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.

January 23, 1998

The Hockey News January 23, 1998

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04365/7387030-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="158" height="157"></div>The maddening inconsistency that has plagued the San Jose Sharks this season was never more evident than in the club&rsquo;s first three games of the New Year.San Jose turned in one of its strongest efforts of the season in a 4-1 win at Detroit Jan. 2, then followed it up the next night with a 3-0 loss in Boston. The Sharks returned home Jan. 6 to stink up San Jose Arena in a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues.&ldquo;To be a good team in this league, you have to be consistent,&rdquo; said right winger Owen Nolan. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t throw a great San Jose team at Detroit and come back with a (sub-standard) performance. We&rsquo;ve proven to ourselves we can win. We&rsquo;ve beaten the best teams in the league. We know we can make a serious run for the playoffs if we really want to. It&rsquo;s just a matter of concentrating and working hard.&rdquo;Indeed, the Sharks have displayed an encouraging ability to compete with the NHL&rsquo;s elite. San Jose has a combined 5-4-0 record against the Red Wings, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche. Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils, the five teams that were playing better than.600 hockey through Jan. 7.&ldquo;I thought we played with the most emotion and intensity we have all year (at Detroit)-and it showed,&rdquo; said defenseman Bill Houlder.The Sharks, though, have also been virtually unable to avoid losing streaks. Only twice this season has San Jose lost a game and not also lost at least one more. The Sharks have endured two four-game losing streaks and two three-game skids.&ldquo;In the second half, consistency is our No. 1 objective, to make sure we&rsquo;re up every single night,&rdquo; said right winger Tony Granato. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to expect that out of each other.&rdquo;While the one-sided loss to the Blues certainly didn&rsquo;t begin things on a positive note, San Jose was scheduled to play 11 of its next 12 games in January at home.NOTEBOOK: The Sharks scored their first regular-season win in Detroit in 13 tries with a 4-1 triumph Jan. 2. San Jose won in Detroit twice during an opening round Stanley Cup playoff upset of the Red Wings in 1994&hellip;The Sharks lost center Jarrod Skalde to Chicago when the Blackhawks claimed him off waivers Jan. 7. Skalde, 26, inked a free agent deal with San Jose in August. He had four goals and six assists in 22 games this season. but had played only twice in a stretch of 11 games&hellip;Goaltender Mike Vernon reached the season&rsquo;s halfway point with a 12-12-4 record, giving him a chance to join Arturs Irbe (30-28-16 in 1993-94) as the only Sharks with winning marks for a season. &#9632;

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NHL TEAMS

Consistency needed on home front

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011016/7387299-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toledo Storm goalie Nick Vitucci has won four ECHL titles with four different teams. (Photo by Greg Bartram)</figcaption></div>Were it not for a phone call during the Christmas holiday in 1988, Nick Vitucci might be well on his way toward earning a pension with General Motors.Instead, the 30-year-old Welland, Ont., native is celebrating his 10th anniversary as the grand old goaltender of the East Coast League. In fact, he&rsquo;s the only player in the league who was also there for the very humble beginnings of the ECHL&rsquo;s reincarnation in 1988-89.&ldquo;I always thought I&rsquo;d go to work in the factory and play in the beer leagues Tuesdays and Thursdays,&rdquo; says the Toledo Storm stopper.A long-distance call from Joe Selenski, one of four coaches the Carolina Thunderbirds had in 1988-89, changed his life.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d finished juniors and was playing in the beer leagues as a forward,&rdquo; Vitucci says. &ldquo;I was working with my father (plumbing and heating business). I was ready to get hired by General Motors of Canada. Selenski, who had known me from (the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario League), called me the day after Christmas.&ldquo;He asked me if I&rsquo;d be interested in coming down to (Winston-Salem, N.C.),&rdquo; Vitucci recalls. &ldquo;I told him, &lsquo;Joe, I haven&rsquo;t even put on goalie equipment this year and here it is Christmas.&rsquo; He said they would give me as much time as I wanted to get in shape.&rdquo;Vitucci weighed that offer with a much more lucrative one from General Motors. After talking it over with his parents, he chose hockey.&ldquo;My parents sat me down and said, &lsquo;Listen, Nick. You&rsquo;re 21. You&rsquo;ve got 44 years before you retire in the factory. What&rsquo;s one or two years difference going to make? Why don&rsquo;t you go, and you won&rsquo;t have to kick yourself in the butt and wonder, what if, what if?&rsquo;&ldquo;So with the support of my family, I was off to Winston-Salem and it has been a dream.&rdquo;Vitucci helped the Thunderbirds win the first ECHL title in 1988-89 and was named playoff MVP. The 5-foot-9, 170-pounder has played on three other league title teams and won more than 200 regular season games, by far the most in ECHL history.He has played for five teams in his career-Carolina, the Greensboro Monarchs, Hampton Roads Admirals, Charlotte Checkers and Toledo. After winning the league title with Carolina in the first year, he also picked up championships with Greensboro in 1989-90, Toledo in 1993-94 and Charlotte in 1995-96.Although Vitucci has played in just two of the league&rsquo;s five All-Star Games and has not won a top goalie award, he was playoff MVP in 1989 and &lsquo;96. In The Hockey News&rsquo; 50th Anniversary edition earlier this season, Vitucci was named the best ECHL goalie ever and the first team all-star.With a 10-5-3 record this season, Vitucci improved his career mark to 204-100-29.When Vitucci donned the pads and mask for the first time, there were only five teams in the league. Now, it has mushroomed into the biggest minor pro league in North America, with 25 teams and three more set to join before 2000. &ldquo;With expansion and affiliation with NHL clubs, this league got a lot more professional,&rdquo; Vitucci says.&ldquo;I remember the first couple years with the broken-down buses and older arenas. (Ten years later, we have) respect from other leagues, the NHL, the International and the American League. I don&rsquo;t think they thought too much of the East Coast League in the early years. They&rsquo;re not afraid to send players here now.&rdquo;Most ECHL teams have working agreements with NHL teams.&ldquo;The talent level now of these kids is a tribute to the league and how far it has come,&rdquo; Vitucci says. &ldquo;It seems like every year it gets better. I don&rsquo;t know whether that has something to do with me getting older and slower or not.&rdquo;Vitucci went through the early bench-clearing brawls of the formative years of the ECHL.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to see that happen, but it did and the fans loved it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They liked to see the gloves drop and guys throwing &lsquo;em. People wanted to see tough hockey. We outdrew (in Greensboro) what the NHL is drawing in that same arena today.&rdquo;Coaching has also made a difference, says Vitucci. &ldquo;Jeff Brubaker demands toughness out of you. Chris McSorley is a great tactician. Greg Puhalski is probably one of the best Xs and Os coaches I&rsquo;ve played for. John Marks is an emotional leader. John Brophy doesn&rsquo;t accept losing.&rdquo;Vitucci never got an opportunity to play beyond the ECHL level, something he regrets.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the one thing I wish would have been different,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I was under contract with Peoria (IHL) for a couple of years and I really didn&rsquo;t get a good opportunity to play. I was kind of an insurance policy and I knew my role as a third goalie in that system.&ldquo;I wish I had been given a chance to get comfortable in that league the way I was here.&rdquo;Now in his second stint with the Toledo Storm, Vitucci has no plans to hang up the skates any time soon.&ldquo;This is not going to be my last year,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;In the long run, I want to stay in the game, preferably as a GM. From where I came from and where I grew up playing, I never thought I&rsquo;d be a pro hockey player. I think I overachieved.&rdquo; &#9632;

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FEATURES

Vitucci ECHL’s 10-year man

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01845/7387688-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Vincent Lecavalier is still No. 1, David Legwand is still the consensus No. 2, but the gap between the two is dosing according to Central Scouting.The NHL&rsquo;s scouting bureau released its mid-term ranking Jan. 8 or the 1998 NHL entry draft and to no surprise Lecavalier, the skilled Rimouski Oceanic center, retained the Plum position despite less than spectacular play in the Quebec League and a so-so performance at the World Junior Championship.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s being shadowed with every move he makes,&rdquo; said Frank Bonello, director of central scouting. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s frustrated, taking cheap penalties. He hasn&rsquo;t had the free open ice he had in his rookie year. Yet he&rsquo;s still averaging two points per game.&rdquo;Lecavalier, 6-foot-4 and 180 pounds, is a gifted skater, scorer and playmaker. Bonello was asked if the 17-year-old is considered a special No. 1 prospect the way Eric Lindros and Mario Lemieux were in their draft years, or if he was just the best prospect in this particular lot.&ldquo;We consider him special,&rdquo; Bonello said. &ldquo;He has that opportunity.&rdquo;Legwand, a U.S.-born center/left winger on the Plymouth Whalers, is hot on Lecavalier&rsquo;s trail. He&rsquo;s averaging more than a goal a game in the Ontario League. &ldquo;We have respect for Legwand,&rdquo; Bonello said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not far behind.&rdquo;The top-rated goalie is Patrick DesRochers from the Samia Sting of the OHL. Bonello said he expects him to be drafted among the top eight.According to Bonello, the 1998 draft is as strong as 1997, which was considered the deepest in a decade.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s a larger quality of U.S. players,&rdquo; he said.(See pg. 42 for CSB ranking.) &#9632;

DEPARTMENTS

Lecavalier retains top entry draft rating

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011555/7385769-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The great Wayne Gretzky, along with his wife Janet and son Ty, poses beside a lifesize replica of THN&rsquo;s The Top 50 NHL Players of All-Time: The Definitive List cover. Pg. 24. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div><h2>Hail to best five of all-time</h2>1. No. 99 is No. 1 Too small, too slow. Huh! Wayne Gretzky silenced all doubters by re-writing the NHL record book.2. The Orriginal Defenseman Bobby orr redefined his position in leading the Boston Bruins to two Stanley Cups.3. Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe skated and elbowed his way through four decades with grace and grit.4. Le Magnifique No player better combined size and style than magnificent Mario Lemieux.5. Rocket man From the blueline in, Maurice (Rocket) Richard was the most possessed scorer of all-time.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021303/7385762-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="319" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03978/7385755-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="315" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Maurice Richard</figcaption></div><h2>Eagleson rates a minus-five</h2>1. Eagle eye Wouldn&rsquo;t look his accusers, ex-players in Boston court, in the eye or offer apology.2. That&rsquo;s an apology? In Toronto, he is sorry for any harm he &ldquo;might&rdquo; have caused. Do it right or don&rsquo;t do it.3. Out of order For wearing Order Of Canada pin on jacket to both court appearances.4. Where&rsquo;s the meat? Eagleson&rsquo;s lawyer turns Toronto court date into testimonial dinner, minus the rubber chicken.5. Liar, liar He brands testimony from ex-friend Irv Ungerman unreliable. Takes one to know one. &#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/f0002-04741/7385800-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="340" height="422"></div>An indignant mom called the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and asked what its plans were for dishonoring Alan Eagleson.The short answer is Eagleson saw to that himself in spectacular fashion, but that doesn&rsquo;t address the central issue. The mom was told to put her feelings in writing and send them to the Hall. Her response was precise: &ldquo;I just want you to know that I won&rsquo;t be taking my son back to the Hall until Eagleson is gone.&rdquo;Earlier, former NHL great Brad Park announced he will ask to have his Hall of Fame plaque removed if Eagleson&rsquo;s isn&rsquo;t. Such is the level of outrage sparked by the conviction of Eagleson, whose Hall of Fame future will be decided in a Board of Directors meeting March 31.He is sure to become the first member of a major North American sports hall of fame to have his membership revoked. Let there be no doubt about this: Eagleson deserves a place in the Hall of Shame, not the Hall of Fame.It has been a long time coming and is not yet over, but we reached a pivotal turning point in the story of the rise and fall of the bold Eagle Jan. 6 when he pled guilty to three counts of mail fraud in a Boston courtroom. It was a hat trick of pleas by the man who wore so many hats for so many years. One day later, he pled guilty to three more counts of fraud in a Toronto courtroom. Russ Conway, the hero of this piece who conducted a seven-year course in investigative journalism for the hockey media, left the court quickly to avoid the spotlight.More than six years earlier, in October, 1991, as The Hockey News prepared to publish an account of Conway&rsquo;s early findings, we sought out Eagleson. He was in Europe and offered this long-range missile: &ldquo;The libel and slander laws are much more relaxed in the U.S. than Canada. I would suggest you consult your counsel before reprinting the Conway article&hellip;The article is tilled with rumor, innuendo and out and out lies.&rdquo;On Eagleson&rsquo;s return, he met with The Hockey News in one of his last major interviews before legal proceedings muzzled him.-At the time, Eagleson was dismissive of Conway, saying he would be more concerned if the journalist were from a major newspaper, not a small Massachusetts daily (the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lawrence Eagle-Tribune).Eagleson denied the players had been intimidated into submission: &ldquo;My job is executive director, not executive dictator.&rdquo;Eagleson denied he had profited improperly from his position: &ldquo;I have not made my money off the backs of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. I have not made my money off the backs of professional hockey players. I have not made my money off the backs of international hockey competition. I have made my money mostly by fortuitous investments in real estate.&rdquo;Eagleson denied he had anything to hide: &ldquo;There has not been one speck of impropriety.&rsquo;Alan Eagleson lied. &#9632;

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LIAR, LIAR: The rise and fall of the bold Eagle

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011791/7385845-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GETTING THEIR MAN An overcoat hides handcuffs on Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s wrists as he is led from a Boston court by FBI agents.</figcaption></div><h2>GETTING THEIR MAN</h2>When Alan Eagleson was challenged from 1989 through 1991 to account for his actions as hockey&rsquo;s most powerful man for two decades, he steadfastly and repeatedly denied impropriety.&ldquo;I have never received any direct or indirect benefit of international hockey,&rdquo; Eagleson said back then. &ldquo;Neither I nor any member of my family nor any company with which I am associated has ever received money either directly or indirectly from any international hockey event.&rdquo;Lies, lies and more lies.Now, though, the truth is there for all to see, even if so many of Eagleson&rsquo;s friends choose to remain blind to it.R. Alan Eagleson, 64. is a criminal in two countries, having pleaded guilty Jan. 6 in Boston court to three mail fraud charges, resulting in a $1 million (Cdn.) fine. A day later, he pleaded guilty to three fraud charges in a Toronto court and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.&ldquo;He dipped into the till and took money directly out of the players&rsquo; pockets,&rdquo; U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stem said, describing Eagleson&rsquo;s deeds as &ldquo;horrendous, heart-wrenching, double-dealing.&rdquo;Eagleson&rsquo;s pleas represent a stunning fall from grace for a man who. as founder and executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, chief international negotiator for Hockey Canada and agent to many of the game&rsquo;s biggest stars, abused his power and position for personal profit.His crimes were not minor indiscretions, pinching a penny or two from petty cash. This admittedly brilliant man, who could be as charming as he was cruel, schemed and manipulated to complete complex financial maneuvers that bilked players, the Players&rsquo; Association, Hockey Canada and Labatt Brewery of millions.As Crown attorney Susan Ficek said, these were &ldquo;sophisticated and planned acts of fraud.&rdquo;One would do well to ask how. How did one man do so much for so long without reprisal?The answers are many. Power, influence, fear and self-interest. Eagleson is not the only one who stands guilty. His clients, naive as some of them may have been, allowed him full reign over their financial affairs. The membership of the NHLPA, for the most part, permitted him to do business as he saw fit. He cozied up to league power brokers such as John Ziegler and Bill Wirtz and they to him. He counted not only hockey&rsquo;s movers and shakers as his friends and allies, but the creme de la creme of the Canadian establishment, prime ministers, premiers, clergy, media. Many in the media, especially in Canada, turned a blind eye to his activities, as did, for a time, police and justice officials.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021437/7385838-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="588" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">Carl Brewer credits the U.S. system for bringing Eagleson down. (Photo by Campress)</figcaption></div>Why?&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t just the most powerful man in hockey,&rdquo; said ex-NHLer Carl Brewer, who led a successful legal challenge to recoup misappropriated NHL pension fund money. &ldquo;He was one of the most powerful men in Canada.&rdquo;&ldquo;There were no checks and balances in place to monitor Al and his activities,&rdquo; said Bob Goodenow. the man who succeeded Eagleson as NHLPA executive director.Eagleson had some critics. Ex-NHLer Mike Milbury was one. So, too, was Brewer, who originally helped Eagleson set up the NHLPA and was godfather to his daughter. Sports Illustrated went after him on a couple of occasions. But they were in the minority, always dismissed.Even when an uprising within the NHLPA in 1989. led by agent Rich Winter, picked up steam, Eagleson was, for the most part, able to stomp down on his opposition and maintain himself in the manner to which he had become accustomed.And then along came Russ Conway. The investigative reporter for the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune began looking into Eagleson&rsquo;s affairs in June of 1990 and still isn&rsquo;t finished (probing Eagleson&rsquo;s finances is Conway&rsquo;s latest task). Between then and now, his journalistic work was the foundation on which the FBI and U.S. attorney&rsquo;s office built their case.If one individual deserves credit for exposing Eagleson, it&rsquo;s Conway.&ldquo;Forget about my role,&rdquo; Conway told THN, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m gratified justice has been served.&rdquo;Initially, Conway, like anyone who criticized Eagleson at the time, was treated as something of a pariah by many in the hockey establishment. He remained undaunted, publishing five separate series of investigative works and a best-selling book that, by his count, shows Eagleson misappropriated funds in excess of $4 million.In the recently updated version of the book, Conway reveals the 1996 World Cup tourney produced a $14.7 million profit, which was more than Eagleson&rsquo;s five Canada Cups combined. He also wrote Eagleson was attempting to pay his $1 million fine in Boston with monies from his own NHLPA pension, which prompted this response from Goodenow: &ldquo;This guy has no shame. He screws the players left and right for years. Now he wants to come back and screw them one more time.&rdquo;In Canada, despite a written complaint from agent Winter and Conway&rsquo;s body of work, the RCMP and Crown attorney&rsquo;s office were slow to become involved, but finally got into the game.&ldquo;Thank God for the United States of America,&rdquo; Brewer said. &ldquo;This never would have occurred in Canada.&rdquo;Were it not for Conway, Eagleson may well be free and clear of any charges today.&ldquo;Russ is the first star, no question about it,&rdquo; said Winter, who also cited CBC reporter Bruce Dow-biggin as someone who helped break ground on the Eagleson case in Canada.&ldquo;If not for Russ, none of this would&rsquo;ve happened,&rdquo; Brewer said. &ldquo;We wouldn&rsquo;t be here today.&rdquo;Conway&rsquo;s work not only bolstered the FBI and U.S. attorney, it inspired others.Mike Gillis, a former player who believed he was cheated on a disability pension payout, filed a civil suit against Eagleson and won a judgement worth more than $500,000. Just as sweet, though, was Judge Joseph O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s assertion that Eagleson possessed the &ldquo;ability to mislead and lie with documents and in his testimony.&rdquo;Of all his crimes, Eagleson&rsquo;s bids to defraud players from disability payments tops the list.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s as low as you can go,&rdquo; Conway said.It&rsquo;s why Glen Sharpley, whose career was ended with an eye injury, felt it necessary to be in Boston and Toronto to see justice served. Conway said he detailed 46 cases of Eagleson working against players trying to get disability pay.Eagleson&rsquo;s troubles are far from over.The Law Society of Upper Canada filed 44 charges of professional misconduct against Eagleson and Thomas Lockwood, the investigator, said &ldquo;it&rsquo;s likely disbarment will be recommended.&rdquo;There is a massive class-action civil suit filed in Philadelphia on behalf of hundreds of NHL players charging collusion during Eagleson&rsquo;s tenure as executive director. Eagleson, along with Wirtz and Ziegler, are named as co-defendants.Former NHLer Andre Savard also has a civil suit, vis-a-vis disability insurance, pending in Boston.The Hockey Hall of Fame board of directors will decide March 31 whether Eagleson should lose his status as an honored member in the builder category. Hall of Fame defenseman Brad Park has issued an ultimatum to the Hall-expunge Eagleson or Park will withdraw. &ldquo;I do not want to be on the wall with that man,&rdquo; said Park, echoing the sentiments of others.&ldquo;We have no by-laws right now to deal with this and there&rsquo;s no precedent,&rdquo; Hall chairman Scotty Morrison said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll review the entire situation and make a final decision (March 31).&rdquo;The advisory council for the Order of Canada, an honor bestowed upon Eagleson in 1989, is also exploring expulsion options.And yet in spite of all that, Eagleson remains a man whose connections to the rich, famous and powerful remain intact. Eagleson received 30 glowing letters of reference from a who&rsquo;s who of Canadian hockey, politics and society. Many, including Hall of Earners such as Bob Clarke and Bob Gainey and former Prime Minister John Turner, remain fiercely loyal to Eagleson and had no problem looking beyond his crimes.The burning question, though, doesn&rsquo;t actually involve Eagleson per se. It&rsquo;s whether this situation could play itself all over again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think not, because there are more checks and balances now,&rdquo; Goodenow said.Conway concurs. &ldquo;Times have changed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s Bob Goodenow or Gary Bettman, they&rsquo;re under a lot more scrutiny (than Eagleson was). I think the players are more aware today, too. You never say never, but it would be surprising to me if there were anything on the same scale (as Eagleson). He had too much power for too long.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011735/7385831-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="1493" height="1734"><figcaption class="caption-body">Investigative reporter Russ Conway helped deliver the knockout punch on Eagleson. (Photo by Dan Hamilton/VPS)</figcaption></div>Brewer, though, isn&rsquo;t convinced times have changed all that much. He said the NHLPA is still involved in every aspect of the game today, be it international hockey, licensing and marketing. Besides, he said, it happens in every walk of life all the time, why not hockey?&ldquo;Bre-X, the list goes on and on every day,&rdquo; Brewer said, disputing that today&rsquo;s players are any wiser than their predecessors. &ldquo;Hockey players haven&rsquo;t really changed, no (expletive deleted) way.&rdquo;If there&rsquo;s any truth to that, then the wisest words spoken came from ex-Boston Bruin Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, who said: &ldquo;My dad always told me you should have a watchdog to watch your watchdog. Well, Alan Eagleson was our watchdog and we didn&rsquo;t have anyone watching him.&rdquo;The same mistake should never be repeated. &#9632;

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Justice finally served

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021487/7385876-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="349" height="475"></div>As R. Alan Eagleson was taken away to jail and courtroom 2-7 was emptying to a rainy Toronto day, questions gnawed away. Was that a trial or a testimonial? Was it a day to convict Eagleson for crimes he pled guilty to? Or was it a day to celebrate his virtues as a great Canadian, loving family man, loyal friend and, as Philadelphia Flyer GM Bob Clarke put it, &ldquo;the best leader hockey has ever had&rdquo;?Both, as it turned out, and ain&rsquo;t that a shame.There will be those who say justice was served when Eagleson was sentenced to 18 months in Toronto and fined $1 million (Cdn.) in Boston. That Eagleson&rsquo;s admission of guilt, the financial restitution, jail time (however long he ends up serving), a criminal record and the humiliation of having to trade his blue pinstripe suit for prisoner&rsquo;s denim, is fit and appropriate punishment for a 64-year-old man who committed fraud to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but more importantly abused his power and betrayed a trust to cheat players.Some will say it&rsquo;s not enough. Others will say it&rsquo;s too much. Debate away.But there should be no arguing this: On the day a man is convicted, the court should not be offering him comfort and helping him repair his reputation. Yet that&rsquo;s exactly what happened Jan. 7 in Toronto.Because of the nature of the fraud Eagleson pled guilty to in Toronto-corporate white-collar crime against faceless entities such as Labatt-the prosecution&rsquo;s statement of fact was a mind-numbing collection of dates, facts and figures that caused eyes to glaze over. That was no one&rsquo;s fault. Crown attorney Susan Ficek was merely doing her job. Besides, Eagleson was cut to the quick in Boston court, where the faces of his victims and their anguish were put into sharp focus.But in Toronto, Eagleson&rsquo;s lawyer Brian Greenspan was allowed to read aloud excerpts from 30 letters of reference for Eagleson from his fiercely loyal, famous and powerful friends and associates, including Flyer GM Clarke. Hall of Famer Bob Gainey, Canadian hockey hero Paul Henderson, former Prime Minister John Turner and ex-Supreme Court Justice Willard (Bud) Estey, amongst others. Eagleson&rsquo;s supporters are entitied to their opinions, but because of the quantity and quality of them, they almost overshadowed why we were there.As ex-player, and avowed Eagleson critic, Carl Brewer said, &ldquo;By the time (the letters were read), I was going to offer to do his 18 months.&rdquo; And precisely what purpose did the letters serve? They couldn&rsquo;t have affected sentencing because the plea bargain deal was struck Dec. 22 and most were written after that. Besides, the judge never read them until that day in court.No, it was a last-gasp effort by Eagleson to manipulate the proceedings and hang on to some shred of his dignity even though he was minutes away from being hauled off to jail.He must&rsquo;ve taken some comfort from that, though it&rsquo;s his victims who were entitled to it.Maybe they got it anyway. Letters are all well and good to tell us Eagleson is a good friend, good father and great Canadian, but even if his friends choose to ignore it, the only letter that mattered Jan. 7 was the letter of the law.And that one said R. Alan Eagleson is a common criminal, a crook, no more, no less. &#9632;

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Eagle got day in court and then some

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011721/7385907-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="314" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey</figcaption></div><h2>JANUARY</h2>Sat., Jan. 17-Sun., Jan. 18: The NHL All-Star weekend is in Vancouver. The skills competition and Heroes of Hockey game are Jan. 17 and the All-Star Game, pitting the best of North America vs. the best of Europe, is Jan. 18.Sat., Jan 17: The NHL Board of Governors convenes for winter meetings in Vancouver.Tue., Jan. 13: The Ontario League All-Star Game is at North Bay.Wed., Jan. 21: The Western League All-Star Game is at Regina.Wed., Jan. 28: New Jersey Devil Jason Arnott returns to Edmonton for the first time.Wed., Jan. 28: The Quebec League All-Star Game is in Montreal at the Molson Centre.Wed., Feb. 4: The United League All-Star Game is at Port Huron, Mich.Tue., Feb. 10: The International League AllStar Game is at Orlando and the American League All-Star Game at Syracuse, N.Y.<h2>MILESTONES</h2>600 goals: Dino Ciccarelli of Tampa Bay needed four goals to hit the 600 mark.1,000 assists: Mark Messier of Vancouver needed one assist and Ron Francis of Pittsburgh 24 to become the sixth and seventh players in NHL history to record 1,000 for their careers.1,467 points: Paul Coffey of Philadelphia needed four points to tie Stan Mikita for seventh place on the all-time list. &#9632;

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January January/February Milestones Milestones

June, 1967: Forms NHL Players&rsquo; Association.September, 1972: Assumes lead role in Canada-Soviet Summit Series.September, 1976: Organizes first Canada Cup tournament.September, 1981: Second Canada Cup.September, 1984: Third Canada Cup.September, 1987: Fourth Canada Cup. June, 1989: First attempt to oust Eagleson as NHLPA executive director.August, 1989: Eagleson survives (technically) second attempt to oust him, but announces he&rsquo;ll step down when his contract expires.October, 1989: Inducted as builder in Hockey Hall of Fame.January, 1990: Player agent Rich Winter files complaints to RCMP and Law Society of Upper Canada.February, 1990: RCMP claims no jurisdiction and turns complaint over to Metro Toronto police.September, 1991: Fifth Canada Cup.September, 1991: Publication of Russ Conway&rsquo;s investigative series in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune.November, 1991: FBI launches investigation.December, 1991: Eagleson steps down as NHLPA executive director.January, 1992: Toronto police return case to RCMP, which agrees to work with FBI.January, 1993: RCMP launches its own independent investigation.March, 1994: Boston grand jury indicts Eagleson on 32 charges, arrest warrant issued.June. 1994: U.S. federal court freezes Eagleson&rsquo;s assets in U.S. and Britain.August, 1994: Two more charges, now up to 34. added to the U.S. indictment.November, 1994: The Law Society of Upper Canada charges Eagleson with 44 counts of professional misconduct.November, 1995: Eagleson is named in class-action lawsuit from former NHL players that mirrors U.S. criminal charges.March, 1996: A court orders Eagleson&rsquo;s bank records handed over to U.S. authorities; also says three Eagleson associates must give statements to U.S. justice officials. RCMP say their investigation nearing &ldquo;final stages of completion.&rdquo;October, 1996: Eagleson testifies at civil trial where former player Mike Gillis alleged Eagleson cheated him on an insurance settlement.December, 1996: RCMP lays eight fraud and theft charges against Eagleson: Eagleson loses civil suit to Gillis, ordered to pay $85,512.May, 1997: Eagleson is ordered to pay Gillis&rsquo; legal fees, taxes, and interest totaling more than $480,000.Dec. 22, 1997: Eagleson plea bargain gets final approval in Canada.Jan. 6, 1998: Eagleson surrenders to U.S. authorities in Boston, is booked and fingerprinted by the FBI and appears in court to plead guilty to three charges of mail fraud, which carries a fine of $1 million (Cdn.), but no jail time there (providing specific punishments are meted out in Cantala as per the cross-border plea agreement). Eagleson flies back to Toronto.Jan. 7, 1998: Eagleson pleads guilty to three charges of fraud in a Toronto court and, as per the plea agreement, is sentenced to 18 months (eligible for parole after six months) in an Ontario prison. &#9632;

Tracking the Eagle

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011920/7385986-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Park, right, used to share laughs with Alan Eagleson, but now says he doesn&rsquo;t want to share space in the Hall of Fame with him. (Photo by Toronto Sun)</figcaption></div>The Alan Eagleson case will be studied for years to come in law school because it&rsquo;s a unique and complex two-country plea bargain that was more than a year in the making.In the end, though, U.S. and Canadian authorities were satisfied the man known as Eagle had been brought to justice.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve fallen from a great height in harming others,&rdquo; Chief Justice Patrick Lesage told Eagleson at the Jan. 7 court date in Toronto. &ldquo;You have brought disgrace on yourself.&rdquo;The official beginning of the end came Jan. 5, when Eagleson, a fugitive from justice in the U.S., boarded Air Canada Flight 808 out of Toronto, bound for Boston. It was his first known foray into the U.S. since grand jury indictments were handed down in March of 1994.The next day, Eagleson surrendered to the FBI, was booked and fingerprinted before appearing in a tiny but packed Boston courtroom. Eagleson refused to make eye contact with more than three dozen former players, many of whom who were victims of Eagleson&rsquo;s theft and fraud. He offered no apology to the players, who included Bobby Orr, Carl Brewer, Ted Lindsay, Frank Mahovlich. Brad Park, Andre Savard, Mike Gillis, Johnny Bucyk, Ulf Nilsson, Milt Schmidt and Glen Sharpley. A visibly tense Eagleson pled guilty to three counts of mail fraud, each one symbolic of different abuses of his power and trust.The first was for misappropriation of airline travel passes and other profits from international hockey from 1976 through 1991. The second was for misappropriation of NHLPA funds, diverted to both his friends and family. The third was for cheating Sharpley out of $15,000 in a $325,000 disability pension payout.Judge Nathaniel Gorton pointedly rebuked Eagleson for his illegal activities, but the 64-year-old managed to avoid any U.S. jail time by agreeing to pay $1 million (Cdn.) restitution. Gorton immediately awarded Sharpley the first $15,000. The NHLPA will administer the remaining funds that were put into a trust.The Americans dearly wanted to put Eagleson behind bars-without the plea bargain, he could have been looking at a 15-year prison sentence and $750,000 (U.S.) fine-but realized their chances of extraditing him from Canada weren&rsquo;t great. The time, effort and money to do it would have been overwhelming.Still, the Americans had to have assurances Eagleson would do jail time in Canada. His U.S. plea bargain is conditional on him being sentenced to 18 months in a legitimate correction facility, not a halfway house.The next day in Toronto, Eagleson pled guilty to three charges of fraud for misappropriating funds that legitimately belonged to Labatt Brewing, the NHLPA and Hockey Canada.&ldquo;It is a tragedy that someone like Mr. Eagleson, who rose to such heights, could sink so low,&rdquo; Crown attorney Susan Ficek said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s tragedy authored by the offender himself.&rdquo;Before being sentenced by Chief Justice Lesage, Eagleson turned briefly to face the few ex-players in attendance-the small group included Brewer, Sharpley, Frank Mahovlich and Rod Seiling-and offered an apology.&ldquo;I sincerely apologize for any of the harm I might have caused and I hope I will have the opportunity in the future to make a positive contribution,&rdquo; Eagleson said.He was then led out of the court by the arm to be transported to the Toronto (Don) Jail, where he was formally processed. Later that night, he was moved to the medium security Mimico Correctional Facility, not too far from where he attended high school, to begin serving his 18-month sentence. He is expected to be eligible for parole in six months.&ldquo;By banning others you have brought disgrace on yourself,&rdquo; Chief Justice Lesage said. &ldquo;It should have been known to you a long time ago that you could not have worn all those hats. This is a case that serves as a reminder that power sometimes corrupts.&rdquo; &#9632;

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A self-made tragedy

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>University of Michigan senior defenseman Chris Fox was charged with felonious assault stemming from an incident in a recreational game in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Township last summer.The charges were issued Jan. 6, by Oakland (Mich.) County prosecutors. Fox, 21, is accused of using his stick to slash an opponent, Robert Thomas, of Waterford Township, Mich., in the mouth. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Fox turned himself in Jan. 7 and was arraigned and released on bail.During a non-checking league game June 15 in Detroit, Fox is accused of attacking Thomas from behind, swinging his stick like a bat and striking Thomas in the teeth with his stick blade. Thomas, 20, lost one tooth, two were loosened and one was chipped. He had two root canals as a result.The investigation took six months because Fox&rsquo;s teammates wouldn&rsquo;t identify him. Thomas picked Fox out of a University of Michigan team picture.&ldquo;The charges reflect the brutal nature of the attack and the fact he aimed directly at a vital spot-the head of the victim-and he did it from behind,&rdquo; said James Halushka, chief of warrants and investigations for the Prosecutor&rsquo;s Office. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t at all a part of the game. It was a crime.&rdquo;Michigan coach Red Berenson said no action will be taken by the university against Fox.&ldquo;This is an alleged situation. It&rsquo;s not a fact,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was aware of the situation in the summer and the kid had come and told me about it. He has never done anything like this (before).&rdquo;This season Fox, who&rsquo;s a pre-med student, has three goals and eight assists and 14 penalty minutes in 19 games. He has seven goals and 29 assists and 43 penalty minutes in 83 career games.ALL-STAR ADDS: Four players, including Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; captain Mark Messier, were added to the Jan. 18 NHL All-Star Game in Vancouver as commissioner selections.Al Maclrmis of the St. Louis Blues was also added to the North American roster by commissioner Gary Bettman, while Jari Kurri of the Colorado Avalanche and Igor Larionov of the Detroit Red Wings were added to the World roster.THRASHER FIGHT: Atlanta&rsquo;s NHL expansion team is feuding with a skateboarding magazine over the right to be called the Thrashers.The 1999-2000 expansion team filed a federal lawsuit against the owner of Thrasher magazine and is seeking a court order allowing the team to use Atlanta Thrashers as its name.TICKET DRIVE: The Nashville Predateurs are halfway to their objective of 12,000 season tickets to fulfill the requirements for becoming the NHL&rsquo;s next expansion franchise.Scheduled to join the NHL in 1998-99, the Predateurs must sell 6,000 more tickets by the March 31 deadline. The team must also sell 75 per cent of its luxury suites and 75 per cent of its club suites.CONTEST WINNERS: More than 1,500 readers of The Hockey News responded to The Top 50 Contest and many predicted the first all-star team of Terry Sawchuk, Bobby Orr. Doug Harvey, Bobby Hull, Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe.Dale Atkinson of Windsor, Ont., correctly identified the all-star team and was the random winner of an all expense paid trip to Toronto.Second place winners of Gretzky-autographed magazines included R.A. Hay of Winnipeg, Derek Joblin of Thunder Bat, Ont., and Jerry Cherneski. Third place winners of Gretzky-autographed Hespeler hockey sticks included Brian Heslop of Kanata. Ont., E.R. Hamlyn of St. John&rsquo;s, Nfld., Joe Kueber of St. Albert, Alta., Dave Townsend of Maple Ridge, B.C., and Tim O&rsquo;Rourke of Peoria, Ill.<h2>NHL All-Star Game</h2>Here are the lineups tor the NHL All-Star Game Jan. 18 in Vancouver Fan balloting determined the six starters (asterisk) for the World and North America teams<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011746/7386041-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="756" height="1096"></div> &#9632;

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Michigan defenseman charged

Derek Mackenzie went from being a bench warmer to an all-star.Mackenzie, who has seen limited ice time in his rookie season with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Sudbury Wolves, shone for the winning side at the International Championship. The five-team, under-17 tournament concluded Jan. 4 in Kitchener.Ontario edged the Czech Republic 3-2 in double overtime in the gold-medal match. Ontario coach Brian Hayton believes MacKenzie would also have been its MVP. if one had been picked.&ldquo;He was a guy we kind of brought in as a role player,&rdquo; Hayton said of the 5-foot-10, 160-pounder. &ldquo;Right after the first game, though, we knew his role was going to be expanded.&rdquo;MacKenzie had two goals and four points in six games. He was Ontario&rsquo;s player of the game twice; the second time for notching the winning tally in his club&rsquo;s 2-1 semifinal victory over Quebec.MacKenzie deflected the spotlight from talented teammates Michael Zigomanis (Kingston Frontenacs), Peter Reynolds (London Knights) and Brian Finlev (Barrie Colts).UNDER-17 WEST: Two stick measurements in the final six minutes helped Saskatchewan rebound from a 4-2 deficit and beat Team U.S.A. 5-4 in the final of an international under-17 tournament in Swift Current, Sask. Jan. 3.On both occasions, Saskatchewan measured the stick of goalie Rick DiPietro. Saskatchewan seized the momentum by scoring two goals.Jarret Stoll&rsquo;s power-play goal created a 4-4 tie with 33 seconds left. Brandin Cote (Spokane Chiefs) then scored the winning goal with nine seconds remaining.Other teams included Alberta, B.C., Manitoba and Finland.-With files from Sam Laskaris and Rob Vanstone &#9632;

Mackenzie’s game-winners lead Ontario

After another night of scoreBORED watching and another 0-0 tie, I decided to grab my THN 1989 Yearbook to remember the way things used to be.I saw that Brian Hayward and Patrick Roy won the Jennings Trophy in 1987-88 with a 2.93 goals-against average. I also saw that mark would place them ahead of only three of 26 teams today. On Dec. 19, the Vancouver Canucks were dead last at 3.29, which would have been good for fourth place back in 1987-88.I&rsquo;m tired of the argument that low scoring hockey is good hockey. Sometimes that can be the case, but let&rsquo;s not correlate the two.The NHL&rsquo;s solution? Add four more teams. That&rsquo;s a great idea-let&rsquo;s bring 80 more players into the league who don&rsquo;t have enough talent to make it now.Matthew Banks, Herndon, Va.<h2>Stars unstoppable</h2>This is an early warning to all other teams in the NHL: the Dallas Stars are the best team in the league and will not be denied as they were last year.With the addition of goalie Ed Bel-four, the Stars will be unstoppable in the playoffs. The Stars have proven they are for real by staying in first place despite long-term losses of their top two scorers in Mike Modano and Joe Nieuwendyk.Everyone can talk about the Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils all they want, but the truth is the Stars are the real deal and will finally get the recognition they deserve when they win the Stanley Cup in June.Matt Froehlich, Houston, Tex.<h2>Numbers game</h2>In your Dec. 19 issue, you had a list of active players whose numbers will likely be retired by their respective clubs. You left some notable players off the list.Brian Leetch and Mike Richter of the New York Rangers, Ron Francis of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche and possibly Pat LaFontaine of the Buffalo Sabres should be on the list.Richard Tepedino, Brooklyn, N. Y.<h2>Feel-bad Rangers</h2>It has been great to hear about all the feel-good stories coming out of New York.Pat LaFontaine has come back and is playing near his superstar level and he has even made the U.S. Olympic team. Wayne Gretzky is still getting it done, even in the tough Eastern Conference.What we lose sight of is that this team is horribly underachieving. I have never seen this team put in a full 60-minute effort and it seems to be outworked every night.If something is not done soon, that memory of a nice playoff run of a year ago will be replaced with an em-barrassing early trip to the golf course.David Bissi, Alexandria, Va.<h2>Keep &lsquo;C&rsquo; in CHL</h2>In light of Canada&rsquo;s dismal eighth place finish in the World Junior Championship, it&rsquo;s time to fix a big problem in Canadian junior hockey.In THN&rsquo;s WJC Preview it says, &ldquo;the problem is the German League uses import players, so young homegrown players are left behind.&rdquo;There is a wicked similarity growing here between the German League and Canadian Hockey League. GMs in the Ontario, Quebec and Western Leagues are supposed to be developing Canadian kids, yet they keep making room on their rosters for European juniors.Of course these guys would come to play here. Canada has the best hockey in the world and if you can learn to play here, you&rsquo;ll have a far better chance of making the NHL.Let the Europeans play in Europe and let the Canadian kids play in their leagues and then let&rsquo;s see what happens in the NHL and on the world stage.Jim Phair, North Vancouver, B.C.<h2>Peluso has heart</h2>Mike Peluso, one of my favorite players of all-time, retired today and I am very sad.Peluso wasn&rsquo;t a franchise player, he wasn&rsquo;t a top scorer and teams didn&rsquo;t cater to him. But this man worked very hard for everything he accomplished. He fought, literally and figuratively, for his spot in the NHL.He played the toughest role in hockey and he did it well. On Nov. 23, I drove 6-1/2 hours to see Peluso and the Calgary Flames play the Carolina Hurricanes for what turned out to be his final game.Peluso exemplified what we all love about hockey: grit, determination, hard work, toughness and a lot of heart.Vickie Maggard, Williamsburg, Ky.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-1641&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, 777 Bay St, 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. 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;

Another four teams will be even worse

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011811/7386120-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

Rising Star A few eyebrows were raised when center Steve Gainey was chosen 77th at last year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft. Not just because he was ranked 173rd by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau, but because he was picked by his dad Bob Gainey&rsquo;s Dallas Stars. The 6-foot, 170-pound Gainey scored just nine goals and 35 points in 60 games for the Kamloops Blazers of the Western League last season. Was it nepotism? &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the most improved player from last year&rsquo;s draft,&rdquo; said San Jose Sharks&rsquo; GM Dean Lombardi. &ldquo;If the draft were held again, he&rsquo;d probably be a first round pick. He really knows how to get the puck.&rdquo; In 38 games this season Gainey had 12 goals and 31 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021373/7386151-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="365" height="573"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Gainey</figcaption></div>Right place, wrong time The Buffalo Sabres wanted to call up defenseman Jay McKee from the Rochester Americans of the American League earlier this year, but he wasn&rsquo;t at the hotel they assigned him to when they came calling. Turns out he had driven to Buffalo for the day, but his skates were back in Rochester. McKee missed an NHL pay day.Net result Roger Neilson, Mr. Defensive Hockey himself, has an idea for increasing scoring. &ldquo;Simple,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;Make the net a bit bigger. Actually there should be three net sizes. One small net for kids; a bigger net for intermediate players and a net that&rsquo;s a little larger than the one we use now for high-calibre hockey. It has never made sense to me to stand some little kid in a huge net.&rdquo;The trading post Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; pro scout Mario Tremblay was at 10 consecutive Florida Panthers&rsquo; games. Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; assistant GM Ed Johnston was at eight straight Panthers&rsquo; games. Both teams are interested in obtaining Florida defenseman Ed Jovanovski. &#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/f0009-011708/7386182-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Whitney has averaged better than a point a game with Florida. (Photo by Scott Levy/BBS)</figcaption></div>Sitting in a hotel room in Edmonton, where his season began and his roller coaster career hit another downward slide, Ray Whitney thanked his lucky stars.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m enjoying the game as much as I ever did,&rdquo; said the Florida Panthers&rsquo; leading scorer. &ldquo;I enjoy being in the NHL, especially after last I season. Sometimes you don&rsquo;t realize how lucky you are to be in the NHL.&rdquo;A year ago, Whitney was in the minors. No NHL team wanted him.Fast forward to 1998 and Whitney&rsquo;s career has seemingly taken off. Desperate for help up front, the Panthers rolled the dice on the 26-year-old mini center who has exceeded all expectations in the Sunshine State. In the 30 games this season with Florida, Whitney had 17 goals and 32 points. He had a goal and four points in nine games with the Edmonton Oilers before being claimed off waivers.And with two goals against his former team Jan. 8, Whitney surpassed his career high of 17 goals. Six more points and he&rsquo;ll surpass his career high of 41.&ldquo;At the time (the Panthers got Whitney) we were going through a very difficult time because of injuries and we were having difficulty getting points from any one specific player,&rdquo; said Panthers&rsquo; coach-GM Bryan Murray. &ldquo;We had talked to his agent (Michael Barnett) in the summer, but decided we had enough forwards and we didn&rsquo;t need him.&ldquo;We knew he could pass the puck and we needed a creative player. We thought if he could come in here, make some plays, if he could score 15 or 16 goals, it was a worthwhile move from a salary point of view.&rdquo;The Panthers have been hit hard by injuries to the forward ranks this season, losing for various periods of time Rob Niedermayer, Esa Tikkanen, Viktor Kozlov and Radek Dvorak.Whitney has never been a Can&rsquo;t Miss Kid, not even after back-to-back seasons of 57 and 67 goals with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western League. Not even after leading the WHL in scoring with 185 points and then leading the playoffs in points the same year with 31 in 15 games in 1990-91.Not at 5-foot-9, 160 pounds.So even though he had a few decent seasons with the San Jose Sharks, who picked him 23rd overall in 1991, Whitney found himself in the minors last season, playing nine games with the Kentucky Thorough-blades of the American League and 43 with the Utah Grizzlies of the International League.Whitney was bought out by the Sharks and after a summer of uncertainty, he signed a one-year, $300,000 contract with the Oilers, the team for which the Edmonton native was once the stickboy. He had six points in his first three pre-season games with Edmonton and had four points in four games to start the year. Then his playing time evaporated.&ldquo;I think they had a problem with my size,&rdquo; Whitney said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they could handle having me and (5-foot-10, 170-pound) Todd Marchant in the lineup at the same time.&rdquo;In 200 NHL games with the Sharks, Whitney scored 48 goals and 121 points. His was a rocky marriage with the Sharks. One minute he was playing on a line with Russian stars Sergei Makarov and Igor Larionov, the next he was a healthy scratch.Whitney held out prior to the 1994-95 season trying to get a contract similar to teammate Pat Falloon&rsquo;s $1.2 million a season. He got a three-year deal out of the Sharks worth an average $800,000 a year, but it came back to haunt him.Three times last season the Sharks put him on waivers, three times he was ignored. His contract was a discouraging factor. But that is history.Whitney made an immediate impact with the Panthers, setting up a goal in his debut Nov. 6 and scoring in each of the next four games. With the exception of one five-game goalless spell, Whitney was the model of consistency.Unlike many small players who make it to the top, Whitney is not a superb skater. He is creative with the puck and willing to pay a price to score goals. And with Florida, he&rsquo;s surrounded by grinders who complement his skill.&ldquo;The biggest thing is, he&rsquo;s being put in offensive situations,&rdquo; said teammate Ray Sheppard who played with Whitney in San Jose.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s shifty,&rdquo; said St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman Chris Pronger. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s in the comers, it&rsquo;s hard to nail him.&rdquo;Now that he&rsquo;s playing regularly again and scoring like never before, Whitney has every right to be selfassured. Instead, he&rsquo;s being cautious.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m a more relaxed player now,&rdquo; Whitney said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m a point-a-game guy or not. I&rsquo;ve only been on that pace for 30 games. If you can get 60 points in this league now, that&rsquo;s pretty good.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Stickboy to poster boy

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>The World Junior Championship ended as it began, with a boisterous crowd cheering Finland to victory.Finland, hosting its first WJC since 1990, began the tournament with a narrow 3-2 victory over Canada Dec. 25 and closed the event with a spectacular 2-1 overtime win over Russia Jan. 3 on a goal by Niklas Hagman.It was Finland&rsquo;s first outright victory in the tournament. The Finns had the best remaining record in 1987 after Canada and the Soviet Union were disqualified for brawling.The victory came 20 years after Finland won a momentous European Junior Championship against the Soviet Union on an overtime goal by Jari Kurri, now of the Colorado Avalanche.Finnish coach Hannu Kapanen-the father of Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; forward Sami Kapanen-said the tournamentopening victory over Canada gave his team the kickstart it needed to rack up an undefeated (6-0-1) record.&ldquo;Nobody here in Finland picked us to win this and we kind of saved the world tournament by beating Canada in the first game,&rdquo; Hagman said. &ldquo;That gave us a great deal of confidence.&rdquo;Last year&rsquo;s finalists, the United States and Canada, finished out of the medal round. The U.S. had to beat Sweden in its last game to climb up to fifth spot with a 4-3-0 record.For Canada, the tournament was a spectacular disaster. Entering with five consecutive titles and a 27-game (240-3) unbeaten streak, Canada finished 2-5-0 and in eighth place by dropping its final game 6-3 to Kazakhstan, a country playing in its first WJC after advancing from the B Pool. (See page 11 for more on Canada.)Kazakhstan also beat Slovakia in its first WJC, but the ultimate rages-to-riches story was fashioned by Switzerland. Led by the spectacular goaltending of first team all-star David Aebischer, the Swiss claimed their first-ever medal, a bronze on a 2-1 shootout win over the Czech Republic.Aebischer, drafted in the seventh round last year by Colorado, posted a 1.58 goals-against average and a.950 save percentage. The Swiss continued their assent from ninth in 1996 and eighth a year ago.The Swiss also placed a second team all-star in right winger Michel Riesen. The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; 14th overall pick in 1997 had four goals and five points in seven games.The winning Finns placed center Olli Jokinen (4-6-10), the third overall pick last year by the Los Angeles Kings, and undrafted right winger Eero Somervuori (3-6-9) on the first team. Swedish defenseman Pierre Hedin, Russian rearguard Andrei Markov and left winger Maxim Balmochnykh (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) rounded out the first team.The second team was composed of Riesen; Finnish netminder Mika Noronen (Buffalo Sabres); Czech defenseman Pavel Skrbek (Pittsburgh Penguins); Finnish rearguard Pasi Petrilainen (New Jersey Devils); Russian center Oleg Kvasha (Florida Panthers); and Finnish left winger Timo Vertala (Montreal Canadiens).U.S. center Jeff Farkas, a draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, led the tournament with six goals and tied Jokinen with 10 points.The tournament gave NHL scouts a chance to gauge the two premier prospects for the 1998 draft. Canada&rsquo;s Vincent Lecavalier, a natural center for the Quebec League&rsquo;s Rimouski Oceanic who spent most of the tournament at left wing, took a regular shift and scored once, but was ineffective through Canada&rsquo;s final three games.David Legwand, a 36-goal scorer with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Plymouth Whalers going into the tournament, spent most of the WJC on the U.S. bench and finished pointless.Sweden&rsquo;s 1999 draft-eligible Twin Towers Daniel and Henrik Sedin enjoyed differing success despite playing on the same line. Left winger Daniel scored four goals and finished with five points while Henrik finished with no goals and four assists.Germany, who gave Canada a scare early in the tournament before falling 2-0, was outscored 17-3 by Slovakia in the relegation game and will play next year in the B Pool. &#9632;

Mighty fine Finnish

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011602/7386244-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="380" height="534"></div>In the Finnish town of Hameenlinna, an hour&rsquo;s drive from Helsinki, the local club team plays in a 5,000-seat arena and goes by the nickname HPK: Hockey Playing Knights.It was an altogether fitting setting for Canada&rsquo;s team at the World Junior Championship to fall on its sword and for quaint, almost feudal notions of the virtue and valor of Canadian hockey players to be put to rest, maybe forever.One hundred and 69 people paid to see Canada lose 6-3 to Kazakhstan and absorb the country&rsquo;s worst ever junior defeat.Canada entered the tournament unbeaten in 27 tournament games (240-3), a juggernaut coming off five titles in a row. But the loss to the Kazaks pushed Canada to 2-5 and eighth place and while it is tempting to paint that final day in Hameenlinna as a battle between David and Goliath, all the Kazaks really needed to do was step aside and let the giant crash to the ground.Success, of all things, devastated Canada&rsquo;s hockey playing knights. For the last few tournaments, Canadian Hockey officials have stressed nothing but a gold medal would be worth the trip. So when Canada played their best game of the tournament but still lost, 21 to Russia in the quarterfinal, the Canadian boys took note. If they couldn&rsquo;t have it all, they would give nothing, first in losing 3-0 to the USA, then in the debacle to the Kazaks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021141/7386237-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="507" height="882"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jesse Wallin</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The players quit,&rdquo; said Canadian coach Real Paiement, &ldquo;after their hopes and dreams were shattered against the Russians.&rdquo;Weigh those words. The players quit. Hameenlinna proved, as if it needed proving, that virtue, courage, pride of flag, none of these are unique Canadian properties. You can put a maple leaf on a kid, but you can&rsquo;t always make him care.Of course, Canada had to lose sometime. But Canada&rsquo;s best juniors looked unimaginative, their talents undeveloped when pitted against the top European juniors. In the past, Canadians used greater organization and commitment and splendid goaltending, to obscure a fundamental truth: European hockey is producing players with better skills-not necessarily better players, but better trained ones.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a wake up call for Canada, not only Canadian hockey, it&rsquo;s a wake up call for all of hockey in Canada,&rdquo; said Canadian Hockey president Bob Nicholson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to start working on our skill level at the younger ages. To hell with competition, let&rsquo;s start teaching our kids some skills and teach them to score goals.&rdquo;Canada was missing much-needed leadership and talent in the form of Boyd Devereaux and Joe Thornton, both learning the game sitting on NHL benches. But it also became obvious the world had caught up. Finland, Sweden and Switzerland had closed the gap in net. Likewise the Europeans have eradicated the Canadians&rsquo; traditional advantage in the face-off circle.This is not to say Canada will not win next year&rsquo;s tournament in Winnipeg. Canada should be able to count on a host of seasoned 19-year-olds for its nucleus including holdover defensemen Eric Brewer and Brad Ferrence, goalie Roberto Luongo, two-way forward Manny Malhotra and Vincent Lecavalier. the projected top pick in the 1998 draft.The medal that was lost in Hameenlinna can be found again. Harder to rekindle will be the sense of virtue that once cloaked Canada&rsquo;s view of its young hockey players.Three players-Ferrence, Guelph Storm forward Brian Willsie and Josh Holden of the Regina Pats-were benched for tardiness. About half of the players couldn&rsquo;t muster enough interest to be on time.Exemptions can be granted. Malhotra and Lecavalier are too young to be made accountable, Jesse Wallin of the Red Deer Rebels, Brett McLean of the Kelowna Rockets and Windsor Spitfire Matt Cooke played gallantly but fell to injuries.But Canada&rsquo;s best young players showed themselves ready for professional status in all the wrong ways.When there was no money on the table, they quit. And that&rsquo;s what made it the blackest of days for the country&rsquo;s hockey playing knights. &#9632;

f0011-01

COLUMNISTS

Europeans catch up, Canadians’ turn to quit

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011736/7386282-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="378" height="535"></div>To trade or not to trade, that is not the only question NHL general managers face these days.It&rsquo;s more like, when the deal plays out in the papers, will it look like I came out on top? Or. is the player I&rsquo;m acquiring significantly more expensive than the player I&rsquo;m giving up and how will that affect the overall budget? Or, how will this move affect my team&rsquo;s depth?&ldquo;Trades are examined so much more closely now,&rdquo; said Florida Panthers&rsquo; coach-GM Bryan Murray. &ldquo;If you make a trade that helps your club and you&rsquo;re satisfied, that should be enough. That&rsquo;s not acceptable now. It&rsquo;s like the public and media want a clear cut winner. I think some GMs are gun shy because of this.&rdquo;As recently as last season, NHL GMs were trade crazy. From the opening day of the 1996-97 season through the March 18 trade deadline, teams made a total of 56 trades involving 121 players.Suddenly, almost overnight, the NHL grew very conservative in terms of trades. There have been plenty of rumors, often generated by overzealous reporters, but little activity. Things would have to pick up dramatically this season to match last year&rsquo;s totals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021377/7386275-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="504" height="880"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dean Lombardi</figcaption></div>&ldquo;This day has been coming,&rdquo; said Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; associate GM Mike Smith. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s part of the new business of our game. Perhaps the day is coming when we&rsquo;ll see the majority of trades made in the off-season, just like the other major sports.&rdquo;From the start of the season until Dec 30, the day before the Edmonton Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning got things rolling with a multi-player trade featuring Lightning defenseman Roman Hamrlik, there had been just 10 trades involving 18 players. The Oilers followed with another blockbuster Jan. 4, sending center Jason Arnott and a prospect to the New Jersey Devils for disgruntled right winger Bill Guerin and left winger Valeri Zelepukin. The plummeting Vancouver Canucks got in on the action Jan. 2 when they moved goalie Kirk McLean and left winger Martin Gelinas to the Carolina Hurricanes for goalie Sean Burke, left winger Geoff Sanderson and defenseman Enrico Ciccone.A number of GMs contacted by THN said there has been as much trade talk as ever this season, but they cited a handful of reasons why trading was down in the first half. Namely, the money factor, a general lack of depth throughout the league and parity.&ldquo;(Large) salaries make it difficult to make a trade now,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Generally you can&rsquo;t give up a player making $400,000 and take back a player making $1 million.&rdquo;Parity and lack of depth seem to go hand in hand. One GM said a few years ago he might have traded a fourth-line player in mid-season to acquire a draft pick, but now, if he makes the move and then runs into injury trouble, he doesn&rsquo;t have the depth in the organization to fill the gap.GMs agree there are four or five clear-cut favorites to win the Stanley Cup and you can lump the rest of the teams in together.&ldquo;Parity has created all of the problems hockey is now facing, the lack of goals, the defensive style and the way trades are made,&rdquo; said St. Louis Blues&rsquo; GM Larry Pleau.It was no surprise to anyone Vancouver and Edmonton made deals of consequence. Both are underachieving teams not even close to meeting expectations. Both are in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs.&ldquo;I doubt very much (Oilers&rsquo; GM) Glen Sather wanted to part with Arnott, but it&rsquo;s more important to the organization the team makes the playoffs,&rdquo; said one rival GM.The big deals by Vancouver and Edmonton were taken as a kick start to the trading season and expectations were more big deals would follow prior to the March 24 deadline. But there&rsquo;s no denying a different, much cooler climate exists in the NHL today concerning the shifting of players.&ldquo;Are we going to need GMs in five years?&rdquo; wondered San Jose Sharks&rsquo; boss Dean Lombardi. &ldquo;Or are we going to be like the NBA where there is so little room for movement in the season, the coach of the team picks who he wants to be the GM?&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Lots of trade talk, but action hard to find

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011724/7386313-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="380" height="537"></div>Jason Arnott, drowning in the little fishbowl, now swims in the swamp, hard by the world&rsquo;s largest barracuda tank eight miles away.He says he wants to be just another guppy in the school, which the piranha in Edmonton never understood as they ate him.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of pressure in a small market in Canada,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Here, it seems like a more relaxed atmosphere. You work hard and play hard and that&rsquo;s what I want to do.&ldquo;The first year (in Edmonton) was great. There was no pressure on me. I had a lot of fun just going out and playing, Then the pressure and the injuries hit. I put too much pressure on myself.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be a finesse player. They expected me to score 50-60 goals a year. It&rsquo;s tough there. They just like to write what they wanted to write. I&rsquo;ve always said it&rsquo;s a team game. I wasn&rsquo;t scoring a lot, but I was working hard as I could, taking the body. I guess they didn&rsquo;t see that.&rdquo;Included among the &ldquo;they&rdquo; was Glen Sather, the Oilers&rsquo; GM who once patiently and successfully waited for Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Paul Coffey to mature. The old angler would rather cut off his casting arm than give up on a young talent prematurely, but he threw this kid back for other than financial reasons, which tells you something.The team that gets the best player is usually the winner of any deal, no matter how many dependable skaters are also exchanged. But truth is, there have been a lot of fish in the sea like Jason Arnott, guys who would rather resent responsibility than run with it to stardom.More than his feelings got hurt in Edmonton. Arnott had a bad appendix, a knee, a shoulder, a back which combined have not allowed him to play 70 games since his promising rookie season. At 23, he is big and a lot stronger physically than he is mentally. He doesn&rsquo;t move the puck and doesn&rsquo;t really carry it either. Arnott likes to shoot it, but when he does, the goalies are especially good at stopping it. He had five goals in 35 games, which Arnott nearly enough.He might need more than just a fresh start and a place on right wing with Doug Gilmour, but a dose of reality. Arnott is right about being able to walk the streets of East Rutherford (provided anyone has ever actually found streets in East Rutherford), without being noticed. But the Devils are far from a happy-go-lucky team having a good ol&rsquo; time behind the laugh-a-minute Jacques Lemaire. There is no hiding in the Meadowlands rink from this coach or the reality the Devils need to win now.Of course, they also want to win later, probably without having to sign 34-year-old Doug Gilmour to a megacontract he probably can no longer earn. That&rsquo;s likely why Arnott was acquired. Watching the hair growing in the ears of the glamour team at the other end of the Lincoln Tunnel, one admires Lou Lamoriello for his foresight and depth that has turned Bill Guerin, Valeri Zelepukin and John MacLean (who went to San Jose for Doug Bodger) into trade chips.But there is good reason to wonder whether Arnott, who has not been close to being a good player in three-plus seasons, ever will be. Also, whether three experienced, quality wingers won&rsquo;t be missed at playoff time, when the Devils must make amends.Petr Sykora, Patrik Elias, Brian Rolston have upsides, but that&rsquo;s not going to soothe fans who last spring watched what had appeared to be the most solid team in the conference unravel like a smelly onion.&ldquo;Johnny MacLean had certain speed,&rdquo; said Lemaire. &ldquo;Zelepukin was an average skater, good with the puck, who plays an aggressive game. Billy could skate more than the other two. But what are we losing? In experience, we lose MacLean and only MacLean. Guerin is young, Zelepukin has missed a year and-a-half, really been in the league for only four years.&rdquo;The Devils&rsquo; coach was taking a narrow view towards what constitutes experience, strictly counting years when the real issue is numbers of players you can count on. The East probably will come down to a series between the Devils and Philadelphia Flyers. If so, you gotta like the Devils goaltending, overall team speed and ability to befuddle at center ice. But man for man, Philly&rsquo;s defense is better. And the Flyers have more players who can raise their level of play.If Arnott can&rsquo;t do that, either this year or for the next 10 years that the Devils expect him to be a main man, then there will have been better places to move the unhappy Guerin. And no places where Arnott can escape the problems he blamed on everybody else in Edmonton, where contrary to his own belief, he wasn&rsquo;t earning his $2 million salary, only a reputation as someone who still has a lot of growing up to do. &#9632;

f0014-01

Time for Arnott to put up, shut up, grow up

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011512/7386344-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="160" height="160"></div>With his role reduced this season under new coach Pierre Page, original Mighty Ducks of Anaheim defenseman Bobby Dollas has asked, through his agent, to be traded.&ldquo;I still love the organization, but I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m the direction they&rsquo;re going,&rdquo; the 32-year-old said Jan. 7.Dollas made those statements after Page made him a healthy scratch for the second time in three games. Dollas had never been a healthy scratch during the four seasons Ron Wilson ran the Ducks.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand,&rdquo; Dollas said. &ldquo;I thought I had a good last three, four games. Now he wants to play head games. That&rsquo;s fine. Head games with a veteran. Fourteen years pro, that gets kind of old after a while.&rdquo;Dollas has been unhappy for weeks. He said his agent, Fred Simpson, asked GM Jack Ferreira to trade him &ldquo;a little while ago.&rdquo;Simpson called Ferreira again Jan. 7. &lsquo;Tve been given permission to contact other teams who might be interested in Bobby and have them call Jack,&rdquo; Simpson said.Ferreira would not say if he would accommodate Dollas&rsquo; trade request. &ldquo;You know I don&rsquo;t talk about trades,&rdquo; Ferreira said.The Ducks acquired Dollas from Detroit in the 1993 expansion draft. Dollas missed four games with a broken toe and 16 with a lacerated tendon in his left wrist this season.NOTEBOOK: It took left winger Paul Kariya only 11 games to move into sole possession of second place on the Ducks in goals, with seven&hellip;Kariya finished fourth among wingers in fan balloting for the North America All-Star team, but wasn&rsquo;t selected to play. &ldquo;Playing in the NHL AllStar Game is a terrific honor that I have been privileged to experience in the past,&rdquo; he said. &lsquo;This year&rsquo;s game will give other players the opportunity to perform in this showcase event.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Warren Rychel, on being scratched Jan. 7 against Buffalo for the second time in three games: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing for a playoff spot right now. We have to have our best lineup in right now. Without me in the lineup, it&rsquo;s not our best lineup, no offense to anybody else.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-01

Veteran Dollas requests trade after being sat out

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03876/7386375-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="576" height="898"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay McKee</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021168/7386382-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="160" height="157"></div>Defenseman Jay McKee is back in the NHL and this time he&rsquo;s looking to stick.On his first shift after being recalled from Rochester in the American League, the 1995 first-round draft pick put a neutral zone check on Ottawa defenseman Stan Neckar that sent Neckar tumbling head-first into the Senators&rsquo; bench.On his next shift, McKee put a shoulder into former Sabre Randy Cun-neyworth in open ice.And when the Sabres were trying to nail down the shutout for goalie Dominik Hasek, in the closing two minutes with defensemen Richard Smehlik and Alexei Zhitnik serving penalties, McKee played effectively in a spot most coaches assign to a veteran.&ldquo;Jay brought a physical presence to the back end,&rdquo; coach Lindy Ruff said after the 3-0 Sabres&rsquo; win Dec. 31. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way we want to see him play.&rdquo;McKee was demoted to Rochester in early December because of lackluster play. When Darryl Shannon went out with a sore knee McKee got the call. It&rsquo;s still possible he&rsquo;ll go back, but he&rsquo;s making the decision just a little bit harder.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s safe to so say I&rsquo;d rather be here than Rochester,&rdquo; said McKee, who also said that playing in the AHL helped restore his confidence.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I learned a whole lot on the ice. I think the main thing I took for granted was what I had the last year and a half and maybe I got a little too comfortable.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Look for president Larry Quinn to get the axe once the ink dries on the agreement that has John Rigas purchasing tile Sabres from the Knox family and assorted investors. Other front-office types will follow, but it&rsquo;s still iffy regarding changes in the hockey department&hellip;Right winger Rob Ray returned from a thumb injury. He missed 20 games with a fracture and still has a plate and five screws in the thumb. He said he doesn&rsquo;t know how the thumb will hold up in a fight, but expects it will get a test at some point. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to be a free agent at the end of the season,&rdquo; Ray said. &ldquo;I have to go out and show I can still go out and do what I do.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Darryl Shannon hadn&rsquo;t recovered from his knee injury, but was considered day-to-day. &#9632;

f0016-03

McKee back, gets physical

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04654/7386413-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="160" height="159"></div>If the Boston Bruins are to achieve their goal of qualifying for the playoffs after missing out last spring for the first time since 1967, they must keep their New Year&rsquo;s resolution to be rude to visitors.Boston, which played most of its first-half schedule away from FleetCenter, was positioned to earn a postseason berth because of its road record (11-8-4) and in spite of a 6-8-4 mark at home. With 23 of their final 41 games at home, the Bruins knew they&rsquo;d jeopardize their chances of playing past April 29 if they didn&rsquo;t improve at home.&ldquo;Obviously, the schedule&rsquo;s in our favor for the last part of the season,&rdquo; said veteran defenseman Dave Ellett. &ldquo;The majority of our games are at home, and most are big divisional games. We&rsquo;ve got to have this place be a spot where other teams think, &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t going to be fun.&rdquo;Boston closed its first half and opened 1998 with a 0-0 tie against the Ottawa Senators at FleetCenter that didn&rsquo;t go over well with its fans, but stopped a two-game home losing streak.The Bruins followed with a 3-0 victory over the visiting San Jose Sharks Jan. 3, and a 5-2 triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes Jan. 8 that evened their home record at 8-8-4.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re starting to play better here,&rdquo; said center Tim Taylor. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re starting to be ourselves. We&rsquo;re not trying to do anything to get our fans going, because it&rsquo;s not our game. We have to play simple, play hard, and our chances will come. That&rsquo;s the type of hockey that wins games.&rdquo;The Bruins deviated slightly from that style (home and away) at the end of 1997, going 1-4-2 between Dec. 17 and New Year&rsquo;s Eve. During the mini-slump, which followed five straight victories, they had become more passive than patient.&ldquo;Teams came in here, kind of dictating the way the game would go, and enjoying themselves,&rdquo; Ellett said.NOTEBOOK: Coach Pat Burns broke up his top offensive line Jan. 7 at Montreal, and it paid off with a win there and at home against Phoenix the next night. Steve Heinze, moved from right wing to left with center Mike Sullivan and right winger Anson Carter, scored in overtime to beat the Canadiens, and center Jason Allison (with new wingers Dmitri Khristich and Sergei Samsonov) produced his first NHL hat trick a night later against the Coyotes. Left winger Ted Donato, however, fell all the way to the fourth line&hellip;Center Joe Thornton, the No. 1 overall pick in June&rsquo;s entry draft, returned Jan. 7 at Montreal after missing 10 games because of complications from an infected boil in his ankle. &#9632;

f0016-04

Play at home key to future for Bruins

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011357/7386444-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="160" height="160"></div>In October, as Theo Fleury struggled out of the gate for the Calgary Flames, there were whispers the pint-sized forward&rsquo;s best days may have been behind him.After all, Fleury recorded only 67 points in 81 games in a distraction-filled 1996-97 season.It didn&rsquo;t help Fleury needed to be hospitalized at the end of training camp for 24 hours so he could take in enough fluids intravenously to get over what was alternately described as a virus or food poisoning.Combined with a neck injury that bothered him for a month and another controversy involving his former junior coach, Graham James, the first month of the season was hardly memorable.Fleury&rsquo;s turnaround in the last seven weeks is nothing short of astonishing. Motivated by the real possibility he would not be named to Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team, the old Fleury-the pesky agitator who does it all for the Flames-resurfaced in mid-November and has been going strong ever since. When he was named to the North American all-star team Jan. 6, Fleury was 13 th in the NHL scoring race, miles ahead of any teammate.Could this be Fleury&rsquo;s most complete season ever?&ldquo;For an all-around game, I&rsquo;d say yes, for sure,&rdquo; replied Fleury. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s definitely more responsibility than ever. Not only do I have to be the best offensive player, I have to be the best defensive player, too. I won the plus-minus title one year (1991, plus-48), but that year I scored 50 goals and 100 points and played on the fourth-best defensive team in hockey. We&rsquo;re like second-last in goals-against now.&rdquo;Of Fleury&rsquo;s addition to the all-star team, Flames&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not surprised, but I would have been disappointed if he hadn&rsquo;t made it. If you look at the stats, there&rsquo;s maybe one player in the league-John LeClair-with numbers as good as Theo&rsquo;s and LeClair doesn&rsquo;t play against the other team&rsquo;s top line every night. To say Theo&rsquo;s played really well is an understatement.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: In the days leading to the Geoff Sanderson-to-Vancouver trade, there was talk Carolina wanted to re-acquire center Andrew Cassels-whom they traded to Calgary in August-to reunite the long-time linemates. Cassels responded with his best week of the season, scoring three goals in two games to help Calgary tie Chicago 1-1 Jan. 5 and defeat Colorado 3-1 Jan. 6. His goal against the Blackhawks ended a 13-game goalless drought&hellip;Defenseman Zarley Zalapski received an inordinate amount of ice time following being restored to the line-up after a five-game absence. &ldquo;Maybe they&rsquo;re showcasing me (for a trade),&rdquo; Zalapski said. &#9632;

f0017-01

Fleury’s at top of his game after rediscovering feistiness

<div class="byline">By Steve Politi</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021039/7386475-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="161" height="161"></div>Martin Gelinas knew it was only a matter of time before the Vancouver Canucks made a trade. He just didn&rsquo;t know it was going to involve him.&ldquo;After last season,&rdquo; the left winger said, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect to get moved.&rdquo;Gelinas, the Canucks&rsquo; MVP last season, scored 65 goals during the past two campaigns for Vancouver and had become something of a fan favorite. An injury limited his effectiveness this season, however, and he was packaged to Carolina with 10-year Canucks&rsquo; No. 1 goalie Kirk McLean Jan. 2 in exchange for goalie Sean Burke, left winger Geoff Sanderson and defenseman Enrico Ciccone.The Hurricanes also dumped defenseman Jeff Brown and his $2.1 million salary on the Toronto Maple Leafs Jan. 2 for a conditional draft pick.&ldquo;A little housekeeping going on, eh?&rdquo; said Hurricanes&rsquo; defenseman Glen Wesley.It was no secret the struggling Hurricanes would make a deal. GM Jim Rutherford&rsquo;s goal was to eliminate what he called &ldquo;negative energy&rdquo; from the team&rsquo;s dressing room, free up some cash and add grit to the team.&ldquo;The bottom line is, in Burke&rsquo;s case, we knew we were going to get nothing for him,&rdquo; Ruther-ford said of the potential unrestricted free agent. &ldquo;And with Sanderson, I didn&rsquo;t see where he was going to get back on track. What Martin Gelinas can do, even if he doesn&rsquo;t score, he can check and play defense.&rdquo;Gelinas had a goal and an assist in his Carolina debut, a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators Jan. 5. McLean was solid in his first start, stopping 22 of 23 shots.Rutherford hadn&rsquo;t planned on adding goaltending, but McLean will now compete with Trevor Kidd for the starting job. The 31-year-old McLean is looking forward to a fresh start.&ldquo;One thing about Carolina, their troubles have always been offensive,&rdquo; McLean said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to playing with a team that really takes a lot of pride in (defense).&ldquo;My personal stats (6-17-4, 3.86 goals-against average in Vancouver) don&rsquo;t show what I&rsquo;m capable of doing.&rdquo;Gelinas, who missed 16 games with a knee injury, had four goals and eight points in Vancouver this season, but fell into coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s doghouse.NOTEBOOK: GM Jim Rutherford said he might not be through making trades. &ldquo;Certainly, if this works out in the next few weeks, I&rsquo;ll be happy to sit tight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But we still have that (hole) at center ice.&rdquo;&hellip;After failing to score in 15 straight games, center Keith Primeau scored in five consecutive contests&hellip;With the trade of goaltender Sean Burke and injuries to Trevor Kidd and American League netminder Mike Fountain. Tripp Tracy went from the East Coast League to the AHL to the NHL in less than a week. He backed up veteran Pat Jablonski in a 6-1 loss to Dallas Jan. 3&hellip;Burke took a parting shot at Carolina. &ldquo;You lose a sense of what hockey&rsquo;s all about playing down in a place like Carolina,&rdquo; he said&hellip;The Hurricanes had a record of 1-11-1 with defenseman Enrico Ciccone in the lineup. &#9632;

f0017-02

‘Negative energy’ exorcised in attempt to alter chemistry

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03743/7386506-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="159" height="159"></div>There are several reasons why the Chicago Blackhawks were finally having success, but the biggest could be summed up in two words: Chris Chelios.Starting in mid-December, the Hawks went on a 5-1-3 run fueled by Chelios, who finally over-came some nagging early-season knee problems to return to Norris Trophy form.&ldquo;Chris Chelios is a huge part of this,&rdquo; coach Craig Hartsburg said of the Hawks&rsquo; resurgence. &ldquo;He has taken charge of our team again.&rdquo;Chelios, as is his way, downplayed his role in the Hawks&rsquo; recovery from the bottom of the Western Conference standings.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just me,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing better, but so are six or seven other guys in this room. I&rsquo;m just a piece of the puzzle.&rdquo;Yeah, but Chelios is the piece right in the middle that completes the work, the one you can&rsquo;t do without.Chelios played some of the most inconsistent and tentative hockey of his career in October and into November. He was hovering around minus-8 and went the first 21 games of the season without a goal.Privately, Chelios was hurting, still bothered by the knee he sprained late last season. But he never said a word or used his knee as an excuse.&ldquo;Now that I&rsquo;m healthy, I can talk about it,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t hit. All your power comes from your legs, and I just couldn&rsquo;t hit. So I&rsquo;d be stick-checking or holding or hooking. It just wasn&rsquo;t me. God, it was awful. I only started feeling good about a month-and-a-half ago.&rdquo;Those who thought Chelios was losing more than just one step as he approaches his 36th birth-day Jan. 25 have instead witnessed the Hawks&rsquo; captain turn back the clock.He has even brought a bit of nastiness back into his game as the Hawks search for team toughness in the wake of Bob Probert&rsquo;s injury.&ldquo;I think Cheli&rsquo;s playing better now than he has in the last couple years,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the few superstars that plays hard and tough.&rdquo;Chelios may not win his fourth Norris Trophy, but he certainly has put himself back in the running.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that Cheli deserves to be in (the Norris) race,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;But you&rsquo;re asking the wrong guy. We know how good Cheli is.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Bob Probert was to begin rehab on his right shoulder and might be back before the end of the season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s feeling good, but I still have a long way to go,&rdquo; said Probert, who bad surgery to repair a tom rotator cuff. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to be ready to play the last couple weeks of the year and the playoffs.&rdquo;&hellip;After scoring four goals in his first four games, rookie left winger Dmitri Nabokov&rsquo;s play tailed off and he saw his ice time reduced. &ldquo;Like with many young players the consistency factor is still missing,&rdquo; said coach Craig Hartsburg. &ldquo;We just need him to compete every night&rdquo;&hellip;The Hawks were busy Jan. 8, claiming center Jarrod Skalde on waivers from San Jose and dealing a fourth-round draft pick to New Jersey for left winger Reid Simpson&hellip;Goalie Chris Terreri&rsquo;s broken finger healed, but he pulled a groin muscle in workouts. &#9632;

f0017-03

Captain fantastic Chelios leads Hawks’ resurgence

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011394/7386537-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="161" height="161"></div>Adam Deadmarsh woke up on the morning of Jan. 8 to see his name equated in that morning&rsquo;s paper to the mud the paper boy slung it in.Deadmarsh, the day before, was one of the targets of a blistering verbal attack by Colorado Avalanche coach Marc Crawford.After a 3-1 loss at home to the Calgary Flames the night before, Crawford banged his stick on the ice at practice and accused several players of showing no effort. He blasted Deadmarsh, supposed to be one of the team&rsquo;s premier power forwards, telling him he would be dropped to the third line and if he didn&rsquo;t like it, he could call his agent and request a trade.The next night, however, Crawford was singing Deadmarsh&rsquo;s praises.Deadmarsh scored a goal with 12.7 seconds left in regulation to salvage a 4-4 tie with the Vancouver Canucks.&ldquo;Those are the kinds of goals we need from him,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;He played well tonight.&rdquo;What a change from the day before. Deadmarsh, who led the Avs with 33 goals last season, had 12 going into the Vancouver game. He was on pace for 23 and Crawford strongly indicated that wasn&rsquo;t good enough.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really happy with the way I&rsquo;m playing, either,&rdquo; Deadmarsh said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I want to correct as well. I have to listen to what he says and hopefully do something about it and get better.&rdquo;Colorado&rsquo;s tie with the Canucks left the team 4-1-5 in its past 10 games.Deadmarsh, the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; second pick (14th overall) in the 1993 entry draft, played a couple of shifts on the third line to start the Canucks game, but was moved up on a line with Joe Sakic and Eric Lacroix.&ldquo;It was nice to have that one go in,&rdquo; Deadmarsh said.NOTEBOOK: Colorado&rsquo;s-4 tie against Vancouver at home Jan. 8 put the Avs on pace for 25 draws, which would break Philadelphia&rsquo;s all-time record of 24 set in 1969-70&hellip;As of Jan. 8, the Avalanche had won 46.9 percent of their faceoffs, good for only 23rd-best in the league (1,406 faceoffs won, 1,591 lost)&hellip;Left winger Keith Jones, who continues to rehab his injured knee, became a father for the first time last month. It was girl, named Adrienne. Jones probably won&rsquo;t be back until after the Olympic break. Jones scored 25 goals and 48 points in 78 games with Colorado and Washington last season&hellip;Veteran right winger Jari Kurri was named a special commissioner&rsquo;s selection to the NHL World All-Star team. Kurri is the NHL&rsquo;s highest scoring European-born and trained player. He recently scored his 600th career goal. Kurri had four goals and 14 points in 43 games this season, will play for Finland in the Nagano Olympics next month and plans to retire following this season. &#9632;

f0018-01

Deadmarsh responds to wake-up call

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021042/7386568-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="160" height="157"></div>The last trade the Dallas Stars made came in June, 1996-and it might be their most important.Stars&rsquo; GM Bob Gainey has tweaked his team in the past 19 months with free agent pickups, and the impact of those purchases can&rsquo;t be disputed. But Gainey has also built team chemistry the old fashioned way and his trade to acquire Sergei Zubov from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Kevin Hatcher has turned out to be a winner.With Mike Modano battling a knee injury this season, it could be argued that Zubov is the team&rsquo;s MVP. Statistically, his numbers make him a candidate for the Norris Trophy.Through 45 games Zubov was first among defensemen in scoring with 34 points and first on the Stars in assists with 28. He led the Stars&rsquo; No. 1-ranked power play with 17 points. What&rsquo;s more, he has been a catalyst of sorts for a Stars&rsquo; team that was second in the NHL in scoring and first in goals allowed.Zubov had been on the ice for 75 of the team&rsquo;s 140 goals-that&rsquo;s tops in the NHL. He also was on ice for an amazing 34 of 42 power play goals.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s stalling to feel comfortable with us and we&rsquo;re starting to feel comfortable with him,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re starting to understand how he plays the game.&rdquo;Zubov has even earned respect defensively. He and Derian Hatcher are almost even in ice time, averaging 25 minutes a game. While Zubov is not a physical defenseman, he has been solid positionally and has been riding players out of the play.&ldquo;I think his defense is very underrated,&rdquo; said assistant coach Rick Wilson. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a part of his game that he&rsquo;s worked hard to improve.&rdquo;&ldquo;What he does for us is give us a calming effect when he&rsquo;s on the ice,&rdquo; Hitchcock said.NOTEBOOK: The Stars lost center Tony Hrkac when he was picked up on waivers by Edmonton Dec. 31. Hrkac had five goals and three assists in 13 games with the Stars&hellip;Stars&rsquo; owner Tom Hicks announced Jan. 7 he is buying Major League Baseball&rsquo;s Texas Rangers for $250 million. Hicks is expected to combine the Stars and Rangers with his television interests and possibly form a regional sports entertainment station&hellip;Left winger Benoit Hogue returned to the lineup after missing 12 games with a fractured ankle, but now left winger Greg Adams and center Joe Nieuwendyk are expected to be out until after the AllStar break with knee injuries&hellip;Center Guy Carbon-neau won the individual faceoff award for the month of December and also leads the NHL through the first three months with a 60.1 winning percentage. The Stars as a team lead the NHL at 54.4 percent&hellip;Left winger Patrick Cote had shoulder surgery and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. &#9632;

f0018-02

Zubov emerges as two-way force, should get Norris Trophy notice

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03733/7386599-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="159" height="159"></div>When the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup last season, Mike Knuble was a part of the team, but his role was more that of a spectator and practice player than a game participant. It was the same routine when the Stanley Cup rings were handed out.Knuble found motivation-albeit unnecessary additional inspiration-from the two events. The big right winger has translated that into a handful of impressive games this season, including getting a big goal in the 2-0 win Jan. 6 against the Phoenix Coyotes. That followed a strong game in Chicago Jan. 4, where Knuble, 25, got coach Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s attention with five big hits. It&rsquo;s a bit of a change for Knuble, who previously was assessed by his offensive output while at the University of Michigan and with Adirondack of the American League.&ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m being judged by things that don&rsquo;t necessarily show up on the score sheet,&rdquo; said Knuble, who is 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds.Knuble is also drawing attention from Wolverines coach and former NHLer Red Berenson.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always lecturing me now,&rdquo; Knuble said, chuckling. &ldquo;I saw him awhile ago and he lectured me on playing more physical. I&rsquo;m doing that now and now I don&rsquo;t hear from him.&rdquo;But now the ones Knuble wants to hear from are the members of the Detroit coaching staff. And what he likes to hear is that piece of information following the morning skate, telling him he&rsquo;ll be in the lineup.&ldquo;His mentality is that he wants to get better,&rdquo; said associate coach Barry Smith. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s had an adjustment to make. I&rsquo;m not saying that college hockey is bad hockey because it&rsquo;s not; it&rsquo;s just different. He&rsquo;s had to adjust and I think his game is really coming around now.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Unsigned free agent center Sergei Fedorov received his Stanley Cup ring Jan. 5 at Joe Louis Arena when GM Ken Holland presented it to him&hellip;Despite rumors Fedorov will be traded, Holland maintains there are no serious negotiations ongoing with any team, including the Wings. &lsquo;There&rsquo;s not much going on on either front,&rdquo; Holland said. One Red Wings source said the team would flat out not trade Fedorov this season and one report indicated coach Scotty Bowman feels Fedorov will play for Detroit this season&hellip;With a rash of injuries hitting the forward position, the Wings called up center Darryl Laplante from Adirondack Jan. 6. Left winger Martin Lapointe and right wingers Brendan Shanahan and Brent Gilchrist all had nagging groin/hamstring injuries. Shanahan was questionable for the Jan. 9 game at Dallas. so Laplante, who played in the Jan. 6 game against Phoenix, also made the hip south with the team. &ldquo;I felt somewhat comfortable out there,&rdquo; Laplante said. &#9632;

f0018-03

Knuble’s improved physical play hit with current, former coaches

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04470/7386630-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="162" height="160"></div>If the Edmonton Oilers were going to get Roman Hamrlik, Bryan Marchment had to go.If the Oilers were going to get pointed in the right direction, Jason Arnott had to go.And that was the story behind a tumultuous five days that saw GM Glen Sather move five players out and three players onto the roster in a major shakeup of a team heading into the dumper. He improved his power play with the additions of former Tampa Bay Lightning first overall pick Hamrlik and former New Jersey Devil Bill Guerin, obtained along with Valeri Zelepukin for Arnott and Bryan Muir.He grabbed Tony Hrkac off the waiver wire from Dallas to improve his depth at centre.There was instant on-ice chemistry between Guerin and Doug Weight in the Oilers&rsquo; come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers, the first game with all four new players on the ice.&ldquo;I totally think so,&rdquo; Weight said. &ldquo;I feel it was pretty evident. We had some good plays. A couple bounces off the pads there, he had some good tips, he could have had four goals. He&rsquo;s a gritty player. I know what type of player Billy is. Like I said. Rome wasn&rsquo;t built in a day. Give the guy a chance to learn the system. Once one goes in I think he&rsquo;ll feel real loose and start filling the net.&rdquo;Arnott, the price they paid to get Guerin, wasn&rsquo;t filling the net or feeling loose. He had just five goals as an Oiler this year and was feeling heat from the fans and media. He met with Sather a day before the trade.&ldquo;He said it was too much pressure to take,&rdquo; said Sather, who was forced to deal his 1993 first-rounder just five days after he moved 1994 first-rounder Jason Bonsignore and 1995 first-rounder Steve Kelly to Tampa in the Hamrlik trade.NOTEBOOK: Houston businessman Chuck Watson, whose bid for an NHL franchise was denied, has said he will loan an Edmonton ownership group $35 million (U.S.) in order to speed their bid to buy the Oilers. Watson said he hopes the NHL would look favorably on his group for future expansion franchises if he is instrumental in the sale of the Oilers from financially-troubled Peter Pocklington&hellip;With the arrival of right winger Bill Guerin, left winger Valeri Zelepukin and defenseman Roman Hamrlik, the Oilers now have eight players in the Olympics, second only to Colorado with nine&hellip;Center Doug Weight is the Oilers&rsquo; only representative at the All-Star Game in Vancouver. It&rsquo;s his second trip after going to Boston in 1996&hellip;Through their first 20 home games the Oilers averaged 16,202, which is 94.8 per cent of capacity&hellip;Right winger Scott Fraser&rsquo;s first two goals as an Oiler came against Montreal for whom he scored two goals in 14 games in his only other NHL stint. &#9632;

f0018-04

Sather moves five players in five-day spree

<div class="byline">By Michael Russo</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011288/7386661-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="162" height="160"></div>This was supposed to be Rob Niedermayer&rsquo;s breakout season. The Florida Panthers&rsquo; first-line center expected this to be the year he would start to earn a little leaguewide respect.Former coach Doug MacLean even went so far to say he&rsquo;d be flabbergasted if Niedermayer, the fifth overall pick in the 1993 NHL draft, wasn&rsquo;t selected to play in his first All-Star Game in Vancouver later this month.But with the halfway point of this season already in the past, Niedermayer is not preparing for his first All-Star Game. Instead, he&rsquo;s battling to regain the confidence he admits to losing during a difficult season full of injuries-a concussion in the season opener, a dislocated thumb in mid-November, and a bum knee since his return Dec. 20.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been tough, it&rsquo;s been frustrating,&rdquo; Niedermayer said. &ldquo;It hard to feel comfortable when you miss a month, you&rsquo;re back for a couple games, you miss another month or so and then you come back again.&rdquo;Niedermayer has managed to chalk up seven goals and 12 points in 19 games. His biggest goal came on New Year&rsquo;s Day when he scooped up a Ray Sheppard rebound and blasted it by New Jersey Devils&rsquo; rookie goalie Rich Shulmistra for a 2-1 overtime victory.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to win if Robbie doesn&rsquo;t play hard and if his line isn&rsquo;t a factor every night,&rdquo; said coach-GM Bryan Murray. &ldquo;Robbie is a very important player on this hockey team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Esa Tikkanen, who missed 26 games with a broken leg, returned to the lineup New Year&rsquo;s Day against the New Jersey Devils. He had an inconspicuous debut until he drew a penalty from Devils&rsquo; center Doug Gilmour in overtime. The Panthers converted on the power play when center Rob Niedermayer scored the winner in the extra session&hellip;Goalie Mark Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s starts have been limited. He had started once since mid-December and had only two wins dating back to December, 1996&hellip;Left winger Johan Garpenlov has recovered from his groin injury, but had not been able to get into the lineup. He hadn&rsquo;t played since Dec. 5. Left winger Ray Whit-ney scored two goals in his hometown of Edmonton in a 3-2 Florida loss Jan. 7. &#9632;

f0019-01

Star-crossed Niedermayer seeks other kind of break

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03633/7386692-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="578" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Yanic Perreault</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02945/7386699-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="162" height="158"></div>The Los Angeles Kings knew Yanic Perreault wasn&rsquo;t likely to maintain the torrid pace he set early in the season, when he scored 16 goals in the team&rsquo;s first 29 games and was a key reason the Kings&rsquo; offense was tops in the league.But they were beginning to wonder if the 27-year-old center would ever emerge from the funk that followed his fast start, a slump in which he scored only one goal in 13 games.They had reason to be optimistic Perreault&rsquo;s scoring woes-and their own-might be at an end when Perreault scored his first goal in more than a month in a 2-2 tie against the Buffalo Sabres Jan. 8. The goal was also Perreault&rsquo;s first power play goal of the season, and he felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders.&ldquo;I finally got one,&rdquo; he said, smiling. &ldquo;Usually you get some goals on the power play, but this year it has been a struggle for me.&rdquo;Coach Larry Robinson didn&rsquo;t give up on him, nor did Robinson break up his line with Vladimir Tsyplakov on the left and Glen Murray on the right, at least not for long. Robinson said he was confident Perreault would regain his offensive touch if he could stop pressing.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just been thinking too much,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;You get a goal scorer, and when he&rsquo;s not scoring, the first thing you think about is, &lsquo;How can I get a goal?&rsquo; and the rest of your game starts suffering. You&rsquo;ve got to go out and play hard and the other areas will come, not just scoring.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: GM Dave Taylor, responding to persistent rumors the Kings were interested in restricted free agent center Sergei Fedorov, said he had some discussions with Detroit, but was not near making a deal.&hellip;Formal groundbreaking for the Kings&rsquo; new downtown arena, to open in the fall of 1999, is scheduled to take place in mid-February. Preliminary work has begun on the site in the form of digging for utilities and sewers&hellip;The Kings&rsquo; Jan. 8 game against Buffalo at the Forum began a streak of nine consecutive games within California&hellip;Center Ian Laperriere missed four games after a hit left him with blurred vision. He was medically cleared to play, but coach Larry Robinson held him out an extra few days. &#9632;

f0019-03

Perreault finds power

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04483/7386730-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="162" height="157"></div>Everything seemed possible for Stephane Richer this season, especially after he scored a pair of goals in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; opening game.But more than three months later, the season has become a pain for Richer-a pain in his left ankle.The 31-year-old veteran right winger had played in only 12 of the Canadiens&rsquo; first 46 games, and none since Dec. 3, because of a sprained left ankle. He also missed an earlier stint because of a lacerated calf.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been with the guys all year, and I don&rsquo;t feel part of the team,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;On game day you come in at 6 p.m., but the players are all dressing and you don&rsquo;t want to bother anyone. And then, after the game&rsquo;s over, you might tell someone that they had a nice game, but you don&rsquo;t want to stay in the room. You&rsquo;re stuck in between.&rdquo;Richer has experienced numerous highs and lows over a career that&rsquo;s in its 13th year, including two 50-goal seasons and a pair of Stanley Cups. But he also was booed unmercifully by a pack of youngsters several years ago during a promotional practice.But this season has become nothing short of a nightmare for Richer, who has scored four goals and two assists. It hasn&rsquo;t helped that he&rsquo;s in the final year of his contract.&ldquo;I know one thing,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;This hasn&rsquo;t been the greatest year of my life. It has been tough. I live day-by-day and try to stay positive.&rdquo;Richer missed four games early this season due to his calf injury and two others in which he was a healthy scratch-the first time that has happened to him. He originally injured his ankle in November, missing nine games, returned for two, before reinjuring it at Los Angeles.&ldquo;I try to be happy if the team is going well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to take someone&rsquo;s spot and I don&rsquo;t wish anything bad on anyone, but I have to get back in the lineup and prove I&rsquo;m ready to play.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Just as center Saku Koivu had started to regain the speed and mastery that marks his game, a full year after suffering tom knee ligaments, he pulled a muscle in his ribs Jan. 7 against Boston. He scored two goals and four assists over a four-game span prior to the injury&hellip;Goaltender Jocelyn Thibault suffered a bruised right collarbone in the same game&hellip;Defenseman Jassen Cullimore no longer fits into the Canadiens&rsquo; plans. Management has sent a fax to every NHL team advising them Cullimore is available&hellip;Right winger Brian Savage became the first NHL player to record a four-goal game this season in an 8-2 win over the Islanders Jan. 8. He also added two assists. &#9632;

f0019-04

Richer looks for positives in bad year

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011180/7386761-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="162" height="160"></div>On his very first shift for the New Jersey Devils, Jason Arnott delivered two crunching hits. They were almost as jolting as the proclamation one day earlier by coach Jacques Lemaire the team would adjust to Arnott&rsquo;s style rather than the other way around.Whether Lemaire was simply building up the player the Devils acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in the Jan. 4 trade for Bill Guerin and Valeri Zelepukin, playing games with reporters or telling the truth, it was a statement that would certainly shock Guerin or fellow departed winger John MacLean.&ldquo;I just want to ask him a few questions on how he sees the game and how he wants to play it. We&rsquo;ll adjust,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to take his strength and make it weaker. Any player with talent, you always have to adjust to the player. I did that with Doug Gilmour and I did that with Dave Andreychuk.&rdquo;Despite a sore right shoulder Arnott claimed would probably bother him the remainder of this season, he immediately made points with his new teammates with his big hits and a chop on the hand of Darius Kasparaitis after the Pittsburgh Penguin defenseman&rsquo;s open-ice hit on Doug Gilmour.&ldquo;The trade is a relief and a letdown at the same time,&rdquo; Arnott said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited to have a fresh start and to come to New Jersey, where they are known to have a great team. I&rsquo;m also sad to be leaving a great bunch of guys and GM (Glen Sather).&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Randy McKay signed a four-year contract extension worth approximately $7.5 million rather than become an unrestricted free agent after this season&hellip;Larry Kelly, agent for center Doug Gilmour, met briefly with GM Lou Lamoriello Jan. 7, but no progress was made on a new deal&hellip;Defenseman Ken Daneyko, who spent nearly three months in an NHIJNHL Players&rsquo; Association substance abuse and behavioral health program at the Betty Ford Clinic in California, was skating on his own in secret early-morning sessions (5 am.) with strength and conditioning coach Mike Vasalani. Daneyko reported: &ldquo;I feel good. Real good. It won&rsquo;t be long. We&rsquo;re right on schedule.&rdquo; He was not expected back before the All-Star Game. &#9632;

f0020-01

Extra, extra! Lemaire says Arnott gets room to roam

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03568/7386792-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="572" height="889"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Lachance</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02818/7386799-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="159" height="156"></div>On the morning of Dec. 22, things looked pretty good for the New York Islanders. They were 15-15-5 and at.500, which is where most observers expected them to be in the third year of GM Mike Mil-bury&rsquo;s rebuilding program.A 4-1 home loss to the Ottawa Senators that night, however, started them into an nine-game nosedive in which they plummeted to next-to-last in the Eastern Conference standings.The skid, in which the Islanders were outscored 38-14, raised questions about Milbury&rsquo;s choice of players, Rick Bowness&rsquo; coaching and the character of the team. &bull;&ldquo;All of us have failed if we&rsquo;re on a losing streak like this,&rdquo; Milbury said.The Islanders&rsquo; offense was so impotent during the slump Milbury said he likely will be forced to weaken his defense to acquire a scoring forward.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t score one goal a game and win,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t let this thing go much longer. If this slide continues, we&rsquo;re going to have to make a deal. There&rsquo;s no choice.&rdquo;Club insiders say teams continue to ask in trade talks about Bryan Berard, Kenny Jonsson and Bryan McCabe, but Milbury wants to keep the young defensemen. Sources say Milbury has shopped defenseman Scott Lachance and center Travis Green, but that duo is not valuable enough to land a good scoring forward. Milbury was hampered by the club&rsquo;s pending sale from John Pickett to Steven Gluckstem, expected to be approved by the NHL Jan. 17.NOTEBOOK: Center Travis Green was injured Dec. 26 when he was crosschecked by New Jersey defenseman Lyle Odelein, but played the next five games with what was termed a hairline fracture of his left shoulder and did not divulge the injury&hellip; Defenseman Bryan McCabe broke a 55-game scoring drought with a goal in an 8-2 loss to Montreal Jan. 8&hellip;Defenseman Scott Lachance was a healthy scratch Jan. 2 in Dallas for the first time in almost three seasons&hellip; Right winger Ziggy Palffy was named to the World Team for the All-Star Game&hellip;The Isles&rsquo; power play was 2-for-39 during the losing streak&hellip;The Isles had interest in left winger Geoff Sanderson, center Jason Arnott and right winger Bill Guerin before they changed teams. &#9632;

f0020-03

Puny offense behind slump

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04368/7386830-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="159" height="156"></div>Dan Cloutier didn&rsquo;t have time to think or worry about his first NHL appearance.The New York Rangers&rsquo; rookie goalie was summoned from the bench just 6:20 into a Jan. 3 game against the Washington Capitals when starter Mike Richter allowed two goals on four shots.Cloutier responded, stopping a 2-on-1 shot by Peter Bondra and all 16 shots he faced as the Rangers came back from that 2-0 deficit to win 3-2.A game later, Cloutier made his first NHL start and Madison Square Garden debut in a 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, which he punctuated with a breakaway save on Keith Primeau, at the time preserving a 2-0 lead.So Cloutier, 21, was 2-0-0 in his first two NHL outings.&ldquo;Colie (coach Campbell) came over and gave me a tap,&rdquo; Cloutier said after his debut in Washington. &ldquo;I was very excited and really nervous at the same time. I didn&rsquo;t know what to expect. I&rsquo;ve worked for this my whole life and it will be a night I always remember. Hopefully it won&rsquo;t stop here, it will keep going.&rdquo;The Garden experience was even more of a thrill, he said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve won a couple of championships,&rdquo; Cloutier said. &ldquo;In &lsquo;93 we won the Memorial Cup (with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario League) and I&rsquo;ve won the World Junior Championship (with Canada), but nothing compares to this.&rdquo;The record was impressive enough, but what was equally crucial to the Rangers was Richter was able to get a little rest from the pressure of playing in one-goal games every night.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what Mike Richter needs.&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t had the opportunity to work on his game all year long (in practice) and in this schedule it&rsquo;s difficult to get a hold of yourself. This game is 75 per cent goaltending and we ask him to stand on his head every night and win one for us.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With Jeff Beukeboom (broken ankle) already out, the Rangers lost another rugged defenseman when Ulf Samuelsson suffered a sprain in the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Samuelsson, who had taken Beukeboom&rsquo;s spot paired with Brian Leetch, was expected to be out of the lineup until late January&hellip; Leetch had made a strong comeback from an awful start to the season, but when he was burned for two goals in Washington Jan. 3, both he and goalie Mike Richter ended up on the bench. Leetch sat for 11 minutes. He came back the next game with a superb outing and scored two goals&hellip;Center Wayne Gretzky was chosen to play in his 17th All-Star Game. &#9632;

f0020-04

Ranger debut show-stopper for Cloutier

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01940/7386861-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="161" height="162"></div>Alexandre Daigle is in the Ottawa Senators doghouse. He may not stay there for long.With trade rumors swirling around the Senators right winger, Daigle, 22, was a healthy scratch Jan. 5 against the Carolina Hurricanes in Greensboro. He returned to the lineup in Dallas two days later, but the talk will not go away.Tired of Daigle&rsquo;s inconsistency, the Senators are shopping him around again. Calgary Flames&rsquo; GM Al Coates confirmed his club was one of several teams-including the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning-which held talks with Ottawa GM Pierre Gauthier.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy here,&rdquo; said Daigle. &ldquo;Last year, I had a good year. This year, it&rsquo;s just not happening for me. I have to get back to playing the game I can play.&ldquo;This team has been good to me. I&rsquo;ve never had any complaints about the city. I don&rsquo;t think that playing for another team would help me play better. I&rsquo;ve never felt that way. You&rsquo;ve got to make the best of the situation you&rsquo;re in.&rdquo;The situation hasn&rsquo;t been great for Daigle. The Senators have tried him on every line. The result has been seven goals in 34 games. Last season, he had 26 goals and 51 points in 82 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to pay the price by working hard,&rdquo; said coach Jacques Martin.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been more than patient with him. He doesn&rsquo;t only have responsibility to the coaching staff, he&rsquo;s got a responsibility to his teammates to work hard.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Winger Daniel Alfredsson, originally scheduled to be out six-to-eight weeks when he broke his right fibula Dec. 11 against St. Louis, was scheduled to return to the lineup Jan. 9 in Colorado. Named to play for the World Team in the Jan. 18 NHL all-star game along with defenseman Igor Kravchuk, Alfredsson made a speedy recovery. He skated alone at the Corel Centre for four days before rejoining the team&hellip;Struggling to stay in the lineup, right winger Dennis Vial believes he has to start fighting more. He hadn&rsquo;t fought since a Dec. 23 game against the Montreal Canadiens. &ldquo;I have to fight and I have to be involved,&rdquo; Vial said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m the first to admit that I haven&rsquo;t been playing well and I haven&rsquo;t been fighting enough.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-01

Daigle’s daze could mean days as Sen soon to end

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03332/7386892-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="577" height="897"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vaclav Prospal</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02555/7386899-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="162" height="159"></div>The injury was painful enough, but the timing of the broken left fibula bone suffered by Philadelphia Flyers rookie Vaclav Prospal made it hurt even more.Prospal. who had the bone fractured in a collision with Senators defenseman Lance Pitlick in Ottawa Jan. 3, not only will be sidelined from the Flyers&rsquo; lineup for a significant amount of time, he&rsquo;s also likely to miss a chance to play for his native Czech Republic in next month&rsquo;s Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan.It&rsquo;s the second time in eight months the 22-year-old forward has suffered this type of injury.Last April 30, Prospal was skating along innocently in practice when he was slashed by a teammate and suffered a broken bone in his left wrist. He missed the rest of the playoffs.Now he won&rsquo;t be able to play in the first Olympics involving NHL players.&ldquo;I was thinking I had a great chance to go to Japan and now I&rsquo;m not going to go,&rdquo; said Prospal, his voice cracking.&ldquo;This is even worse than it was last year in the playoffs. That&rsquo;s the way it is sometimes, but it&rsquo;s the second time.&rdquo;Prospal underwent surgery Jan. 5. He&rsquo;s expected to be sidelined six to eight weeks. Doctors inserted surgical screws into the bone on the outside of the ankle instead of using a cast to help speed the rehabilitation process.Prospal had five goals and 18 points at the time of the injury.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big loss to us,&rdquo; said coach Wayne Cashman. &ldquo;We were very happy with the way he was playing.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Center Chris Gratton finally got untracked offensively during the first five games of a seven-game road trip. He scored three goals and six assists, including multiple-point games against Ottawa and Carolina. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s starting to look more comfortable,&rdquo; said coach Wayne Cashman. &ldquo;It looks like he&rsquo;s finding his niche with this team.&rdquo;&hellip;Although this year&rsquo;s All-Star Game format makes the selection process much tougher for North American players, several Flyers expressed disappointment that defenseman Eric Desjardins was not named to the team. According to people in the organization, Desjardins is enjoying his best season since joining the Flyers even though his offensive production is a bit down. &#9632;

f0021-03

Twice bitten for Prospal

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04239/7386930-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="161" height="159"></div>In 12 days, Chad Kilger went from a highly touted prospect to a highly-publicized pouter whose future with the Phoenix Coyotes now seems uncertain at best.It started Dec. 27, when Kilger, the fourth player picked in the 1995 NHL draft, refused his assignment to Springfield of the American League after being a healthy scratch in six of 12 games with the Coyotes.Instead, he returned to his home in Ottawa and stewed. After a few days, Kilger demanded a trade through his agent, Larry Kelly, and his father, Bob, a former NHL referee.After spending the past 1-1/2 seasons in the minors and being thrust into the NHL right away as a 19-year-old by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Kilger feels he is more than ready for full-time NHL duty. With a surplus of centers in Phoenix, he doesn&rsquo;t think he will get that chance with the Coyotes anytime soon.But one day after being suspended indefinitely by GM Bobby Smith. Kilger relented after a face-to-face meeting in Ottawa with Smith and agreed to return to Springfield.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a great decision,&rdquo; said Coyotes&rsquo; coach Jim Schoenfeld. &ldquo;As I&rsquo;ve said before, he&rsquo;s a young guy and young guys are impulsive sometimes. Things don&rsquo;t always work out in their time frame. But I think once he got away from it, he was able to sit back and take a more realistic look at the situation.&rdquo;Smith said Kilger remains an important part of the organization, but admits several teams have contacted the club about acquiring him-and he is listening.&ldquo;He went there with the understanding if someone offers me a trade for Chad, or for a number of other players that can improve our team and our organization, it&rsquo;s my job to make it,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But Chad is going there to work on his end of being an important part of the Phoenix Coyotes, not just to play better in hopes for a trade.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Coyotes rid themselves of an eight-game winless streak (04-4) by going on a five-game winning streak, their longest since 1993. It ended with back-to-back losses to Detroit and Boston, in which they were outscored 7-2&hellip;Phoenix players are upset defenseman Teppo Numminen, the team&rsquo;s best defenseman. wasn&rsquo;t selected as a reserve for the World All-Star team in Vancouver. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s unbelievable,&rdquo; said center Jeremy Roenick. Left winger Keith Tkachuk added, &ldquo;Absolutely, positively, he should be there.&rdquo; In the opinion of coach Jim Schoenfeld, Numminen tends to get overlooked because he isn&rsquo;t flashy. &ldquo;He does things so well that it goes unnoticed half the time,&rdquo; Schoenfeld said. &#9632;

f0021-04

Kilger still a Coyote, but for how long?

<div class="byline">By Mike Dudurich</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011061/7386961-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="159" height="161"></div>If someone were to tell you the Penguins were trotting out some of the NHL&rsquo;s best goaltending every night, first you&rsquo;d probably be shocked, then you&rsquo;d think Tom Barrasso had reverted to Stanley Cup-winning form.And he has, winning 17 of his first 31 games and keeping his goals-against average right around 2.00.Even more shocking, however, has been the emergence of 24-year-old rookie goaltender Peter Skudra. who definitely has made the most of an injury. When Ken Wregget went down with a herniated disc problem in his back Nov. 5, the Penguins had no choice but to recall Skudra from Houston Aeros of the International League.That&rsquo;s a pretty big jump for a guy who was 8-16-2 with a 3.75 goals-against average for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American League last year.The jump became even bigger Nov. 7 when he made his first NHL start in Detroit against the defending Stanley Cup champions. He did himself proud that night, shutting the Red Wings out for 59 minutes before allowing a goal that resulted in a 1-1 tie.&ldquo;I want the guys to have confidence in me,&rdquo; Skudra said. &ldquo;Tommy wins a lot of games for the team. I want to win a few, too. I&rsquo;ve been playing the way I do for a long time. I don&rsquo;t think I need to change that. If it works, it works. I don&rsquo;t think it matters how you stop the puck, as long as you stop it. Nobody has tried to change my style.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: As the stalemate between free agent holdout center Petr Nedved and the Penguins dragged into the second half of the season, Nedved&rsquo;s agent, Tony Kondel, said he has begun fielding offers from European teams interested in signing the Czech. NHL Players Association spokesman Rick Winston said the union is investigating a ruling that would effectively prevent Nedved from playing in the league this season. Nedved played four games with Novy Jicin. a low-level team in the Czech Republic and that would seem to prevent him from returning to the NHL this year without clearing waivers&hellip;Left winger Alex Hicks returned to the lineup Jan. 6 against the New York Islanders after missing 13 games with a broken foot. &#9632;

f0022-01

Skudra takes advantage of chance to play in NHL

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03535/7386992-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="571" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02747/7386999-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="159" height="156"></div>St. Louis Blues&rsquo; GM Larry Pleau called a summit with Brett Hull to discuss the timing of Hull&rsquo;s remarks to Chicago broadcasters before the Blues played the Blackhawks at Kiel Center last month.In the interview Dec. 26, Hull said he was &ldquo;almost 100 per cent certain&rdquo; he wouldn&rsquo;t be back with the Blues because he didn&rsquo;t think the Blues were serious about signing him. Hull intimated a desire to play next season in Chicago, where his father Bobby starred.It&rsquo;s nothing he hasn&rsquo;t said before, but the timing-a half-hour before a game against the Blackhawks-raised the eyebrows of Blues&rsquo; execs, prompting Pleau&rsquo;s Jan. 8 summit.&ldquo;The only reason I brought it up was the timing of the interview, right before a game,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;He has said things like this before&hellip;but I felt the timing was a little bit tough.&rdquo;Hull agreed.&ldquo;Larry had it right&hellip;it was more the timing of it than anything else,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everybody knows I don&rsquo;t want to go anywhere, and that&rsquo;s gotten to the point with me where I don&rsquo;t feel I have to say that anymore because everyone knows it. But (in the interview), I didn&rsquo;t put that condition on it, which I should have.&rdquo;Hull declined to discuss specifics of his discussion with Pleau. but he reiterated that although he&rsquo;d accept a three-year deal, he isn&rsquo;t interested &ldquo;in taking a paycut.&rdquo; Hull earns $4.2 million in base salary this season, with another $500,000 in the form of a deferred signing bonus.NOTEBOOK: For the third year in a row, the Blues have had a &ldquo;capital call.&rdquo; Clark Enterprises, Inc., the Blues&rsquo; owners, will pump $20 million in the combined Blues/Kiel Center entity to cover the debt service on the $135 million Kiel Center and to help fund $ 18.9 million in unfunded contract deferments and buyouts. This comes on top of the $16.6 million cash call in 1996 and a $16-million bailout last season. President Mark Sauer said the annual debt service on Kiel&rsquo;s $90-million mortgage is $7 million to $9 million. The Blues also owe $18.9 million to players in contract deferments and buyouts. with more than half-$9.6 million-going to 14 departed players, including 13 who were acquired, resigned, bought out or traded by former coach-GM Mike Keenan. &#9632;

f0022-03

Hull’s timing hits misfire

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01959/7387061-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="163" height="160"></div>It is an opportunity.But it&rsquo;s also a case of both on-the-job training and trial-byfire for Derek Wilkinson and Zac Bierk, two rookie goalies playing while Tampa Bay Lightning regulars Daren Puppa (back spasms) and Corey Schwab (sprained ankle) nurse injuries expected to keep them out until after the All-Star Game.Bierk, who made his NHL debut in relief of Wilkinson in a 4-1 loss to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Jan. 3, played last season for the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario League. The 21-year-old was scheduled to make his first NHL start Jan. 9 at New Jersey.Wilkinson, 23, came up from Cleveland of the International League to play in five straight games. He beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 Dec. 29 in his first NHL start of the season, relieved an injured Schwab in a 2-0 victory over the New York Rangers New Year&rsquo;s Eve, then started three straight.But Wilkinson, who had surgery in September to repair a partially tom patella tendon and clean out bone chips in his right knee, did not finish his last two starts. &ldquo;I probably tried to play when I shouldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was too much too soon.&rdquo;Wilkinson left the Anaheim game early, then was pulled after allowing three second-period goals in a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Jan. 7.Wilkinson and Bierk are both trying to show there is a place for them in the Lightning&rsquo;s future. It is an arduous process for two youngsters who are the last line of defense on the NHL&rsquo;s lastplace and lowest-scoring team.&ldquo;This is a great opportunity,&rdquo; said Bierk, called up from the Adirondack Red Wings of the American League. &ldquo;But anytime you lose a game-even if it is the NHL-you&rsquo;re upset.&rdquo;Bierk&rsquo;s NHL debut came on rather short notice against Anaheim.&ldquo;After warmups the guys came up to me and said, &lsquo;Be ready.&rsquo; From that point on, I didn&rsquo;t relax,&rdquo; Bierk said. &ldquo;The one piece of advice I gave myself was to not look at who the shooter was, because if I knew it was (Paul) Kariya or (Teemu) Selanne I might have played it differently.&rdquo;Against Toronto and Mats Sundin, the schooling continued: &ldquo;I felt pretty good out there, but these shooters will teach you lessons pretty quickly,&rdquo; Bierk said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m learning.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The for-sale Lightning has lost about $56-million over the past three years and is poised to lose about $16-million this fiscal year, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times. The Times also reported the team considered filing for bankruptcy in 1994&hellip;The Lightning is one of six teams without an all-star representative. Said GM Phil Esposito: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t give a crap about the All-Star Game, to tell you the truth&hellip;until next year.&rdquo; Tampa Bay hosts the 1999 AllStar Game&hellip;Goalie Corey Schwab and defensemen Jeff Norton and Yves Racine sprained ankles Jan. 6 after catching their skates in ruts in the Ice Palace. &ldquo;I think we have the worst ice in the league,&rdquo; said right winger Mikael Renberg. &ldquo;Something has to be done.&rdquo; The ice was shaved the next day. &#9632;

f0023-01

Young goalies get their chance

<div class="byline">By Paul Hunter</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02634/7387092-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="162" height="159"></div>The Toronto Maple Leafs hope they found a savior for their woeful power play sitting in Carolina&rsquo;s press box.Toronto acquired defenseman Jeff Brown, long acknowledged as a savvy point man, Jan. 2 from the Hurricanes in exchange for a fourth round draft pick in 1999.There&rsquo;s no doubting Brown&rsquo;s offensive skills&mdash;he had a career high 78 points with St. Louis five seasons ago. The only lingering question is whether the former &lsquo;Cane is able.Brown, 31, underwent major back surgery after just one game last season. He had a disc removed from his lower back. Surgeons then strengthened the vertebrae with transplanted bone matter, fused the spine together and secured the area with wire and screws.Despite the ordeal, Brown dismissed concerns about his back.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so strong back there, you could take a sledgehammer to it and it won&rsquo;t break,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to be a problem.&rdquo;The Leafs scouted Brown since training camp, expecting he&rsquo;d be available because of his contract status-he will be an unrestricted free agent after earning $2.1 million (U.S.) this season-and the fact the Hurricanes have a glut of defensemen. Brown was a healthy scratch his last two games in Carolina.Toronto coach Mike Murphy was ecstatic about picking up a defenseman as skilled as Brown without losing anyone off his roster. The frustrated coach made a public plea for management to deliver him a point man in the midst of watching his power play unit go a laughable 0-for-51 in December.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to make our power play better, that&rsquo;s the bottom line,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if we could have got a better guy. I&rsquo;m really excited about him.&rdquo;Brown certainly understands why he was acquired.&ldquo;I heard about the O-for-December,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t make it any worse, I guess.&rdquo;The newcomer, in fact, paid immediate dividends for the Leafs. In his first three games, Brown picked up a goal and an assist, both those points coming while Toronto enjoyed a man advantage. Toronto&rsquo;s bolstered power play unit, playing with more confidence, went 4-for-12 in those games.NOTEBOOK: The Leafs lost rookie center Alyn McCauley for approximately six weeks when he cracked the fibula in his left ankle during a New Year&rsquo;s Eve game against Boston&hellip;Toronto recalled veteran center Jamie Baker from the Chicago Wolves of the International League&hellip;Left winger Derek King, highly touted when he was signed as a free agent last summer, is finally starting to pay dividends. He had a goal in Toronto&rsquo;s first four games to start 1998&hellip;Defenseman Mathieu Schneider suffered a bruised shoulder when slammed cleanly into the boards by Washington defenseman Ken Klee Jan. 6. He sat out Toronto&rsquo;s next game at Tampa Bay&hellip;Left winger Igor Korolev missed that same game with back spasms. &#9632;

f0023-02

Leafs hope Brown saves day

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editorin-Chief</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011034/7387123-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="358" height="468"></div>TORONTO-Wayne Gretzky has triumphed in the closest race of his career to earn the ultimate designation: No. 1 NHL player of all-time.Gretzky, who has won 10 NHL scoring titles, never by fewer than 10 points and once by 79, narrowly out-polled Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Bobby Orr and Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; right winger Gordie Howe in voting by The Hockey News Top 50 Selection Committee.No. 99, a hockey icon, has fashioned an unparalleled career with the Edmonton Oilers. Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and his current club, the New York Rangers.Fifty voters chosen by The Hockey News to determine the top 50 players in NHL history acknowledged that circumstance by making Gretzky the No. 1 choice. He collected 2,726 voting points, 13 more than runner-up Orr (2,713) and 45 more than Howe (2,681). Both Gretzky and Orr had 18 first-place votes. Gretzky earned No. status on the strength of secondary support. He had 50 per-cent more second-place votes than Orr (18-12), the point equivalent of two first-place votes. Howe received 11 first-place votes and 14 seconds. Fewer than two per cent in voting points separated all three.The results speak eloquently about the respect accorded the three players. Gretzky, the smartest player in the history of the game. Orr, the most dynamic three zone player, and Howe, the ultimate symbol of enduring excellence, represent the holy trinity of hockey greats.Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; center Mario Lemieux was a close fourth (2,308), joining the trio as separate and distinct from the pack. Lemieux reached single season statistical heights exceeded only by Gretzky. Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; legendary right winger Maurice (Rocket) Richard collected 2,142 points to complete the top five players of all-time.The Top 50 project was undertaken to mark The Hockey News&rsquo; 50th anniversary. Voting was conducted prior to the 1997 NHL playoffs. The selection committee was comprised of ex-NHL players, plus current and past coaches, GMs, league executives, journalists and hockey historians. All eras and aspects of NHL history were represented. Voters were asked to slot players, regardless of position or era, from No. I through No. 50.There is wonderful symmetry to the final list. Longtime partners Gretzky and Jari Kurri bookend the top 50 with Gretzky at No. 1 and the Finnish right winger No. 50. Stories on all 50 players appear in a special magazine produced by The Hockey News, The Top 50 NHL Players of All-Time: The Definitive List. Writer Jack Falla, whose story on Gretzky appears in the magazine, best sums up the length and breadth of Gretzky&rsquo;s 19-year NHL career. &ldquo;If Gretzky were a mountain range.&rdquo; Falla writes, &ldquo;he would not only be as high as the-Himalayas, he would be as long as the Rockies.&rdquo;Orr was a gracious second-place finisher and said, out of respect for Howe, &ldquo;If I can&rsquo;t be No. 1, can you make me No. 3?&rdquo; Orr is the only defenseman ever to win a scoring championship-he did it twice-and revolutionized the game. Defensemen were freed from the I shackles of the blueline after his emergence in 1966. Orr recorded six straight 100-point seasons, a mark shared by five others and exceeded only by Gretzky (13).Howe, whose career spanned an amazing five decades, earned the nickname &lsquo;Mr. Hockey&rsquo; and berths I on a record 21 all-star teams. The THN vote firmly establishes him as the league&rsquo;s best player from the pre-expansion era. He won six scoring championships and six MVP awards, totals eclipsed only by Gretzky, who completed a quadruple jump past Howe this season with the 1,851 st assist of his career, one more than Howe had total points. Gretzky previously passed Howe in career goals, assists and points.The closeness of the vote brings into sharp focus a long simmering Gretzky-Orr debate. With the utmost respect for Orr, step back for a moment from the entirety of Gretzky&rsquo;s career and compare the two leg ends over a similar time frame. Orr played nine full seasons with the Bruins before knee problems did what no team could-stop him in his tracks. Gretzky played precisely the same number of seasons with the Oilers before the trade of the century sent him to Los Angeles.Compare their achievements over the same period, a level playing field because those seasons covered ages 18 to 27 for both, and the similarities are striking. Each defied the laws of statistical gravity. Gretzky won 17 major individual awards, Orr, 15; both were on nine all-star teams; and both won two Conn Smythe Trophies. Gretzky won two more Stanley Cups (4-2), but the greatest difference is in M&rsquo; &lsquo;D honors. Gretzky won eight and Orr envied three. Gretzky added a ninth in his 10th season to &ldquo;plete the most dominating individual run in North American major pro sports history.Howe won six Hart Trophies as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar did the same in the National Basketball Association. Nobody but Gretzky has won his sport&rsquo;s top award nine times. It stands as a monument to Gretzky&rsquo;s career and a reminder to those who have witnessed a natural decline in productivity that, no matter how overwhelming today&rsquo;s career numbers are, the single season numbers from the first half of Gretzky&rsquo;s career surpass them.Among them are most goals (92), assists (163) and points (215) in a season. Those and a host of others will be chased-but likely never caught-for generations to come. &ldquo;These records aren&rsquo;t going to be broken,&rdquo; said Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM-president Glen Sather. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re just too awesome.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-01

The Great one’ Stands Tall

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03475/7387154-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="407" height="412"></div>PLAYERS ARE LISTED WITH THE TEAM WITH WHICH THEY ACHIEVED THE MOST PROMINENCE1. WAYNE GRETZKY CEDMONTON OILERS2. BOBBY ORR DBOSTON BRUINS3. GORDIE HOWE RWDETROIT RED WINGS4. MARIO LEMIEUX CPITTSBURGH PENGUINS5. MAURICE RICHARD RWMONTREAL CANADIENS6. DOUG HARVEY DMONTREAL CANADIENS7. JEAN BELIVEAU CMONTREAL CANADIENS8. BOBBY HULL LWCHICAGO BLACKHAWKS9. TERRY SAWCHUK GDETROIT REO WINGS10. EDDIE SHORE DBOSTON BRUINS11. GUY LAFLEUR RWMONTREAL CANADIENS12. MARK MESSIER CEDMONTON OILERS13. JACQUES PLANTE GMONTREAL CANADIENS14. RAY BOURQUE DBOSTON BRUINS15. HOWIE MORENZ CMONTREAL CANADIENS16. GLENN HALL GCHICAGO BLACKHAWKS17. STAN MIKITA CCHICAGO BLACKHAWKS18. PHIL ESPOSITO CBOSTON BRUINS19. DENIS POTVIN DNEW YORK ISLANDERS20. MIKE BOSSY RWNEW YORK ISLANDERS21. TED LINDSAY LWDETROIT RED WINGS22. RED KELLY DDETROIT RED WINGS23. BOBBY CLARKE CPHILADELPHIA FLYERS24. LARRY ROBINSON DMONTREAL CANADIENS25. KEN DRYDEN GMONTREAL CANADIENS26. FRANK MAHOVUCH LWTORONTO MAPLE LEAFS27. MILT SCHMIDT CBOSTON BRUINS28. PAUL COFFEY DEDMONTON OILERS29. HENRI RICHARD CMONTREAL CANADIENS30. BRYAN TROTTIER CNEW YORK ISLANDERS31. DICKIE MOORE LWMONTREAL CANADIENS32. NEWSY LALONDE CMONTREAL CANADIENS33. SYL APPS CTORONTO MAPLE LEAFS34. BILL DURNAN GMONTREAL CANADIENS35. PATRICK ROY GMONTREAL CANADIENS36. CHARLIE CONACHER RWTORONTO MAPLE LEAFS37. JAROMIR JAGR RWPITTSBURGH PENGUINS38. MARCEL DIONNE CLOS ANGELES KINGS39. JOE MALONE CMONTREAL CANADIENS40. CHRIS CHEUOS DCHICAGO BLACKHAWKS41. DIT CLAPPER DBOSTON BRUINS42. BERNIE GEOFFRION RWMONTREAL CANADIENS43. TIM HORTON DTORONTO MAPLE LEAFS44. BILL COOK RWNEW YORK RANGERS45. JOHNNY BUCYK LWBOSTON BRUINS46. GEORGE HAINSWORTH GMONTREAL CANADIENS47. GILBERT PERREAULT CBUFFALO SABRES48. MAX BENTLEY CCHICAGO BLACKHAWKS49. BRAD PARK DNEW YORK RANGERS50. JARI KURRI RWEDMONTON OlLERS &#9632;

f0024-03

TOP 50 PLAYERS

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02711/7387199-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky: THN&rsquo;s No. 1 player in NHL history(Gretzky by Bruce Bennett Studos, Orr by London Ltfe-Portnoy/HHOF: Howe by Graphic Artsts/HHOF)</figcaption></div>NEW YORK-As she watched her husband flip through the The Hockey News Top 50 Players of AllTime: The Definitive List, Janet Jones-Gretzky could see that special gleam in his eyes.&ldquo;I was watching him look at the book and I could see the excitement in his eyes,&rdquo; Jones-Gretzky said. &ldquo;He really was honored to be in that kind of company. What&rsquo;s nice about him is he never takes things like this for granted. He doesn&rsquo;t like to put himself on a pedestal.&rdquo;But that&rsquo;s exactly where Wayne Gretzky was Jan. 9. While the greatest basketball player of all-time, Michael Jordan, was shooting hoops at one end of Madison Square Garden, the greatest hockey player of all-time. Wayne Gretzky, was telling a packed news conference he was &ldquo;a little embarrassed,&rdquo; about the attention focused on him after being named the No. 1 player in NHL history.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely honored and I don&rsquo;t have the words to describe how good I feel about it,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I still haven&rsquo;t come to grips with.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01930/7387192-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="443" height="665"><figcaption class="caption-body">No. 2: Bobby Orr</figcaption></div>Gretzky said if he were on the Top 50 Selection Committee, he would have voted for Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr. Most of our voters agreed since Orr was ranked No. 2 and Howe No. 3 in a photo finish. There was fewer than two per cent voting points separating the top three players.&ldquo;This is great, I&rsquo;m in the money,&rdquo; Howe said at a packed news conference at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto later in the day. &ldquo;Win, place and show. When this came out, I said, &lsquo;I know exactly how this is going to end up,&rsquo; and I called the top three right on. Maybe I should be a scout.&rdquo;If he were one, Howe could search the world over and probably never come up with a talent like the native of Parry Sound, Ont., who occupies No. 2 on the list. Former Philadelphia Flyer great Bobby Clarke (who incidentally occupies No. 23 on the list) defined Orr&rsquo;s dominance when he said, &ldquo;In many ways, Orr was actually too good for the rest of us in the NHL.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02604/7387185-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="443" height="664"><figcaption class="caption-body">No. 3: Gordie Howe</figcaption></div>Don Cherry couldn&rsquo;t agree more, the former Boston Bruins&rsquo; coach who was on our Top 50 Selection Committee, made no secret about his choice. While giving Gretzky his due, Cherry was shocked more people didn&rsquo;t agree with his choice of No. 4 as No. 1.&ldquo;When I look at a hockey player, and I mean a complete hockey player, I look at a guy who can score goals, make plays, block shots, hit, and-God forbid I know this is going in The Hockey News-fight,&rdquo; Cherry said. &ldquo;And Bobby Orr was the most complete player I&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo;Hockey historian Bob Duff chose Mr. Hockey No. 1 for much the same reason.&ldquo;What impresses me the most about Howe is he could play the game any way you wanted it,&rdquo; Duff said. &ldquo;If you wanted toughness he could provide it, you wanted goals and he could score and if you wanted him to check, he could do that, too. And he did it for the better part of a quarter century.&ldquo;And of all the statistics he had, the one that is the most impressive is at the age of 51, he scored 15 goals in the NHL. A lot of guys in the NHL won&rsquo;t score 15 goals this year.&rdquo;Former New Jersey Devils&rsquo; GM Max McNab said Howe may have reached greater statistical heights, but after breaking Rocket Richard&rsquo;s record of 544 goals, had little left to prove.&ldquo;Gordie didn&rsquo;t have that rabbit to chase,&rdquo; McNab said. &ldquo;He was the leader and another assist didn&rsquo;t really matter.&rdquo;It can be argued that no one will ever reach Gretzky&rsquo;s statistical heights, though. Consider that Gretzky would have won three scoring championships and tied for a fourth strictly on the basis of assists. The fact that he would be the all-time leading scorer in NHL history even if he hadn&rsquo;t scored a single goal is mind-boggling.Gretzky has recorded four 200-point seasons where no other player has hit 200 once. He had nine straight 100-point years and added four more for a total of 13. Then there&rsquo;s 50 goals in 39 games, 92 goals, 215 points, 874 career goals&hellip;&ldquo;Scotty Bowman used to say that when everyone was hitting.300. he was hitting.450,&rdquo; said Top 50 Selection Committee member John Davidson. &ldquo;You forget about the greatness of him until you sit down and study the NHL record book. When you do, it&rsquo;s scary.&rdquo;Gretzky talks of reaching 3,000 points-he had 2,747 as of Jan. 9-but won&rsquo;t stay in the game just to chase the milestone. He will stay as long as he&rsquo;s enjoying it. And he&rsquo;s doing that, thanks in part to his seven-year-old son, Ty.&ldquo;I get a real kick out of looking up in the stands and seeing him there,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of like when you&rsquo;re a kid and after you score you look to see if your dad is up there.&rdquo;As far as the No. 1 ranking is concerned, Gretzky is thrilled he is held in such high esteem, &ldquo;but the difference between that and winning the Stanley Cup is this is an opinion and that is a fact.&rdquo;With all due respect Wayne Gretzky, this is a fact, too. You are the No. 1 player of all-time.VOTERS ARE LISTED BY POSITION AND TEAM/MEDIA OUTLET/ORGANIZA-TION WITH WHICH THEY HAVE ACHIEVED THE MOST PROMINENCE. ALL VOTERS STILL ACTIVE ARE LISTED IN THEIR CURRENT OCCUPATIONS AND INDICATED WITH ASTERISKS.KEITH ALLEN GENERAL MANAGERPHILADELPHIA FLYERSKEVIN ALLEN WRITER*USA TODAYAL ARBOUR COACHNEW YORK ISLANDERSSCOTTY BOWMAN COACH*DETROIT RED WINGSBRIAN BURKE VICE-PRESIDENT*NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUEKEN CAMPBELL SENIOR EDITOR*THE HOCKEY NEWSRON CARON SENIOR ADVISOR*ST. LOUIS BLUESDON CHERRY BROADCASTER*HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADAJOHN DAVIDSON BROADCASTER*MSG NETWORKSTEVE DRYDEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF*THE HOCKEY NEWSBOB DUFF WRITER-HISTORIAN*WINDSOR STARERIC DUHATSCHEK WRITER*THE HOCKEY NEWSMILT DUNNELL WRITERTORONTO STARMIKE EMRICK BROADCASTERSPORTSCHANNELJACK FALLA WRITER*THE HOCKEY NEWSSTAN FISCHLER COLUMNIST*THE HOCKEY NEWSBILL FITSELL HISTORIAN&rsquo;KINGSTON, ONT.ERNIE FITZSIMMONS HISTORIAN*FREDERICTON, N.B.EMILE FRANCIS GENERAL MANAGERNEW YORK RANGERSTONY GALLAGHER WRITER*VANCOUVER PROVINCEJIM GREGORY VICE-PRESIDENT*NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUECHARLIE HALPIN EDITORTHE HOCKEY NEWSHARRY HOWELL PLAYERNEW YORK RANGERSDICK IRVIN BROADCASTER*HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADAJIM KELLEY WRITER*BUFFALO NEWSCLAUDE LAROCHELLE WRITER*LE SOLEIL DE QUEBECJIM MATHESON WRITER*EDMONTON JOURNALBRIAN MCFARLANE HISTORIAN*TORONTOBOB MCKENZIE ASSOCIATE EDITOR*THE HOCKEY NEWSKEN MCKENZIE CO-FOUNDERTHE HOCKEY NEWSMAX MCNAB GENERAL MANAGERWASHINGTON CAPITALSHOWIE MEEKER PLAYER-COACHTORONTO MAPLE LEAFSSCOTTY MORRISON CHAIRMAN*HOCKEY HALL OF FAMEHARRY NEALE BROADCASTER*HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADAROGER NEILSON ASSOCIATE COACH*ST. LOUIS BLUESBRIAN O&rsquo;NEILL VICE-PRESIDENTFREDERICTON N.B.FRANK ORR WRITER*TORONTO STARYVON PEDNEAULT WRITER*JOURNAL DE MONTREALBUD POILE GENERAL MANAGERVANCOUVER CANUCKSSAM POLLOCK GENERAL MANAGERMONTREAL CANADIENSMARCEL PRONOVOST PLAYERDETROIT RED WINGSBILLY REAY PLAYER-COACHCHICAGO BLACKHAWKSFRAN ROSA WRITERBOSTON GLOBEGLEN SATHER GM-PRESIDENT*EDMONTON OILERSMILT SCHMIDT PLAYER-COACH-GMBOSTON BRUINSFRANK SELKE GM-PRESIDENTOAKLAND SEALSHARRY SINDEN GM-PRESIDENT*BOSTON BRUINSMIKE SMITH ASSOCIATE GM*TORONTO MAPLE LEAFSNEIL SMITH GM-PRESIDENT*NEW YORK RANGERSRED STOREY REFEREENATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE &#9632;

f0024-02

Orr, Howe complete hockey’s holy trinity

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011030/7387230-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="163" height="159"></div>With his pals Kirk McLean and Martin Gelinas the first to go, veteran Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; center Trevor Linden appeared to be next in line among core players headed out of town.McLean and Gelinas were dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes for goalie Sean Burke, left winger Geoff Sanderson and defenseman Enrico Ciccone in a trade announced just after midnight Jan. 3. The next day following practice, coach Mike Keenan ripped into Linden for his lack of commitment, the words startling everyone who considered Linden a hard-working, team-first type of player.&ldquo;Trevor has the ability to be a frontline player and he certainly has to demonstrate to his teammates that he&rsquo;s a lot more committed than he is,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;These are desperate times and Trevor has to make up his mind whether he wants to be part of this or not. Right now, he hasn&rsquo;t made up his mind and I can only base that on his conduct and behavior on the ice.&rdquo;Linden was extremely upset with Keenan taking his remarks public and labeled as &ldquo;ridiculous&rdquo; Iron Mike&rsquo;s claim he was giving it a half-hearted effort. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel publicly fmger-pointing is the right way to go,&rdquo; Linden said. &ldquo;Obviously he does. I think his comments are very unproductive.&rdquo;Keenan backed off slightly the next day, but maintained he only went public as a last resort. &ldquo;I took it as far as I could in private form,&rdquo; Keenan said.NOTEBOOK: New Canucks-goalie Sean Burke, left winger Geoff Sanderson and defenseman Enrico Ciccone-all said they were pleased to finally be playing in a hockey-crazed market after their stint in Carolina. Tm pretty excited to be in Canada, I haven&rsquo;t played in Canada my whole career,&rdquo; said Burke, who went 1-2-1 in his first four starts with Vancouver. &ldquo;When you play down in Carolina, you start to forget just how exciting hockey is and how excited people can get about it.&rdquo;&hellip;Coach Mike Keenan called departed goalie Kirk McLean &ldquo;a very untrained athlete, not even average.&rdquo;&hellip;Keenan also declared the Canucks were &ldquo;completely unfit&rdquo; when he took over Nov. 13 and expectations were &ldquo;far below&rdquo; the standards necessary to be successful. &#9632;

f0026-01

Keenan challenges Linden to show more commitment

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03553/7387261-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="579" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Zednik</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02696/7387268-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="162" height="160"></div>When Ron Wilson first arrived as coach of the Washington Capitals last summer, he surprised some observers with his detailed knowledge of the team and its recent history.One thing he specifically mentioned was the club&rsquo;s tradition of having to claw its way into the playoffs in the closing hours of the regular season.Since the season started he has repeatedly said he wants to avoid that scenario at all costs; what he wants to be fighting for at the end of the regular season is home ice.Just past the midway point, the Capitalstied for fifth in the Eastern Conference-were in position to achieve that goal. Nonetheless. Wilson is far from satisfied and feels the club could have had a better record, despite a bad run of injuries. And he has begun a serious whip-cracking program to get that message across.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the type of coach I want to play the top players a lot,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;and they can&rsquo;t be defensively liabilities.&rdquo;Wingers Peter Bondra and Richard Zednik, at the time 30 per cent of the Caps&rsquo; offense, were both benched for portions of one victory and Zednik sat out the entire next game. Center Michal Pivonka and defenseman Phil Housley have also had their playing time reduced or eliminated because they lacked the intensity Wilson is demanding.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing for keeps from here on in,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;Who plays best is going to play, no matter who they are.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Chris Simon went to California for a second opinion about his ailing right shoulder and got the same advice he got the first time-to have surgery. That will almost certainly end his season unless the Caps advance deep into the playoffs&hellip;Center Adam Oates tied a team record and fell one short of the NHL mark when he had four assists in one period in a 5-3 win over Toronto Jan. 6&hellip;Right winger Peter Bondra broke out of a scoring drought (two goals in 11 games) when he got a hat trick in a 5-3 win over the Rangers Jan. 8. It was the 10th of his career&hellip;Left winger Andrew Brunette, called up from Portland (American League), had goals in his first five games back in the NHL. &#9632;

f0026-03

Wilson sends stern message

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>Over the years, there haven&rsquo;t been many empty seats at Norfolk&rsquo;s Scope for Hampton Roads Ad-mirals&rsquo; games.That fact was brought home in a big way when the Admirals welcomed their two millionth fan Jan. 2. The Admirals, which started nine seasons ago under the guidance of owner Blake Cullen, became the first East Coast League team to achieve that milestone.The two millionth fan was 16-year-old Melissa Bivins, who received two lifetime season tickets.Meanwhile, in Lafayette, La., the Louisiana IceGators became the fastest team to attract one million fans when they reached that number Dec. 26. It only took the IceGators 94 games to become the 10th ECHL franchise at that level.The others who have reached it are South Carolina Stingrays, Charlotte Checkers, Columbus Chill, Richmond Renegades, Birmingham Bulls, Toledo Storm, Johnstown Chiefs and the defunct Greensboro Monarchs.OFF-ICE INCIDENT: Three Baton Rouge Kingfish players were charged in the beating of an escort service bodyguard Dec. 29 after a dispute following a game in Jacksonville, Fla., against the Lizard Kings.Kevin MacDonald, Chad Power and Cam Brown were arrested on battery charges. The players are accused of beating Donald Patrick Galliher, a bodyguard for A First Coast escort service, according to a police report. The players were releas ed after posting a $2,500 bond.The players told police Galliher started the fight by swinging at them. Galliher disputed their account, saying he was attacked by the players.Baton Rouge president-GM Ron Hansis said disciplinary action was taken as a result of the incident. After an internal investigation, the players were fined an undisclosed amount for conduct unbecoming a pro athlete.The Kingfish said the fine money collected will be used to purchase game tickets for underprivi-leged children in the Baton Rouge area. According to a spokesman, the ECHL planned to take no further action.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02686/7387330-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="373" height="388"></div>ICECAPS CHANGES: In moves aimed at reducing the administrative payroll of the Raleigh IceCaps, the club announced effective Jan. 2 it was eliminating three positions.Robin Kinton-Sears, director of promotions, Lou Corletto, director of special projects and public relations, and Michelle Ross, public relations assistant, were let go.Frank Milne will remain as GM, but his responsibilities will be limited to player personnel and contracts. Milne told the Raleigh News&Observer that the team lost $300,(XX) last year when average attendance was 3,091. The IceCaps were averaging a league-low 1,688 after 17 home dates this season.The IceCaps are moving to Augusta, Ga., after the season because of the presence of the NHL&rsquo;s Carolina Hurricanes. George Bliss, director of marketing, will serve as administrative caretaker the rest of the season. After a slow start, coach Dan Wiebe had the IceCaps at 14-14-5.ALL-STAR STARTERS: Pensacola Ice Pilots&rsquo; defenseman Kelly Hultgren will be trying to score on his teammate, goalie Sean Gauthier, when the ECHL All-Star Game unfolds at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., Jan. 20.The two Ice Pilots were named starters for their respective teams in the Canada vs. The World format. The Canadian all-stars will be coached by South Carolina&rsquo;s Rick Vaive and Toledo&rsquo;s Greg Puhalski, while the World squad will be directed by Doug Shedden of Louisiana and Jack Capuano of the Pee Dee Pride.(See pg. 45 for All-Star Game rosters.) &#9632;

f0028-02

LEAGUES

Admirals Scope in on two million

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>If nothing else, the Albany River Rats may have a new promotion for later in the season: The &lsquo;Be the backup goalie for a night&rsquo; contest.Due to circumstances beyond the control of the parent New Jersey Devils, the River Rats ended up using a stick boy and the cousin of a Hartford Wolf Pack stick boy as their backup goalie in consecutive games.The bizarre tale began Dec. 30, when Albany coach John Cunniff received a 5:20 p.m. call from New Jersey telling him to send goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz to the Devils.New Jersey stopper Martin Brodeur was ill and unable to even be on the bench for a game against the Chicago Blackhawks.Sidorkiewicz had just begun preparing for an American League game against Hartford. Within 25 minutes, the 14-year veteran had his equipment packed and was off on the 150-mile drive from Albany to East Rutherford, N.J.Apparently there were no radar traps because Sidorkiewicz arrived around 7:40 p.m. and was on the bench as Mike Dunham&rsquo;s backup by the 10-minute mark. &ldquo;I figured if I got there for the first intermission, I&rsquo;d be doing good,&rdquo; Sidorkiewicz said. &ldquo;I got there ahead of plan.&rdquo;He even played the third period after Dunham was pulled, allowing a goal on nine shots.Back in Albany, Rich Shulmistra and the River Rats beat Hartford 4-2 while stick boy Kevin Scarton, who plays club hockey at the University of Albany, served as his backup.A call was made to the Raleigh IceCaps of the East Coast League for reinforcement. Frederic Henry was to meet the River Rats in Hartford the following day for a rematch.On Dec. 31, with Albany en route to Hartford, Shulmistra was recalled because Brodeur was still ill and Dunham had a shoulder injury.Henry arrived from Raleigh so the River Rats had one goalie, but they again had no backup. The Wolf Pack arranged for a Hartford-area goalie, Anthony Ranaldi, to do the job.Henry made 37 saves as Albany tied Hartford 1-1. Cunniff and the Rats got one scare. Henry was hit on the knee by a shot midway through the game.&ldquo;He was down about five minutes,&rdquo; Cunniff said. &ldquo;I was worried because I watched the other kid in warmups and the first two shots went in and he didn&rsquo;t even move.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01898/7387361-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="352" height="350"></div>STRANGE REUNION: Due to suspensions and injuries, members of the Hershey Bears&rsquo; past three Calder Cup teams-history that spanned 17 years-were in uniform for the Bears Jan. 4.Goalie Petr Franek was suspended for a highsticking incident the night before, so former Bears&rsquo; goalie and current Hershey resident Dave Parro was summoned to be the backup. Parro played on the 1980 Calder Cup team.The Bears also were down to 14 skaters, so coach Bob Hartley phoned retired center Mitch Lamoureux and asked him to play. Lamoureux was on the 1988 Cup team and retired after playing for the Providence Bears last season.&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Are you serious?&rsquo; and he said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not April Fool&rsquo;s,&rdquo; Lamoureux said.AHL TIDBITS: The Saint John Flames allowed 82 goals in 35 games and were on pace (187) to set a record for fewest goals allowed (the record is 215 by the Springfield Falcons in 1995-96). &#9632;

f0029-01

Albany River Rats play musical backup goalie

<div class="byline">By Brendan Savage and Dave Henry</div>Veteran winger Jeff Whittle pulled a rarity Jan. 3 when he played for two teams in two leagues in the same day.Whittle skated a regular shift for the International League&rsquo;s Detroit Vipers during a 3-1 afternoon win over the Michigan K-Wings and then skated on the Flint Generals&rsquo; top line that night in a 5-4 United League loss to the Brantford Smoke.Whittle, who had an assist for Detroit and scored for Flint, also played the previous night for Detroit.&ldquo;Three games in 24 hours; I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever do that again,&rdquo; Whittle said with a weary smile. &ldquo;It was more of a mental thing than a physical thing. When you&rsquo;re up with the Vipers, you&rsquo;re so intense that you&rsquo;re mentally tired.&rdquo;Whittle played in Flint Jan. 4 and in Detroit the following night for a total of five games in four days.WESTERN PRO LEAGUE: Members of Traktor Chelyabinsk, a touring Russian Elite League squad, enjoyed the shopping and hospitality of cities and teams in the Western Professional League, but most of all they enjoyed the competition.Traktor Chelyabinsk finished its 12-game tour with a 9-3-0 record.The defending league champion El Paso Buzzards, Monroe Moccasins and Central Texas Stampede were the only WPHL teams to beat Traktor.&ldquo;Many teams in this league were as good as teams in our league,&rdquo; said Russian goalie Mikhail Emelyanov.The Russians drew a league-record crowd of 10.120 Dec. 31 against the New Mexico Scorpions, whom they defeated 5-1.&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t make a mistake,&rdquo; said Scorpion center Tyler Boucher.Russian coach Sergei Grigorkin said his team enjoyed the tour of the WPHL, despite not being able to wash their uniforms due to a heavy schedule of 12 games from Dec. 17 to Jan. 3.The players were not accustomed to the spicy food found in many of the Texas cities, as one player who innocently bit into a jalapeno pepper during a luncheon in Amarillo, Tx. found out.&ldquo;We enjoyed the shopping, but not the spicy food,&rdquo; Grigorkin said. &#9632;

Tired Flint winger plays two games in one day

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>Wendell Young plans to play one or two more seasons before retiring. That doesn&rsquo;t leave the Chicago Wolves&rsquo; 34-year-old goalie much time to fulfill the one last goal he has in hockey: Earning a Turner Cup championship ring.Young has two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears in 1988 and a Memorial Cup with the Kitchener Rangers in 1982.But Young hasn&rsquo;t had that type of success in the International League, though he was doing his damdest this season to help the Wolves get it.Chicago had the league&rsquo;s best record (30-8-2), fueled in large part by Young&rsquo;s play. He was goalie of the month in December when he went 9-0-0 and was named goalie of the week for the period ending Jan. 5.Young was 23-3-2 with a 2.65 goals-against average and.909 save percentage. He was expected to share time with, or perhaps even back up, former IHL most valuable player Stephane Beauregard, but for a variety of reasons, it has been Young and not Beauregard getting most of the work.Beauregard missed the first part of the season with personal problems, then was recalled by the Washington Capitals in late December when Bill Ranford got hurt. As a result, Beauregard had played only five games for Chicago.But Young wasn&rsquo;t complaining about the workload. He believes he&rsquo;s playing as well or better than he did when he was in the NHL.&ldquo;I have no aspiration of getting back up there,&rdquo; said Young, who played 187 NHL games with tour teams. I&rsquo;ve done my time and now I&rsquo;m playing my career out for the Wolves and helping this organization win a title.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02582/7387416-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="381" height="431"></div>FAST FACEOFFS: In an effort to speed up games, the IHL altered its rules on faceoffs.Under the new rule which comes into effect Jan. 15, once both teams have completed theit line changes, the linesman will blow the whistle and teams will have five seconds from that point to line up for the faceoff. At that point he will drop the puck and it is the responsibility of each centerman to be in position.If a center is ejected from a faceoff twice in a game or another player lines up improperly, he is subject to a delay of game penalty.The altered rule was tested in nine games in December and resulted in an average reduction of 14 minutes per game to an average time of two hours, 25 minutes. Three games were played in 2:20.&ldquo;In these nine games the overall pace and tempo was consistently improved,&rdquo; said IHL commissioner Bob Ufer. &ldquo;We are very enthusiastic about this faceoff procedure.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: Kansas City Blades&rsquo; defenseman Shawn Heins, who led IHL defensemen in scoring with 13 goals, signed with the San Jose Sharks. The 24-year-old rearguard is expected to remain in Kansas City this season&hellip;After threat-ening not to report to the Manitoba Moose, center Michel Mongeau finally relented and reported after his trade from the Quebec Rafales&hellip;The Fort Wayne Komets reeled off 11 straight wins to move into first place in the Central Division. Goalie Bruce Racine sparkled, winning seven in a row. &#9632;

f0029-02

Wolves’ Young on hunt for Turner Cup title ring

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Windsor Spitfires&rsquo; coach-GM Tony Curtale has himself a million-dollar boy.Erie Otters&rsquo; GM Sherry Bassin landed a future bonus baby.In both cases, the Ontario League teams-who were expected to battle for top spot in the West Division-made a swap Jan. 6 they hope will pull them out of the depths of the division.Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; 1997 first rounder Jason Ward went to the Spitfires and highly rated 17-year-old left winger Michael Rupp joined the Otters.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;ll be a miracle maker, but I&rsquo;ll do the best I can,&rdquo; said Ward, 19.He signed a three-year contract with the Canadiens a week before the trade. It pays him a $l.l-million signing bonus and he&rsquo;ll average $600,000 a season.Ward, a center, has been hobbled by injuries and has only 16 points in 21 games.The Spitfires also get a sixth round midget pick in 1999. It will become a third-round pick if Ward sticks in the NHL with the Canadiens next season.&ldquo;I know they&rsquo;re a younger team and I&rsquo;m hoping to fill those (leadership) shoes,&rdquo; Ward said of the Spitfires, last in the West at 12-28-1, but still in the hunt for one of two wild-card playoff positions.Rupp was Windsor&rsquo;s first pick in the 1997 draft and is rated 24th for the NHL entry draft. NHL central scouting lists him at 6-foot-5, 218 pounds.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I think Rupp is going to be a good player, but I think his best year is two years down the road,&rdquo; Curtale said.&ldquo;This deal makes us a more competitive team now and next year when we think we&rsquo;ll have a pretty good team.&rdquo;Bassin, who earlier picked up 6-foot-3 left winger Jeff Zehr from Windsor, said his team was lacking size on the left side. The Otters were fourth at 16-23-2.&ldquo;He (Rupp) is a good strong power winger and when he gets to understand the game he&rsquo;ll be hard to bring down going to the net,&rdquo; Bassin said, adding it was time to deal Ward, the Otters&rsquo; (then the Niagara Falls Thunder) first pick in 1995.&ldquo;Jason has unlimited ability but he hasn&rsquo;t hit the top of the mountain we thought he would.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011012/7387447-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="684" height="246"></div>SIM-PLY GREAT: Samia Sting overage center Jon Sim had five goals and 14 points in four games, helping his team get back into the hunt with the London Knights and Plymouth Whalers for first place in the West Division.Sim took a puck in the mouth in the second period Jan. 2-taking out a tooth and requiring 10 stitches-then returned for the third period and scored in a 6-5 overtime win over Windsor. He had a natural hat trick the next night in a 6-1 win over the Spitfires, then followed with four assists against the London Knights Jan. 7.Sim, a 56-goal scorer each of his previous two seasons, led the Sting with 27 goals and 56 points in 35 games after turning down a contract offer from the Dallas Stars last summer. The New Glasgow, N.S., native was a third round draft pick in 1996.&ldquo;I decided to come back and see what happens at the end of this year,&rdquo; said Sim, 20, who joined the Sting during 1994-95 after leaving the Laval Titan of the Quebec League.&ldquo;It was good money, don&rsquo;t get me wrong, but I just thought I might do better if I have a good year,&rdquo; Sim said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to chuck Dallas out of the picture. I want to be a Dallas Star and I hope they want me to be a Dallas Star.&rdquo;MORE STARS: Bobby Orr was named East honorary captain for the OHL All-Star Game Jan. 13 in North Bay. Former North Bay Centennial Nick Kypreos was named West honorary captain.(See pg. 46 for All-Star Game rosters.) &#9632;

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Ward aiming to boost sagging Spitfires’ fortunes

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>Believe it or not, the Quebec League has become the lowest-scoring league in the Canadian Hockey League.For years, the Quebec League had a reputation for being too offense-minded, with doubledigit scores fairly common. But times have changed. Through Jan. 4, the league was averaging only 7.40 goals per game, compared with 7.71 in the Western League and 7.74 in Ontario.So, what happened?&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a case of our coaches learning from teams in the other leagues that had success and won Memorial Cups&hellip;they all played good defense,&rdquo; said Laval Titan coach Joe Canale, the only man to coach in all three leagues.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a case of one coach following another. One coach gets his team playing well defensively and the team has success and it gets noticed. I think all the coaches now emphasize defense. We play better away from the puck now than we used to.&rdquo;It has paid off. The Granby Predateurs ended a 24-year drought for Quebecbased teams when they won the Memorial Cup in 1996 after allowing a league-low 2.73 goals per game. The Hull Olympiques made it two in a row last year by allowing a league-low 2.93.Last season there was an average of 7.50 goals per game, the lowest in league history.Canale, who took over a Laval team that gave up an average of 4.49 goals last season, the third-highest total in the league, has emphasized the importance of defense since the beginning of training camp and it was starting to pay off.The Titan were allowing only 3.00 goals per game and had a 26-12-3 record. They also posted the best record in December, going 8-1-0 while allowing only 2.55 goals per game.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve progressed a little bit better than we thought,&rdquo; Canale said of his young team. &ldquo;We wanted to improve our goals against this season and we really have. That&rsquo;s an indication of a team playing together and an indication of progression.&rdquo;FOREURS HIT.500: When the Val d&rsquo;Or Foreurs lost the services of goalie Roberto Luongo and forwards Steve Begin and Jean-Pierre Dumont for seven games while they were at the World Junior Championship, the team was expected to struggle.But surprise! The Foreurs went 4-2-1 during that stretch to hit the.500 mark (19-19-5) for the first time this season.The Foreurs, who were THN&rsquo;s pre-season pick to win the Memorial Cup, were the biggest disappointment of the first half of the season, but GM Michel Georges is confident his team can turn things around in the second half.&ldquo;We got a chance to make two good trades (acquiring defenseman Didier Tremblay from the Halifax Mooseheads and winger Christian Daigle from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles),&rdquo; Georges said. &ldquo;Those two guys have given a boost. Now we&rsquo;re anxious to get the three other guys back.&ldquo;Reaching.500 was a good start. Now the players believe that with everybody back, they have a chance to play the second half at.750 or.800.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02675/7387478-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="575" height="291"></div>HULL OF A GOALIE: Hull rookie goalie Frederic Malette put his name in the record book by putting together a shutout streak of 170 minutes and 15 seconds, including back-to-back shutouts against the Drummondville Voltigeurs Dec. 28 and Sherbrooke Faucons Dec. 30.The Olympiques, who struggled much of this season after losing most of the players from last year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup team, put together an impressive seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) be-tween Dec. 7 and Jan. 3, thanks in large part to Malette, who posted a 5-0-0 record during the streak with a 1.60 goals-against average.PAIEMENT&rsquo;S WOES: Canadian coach Real Paiement looked like he aged 10 years during the World Junior Championship as he watched his team finish an embarrassing eighth.Well, he didn&rsquo;t look much younger when he got back home to Moncton and saw that his Wild-cats had a 1-10-0 record in the 11 games he missed. &#9632;

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QMJHL teams buying into defense-first philosophy

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>A change of management led to a change of heart on the part of Trevor Wasyluk.The 19-year-old left winger rejoined the Medicine Hat Tigers Dec. 4, after conversations with the Western League team&rsquo;s new coach and director of operations, Rick Carriere.Carriere replaced GM Doug Mosher and coach Kurt Lackten, who were fired Nov. 24. Carriere&rsquo;s immediate priority was to smooth things over with Wasyluk, who sat out two months of the season after demanding a trade.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an outstanding player,&rdquo; Carriere said. &ldquo;They made changes to the organization. I had the intention of giving everyone a clean slate.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what went on in the past and I didn&rsquo;t want to get involved in that. I&rsquo;m interested in the present and working toward the future. Trevor and I sat down and decided it was in the best interests of both of us for him to rejoin the organization.&rdquo;Wasyluk had been unhappy with the direction of the Tigers.&ldquo;Some things went on in the past,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;From my point of view, nothing was being resolved. Doug Mosher wasn&rsquo;t in any mood to (make a trade involving Wasyluk). Rick came in, we had some meetings and it got me playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers.&rdquo;Upon returning, Wasyluk addressed his teammates.&ldquo;The misunderstanding was people thought I wasn&rsquo;t coming back because of the team,&rdquo; Wasyluk said. &ldquo;I stood up in front of the players and told them the situation and got it resolved. They welcomed me back and it was great.&rdquo;Wasyluk had four goals and nine points in his first 12 games back. He had 32 goals and 64 points in 72 games last season after being drafted in the second round by the Hartford Whalers (now Carolina Hurricanes) in 1996.UNDER SCRUTINY: Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; left winger Stefan Cherneski recognizes the pros and cons of being a first round NHL draft choice.First round credentials are a status symbol and serve as recognition of talent. At the same time, opposing checkers pay more attention to players with such a resume.&ldquo;I guess you could say there&rsquo;s definitely pressure being a first-rounder,&rdquo; said Cherneski, 19, whom the New York Rangers picked 19th overall in the 1997 draft.&ldquo;Last year, maybe I wasn&rsquo;t known as much. Now, people start to key on you and there&rsquo;s pressure to be a star player on your team.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03467/7387509-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="352" height="361"></div>Cherneski was responding, recording 26 goals in the Wheat Kings&rsquo; first 36 games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to have the responsibility bestowed upon you,&rdquo; Cherneski said. &ldquo;Hopefully, I can go out and play hard and be a leader on the team.&rdquo;Cherneski was impressed by the leaders during his stint at New York&rsquo;s camp.&ldquo;It was amazing to go to camp and meet Wayne Gretzky,&rdquo; Cherneski said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re around guys like Gretzky. Brian Leetch, Adam Graves and Ulf Samuelsson. there&rsquo;s an aura surrounding the dressing room.&ldquo;It was great to go to camp and see how hard those guys work and what shape they&rsquo;re in. It shows me how much better I have to be to get to the next level. Hopefully I can have a good season and a good off-season and go to camp and make a good impression.&rdquo;McLEAN OUT: Kelowna Rockets&rsquo; center Brett McLean was expected to be out until late January with a broken bone in his left hand.McLean-who had 30 goals and 60 points in 30 games this season-was injured Jan. 2 while playing for Canada at the World Junior Championship. The 19-year-old product of Comox, B.C., was hurt in a 3-0 consolation-round loss to the United States.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very frustrating,&rdquo; said Rockets&rsquo; GM Bruce Hamilton, &ldquo;especially for it to happen in a game that meant nothing.&ldquo;When your guys are picked for those teams, in your heart you don&rsquo;t mind them playing when something&rsquo;s on the line. When they&rsquo;re not playing with something on the line, it&rsquo;s tough.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-03

Wasyluk happy to be back with new team in the Hat

<div class="byline">By Chris Miller</div>Western Collegiate Hockey Association officials got quite a start in early January when it was revealed one of the league&rsquo;s more storied teams is considering leaving the league.Actually, the Michigan Tech Huskies were just making exploratory inquiries to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of checking out the pros and cons,&rdquo; said Michigan Tech athletic director Rick Yeo. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re taking a good look at the situation.&ldquo;We jumped from the WCHA to the CCHA in 1981 and came back in 1984. We figured it wasn&rsquo;t the right move. So if we consider it again, we want to be 100 per cent sure it&rsquo;s the right move.&rdquo;The impetus for Tech&rsquo;s inquiries came when Northern Michigan left the WCHA after last season. The two schools are 90 miles apart on the isolated Upper Peninsula of Michigan and were natural rivals. Northern&rsquo;s move left Tech at the northeast extreme of the WCHA, which now has nine teams.&ldquo;Northern going-that hurt us,&rdquo; Yeo said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re our best draw. And one of the things we have to look at is how to improve our attendance. Would going to the CCHA help?&rdquo;The Huskies average 2,300 fans per home game, by far the lowest in the WCHA. Michigan Tech was a charter member of the WCHA, which was founded as the Western Intercollegiate Hockey League in 1951.The WCHA is expected to add Mankato (Minn.) State as a full member by the 19992000 season and Nebraska-Omaha by the following season. Since most team&rsquo;s schedules for next season are already pretty well complete, it&rsquo;s likely Michigan Tech would play 1998-99 in the WCHA even if it elects to jump leagues.THE DEAN AT LAST: Wisconsin press guides have referred to Jeff Sauer as &ldquo;The Dean&rdquo; of WCHA coaches ever since he became the league&rsquo;s current leader in longevity. And he takes a lot of ribbing about it. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m really &lsquo;The Dean&rsquo; now,&rdquo; quipped Sauer after becoming the league&rsquo;s all-time victory leader when Wisconsin beat Denver 5-2 Jan. 3. The win was Sauer&rsquo;s 557th in 1,061 games during 27 seasons with Wisconsin and Colorado College, and passed the mark of 556 wins by John Maclnnes, who coached 26 seasons at Michigan Tech.NOTEBOOK: HV-71 of Jankoping, a team in the Swedish Elite League, beat Minnesota 10-2, Wisconsin 8-1 and Minnesota-Duluth 4-2 during a holiday exhibition tour. HV-71 was led by former NHL winger Ulf Dahlen, the highest-paid player in the Swedish Elite League at $450,000 per season&hellip;St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl became the school&rsquo;s winningest hockey coach with his 182nd victory. Dahl (182-190-27) is the only coach the Huskies have had since moving to Division I status in 1987. &#9632;

Huskies’ move to CCHA not a sure bet…just yet

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div>Michigan goaltender Marty Turco took some ribbing before this season about whether he&rsquo;d be able to reach the Michigan and all-time NCAA record for wins by a goaltender.But now it looks like Turco will have the last laugh. That&rsquo;s because the Wolverines&rsquo; 6-0 victory over Ohio State Jan. 3 was Turco&rsquo;s 111th career victory. That tied Steve Shields, who played at Michigan from 1990-94, despite the predictions of Turco&rsquo;s teammates who didn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d have a shot because so many seniors graduated after last season.&ldquo;We were saying, &lsquo;Marty, we don&rsquo;t know if you can get that record with such a young team,&rdquo; joked fellow senior Matt Herr after Turco tied the record.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to see such a great kid and character like Marty achieve something like this. It&rsquo;s great to see Marty Turco and Steve Shields on the top of the Ust. That speaks well of Michigan and of (coach) Red Berenson.&rdquo;Turco said he&rsquo;d enjoy his accomplishment for only a short while.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll think about it tonight and in the morning but after that it&rsquo;ll be right back at it,&rdquo; said Turco, who was chosen 124th overall by the Dallas Stars in the 1994 NHL entry draft.This has been the best of his four seasons at Michigan. Because he&rsquo;s behind a young team, he&rsquo;s been called upon to carry the Wolverines and he was doing it. He was 17-4-1 with a 2.16 goals-against average and.913 save percentage. In his record tying win, he made several big stops in the first period before the Wolverines took control.Berenson tried to put the accomplishments of Turco and Shields in perspective.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a good statement for our program and all of the players who have been here for the last eight years,&rdquo; Berenson said. &ldquo;The goaltenders have been on good teams and Shields and Turco have been factors on those teams at times.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a reflection of the program. Like winning the Hobey Baker Award or the Heisman. It&rsquo;s a reflection on our team and on our program.&rdquo;WEEKEND AT BERENS: Michigan State&rsquo;s surprise 6-4 loss at Alaska-Fairbanks Jan. 2 didn&rsquo;t totally ruin the weekend for the Spartans.That&rsquo;s because senior center Sean Berens was named the CCHA offensive player of the week for the period of Dec. 20-Jan. 3. Berens collected five goals and an assist in two games against the Nanooks.HIGHWAY ROB-BERY: The league&rsquo;s defensive player of the week was Lake Superior State freshman goalie Rob Galatiuk. He made 66 of 69 saves in the Lakers&rsquo; 3-1 victory Dec. 30 over RPI and 6-2 win over Bowling Green Jan. 3 at the Marine Midland Bank Tournament. &#9632;

Wolverines’ Turco ties NCAA career win mark

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>When Andrew Allen decided to attend Vermont, he knew his job would be to prevent goals.But the freshman goalie from Vankleek Hill, Ont., now has an extremely rare statistic after his name-a game-winning goal.Allen became the first goalie in Vermont history to score a goal when the Catamounts posted a 4-3 victory in a road game at Harvard Jan. 3. Not only did he score a goal, but the one he put in was the winner.Allen&rsquo;s goal was part of a wild finish that saw three goals scored in the final minute of play.But forget all the images of a Ron Hextall looking down ice and putting an accurate shot on net. Allen&rsquo;s goal was a fluke.Harvard, trailing 3-2, pulled its goalie and was pressing for the tying goal in the final minute when Allen redirected a pass to Harvard&rsquo;s Henry Higdon behind the Vermont net.Higdon lost control of the puck on an attempted wraparound. The puck eluded everyone in the attacking zone, then found its way into the Harvard goal with 14 seconds left.Because he was the last Vermont player to touch the puck, Allen got credit for the goal.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t shoot it, but I was the last one on my team to touch it, so we&rsquo;ll take it,&rdquo; Allen told The Burlington Free Press.The goal proved to be decisive when Higdon scored at 19:59.Allen admitted his &ldquo;head was in the clouds&rdquo; after scoring his goal. &ldquo;That last one shouldn&rsquo;t have happened,&rdquo; he said.SCORING MACHINE: Brown senior center Damien Prescott is back on track.After scoring just 10 points in the Bears&rsquo; first 11 games, Prescott used the first weekend of the new year to show the moves that carried him to a 20-goal season last year.Prescott scored two goals and assisted on two others to lead the Bears to a 6-5 overtime win over Dartmouth Jan. 3. He also had a goal and an assist in Brown&rsquo;s 4-2 loss to Vermont.After 13 games, Prescott had nine goals and 16 points.NOTEBOOK: RPI lost one of its biggest players. Mauro DiPaolo, a 6-foot-4, 234-pound winger, left school for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec League. DiPaolo, who had one goal in 32 games last season, hadn&rsquo;t played this year&hellip;Harvard freshman goalie Oliver Jonas, a native of Munich, Germany, made 31 saves to notch his first victory, a 4-3 win over Dartmouth Jan. 2&hellip;Colgate senior goalie Dan Brenzavich recorded his 51st career win, tying the school record, as the Red Raiders defeated Providence 3-2 Jan. 4&hellip;St. Lawrence junior goalie Eric Heffler wasn&rsquo;t getting a lot of support. Although he led the league in goals-against average (1.65) and save percentage (.948), the Saints were in 10th place with a 2-4-1 record. &#9632;

Catamount goalie Allen nets wild winning goal

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>Maine sophomore defenseman Shawn Mansoff plans to appeal a one-year suspension handed to him by Bill Kennedy, the director of the university&rsquo;s judicial affairs office.Mansoff, junior winger Matt Oliver and junior goalie Bryan Masotta were charged with with threatening a black football player. A death threat containing racial slurs was left on the answering machine of Dwayne Wilmot Dec. 14.The three players will have to appear in Third District Court in Bangor Jan. 16. In addition, Attorney General Andrew Ketterer filed a Civil Rights Act complaint against Masotta.Mansoff continues to deny any involvement and Dan Pileggi, Oliver&rsquo;s lawyer, said his client told him he wasn&rsquo;t involved, either.Oliver and Masotta were also believed to have been suspended by the school, but Pileggi would not confirm or deny the suspension and Masotta could not be reached for comment.The three were suspended indefinitely from the hockey team by coach Shawn Walsh.Walsh had no comment on Kennedy&rsquo;s suspension.Masotta has admitted his guilt and has asked for forgiveness.Mansoff said he was in his own apartment at the time the call was made so he couldn&rsquo;t possibly have been involved.&ldquo;I was kind of surprised to receive the letter (from Kennedy), but I guess they had to take some kind of action,&rdquo; said Mansoff, who is still puzzled at how he got fingered for the crime.According to university spokesmen John Diamond and Joe Carr, any student suspended has the right to appeal his or her suspension. They can first appeal to the conduct committee and then to university president Peter Hoff.FREE PASS: Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna has issued a season pass to Boston Celtics&rsquo; coach Rick Pitino.&ldquo;He was quoted in one of the Boston papers saying he has had only a few days off since taking the Celtic job and the most enjoyable night off he has had so far was watching the Boston University-Boston College hockey game (a 3-3 tie Dec. 9),&rdquo; said Bertagna, who mailed him a pass to all Hockey East games. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a nice endorsement.&rdquo;ONE-TWO PUNCH: UMass-Lowell sophomore center Greg Koehler and freshman left winger Jeff Boulanger were named player and rookie of the week, respectively, for games played through Jan. 4. Koehler had four goals and eight points in two wins while Boulanger had three goals and six points.ON BROADWAY: Hockey East and the Eastern College Athletic Conference have worked out a holiday doubleheader at Madison Square Garden next season.Maine will play Colgate and New Hampshire will play RPI Dec. 22. &#9632;

Accused Maine player to appeal suspension

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01902/7387657-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01958/7387650-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3088" height="3501"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by John Giamundo/BBS)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01920/7387643-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3095" height="3514"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Jim Levy/BBS)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01898/7387636-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3093" height="3498"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Brian Winkler/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals: Decdecision, charges to goaltenders of record when winning goal is scored.<h2>FRIDAY, JAN. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02553/7387859-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="495" height="2009"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03417/7387852-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="502" height="2383"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04338/7387845-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="494" height="904"></div><h2>SATURDAY, JAN. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05284/7387838-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="498" height="1410"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06242/7387831-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="503" height="2378"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07219/7387824-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="504" height="2381"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08196/7387817-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="496" height="2385"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01555/7387810-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="492" height="2433"></div><h2>SUNDAY, JAN. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02351/7387803-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="493" height="983"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03252/7387796-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="498" height="2309"></div><h2>MONDAY, JAN. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04199/7387789-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="499" height="1103"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05172/7387782-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="497" height="3228"></div><h2>TUESDAY, JAN. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06153/7387775-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="493" height="187"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-07139/7387768-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="500" height="3484"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-08126/7387761-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="498" height="2897"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, JAN. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-09101/7387754-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="491" height="516"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1094/7387747-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="496" height="3488"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01460/7387740-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="498" height="3466"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02279/7387733-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="489" height="244"></div><h2>THURSDAY, JAN. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03211/7387726-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="499" height="3149"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04178/7387719-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="498" height="2197"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05161/7387911-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="493" height="1260"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06151/7387904-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="516" height="3462"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07137/7387897-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="498" height="3443"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-08116/7387890-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="496" height="3443"></div> &#9632;

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WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

CENTRAL SCOUTING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01489/7387990-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div>(OT) denotes overtime gameTeam affiliations are listed in parentheses under names &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01380/7388021-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div>Team affiliations are listed in parentheses under names(SO) denotes shootout game &#9632;

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INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01308/7388052-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"></div>(SO) denotes shootout gameTeam affiliations are listed in parentheses under names &#9632;

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EAST COAST LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0046-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01303/7388083-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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