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 20, 1998

The Hockey News November 20, 1998

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011690/7290161-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">An enraaed Jeff Kuael hunts down fleeina Owen Sound rookie Chris Minard after oummelina Juri Golicic.</figcaption></div>You think you&rsquo;ve seen it all in hockey, you figure there&rsquo;s nothing left to shock or astonish you and then along comes Jeff Kugel.&ldquo;I am not a monster,&rdquo; the 6-foot-7, 250-pound ex-Windsor Spitfire said in the wake of his lifetime ban from the Ontario League for an Oct 25 rampage against the Owen Sound Platers.Maybe not but the 18-year-old Roseville, Mich., native acted monstrously when he stormed off the bench, sucker-punched a defenseless victim, chased another around the ice and then performed some berserk routine right out of the WWF.For even the most seasoned hockey observer, it defied explanation. Imagine then what must have been going through the minds of Franc and Meta Golicic. The husband and wife, both lawyers from Slovenia, were watching their second OHL game. It was their son, Juri, a skilled rookie with six goals and zero penalty minutes in 12 games, who was twice sucker-punched by Kugel. He was also a victim of what went on before Kugel went nuts.An open-ice scrum developed into a line brawl and Windsor&rsquo;s Mark Ridout grabbed a reluctant Golicic, who has never fought in a hockey game, and pummeled him relentlessly. That is what prompted Owen Sound&rsquo;s Adam Mair to come off the Platers&rsquo; bench. Mair intervened on Golicic&rsquo;s behalf and Golicic was left standing there dazed, watching the mayhem. According to the OHL, another Spitfire player, not Kugel, left the Windsor bench to join in. Then Kugel burst on the scene and the rest, well, chances are you&rsquo;ve seen the video. The worst of it was Kugel suckering Golicic.There was talk the Golicics, who were returning to Slovenia the next day, were so distressed by what they saw-at the hands of Ridout as much as Kugel-that they were going to take Juri home with them.&ldquo;I kind of figured (Juri) might be on the first plane back to Slovenia,&rdquo; said Platers&rsquo; director of hockey operations Ray McKelvie. &ldquo;But the family handled it pretty well and Juri has been pretty cool about the whole thing.&rdquo;McKelvie considers himself an old-time hockey man. He believes fighting &ldquo;is part of the game as long as the tough guys fight the tough guys.&rdquo; But there&rsquo;s no place, he said, for what Ridout did to Golicic. &ldquo;He beat on him pretty good and it seemed like it went on for an eternity,&rdquo; McKelvie said. &ldquo;It was bad, really bad.&rdquo;Think about it One player wants to fight. Another doesn&rsquo;t. One players beats up the other. Why? Because fighting is part of the game? That reasoning is sick and so is anybody who espouses it.Besides, if Ridout hadn&rsquo;t pummeled Golicic, maybe Mair wouldn&rsquo;t have come off the Platers&rsquo; bench and maybe another Spitfire and then Kugel wouldn&rsquo;t have come off the Windsor bench. Maybe. But this much is certain. If fighting weren&rsquo;t such an intrinsic part of junior hockey, there&rsquo;d be no place in elite hockey for Kugel. If his penalty totals-63 minutes in 38 games last season and 13 minutes in six games this year-are modest for a tough guy, his skills (no points this year, one goal and one assist last season) are even less than that.This issue of fighting in major junior hockey should not absolve Kugel of responsibility for what he did. But it is an issue worth looking at. The OHL has instituted anti-fighting measures over the years and they&rsquo;ve worked-to a degree. The OHL punishes fighting with automatic ejection in pre-season games. Teams that incur more than four fighting majors in a game in the preseason are fined. The OHL also adopted a Western League rule that calls for an automatic game misconduct and two-game suspension for any player deemed the instigator in a fight with less than five minutes remaining in a regular season game that has a goal differential of two or more goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021176/7290154-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="401" height="570"></div>Clearly, it&rsquo;s not enough. OHL commissioner Dave Branch, who gave Kugel a 25-game suspension (meant to be respected by all leagues) and a lifetime ban from the OHL, estimates fighting has decreased by 50 per cent since the 1980s. Through the first 40 games of this OHL season, there was an average of 1.98 fights per game, or almost four fighting majors per game. In the NHL, the numbers are significantly lower-1.4 fighting majors per game this season. That&rsquo;s less than one fight per game.Branch said he believes the fighting numbers, in his league and elsewhere, will continue to fall. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll ever see no fights, because that element will always be there,&rdquo; Branch said. &ldquo;But attitudes are changing. I can see where five years down the road, fighting will be the exception.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s the big picture. The focus now is on Kugel.If, as expected, the Canadian Hockey Association recognizes Branch&rsquo;s lifetime ban from the OHL, Kugel will not be able to play in the Western or Quebec Leagues or any amateur loop in Canada. But there&rsquo;s nothing to stop him from playing minor pro in North America and he reportedly has already received overtures from some teams. -Kugel isn&rsquo;t disputing he deserves to be suspended-"! can see the 25 games or even a whole season,&rdquo; he said-but believes the lifetime ban is excessive. The Spitfires are expected to appeal Branch&rsquo;s decision-they had 15 days from the Nov. 2 ruling to launch an appeal-and, failing a successful appeal, Kugel said he may take legal action.How ironic. What Kugel did, specifically to Golicic, was assault. We all recognize contact sports can&rsquo;t be held to the same standards as society-there&rsquo;s inherent consent to acts of violence when you lace on the skates-but Kugel&rsquo;s tour of duty crossed way over that line. The appropriate legal action would have been for police or the crown to lay an assault charge. But if the legal system is to play a part in this sordid saga now, it will be for Kugel as victim.That&rsquo;s rich.One could argue that everyone deserves a second chance and because Kugel is suitably contrite, he should get it. But if you know anything at all about Branch, you really have to wonder. Branch is no shrinking violet when it comes to physical confrontation. He&rsquo;s not just a tough disciplinarian, he&rsquo;s a tough guy.And there&rsquo;s something about Jeff Kugel that scares Branch. Clearly, Branch sees few, if any, redeeming qualities in Kugel as a player and the potential for a whole lot more trouble. Though Branch would never say so, it&rsquo;s also pretty obvious what&rsquo;s happening here. That is, Branch would much rather have a judge tell him the OHL has to take back Kugel than he would have a judge one day ask him how he could have possibly allowed Kugel back on the ice. &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

Fighting raises its ugly head

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01447/7291963-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01460/7291956-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="3671" height="4226"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

CANADIAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>What a difference a change of scenery can make for the reborn Augusta Lynx.Since moving to Georgia from Raleigh, N.C., after last season, the Lynx have blossomed into one of the top teams in the Southeast Division. Under the direction of coach Dan Wiebe, the Lynx were leading the division by two points over the South Carolina Stingrays and three over the Pee Dee Pride three weeks into the season.Picked by many to finish last in the Southeast after missing the playoffs last season, Augusta won six of its first eight games and seemed capable of making a run at the division title.An influx of new talent, combined with the return of half of last year&rsquo;s club, has made the Lynx a contender.&ldquo;It has been a complete turn-around from Raleigh last year,&rdquo; said right winger Darren Colbourne, 30, the second all-time leading goal-scorer in the East Coast League. &ldquo;Right from square one. Management has done a great job. The fans have been fantastic. The media has been outstanding.&rdquo;Swedish right winger Jonas Soling, 20, a Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; prospect, led the way with six goals and 12 points in eight games.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see him being in this league very long,&rdquo; Colbourne said. &ldquo;(He&rsquo;s a) big kid (6-foot-4, 192 pounds) and unbelievably fast.&rdquo;Defenseman Jaroslav Obsut (11 points), Colbourne (10), forwards Stewart Bodtker and Bob Berg (nine points each) were also helping the attack. Goalies Joaquin Gage and Judd Lambert were holding the opposition to fewer than three goals a game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02571/7291591-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="411" height="427"></div>If the Lynx can survive a November schedule that has them playing 10 of 14 games on the road, they should stay in the thick of the race.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a good mix of older guys and younger guys. It&rsquo;s a winning atmosphere,&rdquo; Colboume said.BAD BOYS: Several suspensions were handed out following incidents in three different cities.Johnstown winger Jeremy Thompson was suspended six games after an altercation near the end of the Hampton Roads Admirals&rsquo; 9-4 win over the Chiefs in Norfolk Oct. 30.Thompson, who received 40 penalty minutes during the game, swung a helmet at one of the Admirals, but missed. As he was being separated &rsquo; during a fight, he punched one of the linesmen in the back a couple of times. As he was being led off the t ice, he pulled away from the linesman and got into another fightAndy Van Hellemond, senior vice-president of operations for the league, also suspended Dayton Bombers&rsquo; Calvin Crowe and David Dartsch of the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks five games each for coming off the bench in separate incidents to get involved in fights.COAST LINES: Andrew Williamson of the Toledo Storm continued his torrid pace to open the season. The right winger had 11 goals in seven games. Williamson already has a third of the number of goals (33) he had last season&hellip;The Chesapeake Icebreakers and Hampton Roads went 16 rounds-32 shooters-in a shootout Oct. 31 before the Admirals&rsquo; Henry Higdon finally ended the marathon by beating goaltender Erasmo Saltarelli to give Hampton Roads a 5-4 victory. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

Good start has Lynx in sync after bad season in Raleigh

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01474/7291994-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="c0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0143/7289765-1-eng-US/c0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The news was relatively good for Doug Weight, who is now expected back early in the new year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

<h2>Branch sends goon home</h2>1. Firm stance OHL boss David Branch makes statement with lifetime suspension to Jeff Kugel.2. Joe goals Dallas Stars&rsquo; Joe Nieuw-endyk becomes 51st NHLer to reach 400-goal plateau.3. Gretzky hot Brent Gretzky, not Wayne, averaging three points per game, leads United League scoring.4. Passing fancy Washington&rsquo;s Adam Oates sets up 800th NHL goal, now league&rsquo;s 21st all-time assist leader.4.Parrish the thought Rorida Panther rookie Mark Parrish torches Chicago goalies for four-goal game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0246/7289803-1-eng-US/c0002-022.jpg" title="c0002-02" width="337" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Nieuwendyk</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0338/7289796-1-eng-US/c0002-032.jpg" title="c0002-03" width="338" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Oates</figcaption></div><h2>Kugel goes off deep end</h2>1. Kugel goes cuckoo Windsor goon suspended from OHL for life for going berserk in brawl.2. Bad boy Barnaby Buffalo&rsquo;s Matthew Barnaby suspended four games for elbowing Boston&rsquo;s P.J. Axelsson in head.3. ECHL goon show Johnstown&rsquo;s Jeremy Thompson suspended six games for brawling, hitting linesman.4. Net loss Dallas Stars&rsquo; goalies surrender four goals on nine shots in 4-0 loss to San Jose Sharks.5. Fit to be tied Sixteen per cent (23 of 148) of NHL games through Nov. 5 end in ties. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-in-Chief</div>It&rsquo;s called Power Play, but it should be called Passion Play.Seldom has our game been delivered from the heart as strongly as a new Canadian weekly TV series produced by a pair of Montrealers whose connection to hockey is best described as a sacred bond. They are like a lot of us, tied to the sport and its trappings by heart strings as much as skate laces. Executive producers Bill Laurin and Glenn Davis play the game, but take it from an ex-teammate: they talk and write an infinitely better game than they play. Their weekly one-hour CTV program, Power Play, has met with critical praise and earned strong ratings opposite the Detroit Red Wings of TV competition: Friends.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0422/7289834-1-eng-US/c0002-042.jpg" title="c0002-04" width="358" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photot by Rocky Widner)</figcaption></div>Hockey, happenstance and friendship has dominated the writing partners&rsquo; lives. Laurin and Davis, both 42, were born in the same Montreal hospital 14 days apart; their mothers were due on the same day. Those familiar with les Trois Denistiie Denis Savard-led trio born in the same Montreal area hospital Feb. 4, 1961-will enjoy the coincidence and have a fine appreciation of the mystical spirit that pervades Power Play. After all, if three of Quebec&rsquo;s finest young hockey players-Savard, Tremblay and Cyr-can enter the world under such similar circumstances, surely two of its finest young writers can do the same. An understanding that fate wiggles its fickle finger in such mysterious ways makes some of the plot twists in Power Play more palatable.&ldquo;This show is all about hockey, death and memory,&rdquo; says Davis. It is also about re-birth with the game bringing new life to the living and dead. We haven&rsquo;t seen this many dead hockey people resurrected since Punch Imlach&rsquo;s geriatric Toronto Maple Leafs won the 1967 Stanley Cup. Among those materializing are a kinder, gentler (and living) Harold Ballard figure, Howie Morenz, Eddie Shore and Bill Barilko. All but the living, breathing and benign Ballard figure (played magnificently by Gordon Pinsent) appear in ghostly images to the show&rsquo;s star, Brett Parker (Michael Riley). Riley is excellent as the tormented ex-agent ostensibly trying to run the Hamilton Steelheads into the ground so the imaginary NHL team can be relocated to a more lucrative U.S. market. Striking similarities aside, Laurin and Davis didn&rsquo;t borrow the plotline from current New York Islanders&rsquo; ownership.Power Play is believed to be the first full-fledged English-language hockey-based drama and the creators take their responsibilities seriously. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t just another TV show in Canada,&rdquo; Davis says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a mission from God,&rdquo; Laurin adds. The hockey gods. &#9632;

