded from the Ottawa Senators (third round in 1995) to the Colorado Avalanche.FAST FIFTY: Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; linemates Mark Deyell and Frank Banham were the first two WHL players to hit 50 goals this season.Banham struck in his 46th game. He had a league-high 65 goals after 57 games.Deyell hit the half-century mark in his 53rd game, Feb. 2. He boasted a league-high 127 points, including 51 goals, after 54 games.Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; left winger Hnat Domen-ichelli was a strong candidate to hit 50 goals in his first 50 games. He had 45 goals in 43 games. Domenichelli missed 10 games while playing for Canada at the WJC. &#9632;

f0031-03

Growing pains no big deal for happy Hitman James

<div class="byline">By Chris Miller</div>The Wisconsin Badgers have been one of the most successful teams in the history of college hockey. In 32 seasons, they&rsquo;ve had only two losing records.This season will be No. 3.The Badgers won only 10 of their first 30 games and are destined to finish among the also-rans in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.&ldquo;As good as this program has been, it hurts to have a season like this,&rdquo; said defenseman Mickey Elick. &ldquo;The important thing is, we can still do something in the playoffs if we turn things around.&rdquo;The Badgers won the WCHA playoff title last season, but lost four veteran defenseman to graduation and haven&rsquo;t been able to compensate.&ldquo;We had all our forwards back, and we were pretty optimistic,&rdquo; said center Shawn Carter, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer. &ldquo;At the start of the season, we were scoring, but our defense was poor. We&rsquo;ve gotten better defensively, but we&rsquo;ve been in a scoring slump.&rdquo;Wisconsin hopes to rally with a strong playoff showing and that would benefit the league coffers. Without the Badgers at home in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the league loses valuable revenue. In addition, the WCHA Final Five is at Milwaukee&rsquo;s Bradley Center. If Wisconsin makes it there, the arena could be sold out. So far. ticket sales are lagging.<h2>WCHA</h2>The WCHA could lose over $100,000 without Wisconsin at home for the first round and absent from the Final Five.MYSTERY SOLVED: Colorado College lost only twice in its first 28 games and both times the losses were to Denver. Now everyone wants to know what Denver coach George Gwozdecky does to prepare for CC.&ldquo;The No. 1 factor is that these are such emotional games for our team because it&rsquo;s such an incredible rivalry,&rdquo; Gwozdecky said. &ldquo;The players seem to use that emotion to play with great intensity and that leads to some strong efforts.&ldquo;Of course, it really helps if you have good goaltending.&rdquo;TWIN TROUBLE: Marc and Matt Christian had hoped to finish their college hockey careers with strong seasons. The identical twin brothers have had wildly different fortunes, however.Marc has worked his way on to the No. 1 line at Minnesota-Duluth as a right winger, while Matt&rsquo;s senior season at Alaska-Anchorage is over. After missing several games at the start of the season with a broken foot that required surgery to implant pins. Matt returned only to tear ligaments in his right knee, forcing reconstructive surgery. The injury came in a game at Duluth.Matt had a nearly identical operation on his left knee two years ago, the season he transferred from UMD to Anchorage. &#9632;

Badgers try to salvage year for selves, league

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>Mike Schafer&rsquo;s open-door policy has turned the Cornell power play into the most-feared unit in the league.While most teams go with one or two set power-play units, the rookie coach was giving just about everyone an opportunity when the Big Red had a man-advantage, and the results were amazing.Through the first 14 league games, Cornell had the best power play in the league, attaining a 30.8 success rate (28 of 91). Last season, Cornell scored on only 18.9 percent of its power play chances (17 of 90).&ldquo;We change the guys on the power play from week to week,&rdquo; Schafer said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have one go&ndash;to guy and it makes it difficult for other teams to stop us.&ldquo;Sometimes, power play units get comfortable,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I feel playing on the power play is a privilege, not a right.&rdquo;Senior Brad Chartrand, the team&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer with 18 (in 21 games), wasn&rsquo;t the top scorer on the power play. That distinction went to senior P.C. Drouin, whose six powerplay goals matched his career total.Also cashing in when the Big Red had a manadvantage were junior Matt Cooney (five), who had only one power-play goal in his first two years; sophomore Ryan Smart (four) and senior Mike Sancimino (four).Cornell was just as efficient when it was a man down. The Big Red killed 82.5 percent of its opponents&rsquo; power plays, and scored four shorthanded goals.<h2>ECAC</h2>With a rating of plus-15, Cornell had the best combined special teams rating in the league.IRONMAN OUT: An automobile accident ended the ironman streak of Harvard senior defenseman Peter McLaughlin.McLaughlin and four other players were injured in a three-car accident Feb. 4, as they were returning to campus following a dinner at the home of McLaughlin&rsquo;s parents.McLaughlin, who was driving, suffered facial cuts that required about 40 stitches to close, and missed the opening round game of the Beanpot Tournament Feb. 6, ending his streak of consecutive games played at 114.Senior Brad Konik, who was also in the front seat, also sat out the 4-1 Beanpot loss to Northeastern with neck stiffness.Suffering minor injuries in the accident were forward Henry Higdon and defensemen Marco Ferreri and Ben Storey. All three played against Northeastern.RECORD HELPER: St. Lawrence sophomore forward Derek Ladouceur became the first Division 1 player in the nation to get six assists in one game this season when he helped out on a half-dozen goals in the Saints&rsquo; 7-4 victory over Dartmouth Feb. 2. &#9632;

Big Red’s power surge on time-share program

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>The Central Collegiate Hockey Association is experiencing something it has been lacking for three seasons: the thrill of a real playoff race.When the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks joined the CCHA as a full-fledged member this season, the league reverted from a post-season format instituted in 1992-93 where all 11 teams qualified to one where only eight spots are up for grabs. As a result, six teams were vying for three playoff berths in the final month of the regular season.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; said Miami coach Mark Mazzoleni, whose Redskins were in the hunt for one of the last three spots. &ldquo;Everyone seems to be watching it with a lot of excitement.&rdquo;By early-February, the top four teams-Michigan State, Western Michigan, Michigan and Lake Superior State-had nailed down berths and fifth-place Bowling Green was a shoo-inThat left the six sub-.500 teams-Miami, Alaska-Fairbanks, Notre Dame, Ferris State, Ohio State and Illinois-Chicago&ndash;to fight for the final three openings. Just eight points separated the six clubs.While the closeness of the teams was generating interest, it wasn&rsquo;t inspiring them to reach new heights. Entering the final three weeks, only the Redskins had a winning record (4-3-3) in their previous 10 games. During the same span, Notre Dame was 3-6-1, UAF 1-9-0, Ferris State 1-8-1, Ohio State 1-4-5 and UIC 1-8-1.<h2>CCHA</h2>FLICKERING FLAMES: UIC interim athletic director Jim Schmidt is denying reports the Flames&rsquo; hockey program is on the verge of being extinguished.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re behind the eight-ball, but we&rsquo;re in it to win,&rdquo; Schmidt said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re not winning, rumors start to fly around. I&rsquo;d like to put more money into the program.&rdquo;The inexperienced Flames were last in the CCHA at 5-16-1. Since becoming a Division I program in 1981-82, UIC was 184-340-31 overall and has posted only two winning winters.UPBEAT MIAMI: After nearly a decade as the CCHA&rsquo;s doormat, the Miami Redskins enjoyed winning overall records the past four seasons.In 1995-96, however, Miami will land back below.500. Still, Redskins&rsquo; coach Mark Mazzoleni isn&rsquo;t too upset about his team&rsquo;s record.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re 8-6-3 in our last 17 games,&rdquo; he said in early-February &ldquo;With all of our kids and difficult early schedule, we figured to start slowly. It takes a while for younger players to get used to the intensity of college competition.&ldquo;But I think we have very strong freshman and sophomore classes, as good as any team in the league.&ldquo;Still our goal is to be one of the top four teams in our league consistently and not drop down to seventh place one season. We&rsquo;ve got a long way to go.&rdquo; &#9632;

New format sets up exciting stretch run

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>Boston University coach Jack Parker was reprimanded by Hockey East commissioner Bob DeGregorio for berating referees Jim Vallandry and John Gravallese following a 5-4 loss at UMass-Lowell.The visiting dressing room and the officials&rsquo; room are close to each other at Tully Forum and Parker seized the opportunity to give Vallandry and Gravallese an earful following the Jan. 27 game.Parker was summoned to a meeting involving DeGregorio and supervisor of officials Brendan Sheehy two days later.&ldquo;One of the problems was there was no attendant to let the referees into their room for a minute,&rdquo; DeGregorio said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s no excuse for that (kind of behavior). Jack admitted he was wrong and said it wouldn&rsquo;t happen again. I&rsquo;ll take the man at his word. He had already reported himself to his athletic director (Gary Strickler).&rdquo;Parker did not comment on the incident or the reprimand.DeGregorio said if Parker repeats the antics this season, the league will discipline him.This is not the first time Parker has been involved in similar situations with on-ice officials.Several years ago, he tossed several water bottles onto the ice at Maine&rsquo;s Alfond Arena to protest the officiating; he has been ejected from games a couple of times within the past five years and he even instituted a self-imposed suspension for his behavior towards referees.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>ARENA PLANS: Merrimack College started a fundraising effort in order to build a new multi-purpose arena.The Warriors currently play in the outdated Volpe Complex arena which is the coldest rink in Hockey East and has low plexiglass, a low ceiling and mediocre lighting.&ldquo;We would like to build a facility for $11-$14 million,&rdquo; said Merrimack athletic director Bob DeGregorio, who is also the Hockey East commissioner. &ldquo;The hockey rink would be Olympic-sized and it would hold between 4,000-5,000 (people).&rdquo;PANDOLFO ROLLS: Boston University left winger Jay Pandolfo was named player of the week for the period ending Feb. 4 after scoring a goal and two assists in a 3-1 win over Providence-Feb. 2. Boston College center Marty Reasoner was the rookie of the week for the seventh time this season based on his one-goal, two-assist effort in a 6-2 victory over Maine Feb. 2&hellip;UMass-Lowell&rsquo;s 5-0 win over Providence Feb. 4, featuring 26 saves by Martin Fillion, was their seventh in a row, the River Hawks&rsquo; longest streak since the 1987-88 season, Lowell&rsquo;s eight wins in January also matched the school mark for January wins, set by the 198182 team. &#9632;

Post-game official abuse puts Parker on hot seat

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01727/6101923-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01690/6101916-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3090" height="3525"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01610/6101909-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3066" height="3511"></div><h2>NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01693/6101902-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3064" height="1090"></div><h3>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS</h3>Statistics provided by National Hockey League; Players are listed by uniform number, name, games played (GP), minutes played (MIN), goals-against average (GAA), wins (W) losses (L) ties (T), empty-net goals (EN). shutouts (SO), goals against (GA), shots against (SA), save percentage (SP). Players indicated by an asterisk (*) are eligible for the Calder Trophy. Numbers beside teams indicate rankings for the Bill Jennings Trophy. For goalies&rsquo; individual rankings see page 34. &#9632;

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NOTEUnofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus): SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; Decdecision, charges to goaltenders of record when winning goal is scored.<h2>FRIDAY, FEB. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02524/6102108-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="492" height="1902"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03426/6102101-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="496" height="554"></div><h2>SATURDAY, FEB. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04330/6102094-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="490" height="1630"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05247/6102087-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="498" height="2270"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06207/6102080-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="500" height="2268"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07191/6102073-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="496" height="2268"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08164/6102066-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="494" height="2270"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01657/6102059-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="491" height="1940"></div><h2>SUNDAY, FEB. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02457/6102052-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="497" height="1462"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03347/6102045-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="494" height="3493"></div><h2>MONDAY, FEB. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04282/6102038-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="488" height="2575"></div><h2>TUESDAY, FEB. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05232/6102031-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="492" height="746"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06198/6102024-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="495" height="3488"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07178/6102017-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="500" height="3495"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08159/6102010-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="500" height="3413"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01366/6102003-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="488" height="3497"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02242/6101996-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="1517" height="2535"><figcaption class="caption-body">Drive for five: Tony Amonte had five points in Chicago&rsquo;s 6-1 win over St. Louis Feb. 8.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03174/6101989-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="498" height="918"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04140/6101982-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="497" height="465"></div><h2>THURSDAY, FEB. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05117/6101975-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="491" height="361"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06102/6101968-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="500" height="917"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0793/6101961-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="500" height="3491"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0884/6101954-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="495" height="3490"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

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Search for your favorite player or team

February 23, 1996

TV to blame for dearth of skilled defensemen

Worcester shuttle doing well

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

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