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.

November 6, 1998

The Hockey News November 6, 1998

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02592/7136973-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="217" height="214"></div>If there is a logical explanation to the injury jinx that surrounds the Washington Capitals, it continues to remain a complete mystery.What is not a mystery is the fact the team is snake bitten and the snake has more lives than a cat.In just their fifth game of the 1998-99 season-Oct. 21 against the Vancouver Canucks-the Capitals already had six medical scratches and they lost another player in that game.Members of the new administration-namely coach Ron Wilson and GM George McPhee-laughed off suggestions of a dark cloud over the team when they arrived prior to the 1997-98 season. Now those same men walk around mumbling.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to play just one game with a full line-up to see how good a team we are,&rdquo; Wilson said after the Canuck game.Wilson and the Capitals got to the Stanley Cup final last summer after losing 476 man-games to injury during the regular season and there appears to be no letup in sight.How bad is their luck? Consider the evidence:Exhibit A: The ice was so bad in Tampa Oct. 18 the puck was skipping across the surface like a rock on a pond. When defenseman Joe Reekie couldn&rsquo;t get out of the way of a bouncing Wendel Clark shot, it hit him on the right foot and broke it.Exhibit B: Left winger Steve Konowalchuk missed the 1998 playoff with wrist surgery, rehabbed, got clearance, sprained an ankle getting ready for pre-season, rehabbed, made it back for the first period of the season opener, re-sprained the ankle and is out indefinitely.Exhibit C: While defenseman Brendan Witt was taking the puck off the boards in practice, 235-pound left winger Chris Simon accidentally fell on him and the defenseman missed a game with a sore knee.Other Capitals on the injured fist as of Oct. 23 were: center Michal Pivonka, who is coming off shoulder surgery; center Jan Bulis, who has a sprained left ankle; and left winger Richard Zednik, who has a separated left shoulder.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Kelly Miller played in his 1.000th NHL game Oct. 21 and assisted on a goal in a 2-1 loss to Vancouver&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; win was their first in Washington since March 17, 1990&hellip;Center Joe Juneau scored his 100th NHL goal Oct. 18 in a 4-1 win in Tampa. Rookie center Matt Herr got his first NHL goal the same night&hellip;Defenseman Sergei Gonchar signed a two-year contract Oct. 16 worth $3.3 million and promptly changed to No. 4 from No. 55&hellip;With a goal in the win over the Lightning, right winger Peter Bondra has 23 against Tampa Bay in 26 games&hellip;Shawn Simpson, the Caps&rsquo; director of hockey operations, and wife Susan are the parents of Shayne Pasquale, a nine-pound boy bom Oct. 21. &#9632;

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NHL TEAMS

New season, same injury jinx

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03414/7136525-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="778" height="1218"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Savage</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02592/7136532-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="215" height="211"></div>&rsquo; Maybe now Rejean Houle can actually watch his team play.Following extensive off-season and early-season negotiating sessions, the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; GM finally had all his players under contract. The last two to agree to terms were forwards Brian Savage and Martin Rucinsky.Savage, a right winger, signed a two-year deal worth $3.5 million (U.S.). &ldquo;The tough part of hockey is the business part,&rdquo; said Savage, who scored the winner in a 3-2 triumph over the Ottawa Senators Oct. 21 in his first game back. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned a lot about that in the last few weeks.&rdquo;Rucinsky&rsquo;s deal could be worth $7.1 miDion (U S.) over three years, provided the Canadiens pick up a club option for the third season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy it&rsquo;s over,&rdquo; Rucinsky said. &ldquo;I believe I deserve what I&rsquo;m going to earn. It&rsquo;s over now and I can concentrate just on hockey.&rdquo;So, too, can Houle-at least for a little while. Houle was faced with the daunting task of keeping to a self-imposed budget of $32 million for his team payroll and came close to succeeding. He exceeded that figure by roughly $1 million and denied he would have to make a trade to get down to the limit.But the GM&rsquo;s work has only just begun. He knows forwards Mark Recchi and Vincent Damphousse, along with defenseman Stephane Quintal, are eligible to become unrestricted free agents next summer. Signing the three at this time, Houle said, &ldquo;isn&rsquo;t my priority.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Turner Stevenson was suspended two games, without pay, for elbowing Buffalo left winger Dixon Ward during a 4-3 loss Oct. 17. Stevenson was also fined $1,000. There was no penalty on the play, but the NHL determined Stevenson &ldquo;skated directly toward Ward and connected with a vicious elbow to the nose&rdquo; of the Sabres&rsquo; player&hellip;Jonas Hoglund&rsquo;s days appear numbered in Montreal unless the Swedish right winger picks up the level of his play. Coach Alain Vigneault said Hoglund, acquired last winter in a deal that sent right winger Valeri Bure to Calgary, needs to be more combative in 1-on-l situations. Hoglund was held without a point through the Canadiens&rsquo; opening six games. &#9632;

f0023-03

Dollar daze over for now

<div class="byline">By Nancy L. Marrapese</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02904/7136184-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="215" height="213"></div>For Rob DiMaio, it&rsquo;s not a case of injustice, but rather equal justice.The Boston Bruins&rsquo; right winger was suspended two games by NHL senior vice-president Cohn Campbell for elbowing Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; right winger Dallas Drake in the head during an Oct. 19 game. DiMaio, who missed subsequent games against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and New Jersey Devils, received a five-minute major and game misconduct for the illegal hit.While Drake wasn&rsquo;t hurt on the play, the league opted to suspend DiMaio as part of its crackdown on blows to the head.&ldquo;This suspension is consistent with the league&rsquo;s mandate to discipline players for deliberate acts directed to the head of an opponent,&rdquo; Campbell said.DiMaio accepts the ruling, but doesn&rsquo;t believe the new edict is being applied evenly.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not recognized all the time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They just pick certain situations out. If the penalty is going to be called and it&rsquo;s going to be a suspension, it should be looked upon equally all around.&rdquo;For evidence, DiMaio pointed to two incidents that took place earlier this year. Bruins&rsquo; right winger Dmitri Khristich took an elbow to the head courtesy of Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; forward Dave Morissette, while DiMaio himself suffered a broken nose when elbowed by St. Louis Blues&rsquo; left winger Geoff Courtnail. &ldquo;Both (were) incidents of elbows and nothing is done about them,&rdquo; DiMaio said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I didn&rsquo;t do anything wrong. Obviously I did. But they should make it more consistent.&rdquo;Boston assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell sees things the same way as DiMaio.&ldquo;As we go forward, if this is a step in the right direction and it can check the trend of concussions to players, then we have to Eve with it,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;Our point was that Khristich was dealt an elbow to the head and nothing was done. Courtnail broke Robbie&rsquo;s nose and nothing was made of that.&rdquo;DiMaio&rsquo;s absence, meanwhile, temporarily left P.J. Axelsson as the only regular on the Bruins&rsquo; No. 1 checking line. Center Tim Taylor was also out with a sprained ankle. Filling in on the defensive unit were Taylor&rsquo;s younger brother, Chris, and Peter Ferraro.NOTEBOOK: Unsigned free agent center Anson Carter has joined Utah of the International League and may have played his last game as Bruin. Assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell said he couldn&rsquo;t understand Carter&rsquo;s decision. &ldquo;Maybe he doesn&rsquo;t like the money we&rsquo;re offering,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;Maybe he&rsquo;s unhappy with that, but is he going to be happy in Utah playing for $300 a game?&rdquo; Carter said he hopes the Bruins trade his rights. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of principle now,&rdquo; Carter said. &ldquo;The way they&rsquo;ve treated me during negotiations is a joke. They haven&rsquo;t shown me any respect at all.&rdquo;&hellip;Unsigned defenseman Kyle McLaren was also reportedly close to signing with an IHL team. &#9632;

f0019-02

DiMaio willing to pay price for crime, but wants to see rules applied evenly

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01439/7137362-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011733/7135560-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Seeing Stars: Some Dallas boosters are getting carried away with Darryl Sydor&rsquo;s solid start. Pg. 21.</figcaption></div><h2>Great Scott, he&rsquo;s back!</h2>1. Bowman returns NHL&rsquo;s all-time winningest coach Scotty Bowman back with defending champion Red Wings.2. Way to go Joe Dallas center Joe Nieuwendyk returns from two knee operations, nets winner in first game.3. Oh, Manny! Goalie Manny Legace makes 49 saves helping Los Angeles to 1-1 tie with Florida in NHL debut.4. Tim tremendous Top-ranked 1999 NHL draft prospect Tim Connolly of Erie fires 12 goals in five games.5. A blow for independence Independent Niagara College knocks off defending NCAA champ Michigan.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021387/7135553-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="439" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scotty Bowman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03905/7135546-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="440" height="623"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Nieuwendyk</figcaption></div><h2>WHL coach goes nuts</h2>1. Sit for fit Brandon coach Bob Lowes suspended 10 WHL games for throwing temper tantrum.2. Net results Colorado goalies Patrick Roy, Craig Billington shared league&rsquo;s worst GA A at 3.93.3. Stevenson hit back Montreal&rsquo;s Turner Stevenson suspended two games for elbowing Buffalo&rsquo;s Dixon Ward.4. DiMaio decked Boston&rsquo;s Rob DiMaio smacked with two-game suspension for elbowing Phoenix&rsquo;s Dallas Drake.5. Do not trespass Toronto Maple Leafs fined $100,000 and lose draft pick as tampering charges upheld. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</div>Expanded statistics are something ordinarily associated with the national pastime, but now they have become more prevalent with the international passion-hockey.The NHL has introduced a host of new statistical measures and while we have no desire to emulate baseball&rsquo;s obsession with all things numerical, The Hockey News is committed to bringing you the most relevant stats. Hockey can&rsquo;t be sliced and diced into bits and bytes and placed on a computer chip for human consumption, but statistical context can only help understand the game.Stats editor Mike Mouat presents in this issue the first of several new pack-ages of numbers this season. When you turn to page 35, you&rsquo;ll see a listing of team-by-team scoring that appears familiar. Look closer and you&rsquo;ll find we have replaced individual totals for power play, shorthanded, game-winning and game-tying goals with average time on ice, giveaways, takeaways and hits. Those two combinations of stats will appear in alternating weeks. That way, all readers (including fantasy/pool players) get the best of both worlds.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04505/7135591-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="469" height="581"></div>There are some things you need to know when digesting the new numbers:TIME ON ICE Individual totals are expressed in minutes and fractions of minutes, not minutes and seconds. Defensemen receive more ice time than forwards and occupied the first 14 places in final 1997-98 ranking. Coincidentally, they occupied the same number of positions through Oct. 22. Brian Leetch led the NHL at 32.0 minutes. Jaromir Jagr was the first forward at 25.6 minutes. Chris Chelios was tops in 1997-98 (30.2).GIVEAWAYS Scan the leaders this season and you might be surprised at the number of stars who are turning over the puck&hellip;until you reach an obvious conclusion. Stars have the puck more often than stiffs and have the greatest potential for turning over the puck. Wayne Gretzky led the NHL with 28 give-aways in seven games, an average of four per contest. He also led last year (244 total, 3.0 average).TAKEAWAYS Puck pursuit forwards steal the puck most often. Saku Koivu led this season with 19 takeaways in six games, but it was Peter Forsberg who was No. 1 in average takeaways per game at 3.6. Niklas Sundstrom led last year with 178 (2.5 per game).HITS Defensemen lock up the top five positions. Derian Hatcher is a big hit in &lsquo;The Big D&rsquo; with a league-leading 26 hits in six games and chart-topping 4.3 average. First among forwards? &lsquo;The Big E.&rsquo; Last year&rsquo;s leader was Dan McGillis (308 total, 3.9 average). &#9632;

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Our new stats packages sure to be big hit

<div class="byline">-Paul Harris</div>The biggest upset of the college season came Oct. 17, when Niagara (N.Y.) University-a third-year independent program-defeated the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines 2-1 on their own ice.Mike Isherwood scored the winner at 9:37 of the second period. Michigan, of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, was No. 5 in THN&rsquo;s preseason U.S. college ranking.&ldquo;It was monumental for our program just to get Michigan on our schedule,&rdquo; said Niagara coach Blaise MacDonald. &ldquo;To be able to compete and handle adversity against them will go a long way in the development of our program.&rdquo;The previous night, Michigan needed a goal by Josh Langfeld with 1.7 seconds left in overtime for a 6-5 win.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a big difference in the teams at this stage of the season,&rdquo; said Michigan coach Red Berenson. &ldquo;This was an important weekend for them and they made the most of it. They were right there with us in every period of the weekend.&rdquo;Michigan has struggled on the power play this season. The Wolverines are 2-for-32 overall and were 0-for-11 in the loss to Niagara.Niagara goalie Greg Gardner stopped 33 of 34 shots in the win. &#9632;

DEPARTMENTS

Indenendent Niagara toneles NCAA chames Michigan

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011670/7135677-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Empty seats in Nassau Coliseum this season are hardly the league&rsquo;s only problem.</figcaption></div>Everywhere Gary Bettman goes in this young NHL season, he is obliged to provide a state of the union address.The questions to the NHL commissioner are all the same. So are the answers.What&rsquo;s happening with the New York Islanders?It&rsquo;s primarily an arena issue, Bettman says.What about the Pittsburgh Penguins?Another arena issue, with a twist (past ownership difficulties), Bettman says.No fans in Greensboro, N.C.?It&rsquo;s a temporary situation, Bettman says, until the Carolina Hurricanes re-locate next season to Raleigh-Durham.A further early-season decline in scoring in spite of new rules designed to open up the game?Give it a half-season, Bettman says, before drawing any conclusions on how the new rules are working. (Though it is interesting Bettman has already concluded there&rsquo;s better &ldquo;flow&rdquo; to this season&rsquo;s games. We suggest waiting until mid-season before drawing any conclusions).NHL participation in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City? A World Cup in 2000?Bettman says the NHL, along with the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, will set an international calendar by year&rsquo;s end.And then, inevitably, someone will ask him if the National Basketball Association owners&rsquo; lockout will afford the NHL an opportunity for greater exposure in the U.S.?By this time, if you look carefully, you can* almost see the commissioner&rsquo;s eyes glaze over.There are a number of reasons for that. One, it&rsquo;s patently obvious the lack of NBA competition isn&rsquo;t going to hurt the NHL effort to get a broader base of support in the U.S. Two, as the chief executive officer of a major pro sports league, Bettman cannot be seen as enjoying the misfortune of others-especially since the NHL is headed for its own version of labor Armageddon.Now, admittedly, it&rsquo;s some time off. The NHL&rsquo;s collective agreement with the NHLPA doesn&rsquo;t expire until 2004. Unless there&rsquo;s a wildcat strike or illegal lockout, we&rsquo;re assured of another six uninterrupted seasons. That would be a full decade of NHL labor peace, greatly welcomed after experiencing a players&rsquo; strike and owners&rsquo; lockout in a four-year stretch.But has there ever been a more uneasy peace? Never have so many (owners, GMs, coaches and players) had so much and been so unhappy.The existing collective agreement was extended through Sept. 15, 2004 because it&rsquo;s supposed to be a good deal for both sides. But if it&rsquo;s so good for the owners, why are so many in management so disgruntled with the NHL&rsquo;s economic outlook?Now, there&rsquo;s a question for Bettman.&ldquo;The collective agreement allows a team to spend whatever it can afford to spend,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If anyone is spending more than they can afford, they shouldn&rsquo;t be complaining (about the CBA).&rdquo; But they are. Even Bettman has expressed one concern. Without offering any numbers, he has stated that players&rsquo; salaries are now rising faster than the owners&rsquo; revenues.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021197/7135670-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="511" height="699"><figcaption class="caption-body">By Bob McKenzie Associnte Editor</figcaption></div>NHL executives claim that 65 to 70 per cent of all revenue now goes towards paying players&rsquo; salaries and that anything more than 60 per cent is a losing proposition. One club president went so far as to suggest only five teams-all based in the U.S. (Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Brains, Chicago Blackhawks and the New York Rangers)-are truly profitable.The NHLPA, meanwhile, scoffs at such claims, pointing to appreciating franchise values, increased television revenue, additional income from new arenas and creative accounting as evidence.That age-old argument is best saved for another day-five years down the road, no doubt-but clearly the CBA is not dragging salaries as emphatically as the owners would like. The runaway salary inflation of the pre-lockout 1990s-averaging between 20 and 40 per cent annually-has been reined in, but it&rsquo;s still double-digit, between 10 and 20 per cent per year since the lockout. For the record, the official average NHL salary has gone from $271,000 (U.S.) in 1990-91 to $1.17 million (U.S.) last season to $1.2 million (U.S.) this year (See pg. 12 for all 1998-99 salaries).That, along with a weak Canadian dollar and onerous tax burdens, means Canadian franchises, notably in Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary, are effectively living hand-to-mouth from year to year. And that is with the Canadian Assistance Plan, which does nothing for financially challenged small markets such as Buffalo.South of the border, Bettman said any franchise problems are generally related to new arenas. Those who have them (Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Florida, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Jose, Tampa Bay and Washington) are in position to maximize revenues, though conventional wisdom is it will take time for new ownership in Tampa to repair damage sustained during the previous regime.Those who will soon be getting new arenas (Carolina, Colorado, Dallas and Los Angeles), Bettman says, will see their financial lot in life improve.But even teams with new buildings have expressed concerns about the league&rsquo;s economic future and wonder what another five years of the current CBA will bring about.Bettman looks at it pragmatically. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s determined (the CBA) isn&rsquo;t working, then we&rsquo;ll fix it,&rdquo; he said recently.As far off as that may be, those words sound ominous. And come 2004, it says here we&rsquo;ll all have a lot more to worry about than a few financial hot spots such as Long Island and Pittsburgh. And if you think they&rsquo;re having a tough time scoring goals this season, imagine what it will be like in 2004-05, when the numbers may well drop to zero. &#9632;