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Hockey drama has more than ghost of chance

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011769/7289872-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Claus Anderson/BBS)</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s post-skate, pre-lunch, loosey-goosey feelgood time in the Colorado Avalanche dressing room. For the first time in a while, the mood is cautiously upbeat.A poor start has eroded their usual cocky confidence, but the Avs are coming off a morale-building win over the Carolina Hurricanes, led by a slick one-goal, three-point show from crafty center Peter Forsberg, including a gem of a rush that turned flat-footed Keith Primeau into a 6-foot-4, 210-pound pretzel. Forsberg stole the show.So Adam Deadmarsh, one of Forsberg&rsquo;s best friends on the Avs, stands in the room doling out standard Forsberg fare: Great player. ..one of the best&hellip; hard-working&hellip; super creative&hellip; impossible to knock off the puck.Then he&rsquo;s asked what it&rsquo;s like to play against Forsberg. Do you remember anything, say, from the Nagano Olympics?The comers of his mouth crack a smile and his eyes gleam, staring off into the distance.&ldquo;Uh&hellip;yeah.&rdquo;You look over your shoulder and there&rsquo;s Forsberg shamelessly eavesdropping, his face smeared with an impish smirk of his own.&ldquo;I was skating up the ice and the puck was down at the other end and all of a sudden I got flattened,&rdquo; says Deadmarsh, an American. &ldquo;And I look up and he&rsquo;s skating by. He rocked me when I wasn&rsquo;t looking.&rdquo;All true, admits the snarly Swede. He started it. No reason, really.&ldquo;So then I took a run at him in the corner,&rdquo; Deadmarsh continues. Damn near broke Forsberg&rsquo;s hand with a twohanded slash, too. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s still sore from it.&rdquo;Forsberg grins back, and you can imagine what&rsquo;s going on inside that calculating, concealing mind. Sore? Hell, yes. And then some.But the Olympics, at which Sweden finished fifth, are the least of his worries.Later that night, there would be no kidding around. Disorganized and (in the latter part of the game) disinterested, Colorado lost 3-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 4 in the third game of a six-game road trip and fell to 3-7-1 on the season. The run matches Colorado&rsquo;s final 11 games of last season as the worst stretch in Forsberg&rsquo;s five seasons.Yes, these are unusual times in Colorado. It&rsquo;s only a slight exaggeration to say all Forsberg has known is success. The Avs have finished first in their division every year he has played. He has won an Olympics (1994), a Stanley Cup (1996), a World Championship (1998). He&rsquo;s 25 years old.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021415/7289865-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1618" height="1194"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goals haven&rsquo;t come easy to Forsberg, but the Avs have bigger problems. (Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>We&rsquo;ll come clean here. There&rsquo;s a voyeuristic pleasure in seeing someone so good, so competitive, &ldquo;dirty _s hell&rdquo; in the words of Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather, suffer up close. Maybe it&rsquo;s because you can learn more about the magician when the tricks don&rsquo;t work. Maybe he&rsquo;ll allow a public glimpse of how losing might be eating him up inside. The truth is, if you go back to the end of last season and Colorado&rsquo;s first-round loss to the Edmonton Oilers, he has never really been here before. Not this bad. Not for this long.Teammates know Forsberg is angryrnd frustrated when he starts hitting.&ldquo;He does it probably once a game,&rdquo; says Wanen Rychel of Forsberg&rsquo;s signature shoulder check. &ldquo;He pretends he doesn&rsquo;t see a guy coming and he has the puck and he hits them and gets the best of the guy. It happens quite a bit, always behind the net.&rdquo;Against Toronto, he never gets the chance.&ldquo;Of course it&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; is all Forsberg allows following the loss. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care about my own stats. It&rsquo;s the team that counts and when you lose you&rsquo;re not happy. That&rsquo;s it&rdquo;As per normal, Forsberg creates more than his share of opportunities for others this night. He slithers his way into openings, the puck glued to his stick. Also as per normal this season, his long-time linemates Valeri Kamensky and Claude Lemieux can&rsquo;t convert.On talent and grit and speed, it&rsquo;s a trio that should be among the top three in the league. But Kamensky, stuck like Forsberg at a single goal through 10 games, fails on three glorious Forsberg setups against the Leafs. Lemieux, who sources say told a friend in late October he expected to be traded with in two weeks, seems to lack life. There&rsquo;s little cycling down low, an area of the game in which Forsberg excels. Forsberg&rsquo;s career-high seven-game assist streak is snapped.&ldquo;Bad luck, I think,&rdquo; Kamensky laments.While Kamensky&rsquo;s slump is worrisome, the fact Forsberg had only one goal was not a weighty concern. He&rsquo;s hardly a natural scorer, having hit the 30-goal mark just once. Last season he was named a first-team all-star with just 25 goals, but his 66 assists were tied for second overall. His 12 assists in 11 games had him in a similar position this year, behind Jaromir Jagr&rsquo;s 14. More impressively, his career average of 0.93 assists per game is fourth in history, behind Wayne Gretzky (1.34), Mario Lemieux (1.18) and Bobby Orr (0.98).He was still playing the part of magical set-up man through Colorado&rsquo;s slide. While teammate Joe Sakic is the dynamic individual slasher, Forsberg plays a more patient game, warding off defenders with his strength and savvy until the moment is right to dish off.&ldquo;He could have 20 assists (already),&rdquo; said assistant coach Bryan Trottier, refuting the notion that only having one goal is any indication of his play. &ldquo;People say that&rsquo;s a bad year?&rdquo;His status in the game is secure enough that even if he (or the Avs) did have a poor season, it wouldn&rsquo;t be a major factor in contract negotiations this summer. Forsberg will be a restricted free agent after earning $6 million in the last year of his contract. It&rsquo;s pure speculation, but based on the $8.5 million being collected this year by Eric Lindros and Paul Kariya, the timing might be right for Forsberg to become the first player whose average salary makes him the $10-million man. Other players will be watching.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Forsberg frustrated by Colorado&rsquo;s tumble from the top</blockquote>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty clear certain contracts have a ripple effect,&rdquo; said agent Don Baizley. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m sure these guys in these situations think about &lsquo;What role do I have?"&rsquo;His only role now is to help pull the Avs out of the doldrums. The embattled GM, Pierre Lacroix, trades his son. The boastful superstar goalie, Patrick Roy, says he is happy with his play after giving up three goals against Toronto. The team leader, Sakic, suggests one result of having so much talent over the years has been a deterioration in team work ethic and now the cracks are beginning to show.Forsberg&rsquo;s famously even temperament is being put to the test, though he hasn&rsquo;t lost anything yet, not his temper nor patience. His on-ice demeanor reveals little. It&rsquo;s the same as trying to figure out whose stick one of those sublime, feathery passes will find next. In the words of Leafs&rsquo; goalie Curtis Joseph: &ldquo;Definitely hard to read.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s the kind of tempest worth watching, however. That all-telling flash of emotion probably won&rsquo;t happen, but stay tuned just in case. You won&rsquo;t want to miss it if Forsberg finally snaps. &#9632;

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FEATURES

Forsberg fights on

The sister of Tampa Bay Lightning left winger Benoit Hogue was stabbed to death and left on a roadside outside Montreal Nov. 1.Marlene Hogue, who worked as a nude dancer at a bar in St-Cesaire, Que., was 30, two years younger than Benoit. A police spokesman said the case is under investigation and that no arrests have been made.A Nov. 2 autopsy indicated Hogue was killed with a sharp object. Passers-by found the body beside a country road in the community of St-Damase, about 25 miles east of Montreal. Hogue was fully clothed, but carried no identification. Police identified her body through fingerprints.According to Le Journal de Montreal, Marlene Hogue had been out of touch with her family for four years until she phoned her mother on the weekend before she was killed.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even know she was alive and then last Saturday, she called,&rdquo; Hogue&rsquo;s mother Ginette told Le Journal. &ldquo;She seemed fine. She wanted to come home and see us.&rdquo;Marlene Hogue, who pleaded guilty to a charge of cocaine trafficking in 1994, had &ldquo;fallen in with a bad crowd,&rdquo; Ginette Hogue said.&ldquo;You know, when you have a child like this, you go into a shell and wait for the worst. Then, the worst comes and hits you in the face.&rdquo;Tampa Bay granted Benoit Hogue a leave of absence to return to Montreal for the Nov. 5 funeral. He also has a sister, Nathalie, and a brother, Denis. &#9632;

Hoque’s sister slain in Quebec

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div>They wanted it to be dealt with and forgotten, and that&rsquo;s exactly what has happened.A year after Washington Capitals&rsquo; left winger Chris Simon taunted Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; right winger Mike Grier with a racial slur during a game last Nov. 8, both players, through their respective public relations departments, declined comment on the incident and what might have changed since.Simon was suspended three games and lost about $15,000 in salary as a result of the slur. He apologized to Grier, who is black, face-to-face and publicly, and quietly fulfilled his pledge to do community service by working with kids at an inner-city Washington arena.Following another incident two weeks later involving Capitals&rsquo; left winger Craig Berube and Florida Panthers&rsquo; right winger Peter Worrell, the Capitals underwent a half-hour of sensitivity training.&ldquo;It seemed to raise awareness of how sensitive these issues are,&rdquo; said Caps&rsquo; GM George McPhee. &ldquo;We addressed it, tried to be progressive, and it has not been an issue since.&rdquo; &#9632;

Racial slur dealt with, part of past

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div><h2>PUCK BRIEFS</h2>Elmer Vasko was the biggest NHL player in the early 1960s and Chicago Blackhawk fans reminded him of that each time he touched the puck.&ldquo;Moose, Moose, Moose,&rdquo; was a familiar chant in Chicago Stadium each time Vasko lugged the puck during a 10-year stretch that included Chicago&rsquo;s 1961 Stanley Cup win.Vasko, a rugged 6-foot-4, 220-pound defenseman, died of cancer at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago Oct. 30. He was 62.A native of Duparquet, Que., Vasko made an impact with Chicago in 1956-57. Not only was he the largest player in the league, Vasko could head a rush up ice even though he was a defensive defenseman.The &lsquo;Moose&rsquo; nickname came from Blackhawks&rsquo; publicity director John Gottselig in Vasko&rsquo;s rookie season.&ldquo;&rsquo;Moose&rsquo; is all we ever knew him by,&rdquo; said Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall, a teammate of Vasko&rsquo;s for nine years. &ldquo;He was absolutely great 1-on-1. He was a friend of the goalkeeper because he was defensive-minded. He was a good friend, period. I was down visiting him last month.&rdquo;Vasko had shoulder woes throughout his career, but only once in 12 seasons played fewer than 63 games.&ldquo;I have to wear this strap, chain and brace so I won&rsquo;t lift my arm too high and snap the shoulder out of location,&rdquo; Vasko said in his third season when he separated his shoulder three times, yet played 63 games.Vasko was a second team NHL all-star in 1962-63 and 1963-64. He retired in 1966 for one season, then played three more years with the Minnesota North Stars. He had 34 goals and 200 points in 786 games.ANOTHER HALL: Former Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; superstar Mario Lemieux received one of his greatest honors when he was inducted into Canada&rsquo;s Sports Hall of Fame.&ldquo;I think along with the Hockey Hall of Fame, this is the greatest honor I&rsquo;ve received,&rdquo; said Lemieux, who joined three other Canadian sports legends at the induction ceremony Nov. 4 in Toronto.Lemieux, 33, retired in 1997 following a star-studded, injury riddled 12-year career. He led the Penguins to two Stanley Cups and scored 613 goals and 1,494 points in 745 games. His goals-per-game ratio (.823) is the best in NHL history.Recurring back problems and a battle with Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease prompted his premature retirement. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year.LONG RECOVERY: It&rsquo;s unlikely a Jr. A player in B.C., who broke his neck during a game, will make a complete recovery.Aaron Moser, an 18-year-old winger with the Nanaimo Clippers of the B.C. Jr. League, fell head first into the boards Oct. 24, breaking his neck and damaging his spinal cord.Dr. Marcel Dvorak operated on Moser Oct. 28 and said it would be a long recovery process.&ldquo;There has been no sign of significant recovery,&rdquo; Dr. Dvorak said Nov. 5, eight days after surgery. &ldquo;Aaron is able to move his upper arms, but he has not had any recovery in his legs and hands. The more time that passes, the less likelihood of recovery. But there&rsquo;s still a chance.&rdquo;Moser broke two vertibra in his spine after getting hit by a legal check.&ldquo;Aaron&rsquo;s spirits are fine,&rdquo; Dr. Dvorak said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great kid. He&rsquo;s tough. That toughness is going to have to come out in the next few months and years. It will be a long rehabilitation process.&rdquo;A trust fund in Moser&rsquo;s name has been set up. Donations can be left at any Royal Bank in Canada.GOOD START: Team USA got off to a good start at the World Championship &lsquo;A&rsquo; Pool qualification tournament in Klagenfurt, Austria, beating Kazakhstan 3-0.Neal Broten scored two goals for the U.S., which must finish in the top two of the four-team tournament in order to qualify in the top pool at next year&rsquo;s World Championship. Estonia and Austria are also involved. &#9632;

Vasko loved ‘Moose’ label

<div class="byline">By Jeff Schultz</div>It&rsquo;s premature to label Marc Crawford the first candidate to become coach of the expansion Atlanta Thrashers. But when the line forms, he goes to the front.Crawford, who won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche three seasons ago but left after last year&rsquo;s first-round upset loss to the Edmonton Oilers, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he is interested in the Thrashers&rsquo; job.There had been speculation Crawford would not want to coach an expansion team, preferring a quicker route to another title. Don&rsquo;t be too presumptuous, Crawford says.&ldquo;I would love the opportunity,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;(But) I&rsquo;d like to say that to (GM) Don Waddell before anybody else.&rdquo;Waddell reiterated he will not begin to look at potential coaches until the spring of 1999, adding, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll look at every good available coach at that time-and you could assume he&rsquo;s a pretty good coach.&rdquo;Crawford, who has been doing TV commentary and consulting work with the NHL this season, knows Waddell from minor-league days and is familiar with three other Thrasher officials including assistant GM Les Jackson.Had Crawford known he would spend this year broadcasting, &ldquo;I probably would have stayed (in Colorado),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sports teaches you to deal with the here and now. Would I have left if I knew there wouldn&rsquo;t be other opportunities? Probably not. But how was I to know what would happen? I did what I thought was best.&ldquo;And I really felt I needed a new challenge, to be honest-but I didn&rsquo;t think it would be (broadcasting).&rdquo; &#9632;

Crawford Interested In Atlanta

Who are Mark Messier and Eric Lindros? Answer: Two superstars who can do just about whatever they want and get away with it.How did Lindros&rsquo; hit on Andreas Dackell go unpunished? Not only did he not get suspended for that nasty elbow to the head which left Dackell with a concussion and 30 stitches, but Lindros didn&rsquo;t even get a penalty.Where is the NHL&rsquo;s head? Where are the refs&rsquo; heads? Are we digressing back to Messier&rsquo;s New York Ranger days when he got away with murder? Is Colin Campbell, a former Ranger himself, overlooking this because Lindros is a &ldquo;superstar"?I&rsquo;m sorry, but I would rather have all players held to the same standards. No matter who you are, you should be punished for what you do. If you&rsquo;re not, what are we telling kids that play hockey? How about the ones who idolize Lindros? Are we telling them it is okay to elbow someone? Please Mr. Campbell, be unbiased and hand out the punishment that is justified.Scott A. Dutkus, Great Falls, Mt.<h2>Unequal justice</h2>Somehow, I think if Claude Lemieux had hit Andreas Dackell instead of Eric Lindros, the Colorado Avalanche right winger would have been suspended.Drew Ruscil, New Rochelle, N. Y.<h2>Why no Mess?</h2>After reading a recent issue (THN, Nov. 13), I am saddened by the fact that after such a great feat of being only the 10th player to score 600 goals, Mark Messier&rsquo;s accomplishment is only listed in your plus-minus section. I think that after this major milestone, he should have had, at the very least, his name and a snapshot on your cover. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, Jaromir Jagr is a great player and he certainly deserves to grace your cover, but Mess also deserves more than the trite mention of his 600th goal where you put it.Caron Brooks, Bayville, N.J.<h2>Sergei superstar</h2>Bob McKenzie&rsquo;s feature on Sergei Samsonov (THN, Oct. 30) was very timely. Everyone in Boston knew that a good start to the season would be critical for Samsonov&rsquo;s run at becoming one of the NHL&rsquo;s superstars, and thus far, he has delivered the goods.Some players just &ldquo;have it&rdquo; and Sergei is one of them. Samsonov consistently does what few are able to do-pull fans out of their seats with his electrifying play. Here&rsquo;s to what will hopefully be a long and prosperous career for Samsonov in Boston long after the great Ray Bourque has left the game.Kirk Luedeke, Ft. Knox, Ky.<h2>Chabot shut out</h2>If Lome Chabot is the 84th best NHL player of all-time (THN, Oct. 23), why is he not in the Hockey Hall of Fame? All other eligible players on your Top 100 list have been so honored, along with many others, so why not Chabot?Pete Tingley, Sussex, N.B.<h2>Greedy Ziggy</h2>I am a 14-year-old Islander fan. The ownership and attendance stink, but I don&rsquo;t care about that. I just want to be entertained and so far I have no complaints. These guys play hard every night and that is what matters to me.Your &ldquo;Bucks and Pucks&rdquo; issue (THN, Nov. 6) came out just in time. The fans yell &ldquo;we want Ziggy,&rdquo; and I agree, but not for $6 million. If he wanted to be here as much as we wanted him here, he would accept the $4.5 million he&rsquo;s worth.Mark Shapiro, Massapequa, N. Y.<h2>Corporate welfare</h2>In defending having an NHL team in Carolina, Melanie Campbell (THN Letters, Nov. 13) writes, &ldquo;What about all those Canadian teams that have moved south of the border-and it&rsquo;s their sport. Don&rsquo;t knock Carolina fans when the loyal Canadians cannot even keep their team.&rdquo;I&rsquo;m not sure how closely she follows the league, but simply looking at lists of franchise moves doesn&rsquo;t make one an informed analyst. In the case of Winnipeg and Quebec it was the arenas, not the attendance, that lead to their departures.The irony is that Americans are constantly lecturing Canadians on the marvels of a completely free market and, yet, it is their corporate welfare for professional sports owners that is providing the enticements for teams like Quebec and Winnipeg to move.Jason Cormier, Hisai, Japan<h2>0-0 ties boring</h2>Isn&rsquo;t it about time the NHL realized that making a smaller crease or moving the goal line isn&rsquo;t necessarily going to increase scoring? The league has to do something about getting rid of the dreaded trap.Last year Brett Hull hit it right on the nose with his comments regarding what the league is selling. Can you really expect fans to shell out $60 to come see a game when the outcome may very well be a 0-0 tie? I don&rsquo;t know what the answer is, but when a lifelong hockey fanatic is getting bored, I can only imagine what marketing scheme will attract new ones.Jonathan Rusk, East Stroudsburg, Pa.<h2>NHL agonizing</h2>As a kid it was agonizing having to wait for Saturday night to come so we could watch Hockey Night In Canada. Now I agonize over whether or not I can stand to watch an entire game. No problems with the game? Look at the guys having their careers extended a few years plumbing from expansion team to expansion team. Thank god for local hockey.Darren Callaghan, Charlottetown, P.E.I.<h2>Dump Lombardi</h2>Eric Duhatschek&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Lombardi&rsquo;s Patience Will Be Rewarded&rdquo; (THN, Nov. 13) was disappointing. Dean Lombardi has been and continues to be the primary obstacle in the development of the Sharks as a professional hockey organization. All evidence clearly indicates Lombardi to be woefully inadequate to the fill the shoes of a winning GM.The article was a huge disservice to the fans who have been price gouged every year. But the good news is that the fan base cracked last year and the slide is starting and hopefully it causes management to make the moves it should have made years ago.Glenn Cutler, Pacifica, Calif.<h2>All-star imbalance</h2>Isn&rsquo;t the All-Star Game format of North America against the World a little lopsided?According to the breakdown of the 653 players in the NHL (THN, Nov 6), 399 are from Canada and 98 are American. This gives the North American all-stars a pool of 497 players to select a team from while the international team only has a pool of 156. That&rsquo;s 76 per cent for North America and 24 per cent for the World.I think they should go back to East/West format. At least that way each team starts with the same size base from which to choose players.Suzy Manning, Detroit, Mich.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-1641&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, 777 Bay St, Suite 2700. Box 148, Toronto, OnL, M5G 2N8&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;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&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Lindros hit on Dackell deserved punishment

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011897/7290047-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011723/7290085-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="406" height="574"></div>The trick, the New York Islanders have decided, is to remove all obstacles to Tommy Salo&rsquo;s success.Everything had to go, including all competition for the starting goaltender job, the acetylene in coach-GM Mike Milbury&rsquo;s throat, even critical fans, just about the last of whom were chased away when the Islanders evicted themselves from their own arena.They brought in Stefan Lunner, Salo&rsquo;s personal goalie coach. They promised to bring Kleenex the next time Milbury takes his goalie to arbitration and reduces him to tears. The Islanders even started playing better in front of Salo, which is a lot to ask of a team playing in a vacuum and which performed a vacuum&rsquo;s function for a large portion of last season.With hot prospect Roberto Luongo a year or two away, with a first playoff berth since 1994 attainable, the Islanders have considered the alternatives and decided to marry Salo. They are sorry about the terrible arguments they had during the engagement and now are taking him shopping for furniture. They are renting a place with lots of empty chairs, but need tables to put their cards on and, having dealt Eric Fichaud, one basket for all their eggs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important for Tommy to play a lot of games,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;The team is starting to gain confidence in Tommy and he is starting to get confidence in his own ability. It was big to get him to a level where the team believed in him and therefore believed in itself.&rdquo;The Islanders will go as far as Tommy Salo will cany them this season, which might be to Cleveland or a new arena or right back into suspended animation. Or, actually nonanimation, which describes both the state of the franchise and Trevor Linden&rsquo;s face as he says he would be happy to see Pavel Bure become a teammate again.Maybe it will work out. Talks towards a new arena and a possible settlement with SMG (the company with an ironclad contract to run both old and new buildings forever or until Rich Pilon scores a goal) have apparently progressed to a point where high organizational sources are dropping hints that perhaps Pavel Bure might be worth the money the Isles refuse to pay Ziggy Palffy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021149/7290078-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="588" height="907"></div>Palffy won&rsquo;t get the $6 million a year he wants from the Islanders, even if Steve Gluckstem and Howard Milstein are tied to the Long Island Railroad tracks and tortured with fishsticks between their eyes. But if the owners are sincere about Bure, then a team that has survived three unsupporting ownerships in three years to assemble enough talent to be one move away from the top bracket of the conference playoffs, should be able to satisfy the Canucks with Palffy plus.In the meantime the Isles&rsquo; profile is even lower than some of the things Mike Milbury said about Salo when he was trying to get him cheap as some of the goals he has a history of giving up.However, that was before the honeymoon, which continued when the lovebirds, threatening to improve their record to 7-50, jumped to a 3-0 lead on the Carolina Hurricanes. Alas, the team that can&rsquo;t give tickets away decided to try pucks instead. The Hurricanes&rsquo; 6-3 victory left Salo spinning almost as hard as Milbury was spinning after the game, maintaining that none of the goals, not even the 40-footer by Kent Manderville, was his fault.Hey, nothing is going to disturb the new Tommy Salo&rsquo;s confidence, not the truth, not the smell of burning rubber sizzling past his ears. Right? &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you ask him?&rdquo; said Milbury, who suddenly couldn&rsquo;t help being Milbury again.So we asked. And Salo said he wasn&rsquo;t shaken one bit. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t lost confidence,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think they were pretty good goals to score. We just have to forget about this game.&rdquo;Which, frankly, should be easier when everybody has forgotten about a franchise that hangs as precariously as its goalie&rsquo;s psyche. &ldquo;I feel like the Island is a home for me now,&rdquo; he said.The newlyweds have settled in a ghost town. But Salo vowed to justify the Islanders&rsquo; confidence in sickness and health. And he must succeed or forever hold his peace. &#9632;

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Isles’ sold on Salo as No. 1 man for now

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011790/7290123-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalies such as New Jersey&rsquo;s Martin Brodeur may face stronger attacks from goal-hungry forwards if GMs encourage teams to go for the win in overtime instead of settling for a tie.</figcaption></div>The goal-starved NHL is now fit to be tied.Regular season overtime is clearly not working. Only one of 23 overtime games (through the first 148 games of this season) was settled in the extra-five minute period. The number of ties-there was an NHL record 219 last season-has been on a steady upward swing in the 1990s.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an issue we have to look at,&rdquo; NHL senior vice-president and director of hockey operations Cohn Campbell told THN after a one-day GMs&rsquo; meeting Nov. 3 in New York. &ldquo;There are definitely trends to watch here. We&rsquo;re going to have to do something about it.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s an issue commissioner Gary Bettman voiced concern about as far back as last February&rsquo;s GMs&rsquo; meeting. The situation has only gotten worse and Bettman&rsquo;s concerns are now shared by many. That means when the GMs next meet in February, in La Quinta, Calif., it is likely to be addressed.For the record, the concept of a tie-breaking Olympic-style shootout was never even mentioned at the GMs&rsquo; meeting in New York. It is not, at this time anyway, being considered as a potential solution.But completely eliminating regular season overtime is.&ldquo;If we conclude it&rsquo;s not working,&rdquo; Campbell said, &ldquo;what&rsquo;s the sense of keeping everyone around for another 10 minutes? But we&rsquo;ll study it and look at all our options before we make any decision.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t always like this. When former Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; owner Marcel Aubut championed the OT cause, introduced in 1983-84, there were positive results. In that first year, 54 of 140 regulation-time ties were settled (38.6 per cent). Ten year after that, OT was still reasonably effective, producing 74 wins in 214 regulation-time ties (34.6 percent).But that was then. This is now and the 1998-99 numbers are embarrassing. Who would have thought there would be as many penalty-shot goals (one, by St. Louis Blues&rsquo; left winger Geoff Courtnail) as there were overtime winners (one, by Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; left winger Luc Robitaille)?&ldquo;With the parity the way it is,&rdquo; Campbell said, &ldquo;both teams are going into oT just looking for the one point. Even the home team would rather get one point than risk losing two by opening it up and going for it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021362/7290116-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="768" height="1016"><figcaption class="caption-body">If King Russ Courtnail stars, GMs want him to take a post-game bow. (Photo by Claus Andersen/BBS)</figcaption></div>The league has a few options.Eliminate OT That would do nothing to decrease ties-teams may well go into a tie-protecting shell even earlier in regulation time-but it would get everyone home sooner.Keep OT, but revamp the points system That is, award each team one point for the regulation-time tie and award a second point to the team that wins in OT. The theory is that with one point in the bank, both teams would open it up to get the second point.Theatrics The crowd-pleasing shootout falls into this category, although the only notion discussed at the GMs&rsquo; meeting was playing a series of one-minute shifts 5-on-5, 4-on-4, 3-on-3, 2-on-2 and 1-on-1. It&rsquo;s generally favored over the shootout because it retains elements of the game, such as strategy, hitting and legitimate competition. It&rsquo;s just a notion at this point, though.In other business at the GMs&rsquo; meetings:NHL consultant Dan Craig of Edmonton reported on what can be done to maintain better ice quality. His recommendations included shorter pre-game warm-ups, not letting all 40 players skate on the ice immediately before the game and at the beginning of periods and not allowing promotional and marketing events to use the ice surface between periods.His suggestions will be used as guidelines this season-many teams are committed to promotional events that utilize the ice-but could become rules next season.Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; president and GM Ken Dryden implored his peers to encourage their players to honor the three-star tradition by skating out for acknowledgement, win or lose.It&rsquo;s a cause THN has been advocating for years. More and more players on losing teams do not make an appearance after being named one of the game&rsquo;s three stars.GMs noted the three-star tradition is more prevalent in Canada than the U.S., but conceded it&rsquo;s an important part of hockey tradition and would endeavour to have their players recognize it, though the final decision ultimately rest with the players. &#9632;

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Tie die: How to kill deadly draws?

All figures are U.S. dollars. Canadian-dollar contracts have been converted at a rate of 65.6e per dollar. This season&rsquo;s salaries are bolded and remaining contract years are listed. Some annual salaries represent averages of the entire contract. The NHL&rsquo;s two coach-GMs, Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Jacques Demers and the New York Islanders&rsquo; Mike Milbury, are indicated with asterisks.<h2>1. Pat Quinn $1.1 million</h2>Toronto Maple Leafs1999-00: $1.1 million2000-01: $1.1 million2001-02: $1.1 million<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-14109/7290374-1-eng-US/f0012-142.jpg" title="f0012-14" width="212" height="275"></div><h2>2. Scotty Bowman $975,000</h2>Detroit Red Wings<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-15102/7290367-1-eng-US/f0012-152.jpg" title="f0012-15" width="213" height="272"></div><h2>3. John Muckier $950,000</h2>New York Rangers1999-00: $950,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-1692/7290360-1-eng-US/f0012-162.jpg" title="f0012-16" width="217" height="273"></div><h2>4. Darryl Sutter $825,000</h2>San Jose Sharks1999-00: $825,0002000-01: $825,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04515/7290353-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="214" height="271"></div><h2>5. Pat Bums $800,000</h2>Boston Bruins1999-00: $850,0002000-01: $950,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-05368/7290346-1-eng-US/f0012-052.jpg" title="f0012-05" width="216" height="272"></div><h2>6. Jacques Demers* $800,000</h2>Tampa Bay Lightning1999-00: $800,0002000-01: $800,0002001-02: $800,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-06299/7290339-1-eng-US/f0012-062.jpg" title="f0012-06" width="214" height="272"></div><h2>7. Mike Keenan $800,000</h2>Vancouver Canucks1999-00: $800,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-07258/7290332-1-eng-US/f0012-072.jpg" title="f0012-07" width="214" height="272"></div><h2>8. Ken Hitchcock $700,000</h2>Dallas Stars1999-00: $800,0002000-01: $900,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-08220/7290325-1-eng-US/f0012-082.jpg" title="f0012-08" width="213" height="273"></div><h2>- Joel Quenneville $700,000</h2>St Louis Blues1999-00: $800,0002000-01: $900,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-09179/7290318-1-eng-US/f0012-092.jpg" title="f0012-09" width="215" height="272"></div><h2>- Mike Milbury* $700,000</h2>New York Islanders1999-00: $700,0002000-01: $700,0002001-02: $700,0002002-03: $700,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-10163/7290311-1-eng-US/f0012-102.jpg" title="f0012-10" width="217" height="274"></div><h2>- Larry Robinson $700,000</h2>Los Angeles Kings<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-11151/7290304-1-eng-US/f0012-112.jpg" title="f0012-11" width="213" height="271"></div><h2>12. Ron Wilson $675,000</h2>Washington Capitals1999-00: $750,0002000-01: $800,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-12130/7290297-1-eng-US/f0012-122.jpg" title="f0012-12" width="212" height="268"></div><h2>13. Roger Neilson $650,000</h2>Philadelphia Flyers1999-00: $650,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-13118/7290290-1-eng-US/f0012-132.jpg" title="f0012-13" width="214" height="268"></div><h2>14. Terry Murray $600,000</h2>Florida Panthers1999-00: $750,0002000-01: $850,0002001-02: $900,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-15169/7290283-1-eng-US/f0013-152.jpg" title="f0013-15" width="216" height="249"></div><h2>15. Jim Schoenfeld $550,000</h2>Phoenix Coyotes1999-00: $550,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-16127/7290276-1-eng-US/f0013-162.jpg" title="f0013-16" width="217" height="252"></div><h2>16. Craig Hartsburg $500,000</h2>Anaheim Mighty Ducks1999-00: $500,0002000-01: $500,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-17105/7290269-1-eng-US/f0013-172.jpg" title="f0013-17" width="217" height="253"></div><h2>17. Jacques Martin $426,530</h2>Ottawa Senators1999-000: $492,1502000-01: $557,770<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04694/7290262-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="216" height="253"></div><h2>18. Kevin Constantine $400,000</h2>Pittsburgh Penguins1999-00: $400,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-05551/7290255-1-eng-US/f0013-052.jpg" title="f0013-05" width="216" height="251"></div><h2>19. Alain Vigneault $393,720</h2>Montreal Canadiens1999-00: $590,0002000-01: $580,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-06459/7290248-1-eng-US/f0013-062.jpg" title="f0013-06" width="214" height="247"></div><h2>20. Dirk Graham $340,000</h2>Chicago Blackhawks1999-00: $360,0002000-01: $380,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-07420/7290241-1-eng-US/f0013-072.jpg" title="f0013-07" width="213" height="252"></div><h2>21. Bob Hartley $325,000</h2>Colorado Avalanche1999-00: $375,0002000-01: $400,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-08392/7290234-1-eng-US/f0013-082.jpg" title="f0013-08" width="218" height="249"></div><h2>- Lindy Ruff $325,000</h2>Buffalo Sabres1999-00: $350,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-09366/7290227-1-eng-US/f0013-092.jpg" title="f0013-09" width="217" height="251"></div><h2>23. Barry Trotz $300,000</h2>Nashville Predators1999-00: $325,0002000-01: $350,000<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-10344/7290220-1-eng-US/f0013-102.jpg" title="f0013-10" width="218" height="251"></div><h2>- Paul Maurice $300,000</h2>Carolina Hurricanes<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-11314/7290213-1-eng-US/f0013-112.jpg" title="f0013-11" width="216" height="242"></div><h2>25. Ron Low $295,290</h2>Edmonton Oilers<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-12276/7290206-1-eng-US/f0013-122.jpg" title="f0013-12" width="217" height="250"></div><h2>26. Brian Sutter $278,885</h2>Calgary Flames<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-13236/7290199-1-eng-US/f0013-132.jpg" title="f0013-13" width="216" height="247"></div><h2>Robbie Ftorek</h2>New Jersey Devils THN wasn&rsquo;t able to corroborate reports of the length or value of Ftorek&rsquo;s contract.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-14203/7290192-1-eng-US/f0013-142.jpg" title="f0013-14" width="217" height="252"></div> &#9632;

f0012-14

1998-99 NHL COACHES’ $ALARIE$

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Write</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011716/7290426-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">In order to lure Pat Quinn to Toronto, the Leafs offered him to a four-year, $4.4-million contract, the richest deal in NHL coaching history.</figcaption></div>When the Toronto Maple Leafs finally zeroed in on their choice for a new coach, they settled on a man who commands attention by simply walking into a room.Not to mention at the ATM of his choice.Pat Quinn&rsquo;s knowledge of the game, successful coaching record and presence were the right combination for the Maple Leafs who this past summer made him the highest paid coach in NHL history.The Hockey News has learned Quinn will earn an average of $1.1 million (U.S.) a year for the next four years. The team holds an option for a fifth year.That&rsquo;s $700,000 more than the Leafs paid Mike Murphy to do the same job last year.Quinn, who got the Leafs off to a good start, ranks ahead of Scotty Bowman, coach of the two-time Stanley Cup-champion Detroit Red Wings, who earns $975,000 in the second year of a two-year contract. (All figures in this story are in U.S. dollars.)After two years of missing the playoffs and with the team poised to move from the Maple Leaf Gardens into a new building in February, the team needed a strong figure behind the bench. They got it in Quinn, a 6-foot-3 cigar-smoking 230-pound (or so) presence.&ldquo;Once he starts speaking with that big, heavy voice in the dressing room, it kind of grabs your attention,&rdquo; said Maple Leafs&rsquo; left winger Kris King. &ldquo;You hang on every word. As a player you have lots of meetings during the season and you tend to let things go in one ear and out the other. With Quinn, you&rsquo;re almost afraid not to listen. When you look at the success he has enjoyed, obviously he knows what he&rsquo;s talking about. Why wouldn&rsquo;t you listen?&rdquo;This is the third year The Hockey News has produced a special report on NHL coaches&rsquo; salaries. During that time, the average salary has risen from $386,000 in 1996-97 to $466,000 in 1997-98 to $593,000 in 1998-99. That represents a 54 per-cent rise in three seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03883/7290419-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="406" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bill Wipert)</figcaption></div>Not included this season is the salary earned by New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach Robbie Ftorek, the only one we could not corroborate through sources familiar with coaches&rsquo; compensation.Opposite Quinn on the NHL salary scale is the Calgary Flames&rsquo; Brian Sutter, who sits last at the equivalent of $279,000 (U.S.). Three Canadian based teams, the Flames, Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers, have Canadian-dollar contracts with their coaches. They have been converted to U.S. dollars for this story at a rate of 65.6? per dollar.Quinn was earning $1 million a year with the Vancouver Canucks as president-GM until he was fired last season and wasn&rsquo;t about to take a pay cut, not with his considerable experience coupled with the Leafs&rsquo; miserable situation. They didn&rsquo;t want Murphy back and president-GM Ken Dryden and associate GM Mike Smith disagreed early in the off-season on a replacement. Dryden favored Marc Crawford, who left the Colorado Avalanche and was groomed in the Toronto organization. Smith preferred Quinn.Getting Quinn was a coup for the Maple Leafs, albeit an expensive one. The 55-year-old Hamilton, Ont., native brought a .548 career winning percentage, earned over 11 seasons with the Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers.He won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 1979-80 with the Flyers and again in 1991-92 with the Canucks. