The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

December 26, 1997

The Hockey News December 26, 1997

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01922/6755171-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="160" height="159"></div>Down a letter, at least his numbers are up.Paul Ysebaert doesn&rsquo;t have to be a GM to know that is a trade well worth making. So now, unburdened by the &lsquo;C&rsquo; once sewn to his sweater, the deposed Tampa Bay Lightning captain is making his contributions count in a manner heard clearer than any words he could ever speak.&ldquo;The day it happened I was a little surprised and a little disappointed, but it has been a load of pressure off me,&rdquo; said Ysebaert, who was stripped of his captaincy the day coach Terry Crisp lost his job. &ldquo;Now I just concentrate on hockey.&rdquo;In the 18 games since going from captain to just one of the boys, Ysebaert had three goals and 14 points including the Lightning&rsquo;s first goal in a 2-1 victory over Phoenix Dec. 3. Compare that to his one goal and two assists in the first 11 games of the season.Ysebaert, one of the few bright spots for the last-place Lightning, said the fact he is no longer captain is a big part of the reasons. But there are other reasons behind the turnaround, too.For one, Ysebaert is completely healthy for the first time since a severe groin tear that spoiled most of a season-and-a-half. Also, he&rsquo;s getting plenty of ice under new coach Jacques Demers.&ldquo;When you play a lot,&rdquo; said Ysebaert, who has been used as a No. 1 center for the Lightning, &ldquo;it keeps you involved in the game.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Neurological tests reveal no discernible problem for Lightning center Brian Bradley, who has been cleared to play. But Bradley continues to be bothered by headaches after sustaining a concussion Nov. 6 at Los Angeles, and had missed 14 straight games., Mikael Renberg, who has been used at right wing and center, was moved to left wing for a Dec. 10 game at Dallas as coach Jacques Demers juggled forwards in hopes of finding the right combination for a No. 1 scoring line. Renberg played with Paul Ysebaert in the middle and Dino Ciccarelli at right wing&hellip;After falling 3-0 to Dallas, the Lightning had been shut out in two of three games and three of six. Tampa Bay&rsquo;s goals total after 28 games was 54, less than two per game. &#9632;

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NHL TEAMS

Ysebaert producing more since being stripped of ‘C’

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>If Mike Schafer ever leaves coaching, he should consider a career as an illusionist.For the first two months of the season, he had opposing coaches believing his Cornell team was playing with a full complement of defensemen. But like a good illusionist, Schafer had coaches seeing things that weren&rsquo;t really there.Schafer was using four defensemen to fill six slots, occasionally bringing back a spare forward to help out. The Big Red hung tough during that time, staying near the top of the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings. But the lack of depth on the blueline caught up to them Dec. 5 and 6 in back-to-back road losses to Union (4-2) and RPI (7-5).&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been playing good defense and it&rsquo;s not something you would expect because we&rsquo;ve had a lot of defensemen out,&rdquo; said Schafer, who has guided Cornell to back-to-back ECAC titles. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had four defensemen since the start of the season because of injuries.&rdquo;Despite the injuries, Cornell allowed just 23 goals in 10 games, and senior goalie Jason Elliott was sporting a 2.09 goals-against average with a .935 save percentage.Two players sidelined were Cornell&rsquo;s biggest-6-foot-3, 203-pound sophomore David Adler and 6-foot-4, 217-pound sophomore Rick Sacchetti. Adler, sidelined with a shoulder injury, hadn&rsquo;t played a minute in Cornell&rsquo;s first eight games after playing all 32 last year.The injuries allowed freshmen Larry Pierce and Danny Powell to earn starting positions and log plenty of ice time in the first 10 games, as Cornell hit the break with a 4-3-1 record and climbed to No. 8 in the nation before the losses.&ldquo;The injuries have affected all aspects of our game,&rdquo; Schafer said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve affected our whole team philosophy. But I&rsquo;m very pleased to be where we are right now.&rdquo;SAINT BERNARD: Clarkson coach Mark Morris gave senior goalie Dan Murphy his first weekend off in four years and the Knights responded with wins over Harvard (4-1 Dec. 5) and Brown (3-2 Dec. 6) to scramble back to third in the standings.Senior Chris Bernard replaced Murphy in the series and ran his career record to 3-0-0, stopping 53 of 56 shots.NOTEBOOK: Colgate senior Dan Brenzavich made his 50th career win a memorable one as he made 26 saves to shut out Union 3-0 Dec. 6. The shutout was the fifth of his career&hellip;Seven is the lucky number for RPI. At the break, the Engineers had three wins and had scored seven goals in each of those victories&hellip;Yale senior goalie Alex Westlund had an amazing .956 save percentage in seven games. Yale was 6-1-0 and leading the ECAC at the break. The Bulldogs won only six games last season&hellip;The ECAC ice hockey web page became fully functional in December. The location is: <a href="http://hockey.ecac.com">hockey.ecac.com</a>. &#9632;

LEAGUES

Big Red defensemen using smoke, mirrors

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01894/6755736-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011636/6754261-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Admirers say Colorado Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy has instant access to a mental catalogue of information about shooting and playmaking tendencies of opponents. (Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</figcaption></div>Craig Billington called it &ldquo;criminal.&rdquo;The Colorado Avalanche backup netminder was talking about his battery mate and how the Good Lord saw fit to bestow upon Patrick Roy size, strength, incredible athletic ability, puckstopping prowess and one of the brightest minds in the entire game, not just goaltending.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost unfair,&rdquo; Billington told The Hockey News. &ldquo;Patrick is gifted in every respect, but especially on the mental side. It&rsquo;s a treat for me to just watch and observe.&rdquo;No one plays net better than Roy; no one thinks the position any better, either.In honor of the season, The Hockey News went shopping for presents of mind and came up with three wise men (see opposite page), who possess perhaps the game&rsquo;s greatest gift of all.Roy&rsquo;s our goaltender. Larry Murphy of the Detroit Red Wings is our defenseman and Guy Carbonneau of the Dallas Stars our representative at forward.Murphy, 36, and Carbonneau, 37, have always been smarter than the average player, but, between them, age, injuries and lack of speed or strength have only highlighted the value of their brain power. As for Roy, the man has no glaring deficiencies. If he did, it might expose how fiendishly committed he is to working the mental/intellectual side of the game.&ldquo;Patrick uses his intellect to do his job like no one I&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; said Avalanche coach Marc Crawford Dec. 10, the day Roy was all-world in stopping 51 of 53 shots in a 2-2 tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s so smart because he uses it first on doing his job, then helping others to do theirs. He&rsquo;s a big part of our team, someone whose insight on things other than goaltending is trusted and welcome.&rdquo;Roy has offered some input on virtually all aspects of the Avs&rsquo; game, everything from powerplay strategy to penalty killing to forechecking to neutral zone play and defensive and faceoff alignments. He attempts to tailor his puck-handling, which has improved to the point where he&rsquo;s one of the very best in the league, to all of the above.&ldquo;His mind is a like a machine,&rdquo; said former Montreal Canadiens and current Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jacques Demers.&ldquo;Six months after the fact Patrick can tell you precise details of a game, shift by shift,&rdquo; said ex-teammate Carbonneau. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really amazing.&rdquo;The Avalanche have found that out in short order. As involved as he is in Colorado&rsquo;s total game, his emphasis is on himself. He&rsquo;s his own toughest critic and often enlists support for some negative reinforcement.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m doing something wrong, I want someone to tell me,&rdquo; Roy told THN. &ldquo;For me, positioning is everything. I always try to know why I gave up a goal. Some goalies think that&rsquo;s negative. Me, I don&rsquo;t care, I want to know.&rdquo;So Billington, along with assistant coach Jacques Cloutier, as requested by Roy, provide constant updates and reminders. &ldquo;Not a lot of guys invite someone to do that,&rdquo; Billington said. &ldquo;You have to be trusting and secure to ask for that.&rdquo;Next on Roy&rsquo;s assistance list is video coach Paul Fixter, who provides Roy with tape of every goal scored against him. &ldquo;He wants to know why the goals were scored,&rdquo; Fixter said, &ldquo;and how he can prevent them. He&rsquo;s not looking at anybody else&rsquo;s breakdown, defensive miscues. He&rsquo;s focusing on himself and how he can be better. It&rsquo;s unbelievable to see him at work.&rdquo;On the ice, during games, he&rsquo;s just as intense.Billington said it&rsquo;s remarkable what goes through Roy&rsquo;s mind in the heat of battle.&ldquo;He has an incredible catalogue of information stored in that head of his.&rdquo; Billington said. &ldquo;He knows who all the players are. He knows their tendencies. He remembers how they scored on him last time. He can read the play and anticipate where the puck is going before it gets there and put himself in position to make the save.&ldquo;I tell him. &lsquo;Patrick, this is not something we all can do.&rsquo; He has an incredible capacity to process information quickly. That&rsquo;s what makes Wayne Gretzky what he is and that&rsquo;s what makes Patrick Roy what he is. If I tried to think about half the stuff he processes, the puck would be in the back of the net just like that.&rdquo;Roy said he has no choice but to be mentally sharp, &ldquo;because I&rsquo;m not going to do spectacular split saves or stack my pads sliding across the crease. If I&rsquo;m not in proper position. I&rsquo;m not going to make the save.&rdquo;And he concedes a photographic memory is a wonderful netminding tool.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in Calgary now,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;I remember exactly how they scored on me here last time. I remember the three goals the Flames scored on me in Denver earlier this season. I remember Theo Fleury beat me on a penalty shot and he&rsquo;s beaten me two other times on breakaways. I can remember pretty much everything.&rdquo; &#9632;

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FEATURES

Presents of Mind

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011644/6753727-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">St. Louis goaltender Grant Fuhr is one of the Blues&rsquo; five potential unrestricted free agents. Pg. 7. (Photo by Claus Andersen/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

<h2>Mightiest Duck prepared to fly</h2>1. Just ducky Fans the big winners now that electrifying Paul Kariya comes to terms with Mighty Ducks.2. No. 1 stopper Victoriaville&rsquo;s Mathieu Garon becomes QMJHL&rsquo;s all-time shutout leader with his 11th.3. Finally! OK, OK, it was only an empty-netter, but Kirk Muller finally gets first goal of season in Game 28.4. He&rsquo;s back Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Tom Barrasso plays shutout hockey for 218 minutes, 21 seconds consecutively on road.5. Mighty MSU Man Spartans&rsquo; coach Ron Mason adds to his legend with 500th win at Michigan Dec. 6.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021313/6753765-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="321" height="455"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jaromir Jagr</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03862/6753758-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="323" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kirk Muller</figcaption></div><h2>Officials stick it to Penguin star</h2>1. Once bitten, twice dumb Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Jaromir Jagr caught with illegal stick in back-to-back games.2. Owen Nolan Sharks&rsquo; gunner has been silent for the most part with just three goals in 30 games.3. Disgusting Fredericton coach Michel Therrien given gross misconduct for spitting at St. John&rsquo;s goalie Francis Larivee.4. Hazing rookies Didn&rsquo;t this barbaric practice go the way of the two-inch curve? Too bad it hasn&rsquo;t in Kingsville, Ont.5. Expecting so much more Boston&rsquo;s Anson Carter held pointless in 10 consecutive games. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<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/f0003-04476/6753796-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="346" height="428"></div>The miracle of Peter Forsberg isn&rsquo;t so much his vision as it is that he sees at all.With blond hair cascading down around his eyes, it&rsquo;s a wonder he can see the puck, let alone pass it with unparalleled precision. But the Colorado Avalanche center does, seeing the ice through catlike eyes to purrfection and gift-wrapping more goals than any other player in the league.&ldquo;He sees things that we don&rsquo;t even see on the bench,&rdquo; says Colorado defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre.Forsberg, 24, has succeeded Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as the best playmaker in hockey and is on pace to become the first European-raised player to lead the NHL in assists. Stan Mikita, a native of the former Czechoslovakia, was the game&rsquo;s most productive passer three times during the 1960s, but he was raised in Canada.Much was made of Lemieux&rsquo;s passing of the torch to Eric Lindros last spring. Another passing of the torch was left undone-setting up the game&rsquo;s next great playmaker. Gretzky, who has led or tied for the lead in assists an unprecedented 15 times, has long made his magic with an intuitive grasp of the game. He is the smartest hockey player ever. Lemieux, too, understood the rhythms of the game, but he added an elegant physical dimension.&ldquo;Lemieux had great skills,&rdquo; Forsberg says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably the best 1-on-l player ever. He owned players. I don&rsquo;t really own players. He was one of those guys who could do anything with the puck. And Gretzky, he&rsquo;s both a shooter and a passer. You never really know what he&rsquo;s going to do. He&rsquo;s the best ever.&rdquo;Forsberg, who had a league-leading 30 assists and 39 points in 29 games, has integrated a working class element into his playmaking genius. He buys the time and space all great playmakers need with spectacular puck possession and protection skills. &ldquo;Peter thrives on the 1-on-l battles when the defenseman is hanging on him and chopping him and clubbing away at him,&rdquo; says Avalanche defenseman Uwe Krupp. &ldquo;Then he puts his head up and finds an opening.&rdquo;Add sturdiness on skates and dogged determination-Forsberg&rsquo;s game is a cats and dogs combination-and you have the makings of the consummate partner for linemates Valeri Kamensky and Claude Lemieux, two accomplished goal-scorers.Forsberg is shooting more than ever-averaging three shots per game-but he says Kamensky and Lemieux are better marksmen. Undeniably, they comprise a dangerous trio, teaming Lemieux&rsquo;s tenaciousness and Kamensky&rsquo;s high-end skill with Forsberg&rsquo;s blend of both.The center&rsquo;s natural inclination is to draw defenders toward him-forcing opponents to double-team him-and then exploit uneven player match-ups that result elsewhere.&ldquo;I try to make a move on their &lsquo;D&rsquo; and then go to the net,&rdquo; Forsberg explains. &ldquo;Usually Val or Claude is open because the other &lsquo;D&rsquo; has got to jump at me. so I usually dish it off. Claude is really good at releasing his &lsquo;D&rsquo; when I come to the net and get open, instead of picking the &lsquo;D.&rsquo; &ldquo;Lemieux had 10 goals and Kamensky, 11. Forsberg was on pace to collect 82 assists. Should he win the assist title, it could be the first of many. It&rsquo;s certainly not something he dwells on. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather win the goal-scoring,&rdquo; he says slyly.Goals have not come as easily to Forsberg, yet he is immortalized in Swedish hockey history not for a deft pass, but the gold medal-winning goal at the 1994 Olympics. (He had 28 goals in 65 games last year and was on pace for 25 this season.) Forsberg is sure to be in the Olympic spotlight again in February as a leader of the defending champs.In the meantime, he and THN cover boy Nicklas Lidstrom give a distinct Swedish flavor to our holiday season. There&rsquo;s no better time to honor hockey&rsquo;s most gifted defenseman and its most giving forward.From all of us at THN, Season&rsquo;s Greetings. &#9632;

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Forsberg now NHL’s ultimate passing fancy

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011661/6753827-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="312" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Gartner</figcaption></div><h2>December December/January Milestones To Be Announced</h2><h3>DECEMBER</h3>Sat., Dec. 13-Sat., Dec. 20: American, Canadian and Finnish women&rsquo;s national teams compete in the Three Nations Cup in Lake Placid, N.Y. and Eastern Ontario.Sun., Dec. 14-Thur., Dec. 18: The U.S. national junior team final selection camp is in Hackensack, N.J. The Canadian selection camp is in Kitchener, Ont., Dec. 11-17.Thur., Dec. 25-Sat., Jan. 3: Canada is aiming for its sixth straight World Junior Championship in Helsinki. The U.S. finished second last year. Ten teams are in the A Pool event. Mon., Dec. 29-Sun., Jan. 4: The U.S., Ontario, Quebec, Sweden and Czech Republic compete for the Under-17 International Championship in Kitchener, Ont.<h3>MILESTONES</h3>700 goals: Mike Gartner of Phoenix needed two goals to hit 700 goals, a plateau reached by only four others in NHL history.600 goals: Jari Kurri of Colorado needed two goals and Dino Ciccarelli of Tampa Bay needed 10 goals to hit 600 goals.<h3>TO BE ANNOUNCED</h3>Women&rsquo;s Olympic Team: The U.S. is scheduled to name its team shortly after completion of the Three Nations Cup.THN Top 50 Players of All-Time: THN is publishing a special magazine naming the Top 50 Players in NHL history. Press conferences are set for Jan. 9. &#9632;

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CALENDAR

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011591/6753903-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="343" height="431"></div>So, from how far out of the wild blue yonder was the Mighty Ducks&rsquo; signing of Paul Kariya?Well, by late afternoon Dec. 10, Kariya&rsquo;s agent Don Baizley was telling inquiring minds, in all sincerity, that there was nothing new to report in the standoff. Several hours later, the Kariyan War was over, with the Ducks offering unconditional surrender.The next day, Anaheim and Kariya announced an agreement on a two-year deal that will cost the Ducks $14 million, $12 million of which ends up in the player&rsquo;s pocket. The other $2 million-effectively Kariya&rsquo;s retroactive pay for the 32 games he missed-will be disbursed, at Kariya&rsquo;s request, to Orange County charities.Kariya practised with the Ducks Dec. 11 and was in the lineup Dec. 12, when Anaheim played host to the Washington Capitals, led by former Ducks&rsquo; coach Ron Wilson.&lsquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you how quickly it all came about,&rdquo; the Winnipeg-based Baizley told The Hockey News. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been carting my Paul Kariya file with me everywhere I&rsquo;ve gone for weeks now. When I left the office (Dec. 10), I didn&rsquo;t even bother to take it home with me because I didn&rsquo;t expect anything was going to happen. Sure enough, we started trading phone calls that night, something got done and I didn&rsquo;t even have the file home with me.&rdquo;The settlement was nothing if not stunning, which might be a predictable rationalization for a publication which three weeks ago ran a cover story detailing why the Ducks&rsquo; star was &ldquo;not likely&rdquo; to play in the NHL this season.But then no one could have predicted the Walt Disney-owned Ducks would not only compromise their position but completely abandon it.The Ducks were adamant the contract be for not less than five years. They were also loathe to award Kariya an unprecedented salary-any-thing over $7 million annually-that would set a new pay standard and escalate payrolls across the league.They caved on both counts. The issue of term was most unusual. The Ducks wanted five years. Kariya wanted three. They settled on two? Unbelievable.Kariya&rsquo;s official annual salary for this season is $5.5 million, tied for the NHL&rsquo;s fifth highest. That&rsquo;s where Kariya compromised because he was looking for more than $7 million. It&rsquo;s the only compromise he had to make.Of the $5.5 million. $2 million goes to the charities. That was Kariya&rsquo;s idea. He knew he wasn&rsquo;t truly entitled to the retroactive pay, but didn&rsquo;t want the Ducks earning a financial reward for having taken a hard line for 32 games.Next season, though, Kariya&rsquo;s annual salary jumps to $8.5 million, which, until further notice, would make him the league&rsquo;s highest-paid player. That figure raises the bar in the NHL&rsquo;s ongoing salary spiral.Next up is Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers. He is in the final year of a contract that pays him $3.7 million annually. He&rsquo;s seeking a new short-term (two or three years) pact that will take him as high as $10 million annually. Negotiations are ongoing and could be completed before the end of the season. Whatever the outcome, Kariya&rsquo;s short term will allow him to return to the table quickly enough to capitalize on the Lindros deal.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021144/6753896-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="1871" height="1676"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Kariya insisted roughly a third of his $5.5 million salary be donated to charity. (Photo by Steve Babineau/SA)</figcaption></div>And the next time he negotiates with the Ducks, Kariya will be entitled to salary arbitration. Because of his age (23) and inexperience (three NHL seasons), that option wasn&rsquo;t available to him this time around.Where will it all end? No one can say for sure, but industry insiders expect the Kariya-Lindros tandem-with Colorado&rsquo;s Peter Forsberg getting into the mix at the end of next season-could drive the superstar pay ceiling as high as $15 million or $16 million annually before any of them turns 30.Now, there are only three unsigned NHL free agents-center Sergei Fedorov in Detroit, defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky in Phoenix and center Petr Nedved in Pittsburgh. Kariya&rsquo;s signing won&rsquo;t be a catalyst for them, although Tverdovsky looked as though he was zeroing in on a new deal.The Ducks will rationalize this new Kariya contract on the basis of average salary. At $14 million over two years, $7 million is not unprecedented. It&rsquo;s what the New York Rangers awarded Joe Sakic on a free-agent offer sheet that the Colorado Avalanche matched. The Ducks desperately wanted to be good NHL citizens and, like everyone else, can blame the Rangers for creating $7 million monsters.But the real question is why. Why, after almost a half season of waging all-out war, did the Ducks throw in the towel?Some said it was record related, that it was because the Ducks were struggling with a 11-156 mark just prior to the signing and couldn&rsquo;t score goals, witness being shut out five times in their previous 12 games. Unquestionably, the weight of Kariya&rsquo;s absence was dragging down the franchise, especially superstar Teemu Selanne. He was growing increasingly frustrated, both with the abuse he was taking on the ice and the sense the organization was prepared to hang Kariya out to dry.But that&rsquo;s micro-economics in what was clearly a macro-economic issue. Disney chief Michael Eisner and Ducks&rsquo; president Tony Tavares were much more concerned with the big picture-holding the line on salaries on behalf of the league-than they were the smaller one-worrying about the day-to-day fluctuations of the Ducks&rsquo; fortunes.More than the Ducks&rsquo; inability to score, settlement likely came about because the dispute was getting close to the point of no return. Kariya was scheduled to fly to Switzerland Dec. 15 to join Canada&rsquo;s national team as part of his efforts to get himself game ready for the Nagano Olympics.&ldquo;If I had gone to Switzerland,&rdquo; Kariya said, &ldquo;my focus would have been totally on the Olympics.&rdquo;&ldquo;There were several proposals on the table at the time,&rdquo; Ducks&rsquo; GM Jack Ferreira said, &ldquo;and we said, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s do one of these because he&rsquo;s going to go to the Olympics and might not play for the rest of the season.&rsquo; &ldquo;If he didn&rsquo;t play this season, chances are he would never again play for the Ducks.Eisner and Tavares, for all their intentions to take the hard line, were confronted by the harsh reality of a Mighty Duck franchise minus Kariya. Forever. That obviously didn&rsquo;t appeal to them.So the Ducks caved in on term, got some concessions on this year&rsquo;s salary and gave Kariya a clear win next season. If the Ducks intend to retain their right to match when Kariya becomes a restricted free agent once again (at the end of next season), they must make a one-year qualifying offer of at least $8.5 million.What would make more sense, though, is to not put themselves back in the same uncomfortable position they&rsquo;ve been in for the past six months. And the way to do that is by, no later than the coming off-season, work out a new long-term (at least four years) deal that reflects the basic truth that emerged from the surprising settlement of Dec. 10.That is, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim simply are not prepared to live life without Paul Kariya.If their rhetoric allows it to happen one more time, there is but one conclusion to draw.They&rsquo;re quackers.<h2>1997-98 Top Ten Salaries</h2>Paul Kariya&rsquo;s new two-year deal with Anaheim worth $14 million puts him in the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 this season and No. 1 at $8.5 million next season. Sakic and Gratton&rsquo;s 1997-98 salaries are disproportional because of huge signing bonuses.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03745/6753889-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="584" height="449"></div> &#9632;

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Kariyan War Ends

<div class="byline">By John Davidson Inside the NHL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011766/6753934-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="314" height="384"></div>If NHL players were able to show as much creativity in scoring goals as people are in trying to get them to score more of them, we wouldn&rsquo;t be in this position in the first place.Scoring hasn&rsquo;t been this low since the late &lsquo;60s and while nobody seems to be able to bury the biscuit, everybody seems to have a suggestion on how to bring it back into the 1990s.Removing the red line to eliminate offside passes and moving the goal lines out three or four feet to decrease the size of the neutral zone are well known. But here are a couple of suggestions you may not have heard:&#9633; Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke sees merit in raising the crossbar five inches above its current four-foot height. The thinking there is the net has been the same size since the days goaltenders were 5-foot-2 and wore primitive equipment.&#9633; Ed Chynoweth, GM of the WHL Edmonton Ice, advocates adding a line across the ice at the top of the end faceoff circles. Once a player passes it with the puck he could make a pass across the red line with impunity.&#9633; Former NHLer and Colorado Avalanche analyst Peter McNab suggests removing limits on stick curves. The rule was designed to protect goalies, but they hardly need it now.&#9633; Dallas Stars&rsquo; GM Bob Gainey would like to see travel restrictions on goalies. Most teams now force their opponents to dump the puck, which leads to goalies simply skating out to retrieve it before firing it back out.New York Rangers&rsquo; goalie Mike Richter, though, says people can&rsquo;t see the forest for the trees. He calls all of these secondary issues and points out that the focus should be on getting speed back in the game. When the National Basketball Association saw a drop in scoring, it didn&rsquo;t make the hoops bigger or the balls smaller, it outlawed zone defenses.Shots and scoring chances are down. Fans don&rsquo;t want 10-10 games, but they do want more action around the net. According to Richter, those won&rsquo;t be created by higher crossbars, banana blades or goalies chained to their posts.Speed is what brings people out of their seats. It gets television announcers excited and it creates scoring chances.And we have to find a way to get it back. &#9632;

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Speed will help NHL reach common

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021206/6753965-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Allison is flourishing with added responsibility in Boston. (Photo by Steve Babineau/SA)</figcaption></div>Jason Allison isn&rsquo;t saying he&rsquo;s going to win an NHL scoring title one day.But the Boston Bruins&rsquo; center does admit he dreams about it.&ldquo;If I finish in the top 50 scorers this season then next year I&rsquo;ll aim at the top 30.&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;If I get that the next year I&rsquo;ll try to be in the top 10&hellip;then the top five. I always try to out-do myself. That&rsquo;s what motivates me.&rdquo;Allison is the first to admit his first three pro seasons have been a disappointment. The Canadian Hockey League player of the year with the Ontario League&rsquo;s London Knights in 1994 was drafted 17th overall by the Washington Capitals, but never quite found a home on Capitol Hill. Traded to the Bruins last season along with Anson Carter and goalie Jim Carey for veterans Bill Ranford, Rick Tocchet and Adam Oates, Allison has been thrust into the role of No. 1 center.And Allison is responding rather well. Through 31 games Allison led the Bruins in scoring with 10 goals and 29 points.In Washington, when Allison dressed for games, more often than not he was slotted in the No. 3 or 4 center position and didn&rsquo;t get the quality ice time he needed to be an effective scorer. That hasn&rsquo;t been a problem with the Bruins.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel before this year I had a chance to prove myself at this level,&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not blaming the Capitals, it was circumstances.&rdquo;Allison had more than the Capitals&rsquo; depth working against him. He made Washington as a 19-year-old, but it was the lockout year. He didn&rsquo;t play much once the season started and the next year, it was the same story. He figures in those two seasons it was almost like being out of the game for a year. Not playing was killing him physically and mentally so he requested a trip to the minors and he managed 69 points in 57 games with Portland of the American League. Last year, he got off to a terrific start with the Capitals scoring five goals and 10 points in the first 10 games. Eventually his playing time decreased and so did his production.With Boston, Allison is definitely an improved player, but he isn&rsquo;t out of the woods yet. He has been something of a whipping boy for coach Pat Bums who is convinced Allison can be a point-to a point-and-a-half per game player.&ldquo;A point-and-a-half per game?&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s 120 points. There were only two 100 point players in the league last season. Who knows, maybe I can get to that level.&rdquo;Clearly, Burns believes Allison is capable of being a consistent point producer. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s not unusual for Burns to light into Allison and his linemates, left winger Ted Drury and right winger Steven Heinze, even if the Bruins are ahead a goal or two and their line has all the goals.&ldquo;He could be an amazing player if he wants to be,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m on him quite a bit, I know that. But he has responded well. He can take it. I went to him and said, &lsquo;If I can tell you when you&rsquo;re playing well, why can&rsquo;t I tell you when I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;re playing well?&rsquo; I&rsquo;ll keep after him as long as I have to because we need him playing his best.&rdquo;Allison said he can live with Bums&rsquo; harassment because, &ldquo;unlike in Washington, I know when I make a mistake, he&rsquo;ll put me back out, not sit me, so I can make amends.&rdquo;The knock on Allison has always been his skating. The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder compensates for his lack of speed in other areas. For starters, he has good balance and is touch to knock off the puck. That makes him especially dangerous down low, where he is often known to tread, and along the boards.&ldquo;He has tremendous hands,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s really strong on the puck. Physical play doesn&rsquo;t affect him. In fact, he goes right to the traffic areas.&rdquo;Allison is also a very intelligent player who has a book on just about all his opponents. He said when he steps on the ice, the first thing he does is check who he&rsquo;s out against.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s important to know players&rsquo; trends,&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;The first think I do when I step on the ice is take a quick check of who I&rsquo;m out against. If I&rsquo;m out against an all-star and a rookie, which side do you think I&rsquo;m going to head when I hit the blueline?&rdquo;Allison said he is satisfied with his improvement, but doesn&rsquo;t feel he has come close to showing what he can do yet.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting there, but I&rsquo;m not there yet,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know I haven&rsquo;t been consistent. That&rsquo;s the part of my game that needs the most work-consistency.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Allison wonderland

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>While NHL scouts have their eyes trained on hockey&rsquo;s best prospects, Lewis Mongelluzzo and his staff at Powerplay International are looking out for No. 2 and 3 and so on.The third-year scouting service last season compiled an 1,100-page report on the top 254 U.S. and Canadian college/university seniors and major junior overage players. A dozen minor pro teams, mainly in the East Coast League, bought PPI&rsquo;s service in much the same way NHL teams buy into the Central Scouting Bureau.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03741/6753996-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="264" height="417"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lew Mongelluzzo</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Lew&rsquo;s report is my dictionary,&rdquo; said Terry Christensen, coach/director of operations for the ECHL&rsquo;s Tallahassee Tiger Sharks. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good evaluator of talent. I have confidence in his analysis of players.&rdquo;Mongelluzzo is a former player, college coach and Quebec Nordique scout who launched PPI in 1995.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a need for minor pro teams to recruit incoming players,&rdquo; said Mongelluzzo, 38. &ldquo;Since most can&rsquo;t afford their own scouting staff, this is a cost effective way to know the best players out there.&rdquo;Because minor pro teams simply sign free agents rather than draft them like in the NHL, Mongelluzzo limits the number of reports he sells, so as to maintain a modicum of exclusivity.This season, PPI is also scouting players born in 1981 and 1982 and will prepare a similar report for up to 40 Canadian Hockey League teams to use for their midget drafts and 20 U.S. college division I teams for recruiting. It&rsquo;s due out in April. &#9632;

f0006-03

Scouting Lew knows who’s who

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011605/6754027-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Neal Broten&rsquo;s standout amateur and pro career made him one of four Lester Patrick Award winners.</figcaption></div>Neal Broten, Max McNab, Peter Karmanos and John Mayasich are 1988 recipients of the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.Broten, who hasn&rsquo;t yet officially retired from the NHL, was the first U.S.-born player to score more than 100 points in a season (105 with the Minnesota North Stars in 1985-86.)The 38-year-old Roseau, Minn., native was a member of the 1980 &lsquo;Miracle On Ice&rsquo; U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal. He later captured the Hobey Baker Award as the most outstanding U.S. college player in 1981 and won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 1995.McNab has done just about everything during more than 50 years in hockey-from player to coach to GM to executive. He played four seasons with the Detroit Red Wings winning a Stanley Cup in 1950, coached and managed in the Western Pro League, was GM of the Washington Capitals, then GM and later executive vice-president of the New Jersey Devils.Karmanos is the chief executive officer and governor of the Carolina Hurricanes and has been a generous sponsor of amateur hockey in the Detroit area for 23 years.Mayasich was a member of the 1960 U.S. gold medal-winning Olympic team and is considered one of the finest amateur players ever produced in the U.S.The winners will be honored at a ceremony this spring. (See pg. 36 for list of Patrick Award winners since 1966.)OLYMPIAN TASK: The NHL announced the league officials who will work the 1998 Winter Olympics.As first reported in the Oct. 24 issue of The Hockey News, the Nagano-bound officials are: referees Mark Faucette, Kerry Fraser and Bill McCreary and linesmen Gord Broseker, Kevin Collins, Gerard Gauthier and Ray Scapinello. Referee Dan Marouelli and linesman Brian Murphy were selected alternates.The nine NHL officials will be joined by six referees and nine linesmen from International Ice Hockey Federation nations. &#9632;

f0007-01

Broten among award recipients

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>A hazing incident involving members of the Kingsville (Ont.) Comets is being investigated by the Ontario Hockey Association.Lawyer Patrick Ducharme launched a complaint on behalf of a parent of a boy who was allegedly forced to strip naked and run a gauntlet of their teammates.Ducharme detailed the player&rsquo;s allegations in a letter to the Canadian and Ontario hockey associations about a team bus trip last season.&ldquo;The rookies on the team were required to take their clothes off and forced to enter a washroom at the back of the bus, together, naked,&rdquo; Ducharme wrote. &ldquo;My understanding is that this necessitated very close contact between the players because of the limited space.&ldquo;Each rookie was called out of the washroom individually and required to walk to the front of the bus.&rdquo;NHL NO SHOWS: Five junior-aged NHL players will be no-shows for Canada at the World Junior Championship.Joe Thornton (Boston Bruins), Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks), Boyd Devereaux (Edmonton Oilers), Derek Morris (Calgary Flames) and Chris Phillips (Ottawa Senators) will stick with their NHL teams rather than play in the WJC Dec. 25 to Jan. 3 in Finland.Canada added 18-year-old center Alex Tanguay to its 32-man invitational list. The five-time defending champions will announce a final roster Dec. 17. &#9632;

Association investigates hazing ritual

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021082/6754082-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="384" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body">(THN file photo)</figcaption></div>The toughest spot in hockey? It may be the one Larry Pleau, the first-year GM of the St. Louis Blues, finds himself in as the NHL approaches mid-season.There is Pleau, with one of the league&rsquo;s top teams and the clear knowledge his chances of keeping it together beyond July are slim. Pleau could conceivably lose his top five players as unrestricted free agents. They would be goaltender Grant Fuhr, who has an escape clause if he wants to exercise it, plus Brett Hull, Al MacInnis, Steve Duchesne and Geoff Courtnall, all of whom can walk away from the Blues-free and clear-next summer.And there&rsquo;s not much Pleau can do, except try to coax a couple to stay. In the old days, the Blues&rsquo; solution was to throw enough money around to keep them all satisfied. Now, however, they are entering an era of fiscal prudence. There&rsquo;s a fine line there, however. You can also fiscally prudence your way right to the bottom of the NHL standings, if every transaction is motivated primarily by dollar considerations.Hull has been in St. Louis for 11 years, but before that, he turned pro in Calgary. Once upon a time, the Flames were also a team that bought up all the available free agents. Now, everywhere Hull turns, he sees ex-Flames leading their teams in scoring. Robert Reichel in Long Island. Gary Roberts in Carolina. Dave Gagner in Florida. Joe Nieuwendyk will soon pass injured Mike Modano in Dallas. He and MacInnis are one-three in St. Louis.Hull says there have been no attempts by the Blues to sign him beyond this season. He has no idea if the plan is to keep the team together through the playoffs.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a question for management,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a decision they&rsquo;re going to have to make, as well as the players. Are we, as players, willing to take less to stay? Or are they willing to pay fair-market value?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to imagine them being able to keep the five or six of us. It&rsquo;s not like it&rsquo;s just a regular five or six. You&rsquo;ve got one Hall Of Famer and all-stars and Olympians.&rdquo;In some ways, the decision would have been easier if the Blues had gone into the tank, instead of starting so fast. That would have given them pretext to make wholesale changes. Instead, the Blues have become a fourth elite team in a conference that was only supposed to have three- the Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done what we&rsquo;ve done without Pierre Turgeon for twenty some games,&rdquo; MacInnis said.Logically, the Blues will hold it together at least through the end of the season. Of late, the teams that have acquired unrestricted free agents at the deadline were burned for their troubles. Ed Belfour bolted from San Jose; Wayne Gretzky left St. Louis, Phil Housley didn&rsquo;t re-sign with New Jersey. So GMs, once bitten, will be shier now in what they&rsquo;ll pony up to rent a player&rsquo;s services for one-to-three months.&ldquo;If we got something good going here, maybe they&rsquo;ll go out and try to get us a little more depth,&rdquo; MacInnis said. &ldquo;What are they going to get for a 34-year-old defenseman? Really? Especially after what happened with Gretzky here. So if I&rsquo;m going to get traded, or Hully, we would have to probably agree to a new contract with that team. Because what&rsquo;s a team going to give up for two months? Probably not a lot.&rdquo;No, probably not. So the challenge is to seize the moment. Because once spending restrictions override hockey decisions, things can get grim in a hurry. &#9632;

f0007-02

COLUMNISTS

Tough decisions for Blues’ rookie GM

I couldn&rsquo;t believe Kirk Muller got just a two-game suspension for his slash on Niklas Sundstrom and two years ago Tie Domi got eight games for a punch.Does the NHL have two rulebooks, one for players such as Muller and another for players such as Domi? I&rsquo;ve been saying for years now when it comes to suspensions, it&rsquo;s not what you did, but who you are.Nick Pavlakovic, Bowmanville, Ont.<h2>We were offended</h2>I am writing in reference to Bob McKenzie&rsquo;s Puck Primer in the Nov. 28 issue.In recounting an incident involving Kerry and Theo Fleury, McKenzie wrote &ldquo;the referee players most like to dislike (unofficial poll) is veteran Kerry Fraser,&rdquo; and then went on to say, &ldquo;chances are remote anyone will admit to being offended.&rdquo;Both are wrong.What Mr. McKenzie needs to know is that I, as his wife, along with his seven children, were deeply offended at the entire substance of the article.Kerry is not only the most senior referee in the NHL, but I believe, one of the most respected. It has been often stated in the media and to me personally that he is also among the most consistent in his calling of penalties. He has a tremendous rapport with the players and coaches alike, except of course when he calls them for breaking the rules of the game-which is, by the way, simply his job.To make public statement of the reported &ldquo;gutter references to one&rsquo;s sexual preferences&rdquo; made by Fleury to Kerry is shameful. It is demeaning to both Kerry and Mr. Fleury.It is not uncommon in a game to have players respond in anger with foul language and lewd references. It is Kerry&rsquo;s job to penalize them when they do.Kerry&rsquo;s mother and father were also offended, along with the thousands of NHL players past and present, coaches and fans (unofficial poll), who have nothing but respect for Kerry Fraser both as a referee and a person.Kathy Fraser, Voorhees, N.J.<h2>What a way to go</h2>I am appalled at the way the New Jersey Devils have treated their players over the years, but to see the way John MacLean is being treated by them sickens me.MacLean has played his heart out for this team for 14 years and requested a trade, so the Devils left him to sit at home.The Lou Lamoriello-Jacques Lemaire attitude of &ldquo;Holier than Thou&rdquo; is one reason why I would never become a Devils&rsquo; fan, even though I live in New Jersey.I hope MacLean gets traded to a team which will appreciate this great player.Joanna Truedsson, Belle Meade, N.J.<h2>Thanks, Mac</h2>I have a message for John MacLean.Thank you. Thank you for the great 14 years. Thank you for giving us something to cheer about during the bad times and thank you for giving us a hero and sportsman to look up to during the good times.People outside of New Jersey will never realize what you meant to our franchise and our state. When you playing days are over, I hope to see your No. 15 hanging from the rafters where it belongs.Joe Caramagna, Elmwood, Park, N.J.<h2>Ginal inspiration</h2>I am a 27-year-old amputee (right leg, below knee) who has a love for hockey. Your inspiring article on Harvard goalie Michael Ginal (THN, Dec. 12) shows us amputees are capable of anything.Rather than treating it as a handicap, we see it as a minor inconvenience. Thank you for showing everyone that missing a limb doesn&rsquo;t necessarily have to mean your sports life is over.Don Cardoza, Oakland, N.J.<h2>This smells funny</h2>It&rsquo;s bad enough Bob Clarke left Mark Messier off the Canadian Olympic team, despite the fact Messier is possibly the greatest leader in team sports.But how can he name Eric Lindros, who hasn&rsquo;t won anything, team captain? This is especially galling when you consider the players on the team who have lead their NHL teams to the Stanley Cup. Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic and Scott Stevens all did it and Wayne Gretzky captained the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup four times.It sounds to me like Flyers&rsquo; GM Clarke has already started working on his upcoming contract negotiations with Flyers&rsquo; center Lindros.Gregg Boermerman,&nbsp; Freehold, N.J.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-1641&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, 777 Bay SL, Suite 2700, Box 148, Toronto, Ont, M5G 2N8&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 142409947.&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;

Does league operate with two rulebooks?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011659/6754137-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

Blueshirt contingency plan If New York Ranger GM Neil Smith has to bow to pressure from above to replace coach Colin Campbell, the two leading candidates to succeed him are assistant GM John Paddock and former Philadelphia coach Terry Murray, who is now pro-scouting for the Flyers.Tverdovsky Tvalks Though they were having a tough time closing a seemingly insignificant $200,000 difference on a one-year deal, Coyotes&rsquo; GM Bobby Smith and the Russian defenseman&rsquo;s agent, Don Meehan, were talking often enough in mid-December to suggest a deal will be reached before Christmas.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021291/6754168-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="373" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Burns</figcaption></div>Brother, can you spare a dime Colorado&rsquo;s Joe Sakic is receiving $17 million this season, about $207,000 per game. His brother Brian is receiving $400 per game playing for Flint in the United (nee Colonial) League.Fast burn Bombastic Bruin coach Pat Bums has been known to ride his players hard. When it was suggested he had better be careful in light of the Latrell Sprewell incident in the NBA, he chuckled and said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve told my players if they come at me, they better knock me out with the first punch because if they don&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ll grab the closest thing to me and beat them to death.&rdquo;The trading post After going 5-3-2 in Mike Keenan&rsquo;s first 10 games in Vancouver, the Canucks lost four straight and the need for a blueline overhaul became acute. Alexander Mogilny or Martin Gelinas was expected to be moved for defensive help. There was revived talk of Mogilny to the Rangers for forward Alexei Kovalev and defenceman Alexander Karpovtsev. One way or another, one or two new defensemen will soon arrive in Vancouver. &#9632;

f0008-02

What you need to know about the 1997-98 season

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011577/6754199-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nicklas Lidstrom has responded well to added responsibilities with the Red Wings. (Photo by Rocky Widner)</figcaption></div>If Nicklas Lidtsrom really were Saint Nick, chances are nobody would get anything for Christmas.As delightful as the 27-year-old Swede is, he rarely has anything to do with giveaways-no matter what the time of season. The trusty Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; defenseman has been the NHL&rsquo;s most consistent performer at his position this year.He stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 190 pounds, yet because he is quiet and unassuming, you don&rsquo;t often notice him until he leaps into the play. Then you can&rsquo;t take your eyes off him.Lidstrom, who will anchor Team Sweden&rsquo;s defense at the Olympics in Nagano, led all defensemen with 11 goals. Al MacInnis of the St. Louis Blues, Bryan Berard of the New York Islanders and Calle Johansson of the Washington Capitals had 10 each.&ldquo;His offense is very surprising,&rdquo; said Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman. &ldquo;We usually match him against the other team&rsquo;s top offensive line. His main job is to prevent goals, not score them. He&rsquo;s not always in offensive situations.&rdquo;Yet scoring goals is nothing new for Lidstrom. He has had seasons of 17 and 15 goals and was on pace for 30 this year. Perhaps more amazingly, his six penalty minutes made him a leading candidate to win the Lady Byng Trophy as the league&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player. No defenseman since Red Kelly of the Detroit Red Wings in 1960-61 has pulled off the feat.And more importantly, Lidstrom is making his presence felt around the league. On a flight home from Boston, members of the Dallas Stars were discussing the first quarter and leading contenders for the major awards.&ldquo;A number of our guys put him down not only as the best defenseman, but also as the Hart Trophy (most valuable player) winner,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s how highly he&rsquo;s regarded.&rdquo;Lidstrom would settle for becoming the first European to win the Norris Trophy as best defenseman. He placed sixth in voting last year, while teammate Vladimir Konstantinov finished second to New York Rangers&rsquo; Brian Leetch.&ldquo;I think it would be a real big deal back home because it has never been done before,&rdquo; Lidstrom said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a little too early to be talking about it. It&rsquo;s a long season and we still have the Olympics to get through.&rdquo;The defending Stanley Cup champions have undergone a facelift because of the car crash that ended the career of Konstantinov and center Sergei Fedorov&rsquo;s ongoing contract dispute. The loss of Konstantinov has done two things; put pressure on Lidstrom to carry more of the weight on the blueline and brought into sharper focus his skill level.A member of the NHL all-rookie team in 1991-92 when he broke in with 11 goals and 60 points, Lidstrom has averaged 12 goals a year in five seasons. When Lidstrom got off to a slow start last season, some thought his game suffered slightly because he was constantly paired with inexperienced youngsters Anders Eriksson, Jamie Pushor and Mathieu Dandenault.Bowman noticed something else.&ldquo;He told me my shots were too high,&rdquo; Lidstrom said. &ldquo;They were getting on net, but when I didn&rsquo;t score, there weren&rsquo;t any rebounds.&rdquo;Lidstrom is not an overly physical player-last season&rsquo;s 30 penalty minutes were the most he has accumulated in a season-but he plays the man and the puck with precision. And his shot, while not overpowering like McInnis&rsquo;, is quick and accurate. When the Red Wings acquired veteran defenseman Larry Murphy from the Toronto Maple Leafs last season, they immediately teamed him with Lidstrom and the two have been a prolific pairing at even strength and on the power play.In fact, by time the Red Wings met the Flyers in the final, Lidstrom had surpassed Konstantinov on the Detroit blueline logging upwards of 28 minutes per game. Konstantinov played slightly less.&ldquo;When you have two good defensemen on a team they share the accolades,&rdquo; said Red Wings&rsquo; GM Ken Holland. &ldquo;Vlad&rsquo;s gone and now Nick is the guy. At the same time he&rsquo;s getting more ice time and he has stepped up his game and taken charge. He&rsquo;s a pro&rsquo;s pro. There&rsquo;s no maintenance with Nick. Just tell him what time the practices and games are and he shows up ready to work.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Giveaways never in season

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021114/6754230-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="384" height="507"></div>Get Colin Campbell anything you wish for Christmas. Anything, that is, but a tie.The New York Rangers&rsquo; coach had 11 already; and that&rsquo;s just this season. The underachieving Rangers were tying games at a record pace, drawing even with the opposition nearly once every three games. That included four in one recent five-game stretch.And those ties could very well become a noose around Campbell&rsquo;s neck if the pattern continues. &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m not crazy about ties, but they&rsquo;re better than losses,&rdquo; Campbell said.If a tie is like kissing your sister, then today&rsquo;s NHL is downright incestuous. With ticket prices going up and scoring going down, perhaps the NHL should consider encouraging more fighting. That&rsquo;s the only thing bringing fans out of their seats these days.The NHL record for most ties in a season is 24, set by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1969-70. The Rangers were on pace for 28.The NHL record for most ties in a season is 165, set in 1980-81 during an 840 game season. That was prior to 1983-84 when the NHL went to a five-minute overtime period in a bid to break ties. This year, in a 1,066-game schedule, the league was on pace for 172.The Rangers&rsquo; inability to settle tie games could keep them out of the playoffs and had vultures circling over Campbell. Campbell said in today&rsquo;s NHL, when goals are so hard to come by, the single point a team receives in a tie is too valuable to risk losing.&ldquo;If it&rsquo;s a tie game with eight or nine minutes to go, we just try to hold on,&rdquo; Campbell said.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way we&rsquo;ll open things up to try for a goal. We don&rsquo;t have a game-breaker at this point. And we don&rsquo;t have a defenseman who is offensively producing, so when we&rsquo;re in a tight game we don&rsquo;t even think about going for it.&rdquo;Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach Mike Murphy agreed: &ldquo;My team can build on a point; we can&rsquo;t build on a loss.&rdquo;Marc Crawford, coach of the powerful Colorado Avalanche who had eight ties in 31 games, said, &ldquo;We always go for the win without trying to sacrifice the tie.&rdquo;The time has come for the NHL to follow the International League&rsquo;s lead and award each team a point after regulation time. IHL teams play an overtime period and if a team scores, it earns an extra point. This is not a new idea, but one whose time has arrived. Guaranteeing each team a point would encourage them to open things up in overtime. As it is now, teams continue to maintain a defensive posture in an effort not to lose the game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a traditionalist, but we have to find ways to make the games more exciting,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;People come to be entertained. Our overtime games have not been entertaining because we&rsquo;re still playing for the point.&rdquo;If the NHL isn&rsquo;t going to do something to spice up overtime, then at least extend the extra period to 11 minutes and 13 seconds. That&rsquo;s how often goals are scored in today&rsquo;s NHL. &#9632;

f0009-02

No more Christmas ties…please

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011477/6754292-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Murphy gets a thrill out of quickly sizing up a situation and making the right choice. (Photo by Claus Andersen/BBS)</figcaption></div>Larry Murphy&rsquo;s admission that he&rsquo;s not the fastest man on two feet doesn&rsquo;t qualify him as a genius. But the speed at which his mind works, well, that&rsquo;s another story.&ldquo;For me,&rdquo; the 36-year-old Detroit Red Wing defenseman said, &ldquo;being in the right place at the right time is without a doubt the most important part of my game.&ldquo;As long as I can remember, that&rsquo;s how I&rsquo;ve had to play because I&rsquo;ve never had blazing speed. No one has to tell me what has kept me in the game all these years.&rdquo;Brain power.There&rsquo;s more to it than that, of course.Red Wings&rsquo; coach Scott Bowman said Murphy&rsquo;s intelligence, and speed limitations, are obvious and the most deceiving aspect of Murphy&rsquo;s game is his competitiveness.&ldquo;Larry&rsquo;s personality off the ice really fools a lot of people,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really quite intense, very competitive during games and even in practices, too, but he has that ability to turn it off the minute the game is over. It&rsquo;s like he&rsquo;s able to instantly relax.&rdquo;Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs would suggest he was too relaxed too often. His two seasons in Toronto were the only time during a stellar Hall-of-Fame calibre career that he wasn&rsquo;t one of the league&rsquo;s premier defensemen. And he has three Stanley Cup rings, two from Pittsburgh and one from Detroit, to prove it. He was especially instrumental in the Wings&rsquo; Cup final win over the Philadelphia Flyers last spring, after being given away by Toronto at the trade deadline.He and Nicklas Lidstrom-No. 55 and No. 5, the Wings&rsquo; Nickel Defense-went head-to-head against swift-skating giants Eric Lindros and John LeClair. They were virtually flawless in shutting down the Flyers.Brains beat brawn hands down. Murphy epitomized grace under pressure.His strength is an uncanny ability to read the play almost before it develops and position himself to take advantage of his anticipation.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of awareness,&rdquo; Murphy said.&ldquo;You have to size up a situation and make your decisions in a flash. You&rsquo;re not always going to be right.&rdquo;But Murphy is right more than he&rsquo;s wrong. And it&rsquo;s not as if it&rsquo;s a guessing game either or that it has only come with experience. He has always been able to immediately size up a situation.For example, Murphy will take note if he&rsquo;s on the ice against a real speedster. If that player gets the puck, Murphy makes a beeline to take away time and space and confront him before he gets into full flight. There&rsquo;s no room for hesitation, Murphy said, because of his own lack of foot speed.If, however, the opponent is physically stronger than the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Murphy, the defenseman will almost always back off and fight a battle of position.&ldquo;The stronger the guy, the better position you better have,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t afford to give him a half step to the net or he&rsquo;ll muscle you out of the way. You have to put yourself directly between him and the net.&rdquo;Playing high-speed mental gymnastics while trying to read the play defensively is a thrill for Murphy, arguably as stimulating as creating offense. And with 1,076 career points in 1,346 regular-season games-No. 3 on the all-time defenseman list, behind only Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque-Murphy can do that, too.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a good friend who&rsquo;s a physician,&rdquo; Murphy said, &ldquo;and he was in family practice, but now he has moved into the emergency department because he wanted the stimulation of having to make quick decisions. That&rsquo;s what motivates him.&ldquo;I get a charge out of that, I really do. It&rsquo;s a real buzz for me. I know when I stop playing, that&rsquo;s the thing I&rsquo;m going to miss the most. That element of danger, of making a decision and having to live with it. It&rsquo;s like being a fighter pilot, except, of course, the stakes are a lot higher for the fighter pilot. My situation is exciting, but it&rsquo;s not life and death.&rdquo;That would depend upon Bowman&rsquo;s mood, mind you. &#9632;

f0011-01

Detroit’s Murphy cerebrally quick

Bright lad that he is, no one had to draw Guy Carbonneau a picture.It was the fall of 1996 and the Dallas Stars had one pre-season game remaining. GM Bob Gainey and coach Ken Hitchcock bluntly told the former Montreal Canadien captain he wasn&rsquo;t playing well enough to earn a spot at center and might make the Stars as a spare winger.&ldquo;He was as mad as hell, but obviously sensed the urgency of the situation,&rdquo; Hitchcock said of the 37-year-old defensive pivot. &ldquo;He was awesome in that final pre-season game and then Bob Bassen went down with an injury. We put Guy between Todd Harvey and Dave Reid&hellip;&rdquo;More than a year later, they&rsquo;re still together, one of the NHL&rsquo;s premier checking units. And Carbonneau, whose career looked to be dead when the Canadiens discarded him and his battered knees to the St. Louis Blues in 1994, is against all odds flourishing once again.&ldquo;Pride is an amazing thing and Guy has an incredible amount of that,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;And it doesn&rsquo;t hurt he&rsquo;s one of the smartest players in the game.&rdquo;The way Hitchcock sees it, Carbonneau, a three-time Selke Trophy winner, is to defensive hockey what Wayne Gretzky is to the offensive game.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the best players in the world without the puck,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;He understands the value of patience and proper positioning. He&rsquo;s tremendous at anticipating where the puck is going to go off the rush. Really, a lot of players play with blinkers on. Some guys see the ice extremely well on offense. He sees it incredibly on defense. He&rsquo;s like a defensive Gretzky.&rdquo;The comparison is not without irony. It was during the 1993 Montreal-Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup final, after Game 1, that Carbonneau stepped forward and asked coach Jacques Demers for the assignment to stop Gretzky, which he did masterfully en route to the Habs&rsquo; last Cup victory.&ldquo;Guy wanted Gretzky and knew exactly how he wanted to play him,&rdquo; said Demers, now coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning. &ldquo;He did a job. That&rsquo;s Guy, smart and competitive.&rdquo;Carbonneau laughs at the recollection. That was supposed to be his last hurrah, but he&rsquo;s more than hanging on, thanks largely to a return to decent health and, of course, his guile.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what has kept me going,&rdquo; Carbonneau said. &ldquo;You get slower, you get older, you have to make it up somewhere and, for me, it&rsquo;s using my head.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021056/6754323-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="414" height="598"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guv Carbonneau</figcaption></div>Hitchcock uses Carbonneau as a &ldquo;pulse reader&rdquo; on the Stars, a sounding board for when to push or back off, depending upon the team&rsquo;s physical and mental state of mind. He also marvels at Carbonneau&rsquo;s strong defensive play down low in what amounts to a three-on-three game.&ldquo;What is he, 175,180 pounds?&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;He protects the middle of the ice against guys who weigh 20, 30 and 40 pounds more than him. He&rsquo;s so smart.&rdquo;Carbonneau comes by his astute, analytical approach honestly, having played his early years alongside defensive ace Gainey.But Carbonneau wonders if today&rsquo;s young players will ever be forced to use their grey matter to the same extent as he did when he broke in.&ldquo;With all the video now and the improvements in coaching,&rdquo; Carbonneau said, &ldquo;you don&rsquo;t have to think as much on your own as you used to because there&rsquo;s someone there to show you and tell you exactly what has to be done.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-02

Stars’ Carbonneau a ‘defensive Gretzky’

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011595/6754354-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div>The Canadian women&rsquo;s Olympic team announced its final roster Dec. 9 in Calgary. The team includes four players who have won four World Women&rsquo;s Championship gold medals, another four who have won three, six who who have won two. three who have won one and three rookies. The women&rsquo;s tournament will run Feb. 8-17 in Nagano and will feature Canada. USA. Finland. China, Sweden and Japan.The first time Jayna Hefford walked into a Team Canada dressing room, she quietly put down her bag and looked around.She was 18 and already had a mind-boggling 1,000 goals to her credit, but she couldn&rsquo;t help but swallow hard when she saw the company she was keeping at the final selection camp for the 1997 team. This was the national team, baby, and we weren&rsquo;t in Kingston anymore.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re sitting in the room with France St-Louis and Stacy Wilson,&rdquo; Hefford says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s normal to question whether you really belong there, but I felt like I did. If I could be half the player France is, I&rsquo;d be happy.&rdquo;For now, Hefford will have to settle for being about half St. Louis&rsquo; age. For the 39-year-old St Louis, being named to Canada&rsquo;s first-ever women&rsquo;s Olympic team represents one last chance for glory. For Hefford, 20, it&rsquo;s the first of many.Before the final cuts were made, there were more than a few anxious players, but Hefford certainly wasn&rsquo;t one of them. While several of Canada&rsquo;s top offensive players have struggled, Hefford has been a pistol. Through 16 games, the right winger had 16 goals and was the only Canadian player to hit double digits in that department.Not that scoring goals is anything new to Hefford. As a 13-year-old, she scored 232 and her 76th and last goal of 1995-96 was also her 1,000th for the Kingston Kodiacs.As grand as she was, her scoring exploits weren&rsquo;t enough to impress the people who really mattered. Hefford&rsquo;s little town skates were longing to stray and she packed her 1,000 goals and headed for Toronto. She joined the University of Toronto women&rsquo;s team and played for the Mississauga Chiefs of the Central Ontario Women&rsquo;s League, considered the best women&rsquo;s league in the world.&ldquo;Prior to that we had seen her and our impression was that she was in the top 50 in the country, but not the top 30,&rdquo; says Canadian coach Shannon Miller. &ldquo;She had a lot of intelligence, but she was a little small and there were 10 other players out there just like her. Then she just stepped up and left everybody behind.&rdquo;Last year, Hefford was a first-team all-star and rookie of the year in both the university and senior leagues. It didn&rsquo;t take Miller long to realize she deserved a shot at playing in the World Championship and invited her to the final camp. Hefford stepped into the final camp among national team veterans, made the squad and the road to Nagano began.And now Hefford is riding shotgun with two of the biggest players on the team. Hayley Wickenheiser, 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, is considered the most dominating presence in the game today and centers the line. Lori Dupuis, 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, plays the left side. All three are natural centers with great speed and puck sense. Wickenheiser generally carries the play and controls the puck, while Dupuis uses her speed and size to run interference and control the boards. That leaves Hefford, at 5-foot-5 and 135 pounds, to get to the open spot and bury the chances.&ldquo;When they&rsquo;re on their game,&rdquo; Miller says, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see two defensemen in the world who can stop them.&rdquo;As dominant as the line has been, Miller openly admits if Canada were down a goal late in the gold medal game, veterans Nancy Drolet and Danielle Goyette would get the call. That&rsquo;s because Hefford is 20 and Wickenheiser, 19, and Miller is confident Drolet will step up as the Olympics approach. But Miller may have to change her thinking if Hefford and Wickenheiser continue to be Canada&rsquo;s only scoring threats.&ldquo;There would be a problem if the coach wanted you out there and you didn&rsquo;t want to be in that position,&rdquo; Hefford says. &ldquo;I enjoy it, but I really do believe our team is more than just one line.&rdquo;Canada&rsquo;s national women&rsquo;s team cut its Mark Messier, but unlike the popular Vancouver Canuck center, Angela James didn&rsquo;t take it well.&ldquo;I feel cheated,&rdquo; James told the Calgary Sun, three days after the veteran international competitor was left off the squad that represents Canada at the Nagano Olympics. &ldquo;I feel like someone ripped my heart out. I think a dog would get better treatment.&rdquo;In her prime, James played a lot like Messier. She was a warrior, an incredible physical presence who helped bring the sport to new heights.That made it difficult for Canadian coach Shannon Miller to cut James.&ldquo;Angela has been a powerhouse player for many years,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;But we did weekly rankings and the people we released were consistently ranked as players on the bubble. After three months, it becomes quite obvious the cuts you have to make.&rdquo;James, 33, who was once considered the world&rsquo;s best player, had won four gold medals with Canada&rsquo;s team and was part of it since the first World Women&rsquo;s Championship in 1990. Left winger Luce Letendre and defenseman Rebecca Fahey, both part of the 1997 gold medal team were cut, along with rookie center Tammy Shewchuk.&ldquo;They did everything in their power to keep me down,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;Maybe they thought I was an old hag and shouldn&rsquo;t be around.&rdquo;Miller said she wasn&rsquo;t surprised by James&rsquo; reaction.&ldquo;She&rsquo;s one of the greatest ever,&rdquo; Miller told The Sun. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not surprised she would be upset, disappointed and hurt. (But) we were very clear with everybody, from the very first day, that we were not using Olympic spots to reward people for past performances.&rdquo;The veterans lost their spots to 18-year-old center Jennifer Botterill (the team&rsquo;s youngest player) and 23-year-old left winger Kathy McCormack. France St-Louis, Canada&rsquo;s 39-year-old ageless wonder, managed to keep her spot largely due to superior skating skills and faceoff ability. Defenseman Becky Kellar is the team&rsquo;s other rookie.The Canadian team has 43 gold medals among its 20 players, including four-time winners in defensemen Judy Diduck and Geraldine Heaney and forwards St. Louis and team captain Stacy Wilson.With her team selected, Miller said the real work begins now. &ldquo;I think you&rsquo;ll see a bit of a boot camp happening around here,&rdquo; she said.The U.S., meanwhile, got its roster down to 23 players by cutting left winger Jenine Sobek and right winger Barb Gordon Dec. 8. U.S. coach Ben Smith hopes to have his 18 skaters and two goalies selected by Christmas.Smith&rsquo;s most difficult decision comes in goal where he must decide whether to keep veteran Erin Whitten, who has struggled, or go with Sarah Tueting and Sarah DeCosta.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why they pay me $1.9 million,&rdquo; Smith quipped. &#9632;

f0012-01

Changing of guard

Following is the schedule for women&rsquo;s hockey at the Nagano Olympics. All times are eastern standard time.Sun. Feb. 8: Sweden vs. Finland (10 p.m. EST, Sat.); Canada vs. Japan (2 a.m.); China vs. USA (6 a.m.).Mon. Feb. 9: Finland vs. Japan (10 p.m., Sun.); USA vs. Sweden (2 a.m.); Canada vs. China (6 a.m.).Wed. Feb. 11: Sweden vs. Canada (10 p.m. Tues.); Japan vs. China (2 a.m.); USA vs. Finland (6 a.m.).Thurs. Feb. 12: China vs. Sweden (10 p.m., Wed.); USA vs. Japan (2 a.m.); Finland vs. Canada (6 a.m.).Sat. Feb. 14: Japan vs. Sweden (10 p.m., Fri.); Finland vs. China (2 a.m.); Canada vs. USA (6 a.m.).Tues. Feb. 17: Bronze medal game (12 midnight, Mon.); Gold medal game (4 a.m.). &#9632;

WOMEN’S OLYMPIC SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011498/6754409-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="384" height="544"></div>It&rsquo;s a cold winter in Calgary.The last Chinook out took Gary Roberts with it, leaving a bunch of nameless shnooks behind. Decline and fall stories don&rsquo;t get much sadder than this.The Calgary Flames used to be somebody. They had style, they had class. Now, they have Chris Dingman.If you would have predicted to me on the night the Flames skated the Cup around the Forum in 1989 they would go eight years without winning another series, I would have tried to trade you Gary Leeman for Doug Gilmour.Three years later, that&rsquo;s exactly what happened as part of a four-for-four by then-GM Doug Risebrough that was one of the worst trades in history.Gilmour was just the start. As the money got bigger and bigger, the Flames&rsquo; front office seemed smaller and smaller. On the ice, the team became an ongoing tragedy, bringing out more hankies than Tim Hunter needed to blow his nose.The Flames got upset by the Los Angeles Kings on a bloop goal that is still coming down in slow motion. They lost three times in the next five years in Game 7 overtimes.&ldquo;Is there a God in heaven?&rdquo; you asked.Your faith took a hit when Jamie Huscroft showed up. The Flames traded Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Suter, spiralling lower and lower in concentric circles. Good players like Joel Otto left town in a Stampede when their contracts were up.For Marty McInnis, Calgary moved Robert Reichel, one of five former Flames now leading NHL teams in scoring. One of their big hopes now is Steve Begin, which doesn&rsquo;t begin to tell you how the talent is depleted.The Flames have become the brand with the supermarket&rsquo;s name on the label. It&rsquo;s a drag watching Jim Dowd.And only to a point can you blame economic drag. The law of supply (Canada has the players) and demand (the U.S. has the markets) took its natural course, but some of these deals were even dumber than Zarley Zalapski in a tight game.Now, the Flames are starting over again. Towards what, it is hard to say. This doesn&rsquo;t have to be Winnipeg. The city has a strong economy, and the owners big bucks. Time will tell whether they had small minds, giving the GM&rsquo;s job position to Al Coates, who worked his way up the ranks, and the coaching job to Brian Sutter, who does not believe in having finesse either on his team or in his approach.&ldquo;Work harder,&rdquo; says Sutter, a broken record on a broken franchise.&ldquo;We want to make the playoffs and win at least one round,&rdquo; said Coates, who did not appear to be on LSD. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re climbing out of a big hole and getting better every day.&rdquo;To be fair, it looked that way on back-to-back nights in NewYork, when the Flames caught the Islanders napping and the Rangers in a catatonic state. HMO&rsquo;s, looking for ways to cut costs, are considering running tapes of Flames games to save on anesthesia. If this is a playoff team, I&rsquo;m Willi Plett.Jarome Iginla, acquired for Nieuwendyk, will be alright, but great? Goalie Jean-Sebastian Giguere, picked up for Roberts is the hot prospect doing time at Saint John. Defenseman Derek Morris looks like the real thing. To no one does Theo Fleury ever take a back seat, no matter what may have been going on in the front seat. I would tell you more about the Flames, but I forget who they are.The real question, should they be successful in rebuilding, is: Can they stay rebuilt? A collective bargaining agreement that does not allow unrestricted free agency until age 31 would seem to give hockey&rsquo;s small markets a better chance than the baseball and basketball Podunks. But as Group IIs are proving willing to miss half a season to get out of where they don&rsquo;t want to be, the CBA may not be worth the toilet paper it is written on.&ldquo;Absolutely, we&rsquo;ll keep our players,&rdquo; insists Coates. &ldquo;We have nine owners and a president who want to run the organization as a business and so do I, but it is with the understanding when some of these top young players get better, irrespective of what it takes to keep them, we will.&ldquo;We have a bunch now and at least three or four more at Saint John who are going to fall into the same bracket. In the meantime, we&rsquo;re one of the younger teams in the league, trying to work hard and have some fun, play nasty hockey.&rdquo;Seats are as empty as the heads that wrote the manual of step-by-step, how to dismantle a vibrant franchise.Sad to say. Sad to see. Longer way back for the Flames than they can admit. &#9632;

f0013-01

Life may never be the same in Calgary

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011583/6754440-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="161" height="163"></div>Paul Kariya was in the recreation room of his parents home in North Vancouver the night of Dec. 10 when he got a call from a guy &ldquo;huffing and puffing.&rdquo;The caller was just Mighty Ducks of Anaheim teammate Teemu Selanne, who couldn&rsquo;t wait for the end of the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins to call Kariya to congratulate him on his new contract. (See pg. 5 for more on Kariya&rsquo;s contract terms.)Selanne called from the locker room, between the second and third periods.&ldquo;I was so excited,&rdquo; Selanne said. &ldquo;I even told the guy who works in the penalty box. I didn&rsquo;t know it was secretive.&rdquo;Ducks&rsquo; GM Jack Ferreira told the team about the deal during the first intermission. The news was made official the next day, when Kariya arrived for his first practice with the Ducks.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big lift, like a dark cloud left Anaheim,&rdquo; said defenseman David Karpa. &ldquo;El Nino is going elsewhere.&rdquo;The Ducks started last season 1-8-2 without Kariya in the lineup due to a groin and abdominal injury. They survived much better without him this season, going 11-15-6. But they were struggling at the time of the signing, winning only three games in their previous 15 games.The Ducks believe last season&rsquo;s runner-up for the Hart Trophy is just what they need to help jump start their dismal offense, which had produced just 70 goals in 32 games (2.18 per game).NOTEBOOK: Left winger Paul Kariya was given his &lsquo;C&rsquo; back. Right winger Teemu Selanne, who handled the captaincy in Kariya&rsquo;s absence, said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more than happy to give it back. I think I captained the team with a lot of pride, but it belongs to Paul.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Shawn Antoski was recovering well from severe head injuries sustained during a car accident Nov. 24., The Ducks defense is ailing. David Karpa is out with a hamstring pull. Ruslan Salei is out until January with a broken bone in his left foot. Dan Trebil is out until mid-January with a fractured right thumb. The team was forced to recall two rookies: Pavel Trnka and Marc Moro from Cincinnati of the American League. &#9632;

f0014-01

Mighty Duck teammates thrilled captain is back

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03825/6754471-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="582" height="911"><figcaption class="caption-body">Byron Dafoe</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021200/6754478-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="162" height="159"></div>Byron Dafoe was smart enough to refrain from gloating.He knew being a No. 1 goalie for the Boston Bruins in mid-December didn&rsquo;t mean he&rsquo;d still hold the same title in mid-April, when it really counts.&ldquo;Things can change overnight,&rdquo; said Dafoe, whose play over the first two months of 1997-98 was so strong it left 1995-96 Vezina Trophy winner Jim Carey in mothballs. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really reading too much into this.&rdquo;Carey was assigned to Providence of the American League Dec. 4, and coach Pat Bums said he had no plans to find regular work for Rob Tallas, whom Boston recalled from Providence to take Carey&rsquo;s spot on the roster.Those moves left Dafoe an unquestioned No. I NHL goalie for the first time in a career that began with 10 appearances as a Washington Capital between 1992-93 and 1994-95. He and forward Dmitri Khristich were traded to the Los Angeles Kings July 8, 1995, and that pair came to Boston in exchange for Jozef Stumpel, Sandy Moger and a 1998 fourth-round draft pick Aug. 29.&ldquo;We just got stretches in Los Angeles; whoever happened to be hot got to play,&rdquo; said the 26-year-old Dafoe, who alternated with Stephane Fiset for two seasons with the Kings. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in this situation in the minors, but this is a first for me in the NHL. It&rsquo;s what I like about being a starting goalie, you can have a tough night, but you get to go right back in there.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Rob Tallas was pressed into action Dec. 11 against Buffalo, when Byron Dafoe rested what he and the club termed a minor knee ligament strain. Tallas made 17 saves as Boston ended a six-game losing streak against the Sabres with a2-l victory&hellip;Center Joe Thornton&rsquo;s strong play in December prompted Boston to decide against releasing the No. 1 pick from June&rsquo;s entry draft to play for Canada in the World Junior Championship. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s progressing well; he&rsquo;s proving to his teammates that he wants to compete,&rdquo; said coach Pat Burns of Thornton, who followed his first NHL goal and point Dec. 3 at Philadelphia with an excellent game against Carolina Dec. 6. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d hate to cut that off right now.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-03

Dafoe No. 1…for now

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04554/6754509-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="163" height="164"></div>It took a while, but the Buffalo Sabres finally made a move on defenseman Jay McKee.It was to Rochester in the American League.&ldquo;Jay needs to play about 25 minutes a game in order to be effective,&rdquo; said coach Lindy Ruff about the highly regarded first round draft pick (1996). &ldquo;For his game to develop he has to play regularly not just 10-to-12 minutes a game like he was getting here.&rdquo;McKee&rsquo;s development had been hampered almost from the moment the Sabres selected him in the entry draft. Last season, he was caught in a crossfire between then-coach Ted Nolan and then-GM John Muckler. Nolan thought McKee was too young and nowhere near NHL-ready and felt he would be better off returning to Erie in the Ontario League. Muckler thought otherwise and kept him with the big club, but Nolan seldom used him.There were other factors at work, but the result was McKee&rsquo;s first year in the NHL was a bust. His second wasn&rsquo;t much better under Ruff, but with Ruff and new GM Darcy Regier more attuned to each other, the decision was made to send McKee down.&ldquo;Jay&rsquo;s going to be a player in the NHL for a good long time, but he needs to develop his game,&rdquo; Ruff said. &ldquo;His skills are good, but he needs to be more involved physically and mentally.&rdquo;Ruff was particularly upset when McKee tossed the puck right onto the stick of ex-Sabre Pat LaFontaine, who was calling for a pass. The trick worked and LaFontaine scored a goal in an eventual 3-3 tie with the New York Rangers Nov. 28. Ruff implied he didn&rsquo;t like McKee&rsquo;s reaction to the play and said had LaFontaine done that to him as a player he would have gone out on the next shift and &ldquo;punched him in the nose.&rdquo;That kind of reaction doesn&rsquo;t seem to be in McKee&rsquo;s nature.NOTEBOOK: The Sabres were very much in favor of having Toronto getting in the Northeast Division for next season and supported the Leafs at the recent Board of Governors meeting&hellip;The Sabres came up with just one goal in two games against teams they feel they should beat. They were beaten 3-0 at Ottawa Dec. 6 in the first meeting of the two teams since Buffalo&rsquo;s first-round playoff win last spring. The Sabres then lost 2-1 to the Bruins in Boston Dec. 11&hellip;Part of the reason Sabres were in last place through mid-December was a woeful 2-53 record in intra-division games&hellip;With 10 points in an 11-game stretch, left winger Miroslav Satan was one of the few players producing on offense. &#9632;

f0014-04

McKee takes step back to go forward

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-06298/6754540-1-eng-US/f0014-062.jpg" title="f0014-06" width="577" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cory Stillman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05374/6754547-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="168" height="164"></div>For one brief, shining moment, all three members of the line were in the NHL&rsquo;s Top 20 in scoring.You can look it up. It was Nov. 10 and there, amidst the Gretzkys and Bures were Marty McInnis, Cory Stillman and Theo Fleury.Fleury remains there, but McInnis and Stillman have taken a freefall in recent weeks. There&rsquo;s a reason for Stillman&rsquo;s slippage. He missed six games with a rib cartilage injury and it has taken him time to find his niche again. Even so, Stillman snapped a 29day drought by scoring Dec. 6 against the St. Louis Blues.McInnis&rsquo;s misery stood at 17 games-he hadn&rsquo;t scored since a Nov. 5 contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;It has been too long for sure,&rdquo; McInnis said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something you try not to think about, but you think about it every night when you go home. If I&rsquo;m not scoring, I want to make sure I&rsquo;m doing the other things well-play well defensively, help us to win.&rdquo;&ldquo;He has got to get back to work again,&rdquo; said coach Brian Sutter. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not driving, he&rsquo;s not shooting. He&rsquo;s got to be strong defensively and can&rsquo;t turn the puck over on offense.&rdquo;That McInnis made his first trip back to Long Island Dec. 9 after last spring&rsquo;s trade didn&rsquo;t help matters much. The player McInnis was traded for-Robert Reichel-has been lighting it up for the Islanders ever since he touched down in New York. He led his team in scoring.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Jonas Hoglund snapped an 18-game goal-scoring drought with his fourth of the season Dec. 10 against the Rangers. Of Hoglund. a 19-goal scorer as an NHL rookie last season, coach Brian Sutter said: &ldquo;Scoring goals is only a small part of the game. All the little things have to be looked after before you score. I&rsquo;d rather have Jonas playing the way he is this year than score 19 goals like he did last year and then sit in the press box once in a while.&rdquo;&hellip;It is a confusing time for defenseman Zarley Zalapski. who is being shopped around the league. The team&rsquo;s second highest-paid player at $1.6 million, Zalapski was a healthy scratch four times through Calgary&rsquo;s first 33 games. &#9632;

f0014-06

Top gunners cool off fast

<div class="byline">By Steve Polltl</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-07241/6754578-1-eng-US/f0014-072.jpg" title="f0014-07" width="167" height="162"></div>He wasn&rsquo;t quite Santa Claus, but Gary Bettman was just about as jolly during his first visit to North Carolina.Despite the problems the Carolina Hurricanes have faced, including poor attendance and negative publicity, Bettman raved about the long-term future of the NHL in the new market.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big believer in hockey in North Carolina,&rdquo; said the NHL commissioner. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never doubted it for a second. I think what the Hurricanes have done has been Herculean. The fact is, this is what we&rsquo;ve anticipated in the short term. This is a building process.&rdquo;Bettman attended the Hurricanes&rsquo; game against the Florida Panthers Dec. 10. He took a tour of the team&rsquo;s offices in Morrisville, met with newspaper editors and writers, and surveyed a model of Raleigh&rsquo;s new arena.&ldquo;Sometimes, for some long-term gain, you&rsquo;ve got to take some shortterm pains,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Under the worst possible circumstances, I think they&rsquo;re doing a heck of a job, and I&rsquo;m proud of them.&rdquo;Bettman dismissed the idea ticket prices or a lack of interest in the sport were reasons the team was drawing about 8,500 fans a game. He chalked it up to the 75-mile drive from Greensboro to Raleigh.&ldquo;I have commutes in New York City that take longer than it takes to get here,&rdquo; Bettman said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re used to.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The team has had four chances to reach .500 and failed all four times. It hasn&rsquo;t reached the even mark since Jan. 9 of last season&hellip;The Hurricanes are 0-7-1 when defenseman Enrico Ciccone is in the lineup&hellip;The team&rsquo;s power play-a big reason for its surge from a poor start-had connected on just three of 46 recent opportunities after its Dec. 10 game&hellip;When right winger Sami Kapanen scores a goal, the &lsquo;Canes are 7-1-2. When left winger Gary Roberts has an assist, they are 9-2-1&hellip;Center Keith Primeau leads the team with a 52 percentage success rate on faceoffs&hellip;Through 31 games, 25 of the Hurricanes games were decided by two goals or less. They are 4-7 in games decided by one goal. &#9632;

f0014-07

Commissioner Bettman still believes in Carolina

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011463/6754609-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="161" height="159"></div>Bob Pulford has an idea to help the NHL with sagging attendance and lifeless games.The Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; senior vice-president thinks it&rsquo;s time for the league to turn back the clock and return to playing an unbalanced schedule with heavy emphasis on division games.Pulford also favors a return to the old playoff format, where the top four teams in four divisions battled for two rounds. He thinks he can generate a lot of support for this plan, which will rekindle heated rivalries that have waned under commissioner Gary Bettman&rsquo;s National Basketball Association-copied, conference oriented playoff format.&ldquo;I think there is a movement for the NHL to reconsider this,&rdquo; Pulford said.&ldquo;A lot of people think this system, with an unbalanced schedule and division playoffs, has merit. If you give it a chance rivalries will come back because what creates rivalries is playoffs.&rdquo;Pulford points to a rivalry like the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers not being what it once was. Even the Chicago-St. Louis Blues and Chicago-Dallas Stars rivalries aren&rsquo;t as heated since they don&rsquo;t play each other as often.&ldquo;A team like Minnesota (now Dallas), we hated them,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;We even had fights before the games started. Those days will come back.&rdquo;Considering the NHL just completed its mini-facelift with the inclusion of four new teams, it&rsquo;s unlikely it will consider Pulford&rsquo;s plan any time soon.NOTEBOOK: Coach Craig Hartsburg finally questioned whether the inconsistent Hawks have the right mix of players. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very concerned with this team&rsquo;s chemistry,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t get the commitment here shortly then something is wrong with the chemistry of this hockey team.&rdquo;&hellip;What did old-schooler Bob Pulford, the Hawks&rsquo; senior vice-president, think of Toronto president-GM Ken Dryden&rsquo;s call to end fighting? &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a ridiculous statement,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Next to scoring a goal, fighting gets the biggest cheer. We don&rsquo;t have other peoples&rsquo; rules. We have our rules.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Chris Chelios on all the complaining about the lack of goal scoring in the league: &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t we just make the nets bigger?&rdquo; How big? &ldquo;Like soccer,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0015-01

Pulford says time is right to renew fierce rivalries

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03731/6754640-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="578" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Roy</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021018/6754647-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="159" height="157"></div>If you had to make 51 saves in one game, like Patrick Roy did, you might feel a little strained, too.The strain in Roy showed up in his abdomen, though, and it was enough to keep the Colorado Avalanche and Team Canada goalie out of the lineup for about a week.Roy sustained strained abdominal muscles after making the 51 saves in a 2-2 tie Dec. 10 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, of all teams. The saves total was a regular-season career high for the 12year veteran.The abdominal injury was the second ailment to knock Roy out of the lineup in less than one month. He sustained a subluxation of the joint in his left shoulder Nov. 18 in Washington and had to miss three games. The abdominal injury, though, was expected to sideline Roy for no more than six days.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a smart decision, instead of trying to play and maybe hurting it more,&rdquo; Roy said.The possibility of re-injury to his shoulder actually has been more of a concern to the Avs. Roy said the shoulder has often felt stiff since it first popped out of joint. Any more subluxations and Roy would face the possibility of surgery, although that&rsquo;s an alarmist&rsquo;s view for now.&ldquo;I think, with the shoulder, it&rsquo;s normal right now,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been working it very hard lately and maybe it has been a little tired, but that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;To replace Roy, the Avs recalled rookie Marc Denis from the American League.NOTEBOOK: All-star defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh said he hopes to sign a contract extension before the season is over. Ozolinsh is in the final year of a deal that pays $1.5 million. So far, there have been no preliminary talks between he and Colorado management&hellip;Veteran right winger Jari Kurri officially announced he will retire at the end of the season&hellip;Coach Marc Crawford called his team&rsquo;s performance in the 2-2 tie with the Leafs, in which Colorado was outshot 53-19, &ldquo;our worst of the season. We told them, &lsquo;Hey, we&rsquo;re not going to tolerate this. If you feel sorry for yourself, then get off.&rsquo;&rdquo;&hellip;Right winger Keith Jones was expected to be out until at least January before returning from off-season knee surgery. &#9632;

f0015-03

Roy shelled, banged up

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04534/6754678-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="163" height="159"></div>He&rsquo;s either the luckiest journeyman in the NHL or its best kept secret weapon. Either way, Bob Errey keeps landing on winners.In Pittsburgh, he was a part of Stanley Cup champions in 1991 and 1992 and on the roster of a team that captured the Presidents&rsquo; Cup in 1993.In San Jose, he helped forge the largest turnaround in NHL history, captaining a team that went from 24 points to 82. He also was a scrappy leader in the Sharks&rsquo; memorable first-round upset of the Detroit Red Wings.After being traded to the Detroit Red Wings, Errey was a part of a roster that set the NHL record for victories in a season at 62.This season, he has landed on a Stars&rsquo; team that has its eyes on the Presidents&rsquo; Trophy and beyond.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of those glue players that every good team needs,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s part of the glue that holds the group together, that makes up a big part of the fabric of the team.&rdquo;Errey had to definitely earn his place in the glue. Acquired as a free agent in the summer and signed to a three-year, $1.8 million deal, Errey was seen as an inexpensive replacement for Brent Gilchrist, who signed with the Red Wings for $1.35 million annually. But Hitchcock wasn&rsquo;t too enthusiastic about Errey&rsquo;s play early and made him a healthy scratch in eight of the first 12 games.It took the 5-foot-10, 185-pound winger at least a month to finally gain the trust of the coach.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s earned it,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a hard worker and he has really picked up his game. I think we&rsquo;re seeing now the player we felt we were getting this summer.&rdquo;Errey said it was hard to make an impression from the press box.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about ice time and getting the opportunity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Right now, I&rsquo;m getting the chance to play and that makes it a lot easier.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Ed Belfour set the team record for shutouts in a season at seven, breaking the old mark of Cesare Maniago set in 1967-68. Belfour also tied his personal season high he established in 1992-93 and tied in 1993-94 with the Chicago Blackhawks&hellip;In his first game back from a rib injury that kept him out for 11 games, left winger Greg Adams had a goal and an assist. Adams is playing with center Joe Nieuwendyk and right winger Pat Verbeek&hellip;Despite leading the Central Division, the Stars are only 55 in divisional games&hellip;Verbeek is the only player in NHL history to have more than 400 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes. He leads the Stars in penalty minutes this season with 85. &#9632;

f0015-04

Glue-player Errey finally gets unstuck

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011370/6754709-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="161" height="160"></div>After hearing the three remaining Russians on the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; roster criticize unsigned free agent Sergei Fedorov, GM Ken Holland talked with them about their sentiments.Holland came away from the discussions satisfied that bringing Fedorov back into the dressing room would pose no chemistry problem.&ldquo;My feeling is once he&rsquo;s back playing hockey and his contract is done, everyone will get back to the business of winning games,&rdquo; Holland said. &ldquo;I believe wholeheartedly that it can be business as usual because Sergei is a tremendous player.&rdquo;Last month, right winger Vyacheslav Kozlov referred to Fedorov as Sam Jones, a name Fedorov used for himself last season in describing how Russians are evaluated differently than North Americans. But Kozlov said he is ready to welcome Fedorov back and his temperamental emotions have subsided.&ldquo;When he gets back we will forget about everything,&rdquo; Kozlov said.Kozlov said he tried calling Fedorov, but the number has been changed. Despite that, he said the team is ready and willing to welcome back the crafty center as soon as a deal is completed.&ldquo;Sergei is very smart and a good skills player,&rdquo; Kozlov said. &ldquo;Everything that has happened this year, it doesn&rsquo;t make a difference one way or the other. Nobody here has a problem with Sergei right now.NOTEBOOK: With his goal in the Dec. 9 game against Vancouver, center Steve Yzerman tied left winger Michel Goulet for 13th on the all-time NHL goal-scoring list, with 548&hellip;Defenseman Aaron Ward sustained a fractured bone on the outside of his right foot when he blocked a Michael Nylander shot during a Dec. 3 game in Calgary. The injury was not thought to be serious at the time, but he will be out until at least mid-January&hellip;The Wings recalled defenseman Yan Golubovsky from Adirondack of the American League to give them seven healthy defensemen. Ward was not placed on the injured reserve list since Detroit&rsquo;s roster was at 23, one short of the roster limit. The team continued to hold that spot for when center Sergei Fedorov signs. &#9632;

f0016-01

Russian Wings are ready for return of Sam Jones

<div class="byline">By Dave Joseph</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03787/6754740-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="577" height="898"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Mellanby</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021061/6754747-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="161" height="155"></div>After watching Scott Mellanby go 16 games without a goal, some began wondering if the &lsquo;C&rsquo; on the Florida Panther right winger&rsquo;s chest turned into an albatross.But Mellanby, who snapped his career-worst skid Dec. 10 in Carolina, doesn&rsquo;t buy into the argument.&ldquo;Am I disappointed in my production? Yes,&rdquo; said Mellanby, who had six goals and 17 points in 30 games. &ldquo;Am I disappointed in the way I&rsquo;ve played? Not really. If I had 40 or 45 shots through 29 games, I&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;Something&rsquo;s wrong with me.&rsquo; But I&rsquo;ve had my chances.&rdquo;Coach-GM Bryan Murray said Mellanby, twice a 30 goal-scorer as a Panther, may have been trying to do too much early in his first season as captain.&ldquo;I thought he was trying to forecheck for everyone,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But he has played well lately. He doesn&rsquo;t have as many goals (as last season), but he has shown character and effort.&rdquo;Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin, the Panthers&rsquo; color analyst who wore the &lsquo;C&rsquo; for the New York Islanders, said Mellanby simply has to be himself.&ldquo;All that mythical stuff about a captain going into a room and all that rah-rah stuff or helping a guy out of a slump, it doesn&rsquo;t happen,&rdquo; Potvin said.&ldquo;You have to lead by example-by your work ethic and by how hard you work in practice and every day on the ice. Guys see that and then they want to do the same thing.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Panthers were hoping a 5-2 victory Dec. 10 in Carolina would serve as a turning point in their season. The game was the first of seven in 11 days against Eastern Conference opponents the Panthers must beat for a playoff spot. &ldquo;This is a big win. an important win,&rdquo; said GM Bryan Murray&hellip;Left winger Kirk Muller scored into an empty net against Carolina for his first goal in 28 games this season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take it any way right now,&rdquo; Muller smiled&hellip;Center Rob Niedermayer. who had played in only 10 games because of a concussion and dislocated thumb, hoped to rejoin the team in mid-December&hellip;Left winger Radek Dvorak, who missed five weeks with a fractured wrist, returned Dec. 5 against Washington. &#9632;

f0016-03

Mellanby not blaming ‘C’

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04576/6754778-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="162" height="158"></div>Bryan Marchment feels he didn&rsquo;t do the crime and shouldn&rsquo;t have done the time.But his three-game suspension for a hit on Dallas Stars&rsquo; center Mike Modano that caused a tom knee ligament is history and Marchment is eager to get back on track.&ldquo;In my heart, yes, I meant to go hit him and let him know I was out there,&rdquo; Marchment said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t go out there with the intent to blow his knee out and get suspended. It&rsquo;s never fun to miss games.&rdquo;The call was made by linesman Dan Schachte as referee Mark Faucette said he didn&rsquo;t see it. Marchment was assessed a major and match for kneeing and NHL vice-president Brian Burke lowered the boom on Marchment, a repeat offender, who had a clean record the past two years.The Oilers protested the call and three NHL GMs told Marchment they thought he&rsquo;d been wronged by the league. But just as Marchment&rsquo;s damage to Modano was done by circumstance rather than malice. Marchment was taken out of service because of reputation and an apparent move at the upper echelon of the league to protect its most marketable stars. Burke sent a clear message to Marchment: Change the way you hit, or else.&ldquo;As I said to Brian Burke, I&rsquo;ve been thinking about it for two years,&rdquo; Marchment said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of times in the last two years I&rsquo;ve passed up hits or tried to approach it differently. Basically, I&rsquo;ve had to adapt my style once. I thought I had. Now I&rsquo;ve really got to adapt.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing. You make a hit like that, you think you&rsquo;re going to change the momentum of the game and you&rsquo;re booted out. I just hope this (incident) doesn&rsquo;t drag me down.&rdquo;Likewise for coach Ron Low. who loved the way Marchment played before the suspension.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing the best hockey he has ever played here,&rdquo; Low said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing unbelievable.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The group of Edmontonians planning to buy the Oilers met with commissioner Gary Bettman in New York and with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein in Edmonton. Group member Cal Nichols was optimistic after meeting with Bettman. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re on the right track,&rdquo; Nichols said. The group&rsquo;s meeting with Klein was an attempt to get a provincial hockey lottery off the ground in order to raise money and offset their $2.8 million annual rent payment to Edmonton Northlands for the use of the Coliseum&hellip;Trade rumors started swirling around center Jason Arnott as the Rangers apparently offered right winger Alexei Kovalev and either left winger Vladimir Vorobiev or defenceman Alexander Karpovtsev. &#9632;

f0016-04

Marchment says he’ll adapt style

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011225/6754809-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="160" height="160"></div>The Los Angeles Kings were looking for help on the power play and a calm, steadying influence in the dressing room when they signed defenseman Garry Galley as a free agent last summer.They&rsquo;re getting everything they hoped for from Galley, and then some.His influence was never more important than in early December, when the Kings&rsquo; previously hot offense cooled and they lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.But unlike past seasons, when no one took charge, Galley was determined to do what he could to ensure the skid ended before it became the kind of bottomless spiral that took the Kings out of the playoffs the past two seasons.&ldquo;One thing we don&rsquo;t want to do is panic and we don&rsquo;t want players looking anywhere but at themselves,&rdquo; said Galley, a 14-year NHL veteran. &ldquo;We realize we&rsquo;ve gotten away from the work ethic and little things that made us successful and that we have to go back to that.&rdquo;One of the things that has made them successful is Galley&rsquo;s contribution. The 34-year-old Galley had four goals and 16 points in 29 games. Each of his goals was a power play tally, which tied him with left winger Luc Robitaille for the team lead. The positive outlook in L.A. has Galley feeling good about his decision to leave Buffalo.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really excited to be here,&rdquo; Galley said. &ldquo;I saw it as a chance to be with a young team that&rsquo;s rebuilding. There&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on us to make the playoffs, but that&rsquo;s good pressure.&rdquo;Galley has helped keep his teammates&rsquo; spirits up with dressing room pep talks. The coaching staff has done the same.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;re doing is trying to stay positive and looking at the things we can fix,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sometimes, there&rsquo;s lots going on and we have to re-focus on the game and focus less on what&rsquo;s going on outside hockey. A team can lose itself that way and that&rsquo;s what happened a little bit here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Ray Ferraro underwent surgery to repair tom cartilage in his left knee Dec. 8 and was expected to be out until at least mid-January&hellip;In their first 30 games, the Kings allowed opponents to score the first goal 20 times. The Kings were 3-12-5 in those games. On the bright side, they were 91-0 when they scored the first goal&hellip;Goaltender Jamie Storr was 6-1-1 in his first eight games with Long Beach of the International League, but GM Dave Taylor was in no hurry to bring him up. Storr pulled a groin muscle in training camp and has been playing his way back into shape. In the meantime, Frederic Chabot has been the backup to Stephane Fiset&hellip;Taylor also said he had no immediate plan to recall right winger Vitali Yachmenev, who was assigned to Long Beach after ending a lengthy contract holdout. Yachmenev had five goals and 16 points in his first 16 games there. &ldquo;We know that if we need an offensive forward, he&rsquo;s ready,&rdquo; Taylor said. &#9632;

f0017-01

Galley proves worth with points, steadying influence in hard times

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02924/6754840-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="161" height="161"></div>Darcy Tucker is experiencing an identity crisis.The 22-year-old center, in only his second full season with the Montreal Canadiens, doesn&rsquo;t know who, or what, he is.&ldquo;It seems like it has been two or three years in one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It has been such a roller-coaster. I find it hard to define what I do. I go home and try to figure out why things happen.&rdquo;Tucker was an offensive talent in junior, leading the Kamloops Blazers to three Memorial Cup championships in four seasons. And during his only minor league season, at Fredericton, he was selected the American League&rsquo;s top rookie.But he has yet to display a scoring touch in the NHL. Indeed, more than one-third through the regular season, Tucker was the only Canadiens&rsquo; forward yet to score. He had five assists through 27 games and was a healthy scratch five times.In Tucker&rsquo;s defense, it&rsquo;s difficult to generate offense when a player gets three shifts per period and is on the ice for a total of only 7:34, as he was for a Dec. 10 game against the St. Louis Blues. Yet he still generated two shots, won five of seven faceoffs and blocked one shot.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what they want,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It has been pretty frustrating. Last year, I was the happiest guy to be in the room and be around the guys. But I&rsquo;m having a hard time picking out the positives this year.&rdquo;Tucker had seven goals and 20 points in 73 games with Montreal last season.During camp, new coach Alain Vigneault said Tucker had to define the kind of player he was-be it a scorer or defensive specialist. Three months into the season, it appears to be the latter.Tucker said he&rsquo;s a player who feeds off his ice time. When he plays sporadically, he generally struggles to find his tempo.In an effort to contribute, Tucker has become a fighter, though he&rsquo;s only 5-foot-l 1 and 182 pounds.&ldquo;When I fight, it isn&rsquo;t for myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I fight for the team, the guy next to me on the bench and the organization. Not for personal pride.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Dave Manson played Dec. 6 against the Rangers despite having a piece of Christimas tree stuck in his ear. He suffered the mishap earlier in the day while setting up and decorating the family&rsquo;s tree for the holidays. He didn&rsquo;t realize it at the time, but figured something was amiss when he arrived at the Molson Centre and there was a strange sensation in his left ear. Upon further examination, athletic trainer Gaetan Lefebvre discovered a pine needle lodged in Manson&rsquo;s ear channel. Lefebvre couldn&rsquo;t dislodge it at the arena, so Manson had to be taken to hospital following the game for minor surgery&hellip;Left winger Shayne Corson was scheduled to play his 500th game in a Montreal uniform Dec. 12 at New Jersey. Corson also played 192 games for Edmonton and 88 for St. Louis&hellip;Defenseman Vladimir Malakhov was expected to return before Christmas after sustaining a sprained left knee&hellip;The Canadiens were unbeaten in five (4-0-1) following a 4-3 overtime win over St. Louis Dec. 10. &#9632;

f0017-02

Once promising scorer Tucker trying to find way to make mark

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011259/6754871-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="161" height="160"></div>In the midst of an emotionless New York Rangers&rsquo; slump, GM Neil Smith said he hoped he didn&rsquo;t have to &ldquo;throw a powderkeg in the middle of the room and light the wick.&rdquo;He had seen just about enough slow-motion, lackluster play from his $44million team. One powderkeg could be a big trade. Another could be a new coach. It was clear, however, something had to transpire.The Rangers don&rsquo;t have enough offensive wingers. They don&rsquo;t have enough speed. And they certainly don&rsquo;t play with enough smarts or passion to overcome those deficiencies. They had given up the first goal in 16 of their 18 home games (5-7-6) and were among the league&rsquo;s worst offensive teams, averaging 2.55 goals per game.If the trend continues, the Rangers will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs. That is why Smith, as much as he doesn&rsquo;t want to, may have to replace coach Colin Campbell with director of scouting John Paddock or with one of the other unemployed former NHL coaches.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no cushion on our chair,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sitting on the springs.&rdquo;Is this team good enough to climb out of the hole it has dug?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m trying to evaluate,&rdquo; Smith said following an embarrassing 4-1 home loss to the Calgary Flames Dec. 10. &ldquo;And judging by tonight, it certainly doesn&rsquo;t look like it.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Niklas Sundstrom suffered a broken bone in his hand when slashed by Philadelphia left winger John LeClair Dec. 5. Sundstrom could be out until early in the new year&hellip;Center Wayne Gretzky didn&rsquo;t have a point in two games against Calgary this season. Prior to 1997-98, Gretzky had torched the Flames for 226 points in 113 career-regular season games&hellip;Right winger Shane Churla, who underwent two major knee operations over the summer, came to New York to be examined by team doctors. Churla isn&rsquo;t sure if he&rsquo;ll be able to return this season. &#9632;

f0018-01

GM Smith may light torch if team doesn’t catch fire

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03641/6754902-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="579" height="901"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rich Pilon</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02928/6754909-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="161" height="157"></div>For most of his career, rugged New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Rich Pilon irritated teammates by body-checking them in practice. This year, he has been positively lamb-like in workouts, saving his ferocity for games.That&rsquo;s just fine with coach Rick Bowness.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s looking after himself,&rdquo; Bowness said of Pilon, 29, one of three alternate captains on the team. &ldquo;He can take every (practice) day off, as long as he shows up and plays (games) like he has been.&rdquo;Pilon was healthy for 26 of the Islanders&rsquo; first 31 games and was doing his usual effective job as crease-clearer and penalty-killer. Currently the longest-serving Islander, Pilon never has played more than 65 games in a season. Since he becomes a Group V free agent after this season as a 10-year pro earning less than the league&rsquo;s average salary (he makes $550,000), he wants to play as many games as he can.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t even thought about (free agency),&rdquo; Pilon said. &ldquo;Whatever happens happens. My biggest worry is to stay healthy and win some games.&rdquo;GM Mike Milbury traded Derek King last March rather than risk losing him to unrestricted free agency. Pilon knows he also could be traded and have to seek a big contract elsewhere. His agent Art Breeze said, &ldquo;The Islanders have not approached us. We do not know what their intentions are.&rdquo;Pilon said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been anything but an Islander. This team&rsquo;s going in the right direction. I&rsquo;d love to stay.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After getting just two assists in an 18-game span, right winger Todd Bertuzzi had two goals and six points in seven games while on a line with left winger Tom Chorske and center Bryan Smolinski&hellip;Smolinski broke a 16-game scoring drought Dec. 11 in a 4-3 road loss to Philadelphia&hellip;Backup goalie Wade Flaherty was excused to fly to Salt Lake City to be with his wife Carmie, who delivered their first child, a girl they named Jordyn Alanna, at 12:10 a.m. Dec. 5, 20 minutes after he arrived&hellip;John Spano&rsquo;s attorney. Bob Fink, did not appear in a Boston court on Dec. 10 to enter Spano&rsquo;s plea on a fraud charge because of doubts over whether Spano, the former owner of the Islanders could pay him. &#9632;

f0018-03

Rich stands to get richer

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04401/6754940-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="164" height="161"></div>One of the most chaotic weeks in franchise history ended with signs of long-term stability.New Jersey Devils&rsquo; captain Scott Stevens agreed to a four-year contract extension worth $20 million Dec. 8 and three days later goalie Martin Brodeur signed a four-year deal for $15.5 million.For owner John McMullen, who criticized recent trade demands made by John MacLean and Bill Guerin, it signaled a successful effort to keep the foundation of a Stanley Cup contender intact.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing I can do about the upward trend of salaries,&rdquo; McMullen said, &ldquo;but I just couldn&rsquo;t stand the thought of letting Brodeur be out there as a Group II free agent next year. Besides, he&rsquo;s a first-class person. He deserves it. We&rsquo;re delighted to have him. Same with Stevens.&rdquo;Both sought security and stability.&ldquo;I plan on finishing my career here,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited. I&rsquo;m looking forward to winning another Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Stevens&rsquo; signing came a day after MacLean&rsquo;s trade to the San Jose Sharks. The career Devil, who requested to be moved, was sent west with defenseman Ken Sutton for defenseman Doug Bodger and little-used enforcer Dody Wood. Bodger did not report immediately to the Devils because of family matters while Wood, a left winger, was assigned to Albany of the American League.MacLean&rsquo;s trade demand put pressure on the organization to sign other potential free agents before they became discontented.Brodeur said his signing was contingent upon the team&rsquo;s keeping Stevens. &ldquo;I put my success and career way ahead of the money I could make,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;My biggest concern was I wanted to make sure this team stays competitive. Signing Scotty was important. It was important to me that I wasn&rsquo;t the only guy.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: GM Lou Lamoriello suggested right winger John MacLean&rsquo;s No. 15 would be retired when the time was right&hellip;Owner John McMullen ripped Bill Guerin, saying the right winger signed Nov. 21 &ldquo;for the money&rdquo; and not so he would be assured of a spot on the U.S. Olympic team&hellip;Center Doug Gilmour, who stands to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, said he was looking for a two-year contract instead of three&hellip;Right winger Randy McKay, who can also become an unrestricted free agent, said he had met with Lamoriello several times and was waiting for a contract offer&hellip;Defenseman Scott Niedermayer, a potential restricted free agent, said he had not received an offer. &#9632;

f0018-04

Key Devils kept happy with deals

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011163/6754971-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="162" height="161"></div>Ottawa Senators&rsquo; defenseman Chris Phillips had only one goal entering December, but he has another big goal in mind.While most people scan NHL statistics to look at the scoring leaders, Phillips, 19, is keeping an eye on the category for rookies with the race for the Calder Trophy set to heat up.If named the league&rsquo;s rookie of the year, he would pick up a cool $600,000 (U.S.) bonus for the prize. It&rsquo;s also a matter of personal pride and proving you&rsquo;re the best.To make an impact with the voters, the likeable 1996 No. 1 pick from Fort McMurray, Alta., believes he has to start chipping in more offensively than the one goal and seven points he had in 25 games.&ldquo;I always look at the rookie scoring,&rdquo; Phillips said. &ldquo;I want to see how the guys are doing and how it&rsquo;s shaping up. It&rsquo;s definitely a goal of mine to win the Calder.&rdquo;Marco Sturm of the San Jose Sharks led all rookies in scoring with six goals and 18 points in 30 games. Patrik Elias of the New Jersey Devils, Vinny Prospal of the Philadelphia Flyers and Mattias Ohlund of the Vancouver Canucks were also top candidates.NOTEBOOK: The Senators lost right winger Daniel Alfredsson indefinitely after he reinjured his right ankle in a 2-1 loss to St. Louis Dec. 12. Celebrating his 25th birthday, Alfredsson left the game in the third period after attempting to kick the puck with the same ankle which forced him to miss eight games earlier this season&hellip;Senators&rsquo; defenseman Stan Neckar was a healthy scratch for the 10th time this season against the Blues. &#9632;

f0019-01

Phillips aims at rookie prize

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02838/6755002-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="160" height="158"></div>Either it was the biggest coincidence in hockey history or Eric Lindros really was rejuvenated by word of the Paul Kariya signing.The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; captain, bogged down in the worst scoring slump of his career (one goal in 13 games), registered his first hat trick of the season Dec. 11, just hours after learning about Kariya&rsquo;s re-signing with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.Many believe the Kariya contract will set the standard for the current market. Lindros, 24. is in the last season of his original six-year contract and admits the whole situation has affected his play.So when news came in from California, Lindros went out and played his best game of the season, which included the winning goal with 1:27 to play in a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders at the CoreStates Center.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of money,&rdquo; said Lindros of Kariya&rsquo;s reported two-year, $14million agreement, &ldquo;but they wouldn&rsquo;t be paying him that unless they deemed him worthy. As far as my contract, yes, it has a bearing on it. but we&rsquo;ll wait and see. I&rsquo;m not Paul and (team chairman) Mr. (Ed) Snider is not Disney.&rdquo;Lindros has made no secret of the fact he wants to get the matter completed.&ldquo;We kind of had our own game plan even prior to Paul signing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had talks in place for (mid-December).&rdquo;Kariya will make $8.5 million in the 1998-99 season.&ldquo;One of the things holding us back was Kariya hadn&rsquo;t signed,&rdquo; said GM Bob Clarke. &ldquo;There was a wait-and-see-what-Kariya-does attitude.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Carl Lindros, center Eric Lindros&rsquo; father/agent, said he&rsquo;s hopeful a new contract is close. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t anticipate Paul (Kariya) signing a deal until after the Olympics.&rdquo; Carl said. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t change the goal we all had. that we would like to have something done before we break at Christmas.&rdquo;&hellip;The Flyers were hit by a mini-flu epidemic, but the team&rsquo;s eight Olympic players-centers Eric Lindros. Vinny Prospal and Joel Otto, left wingers Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour and John LeClair and defensemen Petr Svoboda. Eric Desjardins and Janne Ninnimaa-have to be careful what medications they take. U.S. Olympic Committee officials administered a drug test Dec. 7. &#9632;

f0019-02

Kariya down, Lindros to go

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011048/6755033-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="162" height="159"></div>Sometimes it takes a little bloodshed to help stop the bleeding.That was the case for the Phoenix Coyotes, who were in danger of losing for the fifth time in seven games when Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk stepped up. In a Dec. 10 game in Chicago against the Blackhawks, the Coyotes quickly fell behind 2-0, but managed to rally for a 3-3 tie thanks to their two star forwards.Tkachuk scored the game-tying goal late in the third period and Roenick provided solid play throughout, in addition to being at the center of late-game fireworks. Roenick ignited a mini-brawl in overtime after running into Chicago goalie Jeff Hackett. With blood streaming down his face, the result of an earlier high stick from center Alexei Zhamaov, he traded jabs with several players and refused to back down.Afterward, responding to the large chorus of boos directed at him by Chicago fans, Roenick tore into them, too.&ldquo;The majority of the fans have always treated me well,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;But for those other idiots, they can go straight to hell. They&rsquo;re just jealous about who I am and how much money I&rsquo;m making. If they don&rsquo;t like it, they can kiss my butt.&rdquo;Tkachuk, meanwhile, was suffering from the flu and had his mind on his pregnant wife, Chantal, who delivered the couple&rsquo;s first child the next day.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t easy to concentrate,&rdquo; Tkachuk said.NOTEBOOK: Unsigned defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and the Coyotes were apparently close to a two-year deal that would pay him about $ 1.5 million per season&hellip;Center Jeremy Roenick missed one game after sustaining a mild concussion when he was checked into the boards by Carolina defenseman Steve Chiasson Dec. 5&hellip;Left winger Darrin Shannon and right winger Dallas Drake were each lost until mid-January with knee injuries&hellip;Because of the injuries, usual left winger Jim McKenzie was moved to defense&hellip;Center Chad Kilger was recalled from Springfield of the American League&hellip;Defenseman Teppo Numminen was named the sexiest athlete in Finland by one of the country&rsquo;s largest magazines. &#9632;

f0020-01

Top guns come through during difficult times

<div class="byline">By Mike Dudurich</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03470/6755064-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="578" height="904"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Barrasso</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02699/6755071-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="159" height="155"></div>While he has never made an issue of it. Tom Barrasso had plenty to prove when he stepped onto the ice for the first time this season. He had missed all but five games last year because of a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery.If his expressed purpose in coming back this year was not to prove anything, he&rsquo;s doing a fine imitation of a guy who&rsquo;s doing just that.As the Pittsburgh Penguins hit mid-December, Barrasso was playing as well as any goaltender in the league. He recorded four shutouts in five games, losing the shutout streak when Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; winger Vladimir Tsyplakov scored on a deflection off the skate of defenseman Jiri Slegr Dec. 9.Barrasso had a chance to set a modem day record for consecutive road shutouts had he blanked the Kings, but his scoreless streak ended at 218:21.&ldquo;I had no idea (about the record) until you just mentioned it,&rdquo; Barrasso said.After beating the Kings 2-1 that night, Barrasso and the Penguins blanked the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-0 the next night, giving him a career-high five for the season and 28 in his career. Even though Barrasso was playing so well, he was not selected to the American Olympic team.&ldquo;I thought Tommy was definitely going to be selected,&rdquo; said defenseman Kevin Hatcher. &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen Tommy play much, but to see him play at this level and with this consistency, is unbelievable.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Jaromir Jagr was penalized late in successive games for using an illegal stick. Both times the Penguins were in control of the game and it didn&rsquo;t figure in the outcome, but coach Kevin Constantine said he hoped the team-especially Jagr-learned a valuable lesson from those penalties&hellip;Rookie goaltender Peter Skudra recorded his first NHL victory, stopping 25 shots in a 5-2 win over Anaheim Dec. 6&hellip;The first 15 times this season the Penguins took a lead into the third period, they were 13-0-2&hellip;The Penguins were 10-1-1 in a 12-game stretch, outscoring their opponents 32-19 during that time&hellip;The Penguins recorded their 11th road victory Dec. 10. They finished the 1996-97 season with just 13. &#9632;

f0020-03

Barrasso is king of road

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01947/6755102-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="162" height="158"></div>Of all the crazy things going on in this mixed up world&hellip;The Golden Brett and Iron Mike have kissed and made up.Go figure.Antagonists during Mike Keenan&rsquo;s tumultuous 29-month reign as the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; coach-GM and all-around czar, Brett Hull and Keenan met before Keenan&rsquo;s return to Kiel Center as coach of the Vancouver Canucks Dec. 8.When they were together in St. Louis, Keenan initiated a him-or-me scenario and was the loser.They exchanged pleasantries in a hallway outside the dressing rooms, shook hands and even had a couple laughs.&ldquo;We talked, and it was nice,&rdquo; said Hull, who couldn&rsquo;t play in the Blues&rsquo; big Keenan grudge match because of a pulled muscle in his buttocks. Hull initiated the meeting.&ldquo;I just wanted to tell him there were no hard feelings,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I like him as a guy. It just didn&rsquo;t work out in hockey. I told him I learned a lot from it, and he said he did. too.&rdquo;Afterwards, Hull asked Keenan to autograph a Mike Keenan model hockey stick that Hull had in his stick collection. Keenan graciously complied.The inscription: To Brett. All the best to you and your family. (Signed) Mike Keenan.&ldquo;He told me that I was one of three or four best forwards he ever coached,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;That meant a lot to me.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With their fans either chanting &ldquo;Keenan Sucks,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Keenan, Keenan,&rdquo; or booing Vancouver coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s face on the video scoreboard, or cheering coach Joel Quenneville throughout the game, the Blues breezed to an easy 5-1 victory over the Canucks Dec. 8&hellip;Selke Trophy candidate, right winger Craig Conroy, set up two goals by left winger Scott Pellerin against the Canucks, giving him a goal and nine points in four games&hellip;Conroy also centered the checking line that shut down center Mark Messier and Vancouver for the second time this season. The checking line of Conroy, Pellerin and right winger Blair Atcheynum is called the CPA Line because they&rsquo;re accountable for checking the opposition&rsquo;s top line. &#9632;

f0022-01

Keenan, Hull bury hatchet now they’ve changed sides

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03463/6755133-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="584" height="902"><figcaption class="caption-body">John MacLean</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02652/6755140-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="162" height="159"></div>Fourteen seasons with the same NHL team proved to be more than enough for right winger John MacLean.The San Jose Sharks landed the disgruntled MacLean and defenseman Ken Sutton in a Dec. 7 deal that sent blueliner Doug Bodger and left winger Dody Wood to the New Jersey Devils.MacLean, 33, made his Sharks&rsquo; debut Dec. 10 in a 3-3 tie with the visiting Washington Capitals. While MacLean did not register a point, he managed five shots on goal.The Sharks, light on scoring and always in the market for quality veterans, were thrilled to take MacLean off the Devils&rsquo; hands.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t stay with one organization that long and not have character and leadership skills,&rdquo; said Sharks&rsquo; coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;To be able to get someone who brings all those qualities, I think you&rsquo;re fortunate.&rdquo;The Devils&rsquo; all-time leader with 347 goals and 701 points, MacLean survived the lean times in the mid-1980s and was a key member of New Jersey&rsquo;s 1995 Stanley Cup championship team.&ldquo;I had some great years there, most exciting times for me personally and professionally,&rdquo; said MacLean, who requested a trade. &ldquo;It was just time to move on.&rdquo;MacLean, who stands to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, said he has a &ldquo;wide-open mind&rdquo; regarding potentially re-signing with San Jose. Sharks&rsquo; GM Dean Lombardi indicated the club will likely attempt to keep him.NOTEBOOK: The Sharks aren&rsquo;t releasing center Patrick Marleau to play for Canada at the World Junior Championship. While the club believed the assignment would help Marleau, his desire to remain with San Jose persuaded management to go that route&hellip;Center Bernie Nicholls returned Dec. 10 after missing 12 games with a broken thumb&hellip;Defenseman Al lafrate had seven shots in two games back in the lineup&hellip;Right winger Owen Nolan served a league-imposed one-game suspension Dec. 10 for having picked up two stick-related game misconducts&hellip;The Sharks recalled defenseman Andrei Zyuzin from Kentucky of the American League Dec. 7 and assigned defenseman Rich Brennan to the Thoroughblades two days later. &#9632;

f0022-03

Sharks thrilled to get MacLean

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02617/6755202-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="159" height="157"></div>The Toronto arena wars either get more interesting or more tiresome, depending on one&rsquo;s perspective.From the Maple Leafs&rsquo; point of view, the direction of these battles may have changed forever Dec. 10 when local politicians gave them the green light to do due diligence on a $250 million arena complex on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in west Toronto that would be completed for 2000-2001.That would replace Maple Leaf Gardens, a facility built during the depression and the NHL&rsquo;s oldest rink.Leafs&rsquo; owner Steve Stavro said the latest move underscores his unwillingness to cut a deal with the National Basketball Association Toronto Raptors to share the Air Canada Centre, which is under construction.&ldquo;This means we go our own way,&rdquo; Stavro said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said that from the beginning. This building is for hockey fans. As long as I&rsquo;m there, there&rsquo;ll be no deal made with the Raptors.&rdquo;The Raptors said they still want to share the Air Canada Centre with the Leafs, and remain perplexed why Stavro is against the notion.&ldquo;I think it would be good for the fans in Toronto to know why that is,&rdquo; said Raptors&rsquo; president Richard Peddie. &ldquo;Because we certainly don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;This battle has been brewing for more than two years ever since the Raptors announced plans to build a basketball only facility in downtown Toronto. Eventually, as ownership squabbles fouled up the basketball franchise&rsquo;s plans, the arena plans were moved to another site and the Leafs were invited in as a tenant.Stavro felt slighted by the basketball team and has never forgiven the slight. After exploring the notions of building at the University of Toronto and at the train and subway complex in the downtown core, he shifted his plans west of downtown to the &lsquo;Ex,&rsquo; formerly the site of the stadium that was once home to Major League Baseball&rsquo;s Blue Jays.NOTEBOOK: Center Doug Gilmour said he was &ldquo;scared&rdquo; before making his first return to Maple Leaf Gardens since he was traded to New Jersey Feb. 25&hellip;Winger Igor Korolev continued his, hot streak with his fifth goal in seven games Dec. 10, but broke his nose and was cut for 25 stitches when he fell and hit his face&hellip;Defensemen Dimitri Yushkevich and Mathieu Schneider have supplanted Jason Smith and Jamie Macoun as the club&rsquo;s most used defensive tandem&hellip;After 29 games, right winger Mike Johnson led NHL rookies with 20 points, but had yet to record a point in 12 road outings&hellip;Winger Nick Kypreos, out since the pre-season with concussion problems, said he may miss the entire season. &#9632;

f0024-02

Leafs focus on ‘Ex’ as arena site

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04252/6755233-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="570" height="899"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jyrki Lumme</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03400/6755240-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="160" height="165"></div>After a 5-1-1 start under Mike Keenan, the Vancouver Canucks returned to earth, which for them is sub. 500 hockey.The Canucks were humiliated on a three-game road trip to Colorado, St. Louis and Detroit as they were handily whipped in every game and were outscored 18-10. In addition to the 18 goals, they also surrendered 104 shots, twice allowing more than 40. Whatever system new coach Keenan was attempting to implement, it clearly imploded on him and the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in this predicament before and somehow we got out of it so I&rsquo;ll think of something,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;If I was inexperienced I might be discouraged, but I&rsquo;m not. I know what&rsquo;s required.&rdquo;What&rsquo;s required, of course, are better defensemen and bigger forwards, a situation Keenan quickly discovered. Keenan appears to have confidence in just three blueliners-Jyrki Lumme, Bret Hedican and rookie Mattias Ohlund-and can&rsquo;t find a fourth he deems reliable enough to play 20-25 minutes a night.&ldquo;To put you right over the top, you need close to a superstar on defense, if not a superstar,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;The preference for everyone here is not to make changes and have things fall into place and move forward, but that&rsquo;s probably not realistic.&rdquo;As poorly as his team was playing, Keenan wasn&rsquo;t in panic mode. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not as despondent or as down as some people might be,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re bleeding to death, but we&rsquo;re not dead yet.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Martin Gelinas, promoted to the top line with center Mark Messier and right winger Pavel Bure, snapped a 10-game goal drought and eight-game point drought in a 7-5 loss to Detroit Dec. 9&hellip;Coach Mike Keenan closed practice in St. Louis Dec. 7 in his continuing feud with Blues&rsquo; reporters he called &ldquo;biased and irresponsible.&rdquo;&hellip;Although Keenan put on a brave front, he was very upset with the Canucks&rsquo; effort in his return to St. Louis. Vancouver had just two shots in the third period of a 5-1 loss&hellip;With center Trevor Linden&rsquo;s return from injury Dec. 8, Vancouver had its top five forwards in the lineup for the first time this season. Messier, Bure, right winger Alexander Mogilny and Gelinas are the other four. &#9632;

f0024-04

Honeymoon period ends

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05180/6755271-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="161" height="160"></div>Watching Jeff Toms play in his early days as a Washington Capital, you couldn&rsquo;t but wonder what the Tampa Bay Lightning was thinking.The Capitals plucked the 23-year-old left winger off the waiver wire Nov. 19, after the Lightning decided the 6-foot-5, 200-pounder didn&rsquo;t fit into their plans. In his first eight games as a Capital, Toms had three goals-including the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory over Florida Dec. 5 in the first-ever game at MCI Center.Toms was producing despite the fact he wasn&rsquo;t playing on a regular line, instead filling in where needed. In 48 games over three seasons with Tampa, Toms had three goals and 13 points.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting an opportunity,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to him to take advantage of it and so far he has.&rdquo;Toms&rsquo; youth and relatively low salary ($400,000) made him an attractive risk for the Capitals. He is one of the taller players in the league, and it is frightening to think what he might become if he were to add 15 or so pounds of muscle. As it is, he is a good quick skater with a deceptively good shot.&ldquo;He might have been pigeonholed in Tampa and behind a lot of guys,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;Because of injuries here, he has gotten maybe a bigger opportunity than he would have if everyone was healthy. By the same token&hellip;he has made it tougher for some of the other people here because he has played so well.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Caps&rsquo; opener at MCI Center Dec. 5 was notable for more than just the 3-2 overtime win against Florida. First, with opening ceremonies running late and Florida coach Bryan Murray not informed of what was going on, the Panthers were sent out to skate during a laser light show. Then as the second period was to start, a gentleman in a wheelchair was brought to center ice for a ceremonial puck drop&hellip;Defenseman Calle Johansson recorded his 400th NHL point when he scored shorthanded in a 3-3 tie with San Jose Dec. 10&hellip;Right winger Peter Bondra had a points streak snapped at 11 games when he sat out one match with a bruised ankle. He scored in his first game back, the 3-3 tie with the Sharks. &#9632;

f0024-05

Towering Toms lighting it up after release from Lightning

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02519/6755302-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrice Lefebvre&rsquo;s coach thinks he could play in the NHL right now. (Photo by Steve Spalafore/BBS)</figcaption></div>When he was a child growing up in Montreal, it was easy for Patrice Lefebvre to pretend he was Guy Lafleur or Yvan Cournoyer or any of the many superb French Canadian players who helped the Montreal Canadiens dominate the game.Go ahead and dream, the adults who watched him play told him. Have fun.Of course, the adults said to themselves as young Patrice played with the puck like a yo-yo, he couldn&rsquo;t actually be a pro hockey player. Too small, they insisted. It was sad. So much talent, but so little size.But there was one woman in Montreal-tiny, as well, in stature, but with a warrior&rsquo;s heart-around whom nobody would speak that way.Lucienne Lefebvre was Patrice&rsquo;s grandmother and the person who raised him after his parents divorced when he was three months old.While conventional wisdom said Patrice was too small to ever amount to anything in pro hockey, nobody dared say it around Lucienne.&ldquo;She wouldn&rsquo;t let anybody say that because she knew it&rsquo;s not size that matters, it&rsquo;s heart,&rdquo; says Lefebvre, the Las Vegas Thunder&rsquo;s 5-foot-5, 160-pound right winger. &ldquo;She would tell me they can&rsquo;t judge your heart with a (measuring stick).&rdquo;Lefebvre&rsquo;s small frame has kept him out of the NHL. He is the Quebec League&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer (595 points on 187 goals in 276 games over four seasons) and was a unanimous selection to its first Hall of Fame class, going in with his idol, Lafleur.Lefebvre, 30, has also become the cornerstone of the Las Vegas franchise and is in position to win his first IHL scoring title. He led the league in scoring as of Dec. 11 with 11 goals and 40 points.&ldquo;The guy is unbelievable,&rdquo; says Utah Grizzlies&rsquo; coach-GM Butch Goring. &ldquo;If he was 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10, he&rsquo;d be in the NHL, no question.&rdquo;Through all the years in junior, of traipsing across Europe, battling in the IHL, he wouldn&rsquo;t quit dreaming. He clung to the hope an NHL scout somewhere would be brave enough to take a chance on a player who is so short he would look an Eric Lindros eyeball-to-belly button on a faceoff.That was the indomitable spirit he got from Lucienne Lefebvre, who spent much of her life raising her grandson. The two developed a bond that lasted until her death nearly two years ago from hepatitis.During 1995-96, Lefebvre&rsquo;s best IHL season statistically, he was pulled in opposite directions. He would go on to score a career-high 114 points and lead Las Vegas to the best regular season record in the IHL, but his heart was often half a continent away.He made regular trips to Montreal that season as his grandmother&rsquo;s days dwindled to a precious few. The final time he saw her, she was on a bed, virtually incoherent. He knew it wouldn&rsquo;t be long, that then was the last time.He had to get back on a plane to Las Vegas, where a core of adoring fans was unaware of the personal tragedy that was befalling him.But Lefebvre never let on and played as he had never played before. He set up plays. He killed penalties. He blocked shots. He won faceoffs. He did it all.&ldquo;At this level, he is a superstar,&rdquo; says Thunder GM Bob Strumm. &ldquo;He helps you win in more ways than you can imagine.&rdquo;Lefebvre rose up. That was his grandmother&rsquo;s influence. She was a bulldog who managed to succeed against the odds. She passed that attitude on to her beloved grandson, who vowed to one day win the Turner Cup for her.&ldquo;That last time, it was very hard to leave, because I knew she was near the end,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But my grandmother always told me, &lsquo;Never let anyone work harder than you. Never let anything stand in your way of being the best.&rsquo; And I took that to heart and even during the hardest times, I remembered it.&rdquo;In his first four years in the IHL, Lefebvre netted an even 400 points, second in that span only to perennial scoring champion Rob Brown, who is now in the NHL.When Lefebvre became a free agent after 1995-96, he considered signing with Utah because of its affiliation with the New York Islanders, in the hope it would get him one final crack at the big time.In the end, he re-signed with Las Vegas. But Las Vegas coach Chris McSorley, who calls Lefebvre the IHL&rsquo;s top defensive forward, insists Lefebvre&rsquo;s size shouldn&rsquo;t preclude him from the NHL even today.&ldquo;People underestimate how strong Patrice is,&rdquo; McSorley says. &ldquo;His vision is second to none. I honestly think if somebody gave Patrice a chance now, he could play there. His conditioning is as good as anybody on our team. His physical shape is as good as anybody on our team. And he&rsquo;s as aware out there as any player I&rsquo;ve seen.&ldquo;When you put that together with the kind of hands and skill he has, you&rsquo;re talking about a very good player. And given a chance to play with the right players, Patrice could go and do well in the NHL. Right now.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0025-02

Lefebvre Vegas’ small Thunder

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01819/6755333-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="382" height="432"></div>The Indianapolis Ice and Houston Aeros had their staffs raided, but it was the National Football League and not the NHL doing the stealing.Ray Compton, one of the league&rsquo;s most influential members, resigned as president-GM of the Ice to become executive director of business development for the Indianapolis Colts.And Aeros&rsquo; president-GM Steve Patterson, stepped aside to direct a group that is seeking an NFL expansion franchise for Houston.The 47-year-old Compton, who co-founded the Ice along with owner Horn Chen and was known for innovative marketing ideas and zany promotions, was replaced by Brad Beery, who worked with the Ice from 1989 until last summer.Long-time IHL executive Richard Adler was named Aeros&rsquo; president, GM and governor.Aeros&rsquo; owner Chuck Watson, who had sought an NHL franchise for the city, is attempting to lure an NFL team to Houston.THE PLAYER/COACH: Las Vegas coach Chris McSorley had an eventful night when he came out of retirement-briefly-to play in a game against the Manitoba Moose at Winnipeg Arena Dec. 5 when his team was facing a severe manpower shortage.McSorley fanned on a 2-on-l shorthanded break and was in the crease for what would have been a Jesse Belanger goal in a 5-2 loss to Manitoba.McSorley retired again when the team was able to recall Lorne Toews from the Columbus Chill of the East Coast League in time for the re-match with the Moose, a 1-0 Las Vegas victory.&ldquo;My guys played so hard because they didn&rsquo;t want me to start thinking of playing again,&rdquo; said McSorley, who played two games for Las Vegas in 1994-95 when he was associate coach.The last IHL coach to play in a game was Rob Laird of the Fort Wayne Komets Dec. 8, 1985. He got in a fight with a young tough guy that night for the Toledo Goaldiggers named, you guessed it, Chris McSorley.GOALIE WOES?: The Utah Grizzlies were scrambling for goalies, but it would have been hard to tell by their play in a 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals Dec. 3.In the previous four days, the Grizzlies lost both their goalies, Mark McArthur to a serious knee injury and Wade Flaherty to the NHL&rsquo;s New York Islanders.Utah coach-GM Butch Goring thought he had worked out a deal to bring IHL veteran Larry Dyck in from the Western Pro League, but when Dyck arrived in Utah, they had a difference of agreement over terms and Dyck left.That left 26-year-old rookie Lee Schill, from the Reno Rage of the West Coast League, who was slated to back up Dyck, as the No. 1 goalie for the Milwaukee game. Utah team president Tim Mouser, who played in the IHL for the Peoria Prancers in the mid-1980s, served as the backup.Schill stopped 24 shots for the shutout. Mouser donated his $300 game salary to charity and then retired when Utah signed Alain Morissette.I-OPENERS: The IHL fined Orlando Solar Bears&rsquo; coach Curt Fraser $1,000 and suspended him two games for an altercation with fans Dec. 2 in Detroit. Solar Bear players Mel Angelstad, Ben Hankinson, Pat Mikesch. Eric Nickolas and Kevin Smyth were each fined $100 for their involvement&hellip;Manitoba center Randy Gilhen retired as a player and accepted a job as an assistant coach with the Moose&hellip;The Long Beach Ice Dogs lost center Stephane Morin for the rest of the season with a broken leg&hellip;Fort Wayne coach John Torchetti was suspended one game for allowing Robin Bawa to play in a game when he was suspended. &#9632;

f0025-01

Executives leave for greener gridiron

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01901/6755364-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="427" height="424"></div>When he completed his final season of junior hockey in 1995-96, Frank Banham figured he had a very bright future with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.He had scored a Western League-best 83 goals for the Saskatoon Blades and showed great promise playing for the American League&rsquo;s Baltimore Bandits that spring in the playoffs.If only that nagging pain in his lower abdomen would go away. Except it wouldn&rsquo;t. Banham was bothered by the pain when he skated hard, even when he shot the puck. By the time he joined Baltimore in the spring, the persistent pain intensified.&ldquo;There were times when I couldn&rsquo;t even lift my leg over the boards, I&rsquo;d have to sort of use my hand to lift it,&rdquo; Banham said. &ldquo;I just figured it would go away.&rdquo;It did go away, but it took 18 months and one surgical procedure to correct the tom stomach muscle and for the inflammation in his pelvis to subside. It basically cost him a year of his career.Banham remained a top prospect, but for what: the NHL or Soap Opera Digest? A sharp-shooting right winger who prefers staying busy to the couch-potato scene, Banham was able to do very little as he recovered.&ldquo;I was never a TV person before, but I&rsquo;m hooked on some shows now-some of the soaps, Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210,&rdquo; Banham said.He played only 21 AHL games last year, scoring 11 goals and 24 points before the nagging injury flared again in February, ending his season.He didn&rsquo;t return to the ice for Anaheim&rsquo;s AHL affiliate-the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks-until Dec. 6 this season. A summer of rest, followed by exercises to strengthen his abdomen and trunk, seemingly has rectified the problem for the time being.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just like a little kid again. I&rsquo;m so happy to be playing,&rdquo; said Banham. who scored a goal in his second game. &ldquo;It was so frustrating to be out. But I tried to keep thinking ahead instead of looking behind.&rdquo;The future ahead is bright, Cincinnati coach Moe Mantha said of the 22-year-old who was signed by Anaheim as a free agent. He was originally drafted by the Washington Capitals (sixth round in 1993), but wasn&rsquo;t signed.&ldquo;He has got an NHL shot and it&rsquo;s only a matter of time that he gets himself in game shape and is using that shot on NHL goalies,&rdquo; Mantha said. &ldquo;He has a lot to learn about the pro game, like positioning and understanding defensive coverage a little better, but he&rsquo;s on his way.&rdquo;SPIT FOR SPAT: Fredericton Canadiens&rsquo; coach Michel Therrien was fined $200 and suspended three games for a spitting incident involving St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs&rsquo; goalie Francis Larivee.Witnesses say Larivee skated past Therrien on the Fredericton bench gloating after a St. John&rsquo;s come-from-behind 3-3 tie Dec. 10 when Therrien responded with a spit which barely missed the goalie. Referee Marc Joannette saw the incident and filed a report with the AHL.Therrien was coach and Larivee goalie in Granby of the Quebec League last season. They never got along, Larivee rarely played and was eventually traded to the Laval Titan. Larivee, 20, was a second round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.Therrien sat out games Dec. 11 against the Portland Pirates, Dec. 14 against St. John&rsquo;s and Dec. 17 against the Adirondack Red Wings. He&rsquo;s eligible to return Dec. 19 against, ironically, St. John&rsquo;s.PICK YOUR STARS: Voting for the AHL All-Star Game runs Dec. 17-Jan. 18 in AHL arenas and on the league&rsquo;s web site (www.canoe.ca/AHL).Fans will select the six starters for each team. Team Canada and PlanetUSA, for the Feb. 11 game in Syracuse. Canadian-born players will take on players bom elsewhere. In arenas, fans will write in the name of one player. The online voting will have a formal ballot of the top players at each position.A committee of coaches will determine the balance of the rosters.AHL TIDBITS:&nbsp;Rinkside, the AHL&rsquo;s weekly television magazine show, returns for its 10th season beginning Dec. 16 with hosts Rick Hodge and Gord Stellick.&nbsp;Rinkside reaches 22 million homes through six cable networks&hellip;Hartford Wolf Pack center Marc Savard passed Daniel Briere of the Springfield Falcons and Brendan Morrison of the Albany River Rats for the rookie scoring lead with eight goals and 27 points in 18 games&hellip;Cincinnati center Ryan Black scored his first AHL goal on his first AHL shift Dec. 6 against the Saint John Flames. &#9632;

f0026-01

Banham bounces back from stomach surgery

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02593/6755395-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="380" height="397"></div>The East Coast League used to be a scorer&rsquo;s paradise. Now it&rsquo;s becoming a goaltender&rsquo;s domain.With close to a third of the regular season games in the books, the teams were allowing 6.99 goals per game, the lowest in the 10-year history of the league. The 25 clubs were on a pace to record 6,116 goals, 57 fewer than last season.Goaltending is the obvious difference. Goalies had posted an .892 save percentage. That compares to .885 last season and .882 the year before. Fourteen netminders were under the 3.00 GAA level, led by Tim Thomas of the Birmingham Bulls (2.17 and .944), who had been up with the Houston Aeros of the International League.Perhaps the most promising goaltender in the league is Sebastien Charpentier, the Washington Capitals&rsquo; fourth round draft choice in 1995.In 11 appearances with the Hampton Roads Admirals this season, Charpentier had a 7-2-1 record with a 2.33 GAA and .907 save percentage.200 AND COUNTING: Toledo Storm goaltender Nick Vitucci registered his 200th career ECHL victory in a 4-3 win over the Louisville RiverFrogs Dec. 5.&ldquo;I remember my first game like it was yesterday,&rdquo; Vitucci said. &ldquo;It was a 6-5 loss to Erie, and I came back the next night and beat them 6-5 in Erie.&rdquo;Now in his 10th season in the league, Vitucci has a 200-98-29 record, including 6-2-3 this season.FRONT OFFICE CHANGE: The Louisiana IceGators announced Dec. 8 vice-president-GM Dave Berryman and his brother, vice-president/GM. marketing and business operations Tim Berryman, are leaving the organization.The Berrymans, who brought the IceGators to Lafayette, La., and built them into one of the most successful minor league franchises in North America, wanted to become the majority owners, but instead they were bought out by the other three partners.Jady Regard, who started his ECHL career with the IceGators before becoming assistant GM/director of marketing and public relations for the Mississippi Sea Wolves, took over as Louisiana&rsquo;s GM.At 28, Regard is one of the youngest GMs in the league.ANOTHER GEM: Richmond Renegades&rsquo; goaltender Tripp Tracy recorded the 13th 1-0 win in ECHL history when he turned aside 52 Chesapeake Icebreakers&rsquo; shots Dec. 4 at Upper Marlboro, Md. Mike Noble&rsquo;s second-period goal was the only score Tracy needed.Tracy also blanked the Raleigh IceCaps 1-0 last season in his pro debut and is the only goalie in ECHL history to register a pair of 1-0 shutouts.STORM WARNING: Toledo was fined $500 and Storm coach Greg Puhalski $250 for an unprofessional display of conduct near the end of the Dec. 6 game against the Columbus Chill. Toledo forward Mark Deazeley was also suspended one game.Andy Van Hellemond, the league&rsquo;s senior vice-president and director of hockey operations, attended the game and construed Deazeley&rsquo;s presence on the ice in the final minute as a pre-meditated plan by Puhalski to instigate a fight with Columbus winger Peter Vandermeer.HUDDY HOSPITALIZED: Huntington Blizzard coach Charlie Huddy spent a couple of days in the hospital receiving treatment for a colonary tear and infection. He was released Dec. 3.Huddy was replaced behind the bench by player-assistant coach Ray Edwards, who went 1-1-0.BREAKING GROUND: Ground-breaking ceremonies for the $42 million Mercer County Arena were held Dec. 2 at the Roebling Complex in Trenton, N.J.The ECHL&rsquo;s 28th member is scheduled to begin play in the fall of 1999 in the arena, which will seat 8,500 for hockey.COAST LINES: Raleigh IceCaps&rsquo; right winger Kory Karlander was named the league&rsquo;s player of the month for November. The Northern Michigan product recorded 22 points in 12 games. He capped a great month by receiving a four-game suspension after slashing a Chesapeake player Nov. 29&hellip;Mobile Mysticks&rsquo; netminder Chuck Thuss was chosen goalie of the month after going 4-2-1 with a 2.01 goals-against average and .938 save percentage. Toledo right winger Andrew Williamson was selected rookie of the month after netting 11 goals and 16 points in 12 games to help the Storm go 8-2-2 in November&hellip;The Mississippi Sea Wolves, in their second year of existence, won four straight games for the first time and accomplished the feat on consecutive nights from Nov. 26-29. &#9632;

f0026-02

Good goaltending helps keep goal scoring down

<div class="byline">By Brendan Savage</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03468/6755426-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="586" height="310"></div>The United League had its first mid-season coaching change in three seasons when the Saginaw Lumber Kings dismissed coach John Blum Dec. 8.The Lumber Kings missed the playoffs under Blum last season and had a 30-62-5 record since he was hired three weeks before the 1996-97 season. They were tied for third place in the East Division at 9-14-0 and had lost three straight games when owner Muhanad Jondy replaced Blum with assistant coach Warren Holmes.&ldquo;It was time for a change, or at least that&rsquo;s what (Jondy) told me, Blum said. I am upset, but mostly I&rsquo;m disappointed. I have a new wife-I got married three weeks ago-and a new baby. But I&rsquo;ll be all right financially.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just upset because this team has a chance to be a contender. I wish I could have continued to coach this group.&rdquo;The volatile Blum, who played parts of eight seasons in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins. Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings, didn&rsquo;t help himself by being so outspoken and alienating many people.&ldquo;The firing is a culmination of everything,&rdquo; said director of sales and marketing George Manias, who replaced Blum as GM. &ldquo;More than anything, our 3-8 home record hurt him the most. We were just awful at home. Plus, it&rsquo;s early enough in the season where a change like this might do some good.&rdquo;Jondy has suffered heavy financial losses during three seasons as Saginaw&rsquo;s owner and with attendance averaging only 2.036 after 11 home games, rumors were rampant the club will move or be sold before next season.NOTEBOOK: After goalies Jon Hille-brandt and Ron Bertrand were injured in a Dec. 6 game against the Muskegon Fury, center Tom Colasanto made his pro debut in the net for the B.C. Icemen. Good thing it&rsquo;s not a permanent move for Colasanto. He allowed four goals and made just eight saves during the final 12 minutes of a 9-1 Icemen loss&hellip;The Flint Generals signed veteran goalie Ray LeBlanc Dec. 5 after he became expendable with the International League&rsquo;s Chicago Wolves&hellip;Thunder Bay Thunder Cats&rsquo; goalie J.F. Rivard bagged his first career shutout in an 8-0 win over Saginaw Dec. 5. &#9632;

f0026-03

Lumber Kings’ coach Blum gets axed in Saginaw

<div class="byline">By Bill Montague</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01859/6755457-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="696" height="241"></div>When Cory Pecker was selected in the first round of the Ontario League draft last June, it was a dream come true for the native of Dollard, Que.After 16 games with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Pecker feels like it has been one horrifying nightmare. The 16-year-old center underwent emergency appendectomy surgery Nov. 9 and has since been diagnosed with Crohn&rsquo;s Disease, a chronic inflammation of the bowel. He was flown by air ambulance from the Sault to St. Justine&rsquo;s Hospital in Montreal where he underwent further surgery Dec. 12.While it remains unclear whether he&rsquo;ll play this season, Pecker is optimistic he will. He&rsquo;s hoping to re-join the Greyhounds in January and could be playing as early as February. In 16 games of mostly fourth-line duty, Pecker had two goals and four points.&ldquo;One of the first questions I asked the doctor was whether or not I&rsquo;d be able to play hockey again and he said yes,&rdquo; said Pecker, the 15th player taken overall in the OHL draft. &ldquo;I asked him if any other players have it (Crohn&rsquo;s Disease) and he told me Shayne Corson, Theoren Fleury and Kevin Dineen all have it.&ldquo;Right then I figured if nothing stopped them from playing, why should it stop me? Corson and Fleury both made Team Canada so I&rsquo;m hopeful I&rsquo;ll be able play again and be effective. I look up to those guys a lot more now. They&rsquo;re kind of my inspirations.&rdquo;Pecker said his convalescence in a children&rsquo;s ward, first in the Sault and now in Montreal, has reminded him about the frailties of life and how fortunate he really is.&ldquo;On a normal day, you never think of things you have and how lucky you are,&rdquo; Pecker said. &ldquo;Some of these kids running around here are really sick and you never know how long they&rsquo;re going to be here.&rdquo;JACKMAN SNUBBED: Sault Ste. Marie defenseman Richard Jackman. who has been plagued by off-ice problems the last two seasons, was not invited to Canada&rsquo;s final selection camp in preparation for the upcoming World Junior Championship in Finland.Jackman&rsquo;s troubled past and present cost him a spot. After Jackman was suspended for a game for missing curfew Nov. 23, Canadian officials decided not to invite him to the camp, which will be held Dec. 12-17 in Kitchener, Ont.They were backed fully by the Dallas Stars, who drafted Jackman fifth overall in 1996.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure (the curfew violation) had something to do with it,&rdquo; Jackman said. &ldquo;Maybe that had an effect, but I&rsquo;m trying to change my office (behavior) around here and become a better person.&rdquo;Ironically, national team director of scouting Barry Trapp was in attendance in Sarnia Nov. 29 when Jackman scored three goals and two assists to lead the Hounds to a 7-4 victory over the Sarnia Sting.BUZZING WITH ENTHUSIASM: A swarm of fans came forth in Sarnia in early December when the team&rsquo;s season-ticket drive went into full force for the 1998-99 season.In one day, the Sting sold 3,750 season tickets as packages went on sale to current season ticket holders and fans on a waiting list. The Sting will begin next season in its new arena, which is currently under construction.The facility will house a capacity of 4,700 fans and is expected to be ready by September.MEEHAN STEPS ASIDE: St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors&rsquo; vice-president and director of hockey operations Gerry Meehan has resigned.Meehan, 51, confirmed he is representing a Buffalo group that plans to build an arena complex near the Marine Midland Arena. The group is applying to bring an OHL expansion franchise to the facility. He made an informal presentation with the Buffalo group Dec. 8. &#9632;

f0027-01

Greyhound vows he’ll overcome Crohn’s Disease

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02536/6755488-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="580" height="282"></div>For a guy who had just put his name in the Quebec League record book for most career shutouts, Mathieu Garon didn&rsquo;t seem overly excited.&ldquo;This wasn&rsquo;t an objective for me,&rdquo; said the Victoriaville Tigres&rsquo; goalie after making 14 saves in an 8-0 victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs Dec. 2 for the 11th shutout of his career, one more than the old record set by Felix Potvin with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens from 1988-89 to 1990-91.&ldquo;(The record) is nice, but it&rsquo;s not something I was really thinking about. I just play my best and if I get a shutout that&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;What Garon is really thinking about this season is making the Canadian team for the World Junior Championship. He was one of four goaltenders invited to the team&rsquo;s selection camp Dec. 12-17 in Kitchener, Ont.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my big goal this season,&rdquo; said Garon, who had a 15-12-2 record with four shutouts and a 2.29 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to camp to be No. 1, but it&rsquo;s not up to me to decide. Even if I&rsquo;m second, I&rsquo;ll be proud to represent my country.&rdquo;Garon, who was the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; second round pick (44th overall) in the 1996 NHL entry draft, said he expects to sign a contract with them early in the new year.Montreal already has two young goaltenders in Jocelyn Thibault and Jose Theodore, who is playing with the Fredericton Canadiens in the American League, so Garon knows he faces a formidable challenge at the next level.&ldquo;They have a lot of good goalies,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But all I can do is play my best. I can&rsquo;t do more than that.&rdquo;ONE-TWO PUNCH: The Laval Titan might just have the best one-two punch in the QMJ-HL-literally.Defenseman Benjamin Carpentier and left winger Ryan Flynn had a grand total of one goal between them this season (scored by Flynn), but after 33 games they combined for 312 penalty minutes (Carpentier led the way with 180).&ldquo;They fill a role,&rdquo; said Laval coach Joe Canale. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t have guys like that it&rsquo;s tough to compete. They bring toughness, they can put a fire out or they can start a fire if the teams needs a spark.&rdquo;But Canale quickly added that his dynamic duo can do more than just fight.&ldquo;They both play regularly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t want it any other way. It&rsquo;s tough to play the enforcer role and only that role. It&rsquo;s tough for the kid and it&rsquo;s tough for the coach.&rdquo;Carpentier, a 6-foot-2, 195-pounder, has already signed a free agent contract with the New York Rangers.&ldquo;That says a lot about his work ethic,&rdquo; Canale said. &ldquo;He went to camp and impressed them.&rdquo;Flynn, who is 6-foot-4 and 208 pounds, is eligible for the 1998 entry draft.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll definitely be drafted,&rdquo; Canale said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a question of when. Where he goes depends on how he plays after Christmas and if he can stay healthy.&rdquo;Flynn sustained a broken ankle last season and played only 22 games, scoring three goals while picking up 56 penalty minutes.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big guy with a good work ethic who will continue to progress,&rdquo; Canale said. &ldquo;His skating and agility with the puck has improved this year.&rdquo;While Carpentier and Flynn have spent a lot of time in the penalty box, they are nowhere near setting a league record: Drummondville&rsquo;s Joel Theriault accumulated a whopping 573 penalty minutes in 1983-84.PROUD PAPA: Talk about making your father proud. Jonathan Morin, a rookie goaltender with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, was named the league&rsquo;s defensive player of the week for the period ending Dec. 7 after winning both his starts while allowing only two goals and posting a .966 save percentage. His father, Dave Morin, owns the Huskies. &#9632;

f0027-02

Tigre Garon now known as stingiest goalie ever

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03348/6755519-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="357" height="359"></div>The Western League&rsquo;s firing frenzy reached a new level of intensity Dec. 8.The Saskatoon Blades and Prince Albert Raiders both shook up their front offices. Saskatoon sent shock waves through the WHL by firing Daryl Lubiniecki-the Blades&rsquo; GM for 17-years-and coach Donn Clark.Hours later, Prince Albert canned coach and director of hockey operations Chris Stewart.The Blades cleaned house while they were on a four-game undefeated streak. Saskatoon had three wins and one tie in the four games which preceded the departures of Lubiniecki and Clark. The team had a 15-16-2 record.&ldquo;The fans want to see some wins at home,&rdquo; said Blades&rsquo; owner-governor Jack Brodsky. &ldquo;We have a .500 record on the road, which is commendable, but we&rsquo;ve struggled at home. The fans have not responded. To get the fan support we need, we have to get the fans to want to come to the games.&rdquo;Lubiniecki, 56, was hired as the Blades&rsquo; GM Dec. 1, 1980. He also coached Saskatoon from 1980 to 1983.Clark, the 35-year-old brother of the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; left winger Wendel Clark, was in his third season behind Saskatoon&rsquo;s bench.Lubiniecki was replaced by Brent McEwen. Willy Desjardins assumed Clark&rsquo;s coaching post. McEwen and Desjardins were hired for the remainder of the season. Brodsky said that it was especially difficult to axe Lubiniecki.&ldquo;It was, without a doubt, one of the toughest things I&rsquo;ve ever had to do,&rdquo; Brodsky said. &ldquo;It hurt to make the decision and it hurts now.&rdquo;Clark&rsquo;s contract was to expire after this season. As for Lubiniecki&hellip;&ldquo;He never had a contract,&rdquo; Brodsky said. &ldquo;It was always on a handshake. It ended on a handshake, too.&rdquo;Stewart&rsquo;s tenure ended in the middle of his third season in Prince Albert. He had signed a one-year contract extension after his two-year pact had expired. Prince Albert made the move after its losing streak reached eight games and its record dropped to 9-21-1.&ldquo;Chris was the sacrificial lamb,&rdquo; defenseman Kevin Kellett told the Prince Albert Daily Herald. &ldquo;There are guys in the (dressing) room with tears in their eyes. Everybody respects him.&rdquo;Raiders&rsquo; GM Rick Valette will assume Stewart&rsquo;s administrative duties for an indefinite period. Valette handed the coaching reins to assistant Don McGillivray on an interim basis.Six WHL teams have fired coaches this season. The victims are Clark, Stewart, Bob Loucks (Tri-City Americans), Dave Siciliano (Edmonton Ice), Kurt Lackten (Medicine Hat Tigers) and Rick Carriere (Red Deer Rebels).Three GMs or directors of operations have been dismissed-Stewart, Lubiniecki and Doug Mosher (Medicine Hat).ON A POSITIVE NOTE: While the Blades and Raiders were terminating employees, the Leth-bridge Hurricanes extended the contracts of the Maxwell brothers-Bryan and Randy. Both men are signed through 2000-01. Bryan Maxwell has been the Hurricanes&rsquo; coach-GM since Nov. 6, 1995. Shortly after joining the Hurricanes, Bryan hired his brother, who is Lethbridge&rsquo;s assistant GM and director of operations. The Hurricanes won the WHL title last season. When the contract extensions were announced, Lethbridge led the Central Division with a 15-12-5 record.&ldquo;Bryan&rsquo;s impact on our organization speaks for itself,&rdquo; said Hurricanes&rsquo; president Herman Elfring. &ldquo;We feel he is one of the best coaches in the WHL and is very respected by players, management and fans.&rdquo;ALL-STAR COACHES: Brent Peterson of the Portland Winter Hawks will coach the Western Conference team at the Jan. 21 WHL All-Star Game in Regina.The Eastern Conference squad will be coached by Todd McLellan of the Swift Current Broncos. Peterson and McLellan were chosen because their teams led their respective divisions at the 29-game mark. &#9632;

f0027-03

Blades’ GM Lubiniecki axed after 17 seasons

<div class="byline">By Chris Miller</div>The Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks are joining the college hockey scene with all the subtlety of a neutron bomb.In their first season, the Mavericks will draw the second-most fans in the nation. With 8,314 packing the Omaha Civic Auditorium for every home game, Nebraska-Omaha should generate nearly $2 million in revenue for a program that has been an instant success.A Division I independent, the Mavericks won&rsquo;t be eligible to apply for admission to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association until 1999-but coach Mike Kemp is getting ready.&ldquo;This is the league we want to be in,&rdquo; Kemp said. &ldquo;When we play WCHA teams, that&rsquo;s like our league season.&rdquo;Buoyed by the success of junior hockey in Omaha, Maverick officials announced May 1, 1996 they would have a team ready for this season. Just 15 days later, season ticket sales were halted at 6,389. Kemp, who had been an assistant at Wisconsin for 15 seasons, was hired the following month.&ldquo;The opportunity was unbelievable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How many times does a person have a chance to put their own stamp on everything from square one? The only overwhelming thing was I had to get 26 or 27 players for the first season.&rdquo;There are no seniors and Kemp won&rsquo;t use his full allotment of 18 scholarships until next season. Eight players transferred from other colleges; there are six juniors, nine sophomores and 15 freshmen on the team.Omaha started the season 5-9-0. It was competitive, led by two former Northern Michigan players-winger Derek Reynolds and goalie Jason Mitchell.&ldquo;Everyone knows the program is going to keep getting better,&rdquo; said Mitchell, a junior. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to be in on the beginning of it.&rdquo;Omaha should meet criteria for WCHA membership after next season and the certainty of its financial success makes it attractive.LOOK AT THE FUTURE: The WCHA had 31 players return letters of intent during the early signing period in mid-November.The major supplier was the United States League, which will send 18 prospects.That continues a trend of fewer players coming from Canadian Jr. A teams. These leagues are populated by many players who are ineligible for U.S. college hockey because of major-junior experience. Only five early signings came from Canadian leagues.JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT: Three WCHA players were invited to participate in the U.S. national junior team camp in mid-December-center Toby Petersen of Colorado College, winger Aaron Miskovich of Minnesota and winger Dustin Kuk of Wisconsin.Coach Jeff Jackson was also interested in freshman goalie Karl Goehring of North Dakota. &#9632;

Independent Mavericks arrive with guns blazing

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div>According to Ohio State coach John Markell, his team is right on schedule in its goal to become one of the top programs in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.The Buckeyes had a 6-5-0 record, which tied them for fifth place. They haven&rsquo;t had a .500 record or better since 1985-86 when they were 16-15-1. Ohio State was 9-16-2 last season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still a pretty young team,&rdquo; said Markell, who has 15 freshmen and sophomores. &ldquo;Our goal was to move up into the middle of the pack. We might be able to get to the top part.&rdquo;A big reason for Ohio State&rsquo;s success this season was the play of freshman goalie Jeff Maund. He was 8-2-0 with a 2.60 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.Other contributions were made by sophomore center Hugo Boisvert, who had eight goals and 20 points in 16 games, sophomore winger Eric Meloche (son of former NHL goalie Gilles Meloche), who had nine goals and 16 points, junior center Chris Richards (7-9-16) and freshman winger Jean Dufour (6-8-14).Richards was the CCHA&rsquo;s offensive player of the week Dec. 7. He had four goals and seven points and was plus-6 in a two-game sweep (8-3 and 4-0) over Alaska-Fairbanks.&ldquo;Chris Richards has probably been the leader on this run,&rdquo; Markell said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing the way we can for 60 minutes instead of 40. That has been the main thing.&rdquo;If the Buckeyes continue their improvement next season, it will be perfect timing. The team is scheduled to move from the 1,400 seat OSU Ice Rink to a brand new facility, which will have a capacity of 10,000 for hockey.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be going to go from an inadequate facility for Division I hockey, to the best facility in the nation,&rdquo; Markell said.SURPRISING PERFORMANCE: Despite being last in the conference with a 2-8-2 record, Bowling Green got a boost from a freshman.Goalie Shawn Timm earned his first collegiate victory, a 1-0 win against top-ranked Michigan State Dec. 7. Timm, who just turned 18 in November, made 42 saves in the win.Thanks mostly to that effort, Timm was the CCHA&rsquo;s defensive player of the week Dec. 5-7.In a two-game split with the Spartans, Timm, a native of Lancaster, N.Y., who played junior with the Capital District Selects, stopped 63 of 66 shots. He was 1-2-1 with a 2.25 GAA and .921 save percentage this season.The loss was the first in the conference by Michigan State.NOTEBOOK: Michigan freshman defenseman Mike Van Ryn was the lone U.S. collegian selected to participate in the Canadian national junior team evaluation camp. Van Ryn, 6-foot-l and 187 pounds, is from London, Ont. The 18-year-old had three goals and 13 points in Michigan&rsquo;s 16 games. &#9632;

Inexperienced Buckeyes making gradual progress

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>Boyd Ballard can&rsquo;t explain his goaltending style.But Providence College coach Paul Pooley doesn&rsquo;t care as long as Ballard continues to keep the puck out of the net. The freshman from Weyburn, Sask., kicked out 65 of 69 shots to lead the Friars to 6-2 and 7-2 wins over Maine Dec. 5 and 6.Ballard, who was named the league&rsquo;s rookie of the week for the period ending Dec. 6 for his performance, lowered his goals-against average to 2.77 and raised his save percentage to .914, while improving his record to 8-1-1.&ldquo;He finds a way to get the job done,&rdquo; Pooley said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t look all that good some times, but he has done a good job for us.&rdquo;Friar junior center and leading scorer Mike Omicioli said, &ldquo;He knows how to win. We are more offensive-minded now because Boyd has been making the big save so we feel we can take chances.&rdquo;Ballard said he doesn&rsquo;t have a particular goaltending style.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a butterfly goalie. I&rsquo;m definitely more of a stand-up goalie,&rdquo; said Ballard, who was 23-3-4 with a 2.90 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage for the Weyburn Red Wings in the Saskatchewan Junior League last year. &ldquo;But I can be acrobatic at times.&rdquo;The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Ballard also credited his teammates for his success.&ldquo;In the Maine series, there was a little traffic but I saw the first shot and the guys didn&rsquo;t give them any second or third shots,&rdquo; said Ballard, who hopes the trend continues.WHERE&rsquo;S THE D?: Maine has finished with either the lowest or second-lowest goals-against average in 10 of the last 11 seasons, but the Bears were anything but defensive this season.Following the Providence series. Maine had allowed an average of 4.89 goals per game, which was second worst among the nine teams in Hockey East. Goalies Alfie Michaud and Bryan Masotta had compiled an .814 save percentage.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been forcing offense because we&rsquo;re frustrated and we haven&rsquo;t been making the right defensive reads,&rdquo; said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t played good defense in any of the three positions and it&rsquo;s evidenced by the fact we have the second highest goals-against average in the league.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: New Hampshire junior center Jason Krog was selected the league&rsquo;s player of the week after producing four goals and an assist in a sweep (6-2 and 5-2) of UMass-Lowell Dec. 5 and 6. His 36 points in 15 games this season made him the nation&rsquo;s scoring leader&hellip;UMass-Lowell&rsquo;s new Tsongas Arena is scheduled to open in time for a Jan. 27 game against Dartmouth. &#9632;

Friars lean on Ballard; goalie provides saves

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01793/6755646-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Classified

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01894/6755705-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01827/6755698-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3156" height="3562"><figcaption class="caption-body">Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; right winger Sami Kapanen led the team with 15 goals and 27 points.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01888/6755691-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3148" height="3566"><figcaption class="caption-body">Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Smolinski scored a goal and six assists during five-game point scoring streak.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01802/6755684-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="2366" height="3554"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pittsburgh center Ron Francis has shouldered the offensive load for the Penguins this season.</figcaption></div><h2>REGULAR SEASON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02549/6755677-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="786" height="3414"></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

NOTEUnofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; Dec-decision, charges to goaltenders of record when winning goal is scored.<h2>FRIDAY. DEC. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02628/6755928-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="496" height="2064"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03492/6755921-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="496" height="2440"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04382/6755914-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="495" height="2438"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05310/6755907-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="493" height="573"></div><h2>SATURDAY, DEC. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06276/6755900-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="496" height="1791"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07253/6755893-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="495" height="2438"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08233/6755886-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="494" height="2435"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01852/6755879-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="524" height="3499"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02618/6755872-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="499" height="827"></div><h2>SUNDAY, DEC. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03502/6755865-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="515" height="2604"></div><h2>MONDAY, DEC. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04403/6755858-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="518" height="3422"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05340/6755851-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="500" height="1238"></div><h2>TUESDAY, DEC. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06310/6755844-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="511" height="2184"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07286/6755837-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="506" height="1551"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08255/6755830-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="505" height="1873"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09235/6755823-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="516" height="3498"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01803/6755816-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="498" height="3479"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02558/6755809-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="504" height="2049"></div><h2>THURSDAY, DEC. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03460/6755802-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="494" height="1361"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04348/6755795-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="492" height="2056"></div><h2>PATRICK AWARD</h2>The Lester Patrick Award is given for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. The 1997 recipients of the award are Neal Broten, Peter Karmanos, John Mayasicha and Max McNab. Past winner since 1966 are listed below:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05292/6755788-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="471" height="1188"></div><h2>ALL-STAR VOTING</h2>Listed here are results of NHL All-Star ballotting up to Dec. 11. The top center, left winger, right winger, two defensemen, and goalies will represent their respective continents. NHL players representing Canada and United States will comprise the North America All-Star Team and will face the top NHL players from the rest of the world. Balloting closes Dec. 15. The All-Star Game is Jan. 18 in Vancouver. Country abbreviations listed in brackets are as follows: CAN-Canada; FIN-Finland; GER-Germany; LAT-Latvia; RUS-Russia; SLO-Slovakia; SWE-Sweden; UKR-Ukraine; USA-United States.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06255/6755781-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="469" height="3024"></div><h2>WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP ROSTERS</h2>Six teams have released their training camp rosters for the 1998 World Junior Championships, Dec. 25-Jan. 3, in Helsinki and Hameenlinna, Finland. Listed below are the rosters for Canada, Czech Republic, Finland. Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States. Rosters for Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland were not yet available. NHL affiliations are listed next to player names where appropriate.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08214/6755774-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="862" height="2512"></div><h2>CANADIAN WOMEN&rsquo;S NATIONAL TEAM</h2>Canadian Hockey has finalized its roster for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Players are listed by position and information provided includes height, weight, age as of Feb. 7 1998 the opening day of the Olympics, hometown and 1996-97 team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07234/6755767-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="992" height="599"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01787/6755983-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

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December 26, 1997

Ysebaert producing more since being stripped of ‘C’

Big Red defensemen using smoke, mirrors

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

Presents of Mind