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FEATURES

We could see war in 2004

They came for the Minnesota North Stars, but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman did nothing.They came for the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques, but commissioner Bettman did nothing.They came for the Hartford Whalers, but commissioner Bettman did nothing.Now they&rsquo;re coming for the Islanders and commissioner Bettman does nothing. At least when former NHL president John Ziegler did nothing, fans didn&rsquo;t have to worry about losing their teams.Please, commissioner Bettman, it&rsquo;s time to do something to restore the stability of the existing franchises. I&rsquo;m all for trying to bring in new fans, but not if it means leaving thousands of old, faithful ones out in the cold.Dave Cohen,&nbsp;Brooklyn, N. Y.<h2>Keep &lsquo;em in box</h2>I&rsquo;ve got a great solution for increasing scoring and reducing penalties and it has nothing to do with eliminating the red line or reducing the neutral zone: Make players serve the entire length of their penalties.With infractions being served for the full duration, players would think twice about committing stupid penalties. Who wants to possibly give up two or three goals, rather than one?Rick Seto,&nbsp;Northampton, Mass.<h2>Cap salaries</h2>The NHL can still be saved. Can somebody please institute a team and player salary cap before the NHL suffers the same fate as Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League.It takes no intelligence to simply go out and buy a Stanley Cup. Let&rsquo;s see GMs use brain power to make decent trades (other than off-loading soon-to-be free agents for prospects) and build through the draft.Chris Baehr,&nbsp;Kitchener, Ont.<h2>Colorado slipping</h2>Mike Brophy is right about the Joe Sakic signing (THN, Oct. 23) and how Colorado Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix may have mishandled the situation. Avs&rsquo; fans know how cheap the Avs have been and it doesn&rsquo;t bode well for another Stanley Cup run.Losing players such as Chris Simon, Mike Keane, Mike Ricci, Uwe Krupp, Tom Fitzgerald&hellip;it goes on and on. This summer, the Avalanche gave their fans no free agent signings, but said the young kids should be given a chance. Their first pick, Alex Tanguay, showed great promise, but he wasn&rsquo;t signed.The Avalanche are in trouble with this kind of management.Nana Sakai,&nbsp;Tokyo, Japan<h2>Head case</h2>I support Steve Dryden&rsquo;s comments (THN, Oct. 23) regarding the NHL&rsquo;s clampdown on violence. Colin Campbell is showing he means business, with early-season suspensions (Ruslan Salei, Keith Jones, Richard Smehlik and Turner Stevenson).And it may be unprecedented that multi-game suspensions were handed out for infractions that received only minor penalties during the game. Notice has been sent head-endangering hits will be penalized severely.Dryden points out there were 82 concussions in the NHL last year. That&rsquo;s more than 10 per cent of the players in the league!Hey, we can still have rock&rsquo;em, sock&rsquo;em hockey without the cheap stuff. Let&rsquo;s have hard hits without head hits. Let&rsquo;s see true fans get behind Campbell and make concussions a thing of the past.Brian M. Pollins,&nbsp;Columbus, Ohio (Editor&rsquo;s Note: A total of 54 players suffered concussions in 1997-98. Twenty-eight were repeat victims.)<h2>Trick or three-peat</h2>I enjoyed reading the article by Bob McKenzie titled &ldquo;Five reasons to be excited about new year&rdquo; (THN, Oct. 23). It is true the Detroit Red Wings are trying to make history by winning three Cups in a row. But I would like to clear up one problem. The Wings are not going for a three-peat. Pat Riley has copyrighted that phrase. What the Wings are going for is the natural hat trick. We all should start using that phrase when we write about the Wings or any other hockey club going for three Cups in a row.Geoffrey L. Crosbie,&nbsp;Saline, Mich.<h2>Honor Beliveau</h2>I wholeheartedly agree with Evan Weber (THN, Oct. 9) that a Canadian equivalent to the Lester B. Patrick Award is long overdue. And it should be named after the person I believe should be its first recipient: a man whose accomplishments during his career are exceeded by his accomplishments as a person. A man who is respected thoughout the hockey world. A man whose name could well be a French synonym for the word &ldquo;class&rdquo;&hellip;Jean Beliveau.Kirk Dooley,&nbsp;Mesa, Ariz.<h2>Love or money?</h2>Here we go again-another year of money-hungry players wanting more money. It really disgusts me some players are threatening to sit out the entire season. Boy, their love for the game has sure disappeared, hasn&rsquo;t it?I&rsquo;m tired of hearing the term, &ldquo;market value.&rdquo; If the game means anything to them, it wouldn&rsquo;t make a difference how much they made.I love hockey, but it tarnishes players&rsquo; reputations when they cry and whine about their salaries.Phil Schlenker,&nbsp;Kitchener, Ont.<h2>Where&rsquo;s Ratelie?</h2>When THN&rsquo;s Top 50 was published, I refrained from disputing your list. It was certainly a difficult task.However, now that I see Jean Ratelie is missing from the Top 100 (THN, Oct. 23), I have to question your expert panel. A true class player in his day, a two-time Lady Byng winner, and 491 goals and 1,267 points in 1,281 games! How can these achievements be overlooked?Jerry Plante,&nbsp;Pembroke, Ont.<h2>The Pitts</h2>One of the best franchises in the 1990s has filed for bankruptcy. This is incredible! It is an embarrassment to the NHL, the city of Pittsburgh, the fans and the players. Hey Roger Marino, if you didn&rsquo;t want to own the team and accept its responsibilities, then why come on board?James E. Altman,&nbsp;Imperial, Pa.<h2>Dominant Hasek</h2>How could anyone think Dominik Hasek is overrated? (THN, Oct. 23). He has led the NHL in save percentage five years running, has won back-to-back Hart Trophies, faces more rubber than almost any other goalie alive and, Wayne Gretzky himself calls Hasek the greatest player in the NHL today.David Schwartz wants to compare Hasek to Martin Brodeur? Put Hasek on the Devils behind that defense and I guarantee there&rsquo;s more than one Stanley Cup championship banner hanging in the Meadowlands.Mark Doherty,&nbsp;Lancaster, N. Y.Fax us your comments at (416) 340-1641 or write to Letters, THN, 777 Bay St, Suite 2700, Box 148, Toronto, OnL, M5G 2N8 in Canada. In the U.S:, write to Letters, THN, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. E-mail us at kayj@transcontinentaLca Include hometown as well as home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Floundering Isles need Bettman intervention

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011857/7135732-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By David Roberts</div>Former junior coach Graham James has been transferred to a Montreal half-way house after winning day parole and apologizing for sexually abusing one-time NHL winger Sheldon Kennedy and others.James, jailed for 21 months, told a two-member panel of the National Parole Board at Stony Mountain (Man.) penitentiary Oct 21 that he was sorry for sexually abusing players who played for him in the Western League. Kennedy was a victim and observed the parole board hearing. James was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in January, 1997 and is serving a concurrent six months for sexual assaults against a 14-year-old Winnipeg player in 1971.&ldquo;Perhaps because they looked up to me I was able to take advantage of that,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;I used the gift of the gab to convince them it was not bad, or OK. All of which was self-serving.&rdquo;The disclosure of the James case in early 1997 opened a door of painful memories for scores of men who were abused as adolescent athletes.The scandal led hockey commentator Don Cherry to suggest on national television that James should be &ldquo;drawn and quartered&rdquo; by fellow convicts. But the revelations also prompted the Canadian Hockey Association to develop a national campaign to educate more than 75,000 coaches and 520,000 players on the risks of abuse. The association developed strict coaching protocols and a hotline for victims.Kennedy, 29, said James&rsquo; apparent contrition left him unconvinced. He said it would take more than 18 months of therapy to change James from being a pedophile to being a person with normal sexual desires.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never feel sorry and I&rsquo;ll never forgive Graham James,&rdquo; said Kennedy, who sat through the parole hearing and later met with reporters.&ldquo;I hope (James) continues to get help and I hope he really confronts what the real problem is and quits trying to trick everybody.&rdquo;Kennedy said he wanted to see for himself what James told parole officials.&ldquo;I wanted to see if there was a Graham James that has changed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew he was going to paint a beautiful picture with his words. I had a feeling he was going to be granted parole.&ldquo;But for me it sounded like he was punished for being a homosexual who fondled young kids-he never made mention of being a pedophile.&rdquo;Blaming his behavior on secret homosexual desires, James said he had to conceal his true nature to succeed in hockey. He began coaching at 19.&ldquo;I did not get into hockey to get into young men,&rdquo; he said. But describing 20 years of repeated abuse against minors as &ldquo;selfish and rash,&rdquo; James said he ultimately brought disgrace to himself, victims, family, friends, and &ldquo;insofar as hockey is a part of the national fabric-the nation itself.&rdquo;James quoted from a pair of esteemed writers. &ldquo;Doris Lessing said life is a process of slowly waking up,&rdquo; said James. &ldquo;For me,&rdquo; he told the board, &ldquo;It has taken too long and I feel at last I&rsquo;m finally wide awake.&rdquo; He also quoted Joseph Conrad: &ldquo;&lsquo;All a man can really betray is his conscience.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s because of all this I apologize and I&rsquo;m saying I&rsquo;m sorry today.&rdquo;After deliberating 20 minutes the parole board panel granted day parole, ordering James to serve the next six months in a Montreal half-way house where he must return each evening. He is banned from unsupervised contact with males under 18 and cannot contact his victims. James became eligible for day parole in September, 1997 and full parole since March 3. &#9632;

James granted day parole

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div>Sexual abuse victim Sheldon Kennedy is entering a substance-abuse program in an effort to return to the NHL.Kennedy is enrolling in the NHL-NHL Players&rsquo; Association substance abuse program Oct. 26 while joining the Calgary-based Canadian national team.If an NHL team wants him to submit to a drug test as a requirement for getting a tryout, he&rsquo;ll agree to it.&ldquo;Sure. I&rsquo;ll submit to drug tests,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be tested as many times as they want.&rdquo;The Toronto Maple Leafs told Kennedy&rsquo;s agent, Jeff Jackson, they would consider giving the former NHLer a tryout. When asked if the Leafs would have Kennedy submit to a drug test, associate GM Mike Smith replied: &ldquo;We would talk to his agent about a number of things.&rdquo;Kennedy just completed a 5,000-mile Canada-wide inline skate to raise funds ($2.7 million) for a sex-abuse awareness campaign. He last played for the Boston Bruins in 1996-97.It was during an Edmonton stop in his cross-Canada skate that Kennedy crashed an off-road vehicle. He fled the scene, but admitted to drinking before the accident. He said marijuana found in the vehicle was his.Kennedy has weekly therapy sessions with a Calgary psychologist to help him come to grips with being sexually abused by coach Graham James more than 300 times.Canadian Hockey vice-president Tom Renney said he was not aware Kennedy was about to enter a substanceabuse program and it would not change his standing.&ldquo;He asked us if he could come skate with the team and we said OK and it is nothing more than that,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

Kennedy enters rehab program

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN stall</div>Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau, two of hockey&rsquo;s greatest legends, were bestowed with Canada&rsquo;s highest honor, the Order of Canada.At a ceremony in Ottawa Oct. 22, &lsquo;The Rocket&rsquo; and &lsquo;Le Gros Bill&rsquo; were among a group of 48 Canadians who have exemplified the highest degree of service to their country. Another recipient was former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. The three were formally recognized as companions of the Order of Canada, the highest of the three levels within the honor.<h2>PUCK BRIEFS</h2>Richard, 77, and Beliveau, 67, had Hall of Fame careers with the Montreal Canadiens through the 1940s and 50s and 1950s and 60s respectively. They each scored more than 500 goals and won a combined 18 Stanley Cups.In THN&rsquo;s The Top 50 NHL Players of All-Time, Richard was ranked No. 5 and Beliveau No. 7. They both serve as Canadiens&rsquo; ambassadors.Beliveau took the opportunity at the ceremony to make a political plug for government financial support for some of Canada&rsquo;s ailing NHL teams.FOUR IN HALL: Joe Mullen, Lou Nanne, Mike Curran and Bruce Mather were inducted in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.The induction ceremony took place Oct. 22 at Planet Hollywood in Bloomington, Minn. The four inductees increase the number of members to 100 in the 25-year history of the Hall.Mullen played 16 seasons in the NHL, scoring 502 goals and 1,063 points, the most of any American-born player in NHL history. Mullen, 41, will play for the U.S. national team at a qualifying tournament in Austria Nov. 5-8. He is eligible for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000.Nanne spent the bulk of his career with the Minnesota North Stars as a player, coach, GM and president. He also played on several U.S. national teams. Now 57, Nanne is a member of the International Committee for USA Hockey.Curran starred as a goalie at the high school, college, Olympic and pro level in the 1960s and 70s. He is regarded as one of the best U.S.-born goalies of all-time.Mather was a scoring ace for Dartmouth College and a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1948. He died in 1975 at age 49. His wife, Carol, accepted the honor on his behalf. &#9632;

Richard, Beliveau given Order of Canada

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011750/7135835-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brendan Shanahan improved his conditioning and shed his complacency in the summer (Photo by Claus Andersen/BS)</figcaption></div>The early returns are in and once again &lsquo;Shan&rsquo; is &lsquo;The Man.&rsquo; After a season that came in below the standards he set during the first 10 years of his NHL career, Brendan Shanahan made some adjustments in his summer training and, perhaps more importantly, dug in mentally in preparation for Year 11.Last year, the 6-foot-3, 218-pound right-shooting left winger clearly lost some of the edge that made him one of the league&rsquo;s most fiery and energetic performers. Shanahan looked more motivated in the Red Wings&rsquo; first four games this season when he scored five goals and was named the NHL&rsquo;s first player of the week. Skating on a line with center Steve Yzerman and right winger Darren McCarty, he chipped in another goal against the Nashville Predators in an Oct. 21 win to move into a tie with Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers for the league lead with six.&ldquo;He has been skating like he did two years ago,&rdquo; said goalie Chris Osgood. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting the puck and shooting more. He&rsquo;s going hard to the net, paying the price.&rdquo;Last season was something of a wake-up call for the personable 29-year-old veteran. His production was down, he wasn&rsquo;t a mainstay on the power play and, very uncharacteristically, he became complacent.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, maybe I went through my own little personal Stanley Cup hangover,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;Looking back, I know I could have played better. I started hearing whispers that maybe I was starting to go downhill. It was like a punch in the stomach. I think I may have been a little guilty of sitting back when we got the lead in games and saying, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s good enough, I think I ll just play the left-wing lock (defensive strategy) and get this thing over with.&rsquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want people to think I&rsquo;m abandoning the team&rsquo;s defensive system, because that&rsquo;s not true. But this team pays me a lot of money to score goals. I have to find the right balance. Get back to playing my game.&rdquo;In the four seasons prior to last year (not counting the lockout-shortened 1994-95 campaign), Shanahan averaged 48.5 goals a year.Last year he sunk to 28 in 75 games, his lowest full-season total since his sophomore year when he collected 22 for the New Jersey Devils. Then in the playoffs he managed just five goals and nine points with 22 penalty minutes in 20 games. By comparison, he had nine goals and 17 points with 43 minutes in 20 games the year before.It is important to note Shanahan was playing in pain during the 1998 post-season. With three games remaining in the regular season Shanahan felt a little tightening in his back, but continued playing. He soldiered on, but continued to experience spasms which limited his ability to employ his trademark robust style.&ldquo;I ran into my doctor recently at the movies and he told me all I really needed was to take two weeks off,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;But at that time of year you just don&rsquo;t know which two weeks are going to be your final two weeks. Playoffs isn&rsquo;t the time of year to rest.&rdquo;Not being able to do the things he was used to doing gave Shanahan an idea of what it must be like when a player comes to the end of his career. He decided a little preventative medicine was in order, so he hired a personal trainer in the off-season and changed his workout regimen.&ldquo;I was always into how much (weight) I could lift,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This summer I did a lot of work with the medicine ball working on my overall trunk strength. I&rsquo;m sure I looked pretty goofy sitting among all these weights and bars and here I am working with a partner twisting and turning with a medicine ball.&rdquo;Shanahan gets a little testy when the topic turns to what others thought about his playoff performance.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care about critics,&rdquo; he claims. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great achievement to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, but people put too much emphasis on individual achievement. I scored some big goals in the first and second rounds, but I ran out of gas in the next two rounds. I&rsquo;m still proud of what I contributed to the team&rsquo;s win.&ldquo;Who cares about individual achievements? Steve Yzerman deserved to win the Conn Smythe, but he was playing to win the Stanley Cup, not the Smythe.&rdquo;And if Shanahan continues to be &lsquo;The Man,&rsquo; Year 11 may lead to Stanley Cup No. 3. &#9632;

f0008-01

Healthy Shanahan roars back

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011655/7135873-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="520" height="726"></div>Show him the money.No, make that, give him the money. Somebody, somehow, give Mario Lemieux the money he is owed. Do it now. He bargained for it. He deserves it.That one of the greatest players to ever skate in the NHL should be embroiled in a battle to collect money due him instead of enjoying his time on the links is not only a knock against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team he kept afloat for so long, it also reflects badly on the NHL. And until Lemieux gets his money, every penny of it, this injustice hangs over the league like a big, black cloud.This, obviously, is a purely emotional appeal. Then again, hockey is a sport built on emotion, right?L&rsquo;affaire Lemieux will play itself out legally and Lemieux could be euchred if the Penguins, who owe him the dough and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, go under. If that happens, in the eyes of the law, Lemieux becomes like every other Penguins&rsquo; creditor. left with nothing or only a portion of what he was owed. Lemieux hired Pittsburgh-based lawyers, bankruptcy experts, to plead his case. Also, he was named to head a committee of Penguins&rsquo; creditors.The NHL is not legally obliged to come up with the money. That much is clearly spelled out in section 11.9 of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and NHL Players&rsquo; Association: In no event should either the league or any club, solely by reason of membership in the league, be liable with respect to any player&rsquo;s compensation, whether under a deferred compensation agreement or otherwise.But don&rsquo;t for one second think this case doesn&rsquo;t have far-reaching implications that could affect the way NHL business is done.&ldquo;If Mario doesn&rsquo;t get his money, players simply won&rsquo;t sign with bankruptcy candidates,&rdquo; said one of Lemieux&rsquo;s agents, Tom Reich. &ldquo;They will insist on lots of money and other collateral up front.&rdquo;The NHL says it pushed to have security built into deferred contracts, but its proposal was challenged by the NHLPA and ultimately rejected by an arbitrator. The NHLPA had no comment on the Lemieux situation. Securing his deferred money, Lemieux&rsquo;s handlers insist, would have put him in the position of being taxed on money he hadn&rsquo;t received.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021155/7135866-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="622" height="1312"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux</figcaption></div>Some might argue Lemieux brought this all on himself, by accepting deferred money he put himself at risk. Just be sure if that&rsquo;s your stance, you&rsquo;re not one of the same people who gave a glowing testimonial when Lemieux retired about how he single-handedly saved hockey in Pittsburgh or how it was Lemieux who was most responsible for the Penguins winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.Deferring payments to players is one way for small-market teams to hold on to their superstars and remain competitive. If deferred payments are no longer an option-and this case will be a huge determining factor in deciding that-then all the best players could wind up on the big-money teams.In a nutshell, Lemieux and the Penguins agreed to large contracts over the years. In order for the team to have sufficient money left over to build a supporting cast around him, they deferred some of his salary. Lemieux sacrificed up-front salary to remain a Penguin.When a team goes bankrupt, it doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean the owner still doesn&rsquo;t possess vast resources. Shrewd businessmen know how to keep their empires intact when one sector crumbles. That&rsquo;s why this case is too important for the league to simply hide behind a clause in the CBA agreement. The NHL claims it is watching L&rsquo;affaire Lemieux closely.&ldquo;We have reserved our right under our constitution of bylaws to take whatever steps we deem might be necessary at the appropriate time,&rdquo; said William Daly, the NHL&rsquo;s senior vice-president, legal affairs. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a major creditor here as well.&rdquo;Lemieux will never have to worry about where his next meal is coming from. But that doesn&rsquo;t change the fact he deserves every cent of what he bargained for. &#9632;

f0009-01

COLUMNISTS

Lemieux even faces obstruction in retirement

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011724/7135925-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Smallish Hawks&rsquo; center Doug Gilmour is surrounded by towering teammates in Chicago. (Photo by Claus Andersen)</figcaption></div>The two-time Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings are close to the bottom third of the league in team height and weight, which reveals one crucial bit of information: You can measure the size of their bodies, but bigger isn&rsquo;t necessarily better.According to statistics released by the NHL, the 24 Wings on the roster as of Oct. 17 average 6 feet and 198.9 pounds. No NHL team averages less than 6 feet while only nine out of 27 teams weigh less than Detroit.The flyweight Boston Bruins at a league-low 194.9 pounds-nearly 14 pounds lighter than the behemoth Los Angeles Kings at a high of 208.6-provide another example of the &ldquo;who cares&rdquo; school of dimension dissection.The statistics provided are not an entirely accurate representation of NHL rosters because unsigned free agents-still in the high teens on Oct. 17-were not included.Among other interesting notes from the league release, which detailed league and team breakdowns of average height, weight, age and player nationality:&#9633; The 1998-99 International NHL Team of the Year award goes to the Washington Capitals, who need a translator just to go to lunch. The Caps have 12 Canadians, five Americans, two Czechs, and one player from each of Russia, Chile, Sweden, Slovakia, Ukraine, South Africa.Okay, just kidding about Chile. But there are players bom in 18 different countries playing in the NHL including Nigeria (Buffalo Sabre Rumun Ndur) and Scotland (Calgary Flame Steve Smith).&#9633; The philosophical makeover in San Jose is complete. The team that selected nine Europeans out of 12 picks (and seven of its first eight) in the 1995 entry draft under former director of player personnel Chuck Grillo had 20 Canadians and one American on its 25-man roster. That didn&rsquo;t include late free agent signees Jeff Friesen (Canadian) and Owen Nolan (Irish).&#9633; The ratio of North American players to European continues to decline slightly, inching closer to a 3:1 ratio. Last season 77.5 per cent of all players were North American (491 of 634); this year the number is 76.1 per cent (497 of 653).By comparison, of the 258 players selected in last summer&rsquo;s entry draft, 75 were taken from European teams. That&rsquo;s almost 30 per cent Add in the Europeans selected from the Canadian Hockey League and the ratio is closer to 2:1 North American to European. And wouldn&rsquo;t you know it, that&rsquo;s exactly die ratio the Red Wings have on their roster this season.&#9633; Canadians still make up more than 60 per cent of all players-61.4 per cent to be precise. Americans make up 16.1 per cent while the Russians lead Europeans at 6.4 per cent.&#9633; The weight of the average player has increased a pound per year over the past two seasons, from 199 pounds in 1996-97 to an all-time high of 201 this year. Five years ago the average was 194. Twenty-five years ago it was a mere 184 pounds.&#9633; The average age of NHL teams ranges from Washington&rsquo;s high of 29.3 to 26.0 on the youthful Ottawa Senators. The league average is 27.3.<h2>INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR STRONGER THAN EVER</h2>The NHL is a league of many nations-18 in fact. Below is birthplace of players on NHL team rosters as of Oct 17. The &ldquo;Misc.&rdquo; category includes Latvia (4), Ukraine (4), England (3), Germany (2), Lithuania (2), Poland (2), Belarus (1), Nigeria (1), N. Ireland (1), Scotland (1), South Africa (1). Abbreviations: Cda. (Canada); USA (United States); Rus. (Russia); Cze. (Czech Republic); Swe. (Sweden); fin. (Finland); Slo. (Slovakia).<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021261/7135918-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="1654" height="1970"></div><h2>NHL SIZE ON THE RISE</h2>NHL players have gained an average of two inches and 17 pounds since 1972-73. Here are league average heights, weights and ages for every season since then.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03786/7135911-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="807" height="1971"></div><h2>KINGS GRAB CROWNS IN HEIGHT, WEIGHT</h2>The Los Angeles Kings are average only in their years; in height and bulk they are the biggest of the bunch. Below is average height, weight and age of each NHL team&rsquo;s rosters (including the injury reserve list) as of Oct. 17,1998. The frequency of ties in the height ranking is a reflection of the fact measurements were rounded to the closest inch as opposed to fractions of inches.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04535/7135904-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="1652" height="1975"></div> &#9632;

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Champ Wings prove size not all-important

Watching the New York Rangers get old, got old, and not very fast. It took them almost as long to face reality as it does to get through the neutral zone, which when they face a team with speed becomes even more clogged than their arteries.The Rangers finished last season 15 points out of a playoff spot, which, with a $44-million payroll is hard to do.Finally, the housecleaning has begun, but it has left the Rangers looking like new mortgagers in a big, expensive house without much furniture. True Todd Harvey and Manny Malhotra certainly look like chairs where fans can get comfortable for a decade.And the Rangers are ahead after acquiring Mathieu Schneider and Alexander Karpovtsev, but he comes with more baggage than Esa Tikkanen at the trading deadline.Schneider improves the point, but the point is, the Rangers have a long way to go. They are working hard and were beginning to squeak by some average teams at home. While certainly better than the alternative, this brings home the reality it will be a long, hard and, maybe most to the point, glamorless fight for a playoff spot.To do better, the Rangers need three more Harveys and maybe the one they have to be 20 pounds heavier and three inches taller. Still, as long as he has all his teeth, can remember his name and is more useful than Vladimir Voro-biev, Harvey looks like the best thing to happen to the Rangers in years.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011551/7135963-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="484" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body">By Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>Meanwhile, Malhotra seems older than 18, the only explanation as to why the Rangers drafted him. He and Harvey may buy this regime some time, but this is a turnover that is starting even later than the hockey season in New York, which has been delayed due to the city&rsquo;s mesmerization with base-ball and football.The risk is that if the NBA lockout drags on, it may begin to look more exciting than the Rangers. Slow drips who let things go too long to be saved by the slow drip of a modest youth movement, now the Rangers may have to go for a full transfusion. So they just have to get Pavel Bure. Not only can they afford him, they can&rsquo;t afford not to have him.Despite the commitment of Mike Richter for another four years, there just isn&rsquo;t enough of a foundation in place to justify building around this frame, not with Wayne Gretzky soon to turn 38, not with Brian Leetch unsigned past this season, not with a superstar like Bure, in his prime, available and anxious to come to New York.Having failed to do what they could have done to get Teemu Selanne in 1995, there is not a player the Rangers should refuse to put in a deal if it means getting a franchise player. They have an inexpensive, promising goalie in Dan Cloutier, who the Vancouver Canucks will inevitably decide is better than Garth Snow. They have Alexei Kovalev, who is young, relatively inexpensive and has never played better than he did under Mike Keenan. They have Niklas Sundstrom, a solid guy who doesn&rsquo;t grow on trees, but still considerably less valuable than a 60-goal scorer who can play on two lines and put some excitement back in the franchise.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021105/7135956-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="2062" height="1474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie Dan Cloutier could be part of a Rangers&rsquo; package to fetch superstar Pavel Bure. (Photo by Jim Leary/BBS)</figcaption></div>Once Burke is forced to drop the pretense he can afford to let Bure rot in hell and the bidding heats up, the Canucks will have other options. The Rangers just have to make sure theirs is the best. &#9632;

f0011-01

Rebuilding Rangers need Bure

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021336/7136036-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit has two Stanley Cups to show for their recent success, and the players are reaping the financial rewards.</figcaption></div>Gary Bettman was talking about bucks and pucks and the relationship between the two.&ldquo;In this sport,&rdquo; the NHL commissioner mused, &ldquo;money doesn&rsquo;t necessarily buy you everything.&rdquo;No, but a fat wallet to go with a sound business plan can take a team a long way. Just ask the Detroit Red Wings, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.It remains to be seen whether coach Scott Bowman&rsquo;s team can establish a dynasty on the ice this season, but they&rsquo;ve already terminated one off it.Detroit has ended the New York Rangers&rsquo; three-year reign as the biggest-spending club in the NHL.Will wonders never cease?Thanks largely to Sergei Fedorov&rsquo;s front-end loaded contract that pays him $14 million this season-the Carolina Hurricanes draw a significant assist on that one-Detroit ranks No. 1 in THN&rsquo;s annual NHL team payroll survey. The Red Wings&rsquo; payroll is a whopping $48.3 million (all payrolls and salaries are in U.S. dollars), well ahead of the No. 2 Dallas Stars and No. 3 New York, both in the $39.8-million neighborhood.At face value, the Rangers&rsquo; on-ice woes notwithstanding, the Detroit and Dallas expenditures might suggest one only gets what one pays for in the NHL. The Wings have back-to-back rings; Dallas was their primary competition last season, and quite likely will be this season, too.But the commissioner does have a point. That is, on-ice fortunes are not always directly connected to off-ice spending, say the way it seems in Major League Base-ball, where four of the top six payroll teams (New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves and Cleve-land Indians) made it to the League Championship Series.&ldquo;Look at Washington and Buffalo last year,&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;They spent only what they felt they could afford to spend and still had some success. That&rsquo;s possible in hockey because it&rsquo;s such a team game.&rdquo;Indeed, the Cup-finalist Capitals and Eastern Conference-finalist Sabres are competitive teams even though Washington ranks No. 11 in payroll this season and Buffalo is No. 20 (though the Sabres could move up a few slots when they sign restricted free agents Donald Audette and Mike Wilson).Then, of course, there are the Rangers. In spite of their league-high $44-milhon payroll last season, the Blueshirts missed the playoffs. That may well happen again this season while more cost-conscious teams-the Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins come to mind-enjoy greater success.Boston ranks No. 22 ($22.8 million), though it still has to sign Anson Carter and Kyle McLaren. Edmonton, with top player Doug Weight back in the fold, is No. 23 ($21.9 million). Ottawa, which started this season 3-0-0, is No. 25 ($21.0 million). Only the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators have lower payrolls than the Senators, who get an awful lot of bang for their devalued Canadian buck.&ldquo;The truth is we can&rsquo;t afford to make many mistakes,&rdquo; Senators&rsquo; president Roy Mlakar told The Hockey News. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t afford to have the high-priced veteran playing on the third or fourth line. But we can and will sign our free agents in order to remain competitive.&rdquo;The Senators did just that in the offseason. Defenseman Igor Kravchuk was going to become an unrestricted free agent, but the Senators signed him to a four-year, $9.25-million contract. Mlakar said he&rsquo;s confident the young Sens&rsquo; stars-Alexei Yashin, Daniel Alfredsson and Wade Redden-will be looked after and kept in the fold.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you we&rsquo;re going to win a Stanley Cup, but we are going to compete for one,&rdquo; Mlakar said. &ldquo;Our goal is to continue to make this a place where our players want to play and then do everything we can, within the limits of a budget, to satisfy them.&rdquo;So far, so good. Under the guidance of departed GM Pierre Gauthier, and now Rick Dudley, the Senators make every dollar count. They get great value from the low end of their payroll, from players such as Shaun Van Allen ($475,000), Bruce Gardiner ($292,500), Magnus Arvedson ($450,000) and Andreas Dackell ($700,000). (See pg. 39 for salaries listed from No. 1 through 655.)<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011565/7136029-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="4571" height="5257"></div><h2>Fedorov richer than Predators</h2>In spite of their limited budget, the Senators have made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and recorded a first round upset of the New Jersey Devils last spring.It is Glen Sather&rsquo;s Oilers, however, who arguably represent the best pay-roll value in the NHL. In the each of the past two playoff years, the dollar-conscious Oilers have knocked off a high-priced, Cup-contending fat cat:Dallas two years ago and the Colorado Avalanche last spring.There&rsquo;s no guarantee they&rsquo;ll do it next spring, but you have to like their chances more than, say, the $38.9-million Rangers or even the $28.5-million Tampa Bay Lightning.Some believe the Oilers will have to increase their payroll significantly by acquiring a top goal-tender between now and the trade dead-line. Even so, the Oilers have room to maneuver. The Rangers, meanwhile, are in the market for Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; holdout Pavel Bure, whose annual salary will be in the vicinity of $8 million. Maybe the Red Wings don&rsquo;t have the No. 1 payroll spot locked up, after all.Here are some other observations from this year&rsquo;s salary survey. All figures are in U.S. dollars. Any player being paid in Canadian dollars had his salary converted at a rate of $0.65:&#9633; The unofficial average NHL team payroll is $29.8 million, up from $26.6 million a year ago. That&rsquo;s about a 12 per cent increase.&#9633; The unofficial average NHL player salary is $1.2 million, up from $1.1 million a year ago.&#9633; The median payroll is the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim&rsquo;s $30.8 million.&#9633; This year&rsquo;s salary survey does not take into account at least 10 players who could be earning more than a million dollars annually. One of them, of course, is Bure. The others are unsigned free agents such as Boston&rsquo;s Anson Carter and Kvle McT uren Ruffalo&rsquo;s Donald Audette and Mike Wilson, Colorado&rsquo;s Sandis Ozolinsh, New Jersey&rsquo;s Scott Niedermayer, New York Islander Ziggy Palffy, Pittsburgh Penguin Petr Nedved, Vancouver&rsquo;s Bryan McCabe and Washington&rsquo;s Andrei Nikolishin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011670/7136022-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="707" height="1302"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Blake is one of 14 NHLers earning $5 million or more.</figcaption></div>Last year&rsquo;s survey, though, didn&rsquo;t include Fedorov, Paul Kariya, Bill Guerin and Nedved, amongst others.&#9633; The Red Wings are paying Fedorov more this season ($14 million) than Nashville is paying its entire roster ($13.6 million).&#9633; Besides the Rangers, three other teams in the top 10 (No. 5 Chicago Blackhawks, No. 7 Toronto Maple Leafs and No. 9 Florida Panthers) are coming off non-playoff years. If they miss again, they will have spent significant money for nothing. The No. 6-ranked San Jose Sharks, the final playoff seed last spring, is in a similar situation.&#9633; Payrolls will fluctuate significantly in the years to come. Fedorov&rsquo;s salary goes from $14 million this season to $2 million next season, not unlike Colorado&rsquo;s Joe Sakic, who went from $17 million last year to $2 million this year. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Jaromir Jagr will make $5 million this season, but is scheduled to get more than double that next season. Accounting practices and the structuring of contracts will have as much or more to do with payroll increases or decreases as any conscious decision to save or spend more dollars.&#9633; A sampling of the NHL&rsquo;s lowest-paid players includes Ottawa&rsquo;s Steve Leach ($97,500), Anaheim&rsquo;s Dominic Roussel ($160,000), Toronto&rsquo;s Daniil Markov ($211,250), Calgary&rsquo;s Ed Ward, Vancouver&rsquo;s Dave Scatchard and Bert Robertsson (all at $227,500) and Ottawa&rsquo;s Sami Salo ($240,500).&#9633; A number of veterans took significant pay cuts this season. Tampa&rsquo;s Wendel Clark went from $2.3 to $1.4 million, and San Jose&rsquo;s Bernie Nicholls went from $2.25 million to $850,000.<h3>NHL TEAM PAYROLLS</h3>The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; payroll is the unofficial NHL leader at $48.3 million (U.S.). All payrolls listed, including those of Canadian teams, are expressed in U.S. dollars (at a conversion rate of $0.65).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011680/7136015-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="635" height="2414"></div><h3>GUARANTEED GROWTH</h3>You can add increasing NHL player compensation to the list that used to only include death and taxes-it&rsquo;s a sure thing. A comparison between 1997-98 and 1998-99 key indicators (in U.S. dollars) is evidence of that.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-1002/7136008-1-eng-US/f0012-1002.jpg" title="f0012-100" width="814" height="302"></div><h3>PLAYER RANKING$</h3>It&rsquo;s getting more difficult to get a handle on player compensation, largely because of wild fluctuations in superstars&rsquo; pay. Last season. Colorado&rsquo;s Joe Sakic, at $17 million (U.S.), was the highest-paid player. This year, he&rsquo;s making $2 million. The new leader is Detroit&rsquo;s Sergei Fedorov, but he&rsquo;ll be at $2 million next season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03863/7136001-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="612" height="2491"></div><h3>DEFINING THE DOUGH</h3>Listed for each team on the facing page are 1998-99 salaries for players on rosters as of Oct. 21, up to a maximum of 25. Figures were obtained from NHL Players&rsquo; Association compensation reports.Individual player compensation includes base salary, signing or reporting bonus payable this season and deferred income allocated to 1998-99.All salaries are in U.S. dollars. Players paid in Canadian dollars have been converted to U.S. dollars at an exchange rate of .65.These figures do not include Vancouver Canucks holdout Pavel Bure, who isn&rsquo;t being paid. Also not included are unsigned free agents such as Boston Bruins&rsquo; Anson Carter and Kyle McLaren; Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Donald Audette and Mike Wilson; Colorado Avalanche&rsquo;s Sandis Oz-olinsh; New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Scott Niedermayer. New York Islanders&rsquo; Ziggy Palffy; Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; Petr Nedved, Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Bryan McCabe and Washington Capitals&rsquo; Andrei Nikolishin.<h3>ALL-MONEY TEAM</h3>Centers have always been at the top of the NHL salary scale and this season, thanks to Sergei Fedorov&rsquo;s $14 million salary in a heavily front-loaded contract, is no exception. Here ate the league&rsquo;s top-paid players at each position.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03861/7135994-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="678" height="402"></div> &#9632;

f0012-02

Cash crop still growing

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011453/7136074-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Morenz said the Canadiens refused his request to attend the closing of the Montreal Forum.</figcaption></div>It remains one of hockey&rsquo;s most enduring legends. Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; center Howie Morenz broke his leg in January, 1937, in a game against the Chicago Black Hawks. Lying in a hospital bed, believing he would never play again, he lost his will to go on. That&rsquo;s the story, anyway. Just over a month later he was dead at age 34.The death certificate says he died of a heart attack; teammate Aurel Joliat said his friend died of a broken heart. No hockey, no life.For Howie Morenz Jr., 72, a round man with ruddy cheeks and fatigue in his eyes, the myth of his father&rsquo;s death strikes too close to home. No hockey, no life.Others may see it is a romantic tale, manufactured out of a vision of what the quintessential Canadian hockey player should be. Indeed, Morenz&rsquo;s death is included as one of the game&rsquo;s 25 most memorable events in a new book, Etched in Ice: A Tribute to Hockey&rsquo;s Defining Moments.But to the 11-year-old boy who had not the faintest idea what kind of a player his father was, who remembers seeing his father play only twice in his life, there is another message. The message that he&hellip;&ldquo;Had no reason to live?&rdquo; Morenz Jr. answers defiantly. &ldquo;Well, it&rsquo;s not nice.&rdquo;The eldest of three children, Howie Jr., had just turned 11 when his father died. Howie Jr. and his younger brother, Donald, were sent to an orphanage. Donald died a year later of pleurisy and pneumonia. His mother was crushed. He also has a sister, Marlene, who is married to former Habs&rsquo; star Bernie Geoffrion.Morenz never had an easy time living with his father&rsquo;s name, in the shadow of his father&rsquo;s legacy. It was fine as a boy, when he used to skate in front of an amused packed house between periods at Canadiens&rsquo; games, wearing a sweater with his name and &lsquo;7&rsquo; on his back, same as dad.But as his own hockey career progressed, so did the demands to be no less a star than his widely worshipped father.&ldquo;When I started to play (organized) hockey (at age 13) and people started to talk to me about him, I started to realize what a great hockey player he was and what a tough road I had ahead of me,&rdquo; Morenz says. &ldquo;I had one owner of the Valleyford Beavers in the senior league telling me, &lsquo;You should be scoring three goals a game.&rsquo; I looked at him and said, &lsquo;Yeah, right.&rsquo; &ldquo;Howie Morenz Sr., the &lsquo;Babe Ruth of Hockey,&rsquo; died as the NHL&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer with 467 points. His son talks about how much higher his points standard would have been set had two assists been given on goals instead of just one prior to 1936, or forward passing been allowed in the six seasons he played before it was introduced in 1929-30.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter what he did, it&rsquo;s always what happened,&rdquo; said Morenz, who worked in the food and shoe repair businesses before retiring in 1991. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ridiculous. It makes me mad.&rdquo;Of course, Morenz has heard all the stories about his father&rsquo;s death. The broken heart. The booze his team-mates kept bringing him during hospital visits.Now he&rsquo;s fighting back by telling his story.One day in the late 1950s, a woman stopped Morenz Jr., on the sidewalk outside the Montreal Forum. She recognized him because she was a junior hockey fan; a few years earlier he had been a star center for the Montreal Jr. Canadiens. She said she was a long-time nurse at St. Luc Hospital and was on duty years earlier, on March 8, 1937, the night his father died.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021121/7136067-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="845" height="1199"><figcaption class="caption-body">Morenz Howie Morenz Jr., shown with his parents, was 11 when his father died.(Jr. photo by Mark Wilson; family photo by La Prese)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Your father did not die of a heart attack,&rdquo; she confided. &ldquo;Your father died of negligence.&rdquo;She told him his father had blood clots in his leg. The doctor knew about it, she said, but decided to take care of it the next morning. The next morning was too late.And so the son heard for the first and only time what he believes to be the truth about his father&rsquo;s death.Officials at the Centre Hospitalier de I&rsquo;Universite de Montreal, of which St. Luc Hospital is now a part, declined comment.Morenz remembers vividly the details of his encounter with the nurse. He had just left the Forum after visiting Habs&rsquo; coach Toe Blake and exited onto Closse Street when she stopped him. After they talked, he walked, shaken, to the other side of the building where his car was parked.It was perhaps 20 years since his father passed away. Howie Morenz&rsquo;s career was still fresh enough that the news could ignite a city should the son decide to go public. &lsquo;The Stratford Streak&rsquo; was a city treasure-thousands of fans paid their respects by walking past his coffin during a visitation at the Forum.&ldquo;I sat down and thought about it,&rdquo; recalls Morenz. &ldquo;And finally I said to myself, &lsquo;I think I&rsquo;ll let it die.&rsquo; &ldquo;He recounts the story in a boardroom at The Hockey News&rsquo; offices in Toronto, the city he has called home for the past 14 years after leaving Montreal, fed up with Quebec politics. He apologizes for getting emotional. It&rsquo;s only the second time in his life he has told of the encounter.It makes sense, though, the part about wanting to let the story die. His father&rsquo;s legacy has been a source of pride, but also a crushing burden.&ldquo;(Howie Jr.) was a great talent, an unbelievable skater,&rdquo; says his friend Frank Selke Jr. &ldquo;He had all of the skills that you needed to be a star talent at (the NHL) level.&rdquo;It was partly the pressure of being Howie Morenz Jr. that prevented the skills from blossoming. He retired from a minor league career in his mid-20s after doctors discovered he had conical corneas, or tunnel vision.So why tell his account now?.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m 72 and I could drop off the edge of the earth any moment,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;My attitude is if you don&rsquo;t like what I&rsquo;m saying, too bad.&rdquo; Morenz is critical of how he feels he and his father&rsquo;s legacy have been treated by the Canadiens. Of the current Canadiens&rsquo; regime he says, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t speak to those people.&rdquo;His father&rsquo;s retired sweater is on display in The Keg bar inside the Molson Centre, but he wants it and those of Morenz contemporaries, Georges Vezina and Joliat, hung in the rafters alongside Beliveau and Richard and the others, where people can seem them all on television.Morenz attended the opening of the Molson Centre, but said when he asked to go to the closing of the Montreal Forum, the team refused. Canadiens&rsquo; president Ronald Corey did not return phone calls.&ldquo;I felt it was wrong,&rdquo; Morenz said of the snub. &ldquo;It may be sour grapes, but what the hell. They&rsquo;re proud of their history, I know that. But if they&rsquo;re really proud, they start at the beginning.&rdquo; There is undeniable bitterness in his voice, a reservoir of resentment built up over the years. Selke says he can understand how Morenz might feel that way. In his high school days, Selke used to play hockey at St. Michael&rsquo;s College in Toronto with another great prospect by the name of Joe Primeau, Jr. He never made it either.When you&rsquo;re a famous &lsquo;Jr.&rsquo;, people won&rsquo;t let you forget it.When they say your father died because he couldn&rsquo;t play hockey any more, how could anyone forget? &#9632;

f0016-01

Debunking Morenz myth

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div>Lest anybody think David Poile is not the right man to put hockey on the map in Dixie, don&rsquo;t forget he was along for the ride 25 years ago when the NHL took its first stab at placing a team in a southeastern market.Back in 1972, Poile was a young executive tugging at the coattails of Atlanta GM Cliff Fletcher when the Flames rose in the south. Poile, Fletcher&rsquo;s assistant, got a good notion then of what it takes to build not only a hockey team, but also interest in a non-traditional hockey market.And don&rsquo;t forget it was Poile who was the chief architect of the Washington Capitals. So yes, David Poile knows a thing or two about building a team from scratch as he embarks on his journey with the expansion Nashville Predators.Poile said there are fundamental differences between molding the Predators and Flames. The collective bargaining agreement is different, as are free agent rules. And in the entry draft, you&rsquo;re only scheduled to get a player once every 27 picks, not every 16.But in terms of what the fans expect, well, that has not changed.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s basically the same situation,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;What you have to do is get competitive as quickly as possible. It&rsquo;s important in a non-hockey market to get better each year. Show the people the improvement. That said, we&rsquo;re not looking for a quick fix.&rdquo;Rest assured, that&rsquo;s not likely to happen. When the rest of the NHL threw their scraps Nashville&rsquo;s way in the expansion draft, there wasn&rsquo;t much to choose from.Granted, everybody figures Mike Dunham is a bona fide big league goaltender, but he still has to prove it. Defenseman Jamie Heward led the Predators in pre-season scoring with six goals and nine points in six games, but the first round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1989 is a career minor leaguer with just 25 NHL games to his credit entering this season. Defenseman J.J. Daigneault, the 10th overall pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 1984, is with his eighth NHL team. Captain Tom Fitzgerald has never scored more than 18 goals in a season and that was five years ago. You get the picture.For Poile, it brings back memories of Atlanta when he started the year with Bob Paradise, Lew Morrison, Morris Stefaniw and Randy Manery. Somebody named Bobby Leiter led the Flames in scoring with 60 points in 70 games.&ldquo;Everybody offered (the Predators) players that were better than the players we have here now, but we made our decision to go mainly with young players,&rdquo; Poile said.&ldquo;When a young kid like (top draft pick) David Legwand is ready to play on our team, we want to have a sound base in place for him.&rdquo;The one thing the NHL does not give an expansion team is youth. So Poile set out to do it himself. Through a series of moves in which he acquired the rights to veteran players he either didn&rsquo;t want or couldn&rsquo;t afford, Poile secured decent draft picks as compensation when they signed elsewhere. That in itself bodes well for the future.Fletcher, who was invited by Poile to attend the Predators&rsquo; first home game, said building a team in a non-traditional hockey market gives an executive a bit of a grace period he might not otherwise enjoy.&ldquo;For the first few years people just want to go to the games and have fun,&rdquo; said Fletcher, now senior advisor to the Tampa Bay Lightning. &ldquo;They like to drink beer and cheer. They&rsquo;re not sophisticated (hockey fans). They don&rsquo;t dissect the game the way Canadian fans do. They just like to see goals scored. It&rsquo;s going to be that way the first three to five years.&rdquo; &#9632;

Predators’ Poile skilled in art of franchise-building

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div>The Patrick Roys and Mike Richters of the world are allowed to work their way out of prolonged slumps.Don&rsquo;t count on Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; netminder Garth Snow getting the same leeway.That&rsquo;s no knock against Snow, just a fact. Establishing yourself as a No. 1 goalie in the NHL takes a sustained period of excellence, something Snow wasn&rsquo;t able to put together in nearly three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers before his trade to Vancouver last March for Sean Burke.So chances are if he falters in Vancouver, the Snowball effect will kick in. Canucks&rsquo; GM Brian Burke would be under more pressure to deal Pavel Bure quickly and get goaltending in return.Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; associate GM Mike Smith would have an obvious trading partner for Felix Potvin.The New York Rangers, in dire need of Bure-style scoring, might have more leverage to pull off a deal using promising back-up Dan Cloutier as bait. Or perhaps the Los Angeles Kings will jump in, knowing they need a game-breaker and have the goaltending and blueline depth the Canucks covet.If other players are thrown in the trading crossfire against their will, they&rsquo;ll know who lit the match: the Snowman.&ldquo;Great, I&rsquo;m going to get the blame for everything,&rdquo; Snow said when informed of our Snowball theory.His plan is to make it all the speculation irrelevant. And surprise, surprise for those who thought Snow was no better than his exorcised, oversized shoulder pads, that&rsquo;s exactly what the 29-year-old from Wrentham, Mass., was doing.In five games this season, he had a 3-2-0 record, 2.26 goals-against average and .924 save percentage, thanks to performances such as a 39-save, first-star gem over the Leafs Oct. 17 and a 34-save 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals Oct. 21Even Burke has warmed up to Snow. In training camp, Burke said his team didn&rsquo;t have a No. 1 goalie. One week into the season, he said trading for a starter wasn&rsquo;t even a backburner issue.If Vancouver did acquire another goalie, Snow said he&rsquo;d take it personally, &ldquo;but I think if I go out and keep playing the way I&rsquo;m playing, they won&rsquo;t need to do something like that.&rdquo;In the summer, Snow became the first goalie to work out with high-intensity California trainer T.R. Goodman, off-season fitness boss to Chris Chelios, Rob Blake, Bob Probert and others. He specifically worked on strengthening his groin muscles to avoid nagging leg injuries he has had in the past.&ldquo;I know there&rsquo;s no way that anyone else worked harder than I did in the two months with T.R,&rdquo; Snow said.Ironically, the other thing that may help Snow this year is being away from his good friend in Philadelphia, Ron Hextali. Both can fall victim to their intense personalities with overaggressive play, which Snow admits has been his downfall.Said Flyers&rsquo; goaltending coach Rejean Lemelin: &ldquo;They might have been feeding off each other in the wrong direction. I think Garth needs the influence of someone who will calm him down, not excite him.&rdquo;Lemelin said he&rsquo;s not surprised about Snow&rsquo;s good start. The scouting report has always been more about temperament and technique than talent. &ldquo;All he has to do now is get in the right spot.&rdquo;He might already be there in Vancouver. He knows chances like this don&rsquo;t come along often.And if he fails, a whole lot of people could be on the move.Yep, a real Snowstorm that would be. &#9632;

Snow could hold key to several NHL trades

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011240/7136153-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="215" height="214"></div>Want evidence Mighty Ducks of Anaheim captain Paul Kariya is fearless about his NHL career despite knowing one more serious concussion could mean the end?Just watch the video of the Ducks&rsquo; Oct. 21 game against the Boston Bruins in which Kariya delivers a bone-jarring hit on Boston captain Ray Bourque.That match signalled Kariya&rsquo;s return to Arrowhead Pond, his first game there since the Gary Suter cross-check on Feb. 1 knocked him out for the remainder of the 1997-98 season.Kariya produced his usual offensive damage-he had a brilliant power play goal and added an assist. But it&rsquo;s what Kariya did without the puck that showed he is not only back healthy, but unafraid of physical contact. AgainstBoston, he finished with three hits, tied with defenseman Jason Marshall for tops on the team.Kariya hopes his play will quickly dispel any doubts about his status.&ldquo;Hopefully by Christmastime, people will be talking about how good we&rsquo;re playing rather than what happened last year,&rdquo; Kariya said.A two-time Lady Byng Trophy winner for gentlemanly play, Kariya said during the off-season he planned to protect himself more on the ice. But he has also been the aggressor of physical contact.Meanwhile, he has developed into a strong penalty-killer and said he has learned he can contribute to the team with more than just offense. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been trying to do more things away from the puck,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I was younger, I didn&rsquo;t think like that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Travis Green is learning a lot about Swedish culture playing between new linemates Johan Davidsson and Tomas Sandstrom. &ldquo;I bought a book on Swedish the other day, so when I&rsquo;m sitting in the middle of them, I can understand them,&rdquo; Green said&hellip;Defenseman Mike Crowley, who started the season in the minors, had assists on all three goals in a 3-0 win over Boston Oct. 21 and was named the game&rsquo;s first star&hellip;The much-maligned Duck defense had allowed just nine goals in five games. &#9632;

f0019-01

Kariva auicklv answers questions with strong all-around performance

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03603/7136215-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="214" height="214"></div>Three weeks into the season, Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; right winger Donald Audette was still skating alone.The nine-year veteran was embroiled in a contract dispute and though the two sides continued to talk, there wasn&rsquo;t much progress.The Sabres weren&rsquo;t straying far from their long-standing proposal, which calls for Audette to earn $1.2 million this season with the team&rsquo;s option for $2 million next year. Audette has been asking for $1.75 million this season and $2 million next year.A one-year deal is highly unlikely as the Sabres don&rsquo;t want Audette to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. The 29-year-old would likely qualify for that status as a 10-year veteran making less than the league average salary.Audette initially requested such a contract, but has since dropped that demand. He said he&rsquo;s looking for a deal that would make him secure at the going NHL rate leading up to his 31st birthday in September, 2000, at which point he could become an unrestricted free agency.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve proved I deserve the money,&rdquo; Audette said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have to prove it again.&rdquo;Audette, a relatively consistent producer who can be counted on for 20 or more goals, led the Sabres with 24 last season and was third in team points with 44.Though his size and skill level would project him as a second-line winger, he has often playedon the team&rsquo;s No. 1 scoring line and fust-unit power play.GM Darcy Regier described the talks as on-going, but noted Audette had passed on arbitration and in doing so had given up certain negotiating rights.The Buffalo News reported the Sabres have tried to tempt Audette with incentive bonuses that would take him well beyond the $1.2-million mark. Reportedly included in the proposal are incentives for goals, assists, points and defensive responsibilities. Audette&rsquo;s defensive game has been criticized at times.The Audette talks weren&rsquo;t the only ones on Regier&rsquo;s plate. Unsigned defenseman Michael Wilson, who was close to signing a new deal a week before the season started before the proposal fell apart, was still on the sidelines. Regier said the two sides remain in contact.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Dixon Ward&rsquo;s nose has become something of a target for flying elbows. First, Florida defenseman Paul Laus broke Ward&rsquo;s proboscis with an elbow in an Oct. 16 game. The next night. Montreal right winger Turner Stevenson received a two-game suspension for throwing an elbow at Ward&rsquo;s nose. The Sabres sent video of the Laus hit to the league, but no action was taken&hellip;Defenseman James Patrick returned Oct. 23 after missing two games with a nerve injury in his neck and shoulder area. Defenseman Jason Holland was sent to Rochester of the American League to make room on the roster. &#9632;

f0019-03

Addette feels he has proven worth, looking for hiaher base nav in talks

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011125/7136246-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="214" height="213"></div>In early September, Calgary Flames&rsquo; right winger Theo Fleury made a promise to himself. If he weren&rsquo;t signed to a contract extension by the start of the season, he would instruct his agent, Don Baizley, to cease negotiations.Fleury&rsquo;s motivation was sound-he didn&rsquo;t want contract talks to be a season-long distraction for either himself or his teammates. The 30-year-old Fleury is entering the fourth year of a five-year, $12-million (U.S.) contract signed in September, 1995. The urgency in signing Fleury to an extension stems from the fact the fifth year of the deal, worth $2.8 million (U.S.), is at his option-and he plans to exercise that option and become an unrestricted free agent Apart from money, the other issue is that the Flames cannot offer Fleury a no-trade clause until he turns 31, which happens next June 29. If Fleury did re-sign with Calgary, he would settle for considerably less than he could earn with other, richer NHL franchises. Accordingly, Fleury would want assurances that if signed with Calgary, he&rsquo;d stay put. Unless Fleury settles for a handshake agreement, it can&rsquo;t be done.GM Al Coates said the team made three separate written proposals last summer that weren&rsquo;t accepted.Considering the two sides have been locked in a four-month stalemate, there is surprisingly little bitterness. The thinking is that eventually, Coates will be obliged to field trade offers for Fleury, but so far, he says he is not actively trying to move him.&ldquo;I want to see how we start here,&rdquo; Coates said.NOTEBOOK: Denis Gauthier, considered the top defensive prospect in the Flames&rsquo; organization, received the green light to start playing again. The 22-year-old missed training camp with a pinched nerve in his neck&hellip;Defenseman Sami Helenius cleared waivers Oct. 21. It was expected Helenius would be placed with an International League team interested in picking up part of his $275,000 (U.S.) one-way contract. Helenius lost his spot on the roster when Jamie Allison was recalled from a conditioning stint. &#9632;

f0020-01

Fleury’s future remains fuzzy, but little bitterness about stalemate

<div class="byline">By Todd Taylor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02768/7136277-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="214" height="212"></div>With a cast of veteran blueliners and solid goaltending last season, the Carolina Hurricanes still gave up the most goals in the Northeast Division (200) and were the only division team to miss the playoffs.The problem: Outside of two-way force Keith Primeau, Carolina didn&rsquo;t get a consistent defensive effort from its forwards.That appears to be changing this season with the addition of Ron Francis and implementation of a new system that emphasizes defensive positioning and responsibility from the forwards. Through their first five games, the &lsquo;Canes had allowed just 10 goals and were battling for first place in the Southeast Division.&ldquo;I think its equal parts the new players and the new system,&rdquo; Primeau said. &ldquo;Our concentration has been better and the guys are paying more attention to their defensive responsibilities.&rdquo;Carolina coach Paul Maurice singles out the leadership of Francis as an important factor.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question there has been more defensive commitment on the part of our forwards,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;When other guys see a player with Ronnie&rsquo;s offensive skills working as hard as he does in his own zone, it has an effect on them.&rdquo;Francis won the Selke Trophy in 1994-95 as the NHL&rsquo;s best defensive forward.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see he&rsquo;s noticing,&rdquo; Francis said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always taken a lot of pride in my defense and try to lead by example in that area. I think as guys see the system working and start buying into it more, we&rsquo;ll keep improving defensively.&rdquo;After giving up six goals in their first four periods this season, the &lsquo;Canes replaced goalie Trevor Kidd with Arturs Irbe, who responded by allowing just four goals through 11 periods.In gaining their first win, Carolina held the Vancouver Canucks, playing without Pavel Bure, to just 18 shots. Canucks&rsquo; captain Mark Messier was shotless. Irbe credits the defense in front of him for his good start.&ldquo;I played for a great defensive team in Dallas and I&rsquo;m seeing that same type of defensive commitment here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This team had enough talent to make the playoffs last season, but it didn&rsquo;t have the balance With forwards and defensemen communicating on defense. Now that&rsquo;s starting to happen.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Many predicted the addition of center Ron Francis would take pressure off Keith Primeau and lead to a superb season for the burly center. That appears to be happening. Primeau notched three goals and five points in five games&hellip;Carolina&rsquo;s efforts to acquire a scoring defenseman went down the tubes with Al lafrate&rsquo;s retirement, but Steve Chiasson has filled the role nicely through five games with a goal and four points&hellip;Attendance woes in Greensboro are approaching a critical point. A win over Vancouver Oct. 20 marked the second time in three games the &lsquo;Canes took a hit at the gate when only 5,573 fans were in attendance. &#9632;

f0020-02

Francis leads forward-thinking as ‘Canes tinhten un on defense

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03525/7136308-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="214" height="213"></div>Mark Fitzpatrick knew his days in Tampa Bay were numbered last summer when he clicked on his computer not long after the Lightning were sold.&ldquo;I read on the internet the first thing Jacques Demers told the new owner was they needed to upgrade the goaltending,&rdquo; Fitzpatrick said. &ldquo;Then they acquired (Bill) Ranford and I could see the writing on the wall.&rdquo;Fitzpatrick couldn&rsquo;t be happier the way things have worked out. He was eventually traded to the Chicago Blackhawks and handed the backup job to Jeff Hackett soon after when Chris Terreri was dealt to the New Jersey Devils.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to have a fresh start here,&rdquo; said Fitzpatrick, who won his first start for the Hawks when he turned back the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 Oct. 19 at the Molson Center.Fitzpatrick departed Tampa Bay after posting a 7-24-1 record last season playing behind one the NHL&rsquo;s worst defensive teams. He thought he deserved another chance with the Lightning, who acquired him last January from the Florida Panthers.&ldquo;I thought under the circumstances I kept the team in most of the games,&rdquo; Fitzpatrick said.The Hawks didn&rsquo;t acquire Fitzpatrick so he could watch Hackett night after night. The early plan was for him to start as many as 30 games.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get him to sit on the bench,&rdquo; said coach Dirk Graham. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a quality goaltender and he&rsquo;s going to play.&rdquo;Despite his record in Tampa, Fitzpatrick felt he showed the league he could handle a heavy workload. He appeared in 46 games for the Lightning and Panthers, which was one shy of his career high.&ldquo;Last year was a big test for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Being such a long time since 1 had that much work you always want to show you can withstand the load physically as well as mentally.&rdquo;Fitzpatrick doesn&rsquo;t dwell on his record with Tampa, believing he played as well as he could under the circumstances.&ldquo;Going into the situation I was in, it was hard,&rdquo; Fitzpatrick said. &ldquo;I knew going in, it would be a long three months and it ended up being a long three months. I&rsquo;m just happy that I held up to it. There were a lot of times when you lost that you felt you deserved to win.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Veteran Eric Weinrich. generally considered the Hawks&rsquo; No. 2 defenseman, was scratched from three straight games. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a situation where he&rsquo;s not playing as good as I feel he can play,&rdquo; said coach Dirk Graham. &ldquo;We expect certain things from certain people and we&rsquo;re not getting it.&rdquo;&hellip;Center Eddie Olczyk was also scratched from three straight games while Cam Russell moved from defense to left wing&hellip;Left winger Bob Probert shrugged off getting knocked to the ice and cut by a punch from Montreal left winger Dave Morissette Oct. 19. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to take your lumps,&rdquo; Probert said. &ldquo;If you give it out. you&rsquo;ve got to be able to take it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-03

Fitzpatrick has Chicago hope after difficult season in Tampa

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01890/7136339-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="216" height="214"></div>Unless things change dramatically with his contract situation, Adam Foote likely won&rsquo;t be back with the Colorado Avalanche next season.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see it too promising for me to be here next year,&rdquo; said the 27-year-old defenseman, who has spent his entire eight-year career with the franchise. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to try to stay focused and be as positive as I can with my teammates and try to play real good hockey. But if nothing gets done, I can&rsquo;t see myself wanting to be here.&rdquo;Foote&rsquo;s 1998-99 salary of $1,087,500 is below the unofficial league average ($1.2 million U.S.). Normally, he wouldn&rsquo;t have worried about a new contract so soon, with one year left on his pact. But, he had his hopes raised when the Avs approached his agent, Rick Cuman, about an extension in the off-season.&ldquo;Quite naturally, we were thrilled,&rdquo; Curran said. &ldquo;We knew he had a year left on a deal we had negotiated, so we were happy when they expressed an interest in an extension.&rdquo;But Foote and Curran weren&rsquo;t thrilled when they saw the numbers Avs management offered.&ldquo;We had a difference of opinion on what Adam&rsquo;s market value would be for next year,&rdquo; said Curran, who declined to say what Colorado&rsquo;s offer was.As it stands, both parties aren&rsquo;t talking and Foote said his interest in staying with the organization probably will wane the longer the season goes on. But Foote insisted Avs&rsquo; fans can expect to see him give nothing but his best effort this season.&ldquo;I think, at the beginning of the year, it did affect my game, but the key for me is to forget about it, because if I think about it, it will affect me and I&rsquo;ve got to think of the guys in this dressing room,&rdquo; Foote said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m here to play. I&rsquo;ve got a year left, I&rsquo;m going to honor it and give it my all.&rdquo;Foote will be a Group II restricted free agent next summer and as such will have little leverage in contract negotiations.NOTEBOOK: Adam Foote isn&rsquo;t the only Avs&rsquo; defenseman unhappy with his contract. Offensive specialist Sandis Ozolinsh remained home in Latvia, still unsigned. There were signs from the Avs, however, they were willing to get back to the negotiating table, as the team got off to its worst start (0-4-1) in franchise history&hellip; 1998 Hobey Baker winner Chris Drury scored his first two NHL goals in a 5-5 tie at Los Angeles Oct. 18&hellip;Goalies Patrick Roy and Craig Billington shared the league-worst GAA (3.93) and save percentage (.852)&hellip;The Avs moved into a new $12.5 million practice facility Oct. 19, in suburban Denver. Veteran right winger Claude Lemieux is an investor in the facility, run by Family Golf Centers, Inc&hellip;Center Peter Forsberg was plus-5 in the 5-5 tie with the Kings. Through five games, Forsberg had six points, but had yet to score a goal&hellip;Center Joe Sakic led the team with four goals and seven points&hellip;Left winger Valeri Kamensky was pointless in five games. &#9632;

f0021-01

Denver’s disgruntled Foote soldier has faint hones of sticking around

<div class="byline">By Mike Helka</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02513/7136370-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="217" height="215"></div>The talk of his offensive exploits was so intense early in the season, that defenseman Darryl Sydor had a flashback.&ldquo;This is the same thing that happened in Los Angeles, where people got caught up in point scoring and that&rsquo;s when I started to have problems,&rdquo; said the Dallas Stars&rsquo; defenseman. &ldquo;I learned my lesson then.&rdquo;After five games this season, Sydor led the NHL in scoring with 10 points (four goals, six assists) and radio stations were calling with interview requests stating that he was on pace to beat Boston Bruin legend Bobby Orr&rsquo;s 139-point performance in 1970-71.Media wags were calling him &lsquo;Syd-Orr.&rsquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he has anything to worry about,&rdquo; deadpanned Sydor, whose previous career-high in points was 48 (in 1996-97).The media frenzy around the sometimes shy Sydor got to be so intense at times that defenseman Craig Ludwig demanded, &ldquo;Would you just leave the guy alone?&rdquo;Sydor said what has made him successful in Dallas has been his commitment to defense first. It&rsquo;s a lesson he learned in 1996 after he was traded from the Kings for Doug Zmolek and Shane Churla-a deal that&rsquo;s looking one-sided now.&ldquo;I remember the saying, offense gets you into the NHL, but defense keeps you there.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never realized that until I was traded here. (Assistant coach) Rick (Wilson) has stressed with me, defense, defense, defense and that&rsquo;s my game now. I&rsquo;m not going to change my game and become an offensive defenseman. I just try to keep my game simple.&rdquo;While Sydor is paired with Sergei Zubov and the two lead the Stars&rsquo; league-best power play, there is truth to his comment. He is scoring points by making simple instinctive plays at the right time. A couple of his four goals were actually wrist shots from the point. He is looking for holes and finding them. &ldquo;The puck has eyes for him right now,&rdquo; said center Mike Modano, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s also making plays to make things happen.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Joe Nieuwendyk returned to the lineup exactly six months after exiting April 22 on a hit by San Jose defenseman Bryan Marchment. Nieuwendyk had a goal and an assist and was first star in a 2-1 win over Phoenix&hellip;The Stars&rsquo; power play had 11 goals through six games. The franchise record is 91 set in 1982-83 and 1983-84&hellip;Left winger Brett Hull had a five-game point-scoring streak (one goal, six assists) to start the season&hellip;Hull on Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s return: &ldquo;Joe Nieuwendyk has had one of the most positive influences on my career. He was so talented that they decided to keep him and trade me, which was fine by me, because I got to leave Calgary and he had to stay there.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Darryl Sydor had a two-goal, one assist, first-star night Oct. 20, a year and one day after the death of his mother Ann. When asked what he was thinking during the game, he said: &ldquo;This one&rsquo;s for you, Mom,&rdquo; adding: &ldquo;I honestly think there&rsquo;s somebody out there helping me, looking down on me.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-02

Super-scoring defenseman earns NHL sunerstar nickname: ‘Svd-Orr’

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011017/7136401-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="213" height="214"></div>He&rsquo;s thinner by 20 pounds and the telltale limp is gone. Scotty Bowman sure looks different, but the Detroit Red Wings know enough not to rely on appearances.For everything he endured during a summer of personal tragedy and medical problems, Bowman&rsquo;s hockey approach remains unchanged.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s basically the guy in charge,&rdquo; said captain Steve Yzerman. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Scotty&rsquo;s team and he has molded it the way he wants it. He has done it and will continue to do it. He keeps you on edge and keeps you motivated. He doesn&rsquo;t allow things to fall apart. He jumps on it right away.&rdquo;If complacency were gaining a foothold, it retreated when Bowman returned as coach. His first practice was Oct. 22, although he couldn&rsquo;t go on the ice because of knee replacement surgery in August.Bowman received the OK from cardiologist William O&rsquo;Neill to return following a 10-hour physical exam Oct. 16.&ldquo;The doctor said everything was good and that the stress test was normal,&rdquo; Bowman said.Most importantly, Bowman retains the desire to coach after the death of his brother, Jack, and a heart procedure to clear a partially blocked artery.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do it at this stage if I didn&rsquo;t like it,&rdquo; he said.Whether Bowman, 65, will coach beyond 1998-99 is an open question. His contract expires after this season, although he&rsquo;s committed to the team for two more years as a consultant. General manager Ken Holland said the matter may not be resolved until next summer &ldquo;although Scotty is the coach for as long as Scotty wants to be the coach.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to put a timetable on it,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;I never want a farewell tour.&rdquo;Bowman&rsquo;s eight Stanley Cups as a coach tie him with Toe Blake for most ever in the NHL. Only ex-Boston Celtics&rsquo; coach Red Auerbach, who had nine National Basketball Association titles, has more coaching championships in North American pro team sports.NOTEBOOK: The line of left winger Brendan Shanahan, center Steve Yzerman and right winger Darren McCarty meshed immediately. It combined for nine goals and 21 points in their first four games&hellip;Goalie Chris Osgood&rsquo;s blanking of Calgary Oct. 17 gave him 21 shutouts for his career, moving him past the late Roger Crozier (20) on the all-time Red Wings&rsquo; list. Within striking distance is Harry Lumley (26)-a more realistic target than Terry Sawchuk (85)&hellip;Senior vice-president Jimmy Devellano called an offer by Jacques Demers to become an assistant GM in Tampa Bay &ldquo;insulting.&rdquo;&hellip;Interim co-coaches Dave Lewis and Barry Smith were 4-1-0 in Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s absence. The NHL didn&rsquo;t credit either with the record because neither was designated as head coach. &#9632;

f0022-01

Bowman returns to bench with bounce in his step

<div class="byline">By Mario Annicchiarico</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02709/7136432-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="214" height="211"></div>The Weight is over.The Edmonton Oilers re-signed restricted free agent Doug Weight to a two-year deal, finalizing the contract during the warmup of an Oct. 20 game at Madison Square Garden. Weight actually signed the deal in his skates while heading out on to the ice.The 27-year-old assistant captain, who at $7.75 million (U.S.) over two seasons struck the richest deal in Oilers&rsquo; history, had collected 105 goals and 378 points in 386 games with the club, which places him eighth on the team&rsquo;s all-time scoring list.He is also the only player in the NHL to lead the same team in scoring each of the past five seasons The new deal will pay him $3.45 million this season and jumps to $4.3 million next year with room for bonuses of up to another $500,000. -&ldquo;It was real tough, something I&rsquo;d never gone through until this point,&rdquo; Weight said of the negotiations. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult to explain how difficult it was, but it was something that I truly believed in.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s over for both sides now and we&rsquo;re going to move on. I&rsquo;m excited about the season. I&rsquo;ve watched a couple of games and we have a great hockey team here so I&rsquo;m excited about what&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo;There was some difficult negotiating on behalf of both parties.&ldquo;Like any other deal there was some give on both sides,&rdquo; said Weight&rsquo;s agent Steve Bartlett, who flew in to New York to finalize the deal with GM Glen Sather.NOTEBOOK: Assistant captain and reliable defenseman Boris Mironov missed practice Oct. 19 while the team was in the middle of its five-game road trip. He failed to show for a skate in New York and the club was genuinely concerned when they had not heard from the sixth-year Oiler. Officials later found out he remained in his hotel room back in Secaucus, NJ., with what was officially dubbed as &ldquo;personal problems.&rdquo; &ldquo;I was convinced, after his display of emotional distress, that&rsquo;s what it was and I accepted it,&rdquo; said GM Glen Sather. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s having personal problems that he&rsquo;s trying to iron out.&rdquo; Mironov missed two games, against the Rangers and Islanders, and returned home Oct 22, thus missing the final game of the trip two days later in Denver. &#9632;

f0022-02

Weight signs richest deal in history of Oilers’ franchise

<div class="byline">By David J. Neal</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03501/7136463-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="213" height="212"></div>The phrase &ldquo;politically correct&rdquo; hadn&rsquo;t been invented when right winger Dino Ciccarelli began his career, which is a good thing because Ciccarelli has always chosen honesty instead.But the Florida Panthers&rsquo; veteran opted to take the diplomatic route while sitting out the first four games of the season, despite the fact he probably felt he was ready to go.Ciccarelli, 38, suffered a sprained ankle early in training camp and didn&rsquo;t get into a pre-season game. And while the joint may have healed sufficiently early in the regular season, coach Terry Murray held Ciccarelli out of the lineup because he wanted to make sure his forward&rsquo;s conditioning was up to par.&ldquo;No question, it&rsquo;s frustrating because you like to be part of the lineup,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m 38 and they signed me for a couple of years to be a leader. We don&rsquo;t need somebody griping at this point, especially since I missed training camp.&rdquo;Murray said the injury wouldn&rsquo;t give Ciccarelli a break as far as the season&rsquo;s preparatory work was concerned. If everybody else had to go through training camp, why shouldn&rsquo;t he?During the five days off between the season&rsquo;s second game and third, Oct. 16 in Buffalo, Ciccarelli tried to mask his disappointment at being a healthy scratch.&ldquo;The team is 2-0.1 can&rsquo;t be disappointed,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;The team is the first thing. If I&rsquo;m coaching, I would find it tough to change the lineup.&rdquo;He was also finding it tough to be a scratch. Murray recently set a record for the longest morning skate in Panthers&rsquo;, if not NHL, history. Scratches Ciccarelli, Steve Washbum, Terry Carkner and Jeff Norton dragged themselves off the ice.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to get back into the lineup,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t stand practice. It was such a long morning skate, it turned into an afternoon one.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Four games into the season, center Rob Niedermayer had no goals, no assists and only four shots. Coach Terry Murray said he thought Niedermayer was still getting back into step after last year&rsquo;s concussion injuries. Niedermayer denied this, saying he just needed to move more quickly with the puck&hellip;Left winger Oleg Kvasha scored his first NHL goal by knifing past Buffalo defenseman Darryl Shannon 1-on-l, then whipping a backhander through Dominik Hasek&rsquo;s five-hole. Kvasha smiled, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a good shot on my backhand. He&rsquo;s a European goalie, so he goes down all the time and the space between his legs is always open. Or, sometimes open.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0022-03

Catching up rough on Ciccarelli

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01908/7136494-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="216" height="213"></div>One more injured goalie and the Los Angeles Kings might have had to ask Rogie Vachon to strap on his old gear.In a rare occurrence, the Kings lost goalies Jamie Storr and Stephane Fiset to pulled groin muscles Oct. 18. Fiset was hurt first, leaving Storr to suffer through a frantic final minute in which the Colorado Avalanche scored twice and pulled out a 5-5 tie.The Kings summoned minor leaguer Manny Legace and 18-year-old junior goalie Alexey Volkov from Halifax of the Quebec League on an emergency basis before leaving for a five-game, eight-day East Coast trip. Volkov was soon replaced on the roster by Ryan Bach, who was picked up from the Detroit Red Wings for a conditional draft pick in 2000.Legace, 25, made his NHL debut a memorable one by stopping 49 shots in a 1-1 tie with the Florida Panthers Oct. 21. The diminutive goalie, who had played in two exhibition games before being assigned to Long Beach of the International League, was in Chicago when he found out about his recall. He was excited about the opportunity, but realistic. &lsquo;1 expect to be scored on,&rdquo; he said before his debut.That it only happened once in 50 shots was a better result than anyone could have predicted.Fiset accompanied the Kings on the trip and was expected to play at some point, but Storr remained in Los Angeles.NOTEBOOK: Coach Larry Robinson finally discovered the cause of center Jozef Stumpel&rsquo;s poor play in the first four games: Stumpel was being bothered by an injured left hip flexor, which occurred in the Kings&rsquo; final exhibition game. &ldquo;Here I was getting mad at him because he&rsquo;s not playing well,&rdquo; Robinson said. Stumpel, who led the Kings in scoring last season with 79 points, but was scoreless in the first four games, was given a night off against Florida Oct. 21&hellip;Defenseman Garry Galley made his season debut at Florida after being a healthy scratch in the first four games. Center Roman Vopat also cracked the lineup for the first time&hellip;The Kings&rsquo; interest in unsigned restricted free agent Petr Nedved picked up in the early weeks of the season. &#9632;

f0023-01

Legace will leave legacy after scintillatina debut

<div class="byline">By Jell Legwold</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04295/7136563-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="216" height="211"></div>Mike Dunham has been everything the Nashville Predators hoped when they made him perhaps their most important pick in the expansion draft last summer.He has played often as a No. 1 goalie and he has played well. In fact, Dunham played so much in the team&rsquo;s first swing, starting each of their first five games, that backup Eric Fichaud was sent to the team&rsquo;s International League affiliate in Milwaukee simply to play a few nights.What isn&rsquo;t so clear is how many nights off Dunham will get from that role.&ldquo;Sure, that is something we&rsquo;re looking at right now,&rdquo; said coach Barry Trotz. &ldquo;I think in the first few weeks of the season here, I&rsquo;ll play him more than 1 would in some other cases. But Mike is growing into the job and we&rsquo;ll watch him closely.&rdquo;Dunham, who surrendered just three goals in the first 62 shots (.952 save percentage) he faced, missed most of training camp recovering from a groin injury. He has used some of the early work to get his conditioning to what it would have been had he practised fully throughout the pre-season.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s nice to play two games in a row without waiting three weeks in between them,&rdquo; said Dunham, who often faced that scenario in past seasons as backup to Martin Brodeur in New Jersey. &ldquo;I think the first part here has shown I&rsquo;m in shape and that I can play in back-to-back situations. My job now is to continue that and just maintain my concentration.&rdquo;Fichaud, 22, was sent to Milwaukee so soon because of his age. The Predators think he needs to get game experience. Trotz said Fichaud may make the trip to Milwaukee several times this season just so he can stay sharp.&ldquo;Eric&rsquo;s a good prospect, he needs to play,&rdquo; Trotz said.When Fichaud heads to Milwaukee, Tomas Vokoun will be Dunham&rsquo;s backup.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Denny Lambert was suspended four games after a slashing incident with Detroit left winger Kirk Maltby Oct. 21. Lambert was assessed a match penalty for intent to injure on the play&hellip;The Predators&rsquo; primary penalty-killing unit, usually featuring center Tom Fitzgerald and right winger Blair Atcheynum, was getting plenty of work. The team skated a man down for 50 minutes in their first two games alone, including eight power play chances for Carolina in the team&rsquo;s first win in Nashville Oct 13&hellip; Defensemen Jayson More, one of the first Predators signed, and recent pickup Drake Berehowsky were the most frequent scratches early on as the team continued to carry nine defensemen. &#9632;

f0023-04

No shortage of work for Dunham

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01988/7136594-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="213" height="213"></div>He no longer gets down on his hands and knees and barks like a dog at the opposing team&rsquo;s bench.There is no more boasting that he is in an HBO movie where he plays a character who saves the world from monsters.And he claims his days of climbing over the glass after unruly fans are behind him.Sasha Lakovic has matured.&ldquo;People grow up. People change. Before, I didn&rsquo;t have a family. Now I do,&rdquo; said Lakovic, who earned a spot on the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; roster in training camp and turned it into a significant early-season role as a physical left winger for coach Robbie Ftorek.&ldquo;And I&rsquo;m working for a good organization. probably one of the best. I think the only real chance I&rsquo;ve had was when the Devils signed me. I don&rsquo;t call any other situations a chance.&rdquo;The Devils knew Lakovic&rsquo;s history when they signed him to a two-year contract Sept. 1, 1997, but they also thought he could play. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very fast and quite aware of what is going on the ice,&rdquo; Ftorek said.Lakovic played two games with the Devils last season, but broke his leg Nov. 12 and spent three months in a cast. The man who once compiled 416 penalty minutes in 49 games with Las Vegas of the International League hasn&rsquo;t lost his touch. Four games into the season he led the Devils with 33 PIM.NOTEBOOK: Unsigned free agent defenseman Scott Niedermayer signed a 25-game tryout contract with Utah of the International League which allowed him to leave if he came to an agreement with an NHL club&hellip;The Devils lost their first two games of the season for the first time since 1983, which happened to be veteran defenseman Ken Daneyko&rsquo;s first two NHL games&hellip;Coach Robbie Ftorek made the surprising decision to scratch rookie center Brendan Morrison Oct. 16 against the Rangers. Morrison was back in the lineup the next night&hellip;Center Bobby Carpenter appeared in his 300th game for the Devils Oct. 16&hellip;Geoff Stevens, New Jersey captain Scott Stevens&rsquo; brother, is a Devils&rsquo; scout in Ontario. &#9632;

f0024-01

Boasts and barks in past for family man Lakovic

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03441/7136625-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="770" height="1213"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tommy Salo</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02672/7136632-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="216" height="211"></div>Knowing they cannot rely on Ziggy Palffy&rsquo;s goal-scoring magic, the New York Islanders resorted to a low-risk defensive style which produced consecutive road shutouts for the first time in their history, 2-0 over the Tampa Bay Lightning and 1-0 over the St. Louis Blues.Coach-GM Mike Milbury gave partial credit for the team&rsquo;s 146-minute, 13-second scoreless streak in late Octobei to a system installed by new assistant coach Stefan Lunner, Tommy Salo&rsquo;s goalie coach in Sweden. The Isles hired Lunner in the off-season. The system involves steering attackers wide, finishing checks and generally playing tough in the defensive zone, so it is not as il Lunner re-invented the wheel.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve tried to work hard on defense the last two years,&rdquo; Salo said, &ldquo;(This year) I&rsquo;ve seen most of the shots. The defensemen try to clear the front of me all the time so I can see the shooters&hellip;We&rsquo;re trying to keep the game close and win the way we can.&rdquo;Milbury defended president Davie Seidin&rsquo;s offer to Palffy of a three-yeai deal averaging $4.25 million. Milbury said the two-year, $7.75-million deal signed Oct. 19 by Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center Doug Weight is a better barometer of Palffy&rsquo;s worth than agent Pau! Kraus&rsquo; request for a contract averaging $6.8 million.&ldquo;Would you trade Ziggy foi Weight?&rdquo; Milbury said, indicating he would do so in a heartbeat.Kraus argued Palffy compares better with suspended Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; $8-million right winger Pavel Bure.NOTEBOOK: Coach-GM Mike Milbury insisted his trade of right winger Tom Chorske to Washington was not a dump of Chorske&rsquo;s $600,000 salary, but was done because Chorske wanted more of a role than Milbury could promise&hellip;Milbury installed tough guy left winger Gino Odjick on the first line with center Robert Reichel and right winger Mariusz Czerkawski. Odjick responded with a goal against Tampa Bay and a strong game in St. Louis. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun,&rdquo; Odjick said. &ldquo;I just have to work hard, forecheck, create room for them, let them carry the puck and go to the net.&rdquo;&hellip;Milbury promoted center Claude Lapointe to left wing on the second line with right winger Trevor Linden and center Bryan Smolinski. &#9632;

f0024-03

No Ziggy ‘O’, ‘D’ steps up

<div class="byline">By Rick Car piniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04284/7136663-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="214" height="210"></div>If you had to guess which New York Rangers&rsquo; player is the most indispensible, you&rsquo;d probably guess Brian Leetch, Wayne Gretzky or Mike Richter.But in the first weeks of 1998-99, the Rangers couldn&rsquo;t thrive without right winger-tumed-center Todd Harvey.Harvey was so good, so soon, that Rangers&rsquo; coach John Muckier quickly dubbed him &ldquo;the heartbeat of the hockey club.&rdquo;The evidence supported it, too. The Rangers obtained Harvey last March, in a deadline deal with the Dallas Stars for Brian Skrudland and Mike Keane. A day earlier, however, Harvey underwent season-ending knee surgery, so the Rangers stumbled and continued to free-fall out of the playoff picture.In this year&rsquo;s first seven games, it was this simple: When Harvey played, the Rangers competed. When he didn&rsquo;t, they didn&rsquo;t.Harvey played the first game of the season after missing training camp as an unsigned free agent and the Rangers were competitive in a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. In that game, however, Harvey suffered a hip pointer that kept him out of the next two contests. The Rangers were blown out, 7-1 and 4-2, giving up 10 consecutive goals to the Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues.When Harvey came back, so did the Rangers, with a tough 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, then a 180-degree 2-0-1 streak including a tie with the Penguins in Pittsburgh and wins over the Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders.&ldquo;Harvey has so much energy,&rdquo; Richter said. &ldquo;One way or another he&rsquo;s going to be in somebody&rsquo;s face, either scoring or biting.&rdquo;Muckier put Harvey in the middle of an energetic line with left winger Adam Graves and right winger Mike Knuble. He also gave Harvey time on the power play.NOTEBOOK: Center Wayne Gretzky racked up the 2,800th point of his unparalleled career in Pittsburgh Oct. 17&hellip;In consecutive games, defensemen Peter Popovic and Ulf Samuelsson were injured by pucks to the face. Popovic missed two games with a right eye that was swollen shut and cut; Samuelsson didn&rsquo;t miss a shift despite a cracked cheekbone and played the next game with a full face shield&hellip;With Popovic sidelined, the Rangers recalled defenseman Jeff Finley from Hartford of the American League. Defenseman Geoff Smith was sent down to clear a spot on the 24-man roster&hellip;Manny Malhotra, the team&rsquo;s 18-year-old rookie center, scored his first NHL goal Oct. 20 against Edmonton. &#9632;

f0024-04

As Harvey goes, so go Blueshirts

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01885/7136694-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="215" height="215"></div>It didn&rsquo;t take long for Ottawa Senators&rsquo; captain Alexei Yashin to start feeling the heat in his new role.Still searching for his first goal five games into the season, the Senators&rsquo; No. 1 center was forced to come to his own defense about his lack of offense.On a team which has trouble scoring goals in the first place and with top winger Daniel Alfredsson nursing a knee injury, Yashin is expected to carry the offensive load with line-mates Shawn McEachern and Andreas Dackell.&ldquo;Everybody is concerned when I&rsquo;m going to score my first goal? I don&rsquo;t think about this and I&rsquo;m not worried about it,&rdquo; Yashin said.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think about scoring goals. I&rsquo;m more concerned about how I can help the team and the way the team is playing. As long as we&rsquo;re winning, it doesn&rsquo;t matter to me who scores the goals for us.&rdquo;And it was obvious Yashin, who had five assists in the club&rsquo;s first five games, was getting tired of the accusation from certain media circles he&rsquo;s selfish.Yashin readily admits he missed some opportunities early on to pass the puck because he didn&rsquo;t see his wingers open. He says he&rsquo;s more than willing to set a linemate up for a scoring a chance if there&rsquo;s an opening.&ldquo;It has been the same way for the last five years,&rdquo; said Yashin, who led the team in scoring last season with 33 goals and 39 assists for 72 points in 82 games. &ldquo;I always try to make the right decisions on the ice.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have to defend myself when people say that stuff. People are going to say what they want to say and there&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it. I&rsquo;m not going to sit here and worry about it.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Senators just keep falling. Three more went by the wayside when defensemen Sami Salo (groin) and Stan Neckar (ankle) along with right winger Magnus Arvedson (back spasms) were added to the injury list. Salo&rsquo;s injury was expected to keep him out two-to-four weeks while Neckar and Arvedson were day-to-day&hellip;Right winger Daniel Alfredsson is getting closer to making a return and it could be sooner than expected. He practised with the rest of the team and felt no pain in his injured left knee. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about 90 per cent,&rdquo; Alfredsson said. &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t want to push it too hard at first. I just want to take it easy and take my time with it If everything goes well, I can be back in two weeks.&rdquo; That would put Alfredsson in the lineup Nov. 7 but it may be overly optimistic&hellip;Right winger Stephen Leach, bought out by Carolina before the season, signed a deal worth $150,000 (Cdn.) that could be elevated to $500,000 with bonuses. &#9632;

f0025-01

Goal drought no big worry for Yashin

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02568/7136725-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="217" height="214"></div>Sometimes too much of a good thing isn&rsquo;t necessarily bad. At least that&rsquo;s the way Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson approached his overcrowded forward situation the first couple weeks of the season.The Flyers opened the year with 15 forwards, a few more than they needed. An Oct. 19 trade that sent right winger Trent Klatt to the Vancouver Canucks for a sixth round pick in the 2000 draft helped alleviate the problem a bit. But two players still had to sit on a nightly basis.Neilson made the best of it by scratching players who might need a night off to get re-focused.First to head to the press box was Mike Maneluk, the 25-year-old rookie right winger who went all the way from the American League Philadelphia Phantoms last June to the Eric Lindros-John LeClair fine on opening night. He watched the Oct. 20 game against the San Jose Sharks from the top floor of the First Union Center. Maneluk started the season with an assist in each of his first two games but, according to president-GM Bob Clarke, &ldquo;wasn&rsquo;t setting the world on fire.&rdquo;Next to take a seat was Alexandre Daigle. The 23-year-old No. 1 overall pick in 1993 was promoted to second-line center in training camp and scored the only goal in the Flyers&rsquo; 1-0 opening night victory at the N.Y. Rangers. Then things went cold and Daigle was scratched from the Oct. 22 game against New Jersey.Maneluk is seeing NHL-caliber competition for the first tune, so his inconsistent play is somewhat understandable.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s early in the year,&rdquo; Neilson said, &ldquo;and these guys know those kinds of things happen.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Ron Hextail recorded Flyers&rsquo; career victory No. 231 in a 5-2 win at Tampa Oct 16, leaving him one shy of Bernie Parent&rsquo;s team record&hellip;Center Eric Lindros registered six goals in his first six games, the best start of his seven-year career. Lindros led NHL pre-season scoring with 15 points&hellip;Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck gave up his first even-strength goal in a 3-2 loss to New Jersey Oct 22. In four prior games, Vanbiesbrouck had surrendered only three goals, all on opponents&rsquo; power plays&hellip;Left winger John LeClair registered a hat trick in the win at Tampa Bay, giving him 20 goals in 27 games lifetime versus the Lightning&hellip;After the first week of the regular season, the Flyers were near the top of the league in both power play and penalty killing. The team was giving much of the credit to assistant coach (and ex-penalty-killer extraordinaire) Craig Ramsay. &#9632;

f0025-02

Maneluk, Daigle get nights off in Fivers’ traffic iam at forward

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04227/7136756-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="215" height="216"></div>Practice was almost over. The Phoenix Coyotes were finishing up their final drill of the day. Less than a minute probably remained.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s usually when these stupid, freak things happen, too,&rdquo; center Jeremy Roenick said, shaking his head. &ldquo;Man, just a few seconds more and everything would have been fine.&rdquo;But it wasn&rsquo;t. On that last drill, Roenick lost his linemate and the Coyotes lost perhaps their grittiest player. Right winger Dallas Drake got his skate caught in a rut, slipped, and rookie defenseman Bryan Helmer fell on top of him. The result was a fractured left ankle for Drake who will be sidelined until at least late November.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just so ticked off that it happened,&rdquo; said Drake, who scored 11 goals and 40 points in 60 games last season. &ldquo;Things really seemed to be going well. Keith (Tkachuk), J.R. and me really seemed to be jelling on the same line and I was real excited to have a chance to play with them.&ldquo;But it seems like if anything goes wrong, it&rsquo;s going to happen to me. That&rsquo;s the way it has been the last couple years.&rdquo;The 29-year-old Drake has missed an average of about 20 games a year the past four seasons due to wrist, ankle, knee and shoulder injuries.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely a huge loss for us,&rdquo; Tkachuk said. &ldquo;Some people probably don&rsquo;t know just how important a guy like Dally Drake is to our team, but he brings a lot to the table. He works extremely hard and you almost wish you had 20 Dally Drakes-not for looks, though.&rdquo;Those in the mix to take Drake&rsquo;s spot on the top line include Mike Stapleton Juha Ylonen, Mike Sullivan and Shane Doan.NOTEBOOK: Center Daniel Briere and left winger Brad Isbister were assigned to Las Vegas of the International League just three games into the NHL season. Both are considered future cornerstones of the franchise, but GM Bobby Smith said, &ldquo;Younger guys should be playing every day, not sitting.&rdquo; Briere was recovering from a concussion and Isbistcr was a healthy scratch in Games 1 and 2. He was recalled for the team&rsquo;s fourth game after right winger Dallas Drake suffered his ankle injury&hellip;Center Jeremy Roenick said critics who have questioned whether he and left winger Keith Tkachuk can play together on the same line are misguided. &ldquo;Frankly,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;they don&rsquo;t know what the they&rsquo;re talking about and they should just shut Keith and 1 are going to jell well.&rdquo;&hellip;Defensemen Deron Quint and Michel Petit both recovering from concussions, likely will be cleared to play by early November. &#9632;

f0025-04

Misfortune finds Drake again as arittv forward breaks ankle

<div class="byline">By Joe Starkey</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03366/7136787-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="217" height="215"></div>The Pittsburgh Penguins would agree with this journalistic rule: It&rsquo;s best to have more than one source.Last season, the Penguins had a single source of offense; their top line of Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis and Stu Barnes accounted for about 40 per cent of the team&rsquo;s goals. This season, they appear to have two sources-and it pleases Jagr to no end.The second line of center Robert Lang, left winger German Titov and right winger Aleksey Morozov combined for 10 points in the Penguins&rsquo; 2-1-1 start.&ldquo;It makes it tough for the other teams to check us,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;Now we have two lines to score goals and to make plays. That&rsquo;s always good.&rdquo;The members of the second line own vastly different resumes.Lang, 27, revived his career with the Penguins last season after they claimed him off the waiver wire fan the Boston Bruins. He had two goals and two assists in the Pens&rsquo; first four games.Titov, 33, is trying to rejuvenate his career after a lost season with the Calgary Flames. He scored twice in a victory at New Jersey and has two assists to boot.Morozov, 21, is pegged by many observers as a future star. He had a goal and an assist through four games and was seeing lots of time on the penalty killing unit.Their divergent backgrounds aside, the three have some things in common.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re all offensive-minded,&rdquo; Lang said. &ldquo;And everyone&rsquo;s willing to backchek and do the dirty work, too.&rdquo;Said coach Kevin Constantine: &ldquo;To date they&rsquo;ve done a good job. Let&rsquo;s hope it keeps working.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Mario Lemieux was named co-chairman of a court-appointed, seven-member panel consisting of many of the Penguins&rsquo; creditors. The committee will participate in devising a plan to pay the team&rsquo;s creditors. The Penguins filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Oct. 13 and Lemieux is their biggest creditor, owed $28.7 million (See pg. 9 for more)&hellip;Goaltender Tom Barrasso strained his right groin muscle Oct. 17 against the Rangers and left the game. He returned to practice two days later, but left after seven minutes because he reaggravated the injury&hellip;Defenseman Darius Kasparaitis returned to full-contact practice Oct 19 and hoped to play Oct 26 at Toronto. Kasparaitis has a possible tom ACL in his right knee, but he opted for a rehabilitation program over arthroscopic surgery&hellip;A 5-0 loss to Tampa Oct. 21 marked the Pens&rsquo; largest margin of defeat in 86 regular season games under coach Kevin Constantine. &#9632;

f0025-03

Second line providing super support

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01978/7136818-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="217" height="216"></div>The St. Louis Blues lavished a four-year, $6-million contract to lure Scott Young as a free agent, but only five games into the season he was a healthy scratch.Coach Joel Quenneville, who pushed for Young&rsquo;s signing, sat out Young for the Blues&rsquo; game against the Ottawa Senators Oct. 22 at Corel Centre. Initially, he said Young was scratched to get Pascal Rheaume back in the line-up after missing one game as a healthy scratch.But pressed further, Quenneville indicated Young&rsquo;s play had not been up to par. In the Blues&rsquo; first four games, Young had no goals and no points, with eight shots on goal.&ldquo;In the last game, he played just OK,&rdquo; said Quenneville in perhaps the strongest language he&rsquo;ll ever muster about a player.Young has slid down the depth chart since the Blues signed him. He initially was projected as a second-line right winger, someone who could pick up some of scoring slack left by Brett Hull&rsquo;s departure. However, the one-time 40-goal scorer slipped to the third line in training camp and started the season on the fourth.&ldquo;Scott will be back in and get an opportunity for greater ice time and responsibility,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t played him in a real offensive type of role at this stage. Eventually, he&rsquo;s going to get that opportunity. Sometimes you have to earn it to get it.&rdquo;Although Young accepted his fate with professionalism, he wasn&rsquo;t happy about it.&ldquo;Of course I want to play-that&rsquo;s why I came here-but that&rsquo;s Joel&rsquo;s decision and I&rsquo;m not going to complain about it,&rdquo; said Young, who met privately with Quenneville. &ldquo;I just want to be kept informed of exactly what he&rsquo;s thinking. Other than that, I&rsquo;m just going to work hard and do my job.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Blues announced contract extensions for forwards Pavol Demitra and Pascal Rheaume Oct. 22. Demitra, who will earn $500,000 in base pay this season, signed a two-year, $2.7-million extension. Rheaume, who will earn $400,000 this season, signed a two-year, $1.35-million extension&hellip; After starting the season with a 3-3 tie against Boston and a 4-2 victory over the Rangers, the Blues lost 4-1 to Detroit and 1-0 against the Islanders in the home opener before exploding for five goals in a 5-3 victory at Ottawa&hellip;Former Ottawa left winger Michel Picard scored two goals against his old team, with former Senator Demitra assisting on both goals. Centers Pierre Turgeon and Mike Eastwood and right winger Kelly Chase scored their first goals of the season. Goalie Jamie McLennan got his first win of the year&hellip;Goalie Grant Fuhr suffered a strained knee in the loss at Detroit and missed the next two games. &#9632;

f0026-01

Quenneville sits struggling veteran Young

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02657/7136849-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="216" height="216"></div>As their seemitgty annual pour start threatened to balloon into a disaster, the San Jose Sharks could only hope prodigal wingers Jeff Friesen and Owen Nolan and defenseman Gary Suter would make a difference.Friesen and Nolan, who missed all of training camp and the first two regular season games, finally agreed to terms Oct. 16. Suter, meanwhile, planned to debut in a Sharks&rsquo; sweater Oct. 24 at Dallas, his recovery from off-season elbow surgery nearly complete.San Jose needed all of them, as well as injured defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson, at the top of their games as soon as possible. A 2-2 tie Oct. 22 in Chicago left the Sharks 0-3-2 entering their first meeting with the Stars since Dallas won last year&rsquo;s opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series in six games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough when you don&rsquo;t have all your people and we haven&rsquo;t had a lot of practice time,&rdquo; said San Jose coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;A lot of the mistakes we&rsquo;re making are because of it.&rdquo;The addition of Friesen and Nolan, the club&rsquo;s top two returning scorers, definitely should help. Along with everybody else, they went scoreless in a 3-0 home loss to the Boston Bruins Oct. 18, before Nolan set up a Friesen power play goal in a 3-1 loss at Philadelphia Oct. 20. Nolan bagged his first goal of the season in the draw at Chicago two nights later.Nolan agreed to a two-year contract worth a guaranteed $2.6 million annually, while Friesen received a three-year deal with an annual salary of $2.5 million. Each player can boost his 1999-2000 pay as much as $1 million by achieving certain team and individual performance incentives.NOTEBOOK: To make room on the 24-man roster for left winger Jeff Friesen and right winger Owen Nolan, San Jose assigned center Jarrod Skalde to American League affiliate Kentucky and released center Jamie Baker. A former Shark from 1993-94 through 1995-96, Baker came to training camp on a tryout basis after having spent most of last season with Chicago of the International League. Baker might retire&hellip;Rookie defenseman Andy Sutton played well in his NHL debut, a 3-1 loss at Philadelphia Oct. 20&hellip;Goaltender Steve Shields, who missed all of training camp and the exhibition season because of a broken finger, made his San Jose debut in relief of Mike Vernon during a 3-0 loss to Boston Oct. 18. Shields, acquired this summer from Buffalo for goalie Kay Whitmore and a swap of draft picks, had 31 saves in his fust start as a Shark, a 2-2 tie at Chicago Oct. 22. &#9632;

f0026-02

Friesen, Nolan finally on board to help set sinking ship straight

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03521/7136880-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="216" height="216"></div>Though coaching his fifth different NHL team, Jacques Demers considers himself a rookie.A rookie GM, that is.Demers assumed the dual role of coach-GM when Tampa Bay Lightning owner Art Williams fired GM Phil Esposito and assistant GM Tony Esposito Oct. 13, then spent much of the following week figuring out how to handle both jobs.&ldquo;It could be done,&rdquo; Demers said, &ldquo;if you surround yourself with the right people.&rdquo;To that end, the Lightning made several promotions and two new hires.Demers named head scout Don Murdoch director of hockey operations (a slight alternation from the title originally announced, director of player personnel), promoted pro scout Peter Mahovlich to director of pro scouting and made assistant coach Rick Paterson associate coach.He then hired an assistant GM Oct. 20, naming Jay Feaster, president of the American League&rsquo;s Hershey Bears, to the post. Other candidates included Phil Scheuer, assistant to the GM of the Montreal Canadiens; ex-Mighty Ducks of Anaheim GM Jack Ferreira; and Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; senior vice-president Jim Devellano, who turned down an offer. Feaster will primarily handle contract matters and assist with negotiations.The final piece of the front-office puzzle was 63-year-old former Atlanta/Calgary Flames&rsquo; and Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher agreeing to become a senior adviser to Demers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to do whatever Jacques asks me to do,&rdquo; Fletcher said &ldquo;Hopefully I can help him over the next year or two as he gradually learns the job of a GM.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Lightning had hoped left winger Stephane Richer could rehabilitate his surgically repaired left ankle, but Richer had to undergo further arthroscopic surgery to clean out scar tissue in the joint Oct. 19. He may miss up to a month&hellip;With Richer out, the Lightning promoted center Daymond Langkow, their first round draft pick in 1995, from Cleveland of the International League. Langkow helped shut down right winger Jaromir Jagr&rsquo;s line in his first game back, a 5-0 win over Pittsburgh Oct. 21&hellip;The Lightning had several firsts against the Penguins: Goalie Daren Puppa recorded his first shutout since March of 1996 and his first win since Dec. 3, 1997; left winger Rob Zamuner scored his first NHL goal since before the Winter Olympics; Darcy Tucker had the first two-goal game of his career; and center Vincent Lecavalier registered his first NHL point an assist. &#9632;

f0026-03

New Lightning boss Demers shuffles manaaement deck

<div class="byline">By Paul Hunter</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04367/7136911-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="218" height="215"></div>Alyn McCauley&rsquo;s early-season production-five points in the first five games-is a significant boost to the Toronto Maple Leafs on two levels.Not only has the 21-year-old&rsquo;s offensive contribution helped Toronto burst out of the gate with a surprising 3-1-1 record, he has also taken pressure off team management to trade excess goaltender Felix Potvin for a long-required, second-line center.For now, McCauley is filling the role more than adequately. His two goals and three assists tied him with Mats Sundin for the team lead in points and demonstrates he is more than just the defensive role player he was last season.&ldquo;He can&rsquo;t start thinking all of a sudden that he&rsquo;s an offensive player and just hang around on the edge of the play waiting for the puck,&rdquo; said Toronto coach Pat Quinn. &ldquo;But he knows that if he gets more points, he can continue to play on a more frequent basis with higher-scoring guys.&rdquo;Quinn still refers to McCauley&rsquo;s presence on his No. 2 unit with wingers Mike Johnson and, usually, Derek King as &ldquo;an experiment.&rdquo; But he and fellow NHL sophomore Johnson have meshed impressively. McCauley has demonstrated the on-ice smarts and creativity that saw him score 56 goals and 112 points for the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s two seasons ago when he was named the Canadian junior player of the year.In his rookie NHL campaign, he had just six goals and 16 points in 60 games as a checking center.&ldquo;Geez, I&rsquo;ve only had one other year in my life when 1 scored less than six goals and that&rsquo;s when I was four years old,&rdquo; McCauley said. &ldquo;I know goals are a lot harder to come by in the NHL, but surely I&rsquo;ve got more in me than six.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Leafs were fined $100,000 and lost a draft pick, believed to be a fifth-or sixth-rounder next year, for tampering in the hiring of scout Thommie Bergman from Anaheim, the Toronto Sun reported&hellip;In Toronto&rsquo;s first five games, Czech rookie defenseman Tomas Kaberie averaged 24:46 of playing time, more than any other Leaf&hellip;In Toronto&rsquo;s fourth game of the season, coach Pat Quinn scratched forwards Darby Hendrickson and Derek King, two players who were never healthy scratches last season&hellip;Defenseman Kevin Dahl, picked up in the pre-season waiver draft from St. Louis, made his Leafs&rsquo; debut against Vancouver Oct. 17, but was immediately sidelined with a badly sprained ankle&hellip;Last season as a rookie, right winger Mike Johnson recorded 36 points at home, 11 on the road. Two goals and an assist during a three-game swing through Western Canada indicated Johnson may be shaking off that &ldquo;away&rdquo; slump. &#9632;

f0026-04

McCauley adds offense to repertoire

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01930/7136942-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="217" height="217"></div>After standing pat all summer, the Vancouver Canucks decided three games into the new season they needed help on right wing.The Canucks had auditioned everyone in their system as they sought to fill the vacancies created by Pavel Bure&rsquo;s walkout and the decision not to re-sign the plodding Brian Noonan. But the results weren&rsquo;t satisfying and GM Brian Burke finally acquired veteran Trent Klatt from the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 19 for a sixth-round draft pick in 2000.Klatt, who signed a three-year, $3.2-million (U.S.) contract before the season, became expendable when the Flyers opted to sign Jody Hull. Klatt was available on waivers earlier, but Vancouver worked out a deal in which Philadelphia picks up approximately $1 million (U.S.) in salary over the life ol the contract.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an upgrade for us,&rdquo; Burke said, &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t the solution for us-we&rsquo;re not ordering Stanley Cup rings-but it helps us. He has size and plays hard and isn&rsquo;t afraid to play physically.&rdquo;Klatt, 27, did not pick up a point or a penalty in his first two games with the Canucks. He killed penalties and saw a regular shift. But the Minnesota native admitted disappointment at being shuffled off by the Flyers for virtually nothing.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t something I was looking i for, but at the same time I could kind of tell it was coming,&rdquo; Klatt said. &ldquo;They put me on waivers and I sat out two of the first four games, so I figured my time was short with Philadelphia.&ldquo;I could sit here and try to figure out: why-I&rsquo;ve been doing that the last six or seven days-but I haven&rsquo;t really got any good answers.&rdquo;Canucks&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan was looking for more experience on the right side after tinkering with left wingers Markus Naslund and Todd. Bertuzzi in the position. Top farmhand Peter Schaefer earlier failed to make an impression during an extensive preseason evaluation.&ldquo;With Bure and Noonan out, this gives us depth and experience,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;We gave Schaefer a real hard look and he wasn&rsquo;t ready and we&rsquo;re already using one youngster in Bill Muckalt.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Rookie right winger Bill Muckalt scored his first NHL goal against former Canucks&rsquo; goalie Arturs Irbe in a 3-1 Vancouver loss to Carolina Oct. 20. Muckalt deflected home a point shot by defenseman Mattias Ohlund&hellip;Goalie Garth Snow played the game of his life Oct. 17 against Toronto when he made 39 saves in a 4-1 Vancouver victory. The Canucks were outshot 40-17 in the contest as they beat ex-boss Pat Quinn, who now coaches the Leafs. (See pg. 18 for more on Snow)&hellip;The Canucks and unsigned defenseman Bryan McCabe remained &ldquo;miles apart&rdquo; on a contract, said senior vice-president of hockey operations David Nonis&hellip;Center Mark Messier needed one goal as of Oct. 22 to hit the 600-goal plateau. &#9632;

f0027-01

Veteran Klatt bolsters richt side

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>If Alexander Semak were after money, he certainly wouldn&rsquo;t be playing on an American League contract with the Albany River Rats.But Semak can live with a deal worth about $40,000 because he has no intention of staying in the minors. The 32-year-old center is intent on playing with the New Jersey Devils.Semak joined Albany just before the AHL season began after being released from a training-camp tryout by the Pittsburgh Penguins.&ldquo;I played a few exhibition games and saw I can still play,&rdquo; said Semak, who helped the Chicago Wolves win the International League&rsquo;s Turner Cup last season. &ldquo;I can sign for more money in the IHL or even in Russia. But the whole idea is I think I&rsquo;ve got a chance to play in New Jersey if I play good in Albany.&rdquo;Albany coach John Cunniff was elated to add Semak to his roster. A year ago, Peter Zezel provided leadership to the Devils&rsquo; 5 prospects while at the same time reviving his own career and earning a trade to the Vancouver Canucks.&ldquo;We want our younger guys to see how Alex handles himself and prepares for games,&rdquo; Cunniff said. &ldquo;When Peter was here, he was (figuratively) the mayor of the city and it was great for Brendan Morrison to be around him.&ldquo;Alex isn&rsquo;t as vocal as Peter. But with the experience he has in the NHL, the Russian national team and (Moscow) Dynamo, we need that. Remember, when he was with Dynamo, he was the top center and that team also had (Alexei) Zhamnov and (Alexei) Yashin.&rdquo;Semak had 26 goals and 61 points in 67 IHL games last season, then dominated in the playoffs with 10 goals and 27 points in 22 games. New Jersey&rsquo;s 10th round draft pick in 1988, he has 83 goals and 174 points in 289 NHL games for the Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders and Vancouver. His last full NHL season was 1995-96 with the Islanders.&ldquo;We saw him play in the IHL playoffs and think he still has it,&rdquo; Cunniff said. &ldquo;When we traded him (in March 1995), he was not as strong defensively as (then coach) Jacques Lemaire wanted. But we know his offensive capabilities.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01856/7137004-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="563" height="565"></div>CALLING IT QUITS: Nine-year pro hockey veteran Tim Sweeney retired after the opening weekend of the AHL season.Sweeney, 31, signed a try-out contract with the Providence Bruins in hopes of attracting interest from an NHL team. But he didn&rsquo;t play well in Providence&rsquo;s first two games and told coach Peter Laviolette it was time to move on.&ldquo;He told me that if you can&rsquo;t play with passion, that there is no sense in playing at all,&rdquo; Laviolette said. &ldquo;I think he was very frustrated that he had a good season in the NHL and yet no club was interested in him.&rdquo;The left winger led the New York Rangers in plus/minus (plus-7) and finished eighth on the club in scoring last season with 11 goals and - 29 points in 56 games.Sweeney scored 55 goals and 138 points in 291 NHL games for four teams. He was a second-team AHL all-star with Salt Lake in 1989-90 i and a second-team AHL all-star with Providence in 1992-93.BE A REPORTER: The f AHL&rsquo;s player of the week will enter the league&rsquo;s chat room to&rdquo; talk to fans via the internet every Tuesday at 7 p.m. (EST).To log on and ask your question, the address is <a href="http://www.canoe.ca/ahl">www.canoe.ca/ahl</a>. Should the player of the week have a game on Tuesday, the chat will be pushed back to the next night his team doesn&rsquo;t play.AHL TIDBITS: The Adirondack Red Wings acquired defenseman Shane Hnidy for his toughness, but the third-year minor league veteran is providing more. Through four games, he had two goals and three assists, including the winner on opening night&hellip;Syracuse Crunch winger Robert Dome is only 19, but he has more pro experience (two years) than 18 of his 24 Crunch teammates&hellip;The Rochester Americans drew a franchise-record 10,319 fans on opening night when they made their debut in the renovated and expanded Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial Oct. 16&hellip;Hershey drew 7,075 fans for the home opener, the largest opening-night crowd in the Bears 61-year history&hellip;Hamilton Bulldogs&rsquo; Chris Ferraro had five assists in a 7-3 win over the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks Oct. 17. &#9632;

f0029-01

Semak thinks road to NHL has route through Albany

<div class="byline">By Kevin Iole</div>The Utah Grizzlies signing of IN HL tree agents Scott Niedenmayer and Anson Carter is hurting the relationship between the NHL and International League, says IHL president-CEO Doug Moss.Niedermayer, who was a second-team NHL all-star defenseman with the New Jersey Devils last season, signed a 25-game tryout with Utah Oct. 19. He had an assist in his debut, a 4-3 win against the Milwaukee Admirals Oct. 21. He was paired with ex-NHLer Jeff Sharpies.Carter, in a contract squabble with the Boston Bruins, joined the Grizzlies in time for an Oct. 23 game against the Kansas City Blades.Moss sees it as a rent-a-player proposition and will damage the league&rsquo;s relationship with the NHL. He was also unhappy when the Las Vegas Thunder signed Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; &lsquo;holdout Petr Nedved.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t make sense as it&rsquo;s just a short-term fix,&rdquo; Moss said. &ldquo;We hope this doesn&rsquo;t deter our improved relations with the NHL. The signing(s) by Utah is not a statement of the direction this league is headed.&rdquo;Utah coach-GM Butch Goring sloughed off criticism from Moss and other IHL executives.&ldquo;Having Niedermayer here will put more people in our building and it will make our team stronger, which are two things 1 look to do,&rdquo; Goring said. &ldquo;If I lose a lot of games here, is Moss going to get fired? You better believe he won&rsquo;t. It&rsquo;s my (job) that&rsquo;s on the line.&rdquo;A Group II free agent, Niedermayer had 14 goals and 57 points for New Jersey last season. Goring said agent Don Meehan told him there was a big gap between the sides and Niedermayer could be in Utah for a long time.Carter said he&rsquo;s unhappy with the way negotiations with the Bruins are going and would welcome a trade (see pg. 19).SHANK CUT LOOSE: The Grizzlies released high-scoring but well-travelled winger Daniel Shank, whom the club acquired in the summer from the defunct San Antonio Dragons.Shank went to NHL camp with the Buffalo Sabres and injured his back there.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02552/7137035-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="924" height="380"></div>When the Sabres assigned Shank to Utah, he failed the Grizzlies&rsquo; physical. Goring said he felt it was best to make a clean break.&ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t pass the physical, so we have no more obligation,&rdquo; Goring said. &ldquo;I felt it was best to go in a different direction.&rdquo;Shank, 31, has had six straight IHL seasons of at least 30 goals and 70 points. He has also averaged 281 penalty minutes and played for seven teams in the six seasons.VEGAS STARS INJURED: The Las Vegas Thunder lost three of its best forwards in the first week of the season.Center Stefan Ustorf sustained a concussion when he was hammered by a shoulder from Cam Stewart of the Houston Aeros Oct. 13.Two games later, league MVP Patrice Lefebvre sprained his left knee when he caught his skate in a rut. He&rsquo;ll be &lsquo;out of action until mid-November. Later in the game, Petr Nedved was slammed into the boards and hyperextended his right elbow. The injury wasn&rsquo;t serious, but he was expected to be out until early November.To fill the void, Las Vegas signed former NHL left winger Randy Burridge, who in his debut had three goals and two assists in a 7-4 victory over Utah Oct. 17.VIPERS NAB WEEKES: Veteran goalie Jeff Reese of the Detroit Vipers retired unexpectedly Oct. 15, saying he didn&rsquo;t believe he was at the top of his game.The Vipers wasted little time signing a replacement, nabbing Kevin Weekes, a Florida Panthers&rsquo; unsigned Group IL free agent.Weekes played 12 games for Vipers&rsquo; GM John Torchetti last season in Fort Wayne.&ldquo;He is one of the most athletic goalies I&rsquo;ve seen,&rdquo; Torchetti said.I-OPENERS: Houston signed NHL veteran defenseman Norm Maciver after losing Sven Butchenshon until December with a knee injury&hellip;The Indianapolis Ice claimed goalie Jeff Salajko on waivers from Kansas City&hellip;Left winger Todd Krygier signed with the Orlando Solar Bears&hellip;Detroit&rsquo;s Peter Ciavaglia made a hole-in-one at the team&rsquo;s annual golf tournament outside Detroit, acing the 115-yard 10th hole. &#9632;

f0029-02

Grizzlies’ deal with NHLers has IHL boss waving arms

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>What&rsquo;s it going to take for some teams to get the message about the seriousness of violating the East Coast League&rsquo;s weekly salary cap? Stiffer fines might do the job.At least that&rsquo;s what ECHL president-CEO Richard Adams is hoping will happen after the Louisiana Ice-Gators were reportedly fined a league-record $60,000 after an investigation revealed a salary cap violation last season.Adams would not confirm the amount, but the Peoria Journal-Star reported Oct. 15 the IceGators were fined $60,000. This comes on the heels of the Pensacola Ice Pilots being fined $25,000 for cap violations in 1997-98.&ldquo;I can confirm there was an investigation and they (Louisiana) were found guilty of salary cap violations from last season,&rdquo; Adams said. &ldquo;Sanctions were handed down, but beyond that, I can&rsquo;t comment on the specifics.&rdquo;Two years ago, the IceGators had nine wins taken away from them at the start of the season for using an ineligible player.Last season, Louisiana finished with the most regular season points, claiming the Brabham Cup.&ldquo;The IceGators have followed all guidelines to pay a monetary fine and have moved on,&rdquo; said Louisiana GM Jady Regard.Adams said two other teams, believed to be in the Northern Conference, were also under investigation for cap violations. One of them did not merit any sanctions, but the other team is still being investigated.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03357/7137066-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="506" height="529"></div>&ldquo;I intend to continue vigorously enforcing violations,&rdquo; Adams said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made it clear that if there is a serious violation, points will be in jeopardy and even the potential of removal from the post-season.&rdquo;ECHL BEATS UHL: The Peoria Rivermen met the Quad City Mallards of the United League in a i home-and-home, two-game series that marked the first, games ever played between the rival leagues.Peoria, which has been the ECHL&rsquo;s winningest team the past two seasons, beat the two-time defending UHL champion Mallards 3-1 in Peoria and 5-4 in Moline, Ill.A THN study on minor pro hockey last season reported the caliber of play in the ECHL to be slightly higher than the UHL.ATTENDANCE HIKE: The opening weekend of the season attracted sellout crowds to four arenas and was up 4.3 per cent over the 1997-98 season-opening weekend.There were sellouts in Greenville, S.C. (14,108), Toledo, Ohio (5,265), Pensacola, Ha. (8,150), and Augusta, Ga. (7,151). The first ECHL game at the Miami Arena attracted only 3,368. The league averaged 5,460 for the first 31 games.COAST LINES: The Birmingham Bulls&rsquo; season opener against Louisiana Oct. 15 was postponed because of unsafe ice conditions at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. Major holes in the ice resulted when the Civic Center attempted to lay down Bulls&rsquo; team and sponsor logos Oct. 14 and the ice failed to settle properly. A make-up date was yet to be scheduled. &#9632;

f0029-03

IceGators nabbed for league’s second cap violation

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>While the Brampton Battalion have accepted they could lose Jason Spezza after this season, other Ontario League teams are drooling at the prospect of having him in their lineup.The 15-year-old forward, playing in his hometown a year ahead of his draft year, isn&rsquo;t out of place competing against players four and five years older.Spezza was leading the expansion Battalion with three goals and nine points in seven games. He scored the tying goal and set up the winner in the franchise&rsquo;s first victory as Brampton beat the Sudbury Wolves 5-4 Oct. 18.An OHL rule permits a player to play in his hometown until he&rsquo;s eligible for the draft. That&rsquo;s at age 16 and that happens next May for Spezza, who is already 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds.&ldquo;Our philosophy was to give our fans a chance to see a talented player play in his hometown for at least a season,&rdquo; said Battalion coach -GM Stan Butler.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a great player in this league. We&rsquo;re well aware this could be a one-year thing for us and whether he&rsquo;s back with us or he goes somewhere else, it&rsquo;s beneficial for everyone that he play now.&rdquo;Butler hopes he&rsquo;s not in a position to pick No. 1 in the draft, an honor that goes to the team finishing last, although it would guarantee the Battalion would retain Spezza.Spezza&rsquo;s parents moved from Mississauga to Brampton in the summer. He said his parents had decided to sell their house anyway.While Mississauga also got an expansion team this season (the IceDogs), Brampton was chosen after the family looked at the franchise. The team is owned by Trivial Pursuit co-inventor Scott Abbott, a former Montreal sports reporter.&ldquo;Brampton seemed like a good fit,&rdquo; Spezza said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that I didn&rsquo;t want to play for the IceDogs (co-owned by Don Cherry), but I did have an option and Brampton was the best situation for me to walk into.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01968/7137097-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="946" height="323"></div>GOING TO COURT: The Samia Sting launched a lawsuit Oct. 19 in an attempt to get right winger Yevgeny Lazarev to join the team.Lazarev, 18, was selected by the Sting in this year&rsquo;s CHL import draft, but was assigned to the. Hershey Bears of the American League by the Colorado Avalanche after signing a pro contract.The Sting claim that contravenes the CHL-NHL agreement that 18-or 19-year-olds who don&rsquo;t make the NHL are to return to their junior teams. The Ukrainian, who played Jr. B in Kitchener last season, was drafted by Colorado in the third round in June. The NHL approved the assignment because it says Jr. B. teams are not covered by the CHL-NHL agreement.Lazarev&rsquo;s agent, Scott Norton, contends there was nothing illegal about the move. &ldquo;(The Sting are) attempting to block a young man from having a pro career,&rdquo; Norton said.The Sting&rsquo;s suit is against Lazarev, Norton, the Avalanche and Bears. Lazarev played three games with the Bears before the Sting obtained a 10-day injunction to prevent him from continuing.The Sting were also seeking a court order to force the NHL to require the Avalanche to return Lazarev to the OHL. &ldquo;We have an IIHF transfer that&rsquo;s signed by Lazarev,&rdquo; said Sting owner Robert Ciccarelli. &ldquo;We believe there&rsquo;s a binding contractual obligation and we want the player to honor that.&rdquo;The matter will be back in court Oct. 29.ERIE START: Tim Connolly of the Erie Otters fired 13 goals in his first eight games. In one stretch, Connolly scored 12 goals in five games and hat tricks in three of four outings.BLUE DOGS: The expansion Mississauga IceDogs, at 0-9-0, were the only team in the Canadian Hockey League without a win. OHL penalty leader Adam Nittel had three goals in an 11-6 loss to the Owen Sound Platers Oct. 17. &#9632;

f0030-01

Fifteen-year-old Spezza something special in Brampton

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherland</div>If you asked Marc-Andre Thinel, he&rsquo;d likely say the Victoriaville Tigres have already made their best move of the year.That&rsquo;s because GM Pierre Roux brought Thinel&rsquo;s twin brother Sebastien to Victoriaville in the pre-season, acquiring him from the Sherbrooke Castors for a fourth-round pick.&ldquo;Pierre told me he would trade for him so I wasn&rsquo;t surprised, but I was very happy,&rdquo; Marc-Andre said.But Roux didn&rsquo;t bring Sebastien to Victoriaville for a family reunion. The identical twins are expected to be impact players.Marc-Andre had eight goals and 21 points in 15 games while Sebastien had six goals and 11 points in 15 games.&ldquo;He has better hands than me, but I work harder,&rdquo; Marc-Andre said with a laugh.The two were apart last season when Marc-Andre played with the Tigres as a 16-year-old and Sebastien returned to-AAA midget Amos.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re both offensive players,&rdquo; said Victoriaville coach Alain Rajotte, who plays the 17-year-old wingers on different lines.&ldquo;I would say Marc-Andre is a little more complete than Sebastien. He has one more year of experience in the league and he&rsquo;s a faster skater.&ldquo;Sebastien has the touch around the net and on a breakaway he&rsquo;s better than Marc-Andre.&rdquo;The Thinels aren&rsquo;t the only twins playing in the Quebec League. Shawn Scanzano is a defenseman for the Bathurst Titan and Wesley Scanzano is a forward for the Quebec Rem-parts.TO THE RESCUE: Alexei Volkov was half-asleep, but he won&rsquo;t soon forget the first time he was called to the NHL.Around two in the morning of Oct. 19, the 18-year-old Russian goalie got the news the Los Angeles Kings needed him.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02645/7137128-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="703" height="644"></div>Goalies Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr suffered groin injuries the night before, forcing the Kings to call up Volkov from the Halifax Mooseheads and Manny Legace from the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the International League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little bit nervous, but I&rsquo;m really confident in myself,&rdquo; said Volkov, who won his first eight games with the Mooseheads and posted a 1.75 goals-against average.Volkov, a third-round pick this past June, was expected to stay with the Kings until Fiset, who was listed as day-to-day, was cleared to play.RUSSIAN RETURN: The Moncton Wildcats started the season with winger Dimitri Afanasenkov as their only import, but fellow Russians Alexei Tezikov and Dmitri Kalinin, both defensemen, arrived in mid-October.The overaged Tezikov returned to Moncton when contract talks with the Buffalo Sabres broke down, but it&rsquo;s not a given he&rsquo;ll play for the Wildcats. &lsquo;Kalinin, meanwhile, is in the lineup.The Sabres selected Kalinin 18th overall in June, but they were unable to sign him.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big, physical defenseman, who is a good-to-excellent skater,&rdquo; said Moncton coach Real Paiement. Moncton picked the 6-foot-2, 198-pounder third overall in July&rsquo;s import draft.Paiement didn&rsquo;t rule out Tezikov&rsquo;s return, but the Wildcats would have to make room for him. Teams are limited to two imports and three overagers.NOTEBOOK: Cape Breton Screaming Eagles&rsquo; center Ryan Walsh recorded 19 points to help his team win all four games of a midOctober homestand&hellip;Vai d&rsquo;Or Foreurs&rsquo; goalie Roberto Luongo, back from the New York Islanders&rsquo; camp, made 59 saves in his season debut, a 3-3 tie with Quebec&hellip;Mooseheads&rsquo; center Billy Manley, 19, was expected to be out at least two months with a separated right shoulder and fractured collarbone. He suffered the injuries when he was checked into the boards during an Oct. 16 game against Victoriaville. &#9632;

f0030-02

Highly skilled Thinel twins make imoact in Victoriaville

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; coach Bob Lowes threw a temper tantrum-and the Western League threw the book at him.WHL vice-president Richard Doerksen suspended Lowes 10 games due to his actions during and after an Oct. 16 game against the visiting Portland Winter Hawks.Lowes became incensed with referee Todd Heavisides in the dying seconds of overtime in a 2-2 tie. Lowes smashed a stick against the boards, stood on the boards, pounded the stick and yelled at the officials while approaching the penalty bench. A game misconduct was issued.Doerksen said after the final buzzer, Lowes blocked the path to the officials&rsquo; quarters. When the officials were able to enter the room, Lowes gained forcible entry and resumed his tirade. He was promptly handed a gross misconduct.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to say there was no physical contact inside the room,&rdquo; Doerksen said. &ldquo;It was strictly verbal abuse. But he did enter the officials&rsquo; room, which is off-limits.&rdquo;Lowes expressed regret over the incident.&ldquo;(The length of the suspension) is fair, based on what I did,&rdquo; Lowes said. &ldquo;The league can&rsquo;t tolerate coaches or players abusing officials at any time. There is no question I crossed the line.I feel terrible and accept full responsibility.&rdquo;Brandon assistant Mark Johnston assumed control of the bench in Lowes&rsquo; absence.The Wheat Kings were also fined $2,500 for failing to provide adequate security protection for the officials following the game.SHOCKER IN REGINA: Parry Shockey became the first coaching casualty of the season when the Regina Pats dropped the axe.The Pats had a 2-6-1 record Oct. 15. &ldquo;I was shocked,&rdquo; Shockey said. &ldquo;I had no idea.&rdquo;Shockey was fired early in his second season with the Pats. Last winter, he guided Regina to a 46-21-5 record and its first Eastern Conference regular-season pennant since 1983-84.An acrimonious relationship between Pats&rsquo; GM Brent Parker and Shockey contributed to the coaching change.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03445/7137159-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="513" height="522"></div>&ldquo;Our relationship has been delicate and fragile for a long time,&rdquo; Shockey said. &ldquo;I did my job to the best of my ability and that&rsquo;s all I can do.&rdquo;Shockey was succeeded on an interim basis by assistant Tim Tisdale. Pats&rsquo; goaltending coach and administrative aide Chad Mercier became Tisdale&rsquo;s assistant.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure we&rsquo;ve all been on the same page,&rdquo; Tisdale said. &ldquo;We have to rectify that.&rdquo;Parker said Shockey had apparent communications problems with players and referees.&ldquo;He was aware I wanted him to make some changes,&rdquo; Parker said, &ldquo;and he was not willing to make them.&rdquo;&ldquo;Brent and I wanted the same result,&rdquo; Shockey added. &ldquo;The manner in which we wanted to achieve the end result was the difference.&rdquo;The Pats split their first two games under coach Tisdale. Tisdale recorded his first WHL win against the Swift Current Broncos-for whom he y scored the winning goal in the 1989 Memorial Cup.THE GOLDEN BRETT: The Kelowna Rockets&rsquo; spirits skyrocketed with the return of high-scoring forward Brett McLean.McLean, 20, rejoined the Rockets after a stint with the American League&rsquo;s Adirondack Red Wings. He had 88 points in 54 games with Kelowna last season.&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t counting on him at all, so this is nice,&rdquo; said Kelowna GM Bruce Hamilton. &ldquo;It was his decision to come back here.&rdquo;McLean declined a one-year minor league contract offer from Adirondack.&ldquo;A major factor was that if I sign a pro contract, I&rsquo;ll lose my college money (as per the WHL&rsquo;s education agreement),&rdquo; McLean said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always enticing to be offered a pro contract. Adirondack is one step away from the Detroit Red Wings. But I was offered that same contract in the summer. I told myself that if I didn&rsquo;t get an NHL contract, I&rsquo;d come back to junior. I followed through on that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-03

Wheat Kings’ coach Lowes draws 10-game suspension

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Alaska-Anchorage has served as the resident doormat in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association the past two seasons. During that time, the Seawolves have won just 15 of 72 games, finished last twice and averaged just two goals per league game.Coach Dean Talafous is aware some people are pushing for his dismissal. Just the same, he believes his program, built around defense and discipline, is on the verge of blossoming.&ldquo;We are a much-improved team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the most depth and talent and experience since we&rsquo;ve been here. We&rsquo;ll have to wait and see if it&rsquo;s enough.&rdquo;The early returns are so-so. The Seawolves opened the season losing three of four, including a non-conference sweep at the hands of future WCHA member Mankato State Oct. 10-11.Talafous said his rigid defensive system, two-plus years in the making, and his desire to avoid penalties are starting to sink in with his players.&ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s on the same page,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You tell them to do it one time and they do it.&rdquo;Now it becomes a matter of cultivating an offense. Talafous believes he has the core personnel in veterans Rob Douglas. Clayton Read and Chris Sikich and a promising freshman class. Through four games, rookies Jeff Carlson, Mike Scott and Corey Hessler contributed at least one goal each.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll continue to play our style, but hope-fully score more goals,&rdquo; Talafous said. &ldquo;I think people are going to be surprised.&rdquo;<h2>WCHA</h2>BLASTS FROM THE PAST: Two sons of former Wisconsin players plan to follow in the footsteps of their fathers next season.Brad Winchester, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound winger from Madison, Wis., and Dan Heatley, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound forward from Calgary have given non-binding verbal commitments to Badgers&rsquo; coach Jeff Sauer. They plan to sign NCAA letters of intent in November.Gary Winchester was a center for Wisconsin from 1970-71 through 1973-74, accounting for 83 goals and 163 points in a career that included a national championship in 1973.Murray Heatley was a Badgers&rsquo; winger from 1968-69 through 1970-71 who totaled 75 goals and 62 assists in his career.SPINNING TURNSTILES: The WCHA season was barely two weeks old when the first 100,000 fans were recorded. Leading the way was Wisconsin, which averaged 12,909 for three dates at the new Kohl Center, and Minnesota, which averaged 9,625 for four games at Mariucci Arena.GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION: It did not take Tyler Arnason long to make an impression on the St. Cloud State depth chart. In a 7-1 exhibition victory over Brandon (Man.) University Oct. 17, the rookie center scored four consecutive goals for the Huskies. &#9632;

Seawolves buy into plan; now if wins would follow

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>Colgate coach Don Vaughan thinks he has come up with a way to make an unselfish player get a little more greedy.He&rsquo;s going to team him up with a player who is even more unselfish.In an attempt to get more goals out of junior Andy McDonald, Vaughan put him on a line with senior center Jed Whitchurch. Last year, Whitchurch was Colgate&rsquo;s leading scorer with 29 assists and 35 points and ranked 17th in the nation in assists per game (.82).&ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to see Andy finish more,&rdquo; said Vaughan. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s such an unselfish player, and he has a tendency to dish the puck. So we&rsquo;ve put him with Jed, and hopefully, he&rsquo;ll figure out the reason he&rsquo;s getting the puck so much.&rdquo;McDonald has followed Whitchurch&rsquo;s lead before. A 5-foot-ll, 180-pounder who played center until this year, McDonald was the 1995-96 Western Ontario Jr. B player of the year, one year after Whitchurch had captured the honor.McDonald made a quick transition to college hockey, scoring 19 points as a freshman, and then upped his total to 32 points last season, when he scored 17 points in the Red Raiders&rsquo; first 12 games.&ldquo;Aridy is a very exciting player,&rdquo; Vaughan said. &ldquo;He has great speed and he likes to have the puck.<h2>ECAC</h2>&ldquo;His first year here, he was a little intimidated by the size factor, because he wasn&rsquo;t a big kid, but he put on 15 pounds after his freshman year and when he came back, he really had a different approach to the game. He has taken his game to a different level.&rdquo;Vaughan is hoping that McDonald and freshman Etienne Morin, an exciting right winger from Levis, Que., can help the Raiders overcome the graduation losses of Dru Burgess, Tim Loftsgard and Rob Mara, who combined for 46 of the team&rsquo;s 116 goals last year.The Raiders biggest problem last year was inconsistency. After winning 11 of their first 14 games, they stumbled in the second half of the season and finished 5-12-4 down the stretch.&ldquo;We went into a slump when the league season went into a sprint,&rdquo; Vaughan said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tough time to go south.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: One player that Yale coach Tim Taylor hadn&rsquo;t counting on losing this season was senior left winger John Chyz.The 5-foot-ll, 215-pounder has taken the year off from school to try out for the Canadian national team.Chyz, whose younger brother, James, is a junior defenseman for Yale, had six goals and 11 assists in 32 games for the Bulldogs last year.A native of Bradford, Ont., Chyz played for the Barrie Colts before coming to Yale. &#9632;

Junior key for Colgate to make up scoring loss

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div>Injuries, a long string of games on the road and bad luck have Ohio State off to a poor start.The Buckeyes, who last season boasted a 2712-2 record and advanced to the NCAA Final Four before losing to Boston College, were off to a 1-3-0 start in 1998-99.Their first two games were in the Icebreaker Cup at Minneapolis. Ohio State dropped the opener to last season&rsquo;s NCAA runner-up and THN&rsquo;s top-ranked NCAA team, Boston College 4-3 in double-overtime. Junior winger Eric Meloche, Ohio State&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer last year, broke a bone in his sternum.The Buckeyes then dropped the consolation game to Minnesota 4-3 and lost freshman forward Mike McCormick with a knee injury.The following weekend, Ohio State defeated Lake Superior State 4-1 in the conference opener, but the following night dropped a 4-2 decision to Ferris State after the apparent tying goal was waved off with three minutes left.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just trying to work out a few kinks,&rdquo; said coach John Markell.The Buckeyes first nine games are on the road and they won&rsquo;t have a home game until Nov. 13, when they host Michigan State at the OSU Ice Rink. That&rsquo;s because the team will move into the new Schottenstein Center this season and asked the league to backload Ohio State&rsquo;s home games. The opener there is Jan. 2, when Ohio State hosts Michigan.<h2>CCHA</h2>&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if we could have some of these games at home?&rdquo; Markell said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s what we had to do to get ourselves in the proper building.&rdquo;He added the extra 6,000 seats in the Schot-tenstein Center will make the decision well worth it for the school financially.SUPER FRESHMAN: Michigan freshman Mike Comrie is living up to expectations.The 5-foot-10, 172-pound center played for the Alberta Jr. League champion St. Albert Saints last season and was the league&rsquo;s top scorer with 60 goals and 128 points in 58 games.The Edmonton native had three goals and five points in the Wolverines&rsquo; first three games.&ldquo;I see him as a Brian Wiseman or Brendan Morrison,&rdquo; said coach Red Berenson. &ldquo;But this guy is going to make his own name.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The CCHA&rsquo;s offensive player of the week for the period ending Oct. 17 was Northern Michigan right winger J.P. Vigier.Vigier, a junior, had four goals and five points and was plus-5 in 3-2 and 5-2 victories over Miami. In the 3-2 win Oct. 16, the native of Notre Dame, Man., scored the winning goal with 1:44 remaining.The defensive player of the week was Alaska Fairbanks goalie Ian Fairbanks, who made 93 saves in two games (a 5-4 overtime victory and a 3-1 loss) against intrastate rival Alaska-Anchorage Oct. 16-17. &#9632;

Buckeyes face long road until new buildina onens

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>Maine senior right winger and captain Steve Kariya doesn&rsquo;t set individual goals for himself.It&rsquo;s not the Kariya way.Like older brother Paul of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Steve&rsquo;s goals are team goals and the one that has escaped him to date is an NCAA Tournament appearance.&ldquo;That is obviously my goal this season,&rdquo; Kariya said.For Kariya&rsquo;s first two seasons, Maine was ineligible to participate in the tournament due to school and NCAA-imposed sanctions for NCAA violations.A poor start and a 3-2 loss to eventual NCAA runner-up Boston College in the Hockey East championship game prevented Maine from going to the NCAA tourney last season.&ldquo;The first two years, we knew we weren&rsquo;t going to the NCAA Tournament. We learned a big lesson last year. You have to be ready to play every game,&rdquo; Kariya said.Kariya said he noticed a difference in attitude in Maine&rsquo;s season-opening sweep of Division I independent Nebraska-Omaha in which he had a goal and three points.Kariya is coming off consecutive 50-point seasons and his three-point weekend moved him into 21st place on Maine&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 125 points in 111 games. He moved past brother Paul, who had 124 points in 51 games.&ldquo;I feel I&rsquo;ve gotten better every year,&rdquo; said the 5-foot-7, 165-pound Kariya, a speedster with exceptional playmaking abilities. &ldquo;I just want to keep improving. I&rsquo;m a little faster and stronger than I was last year. I worked on my flexibility over the summer.&rdquo;<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Providence coach Paul Pooley said Kariya is &ldquo;one of the best forwards in the league. He&rsquo;s explosive. He&rsquo;s very exciting.&rdquo;Kariya said he constantly works on his skills &ldquo;because those are the most important things to me: passing, shooting and stickhandling.&rdquo;Maine coach Shawn Walsh considers Kariya a dominant player in Hockey East.&ldquo;He has gotten stronger every year and he has the Kariya focus,&rdquo; said Walsh.Another person who expects big things from the elusive Kariya is New Hampshire senior center and 1997-98 Hobey Baker Award finalist Jason Krog.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s going to light it up this year,&rdquo; Krog said.HIGHER FRIARS: Several coaches said they expect the Providence Friars to be one of the surprise teams and coach Paul Pooley thinks that&rsquo;s possible.&ldquo;We played some damned good hockey last year. Then we bit the dust,&rdquo; said Pooley who returns 23 of 26 players off a 15-18-3 team. &ldquo;When (Mike) Omicioli and Fernando (Pisani) went dry, we went dry. We have more balance this season.&rdquo; &#9632;

Kariya surpasses brother, but Maine aim NCAA title

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01967/7137300-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brendan ShanahanBrian LeetchJoe SakicMartin StrakaFlorida&rsquo;s Paul Laus makes Buffalo&rsquo;s Wayne Primeau pay the toll to get through a tight squeeze.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01875/7137293-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="4571" height="5257"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by John Rusel/BBS)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01857/7137286-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="9142" height="5257"></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01515/7137331-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GAME SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01454/7137393-1-eng-US/f0043-012.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="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01350/7137431-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01278/7137424-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="4571" height="5257"></div> &#9632;

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CANADIAN LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01311/7137462-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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November 6, 1998

New season, same injury jinx

Dollar daze over for now

DiMaio willing to pay price for crime, but wants to see rules applied evenly

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS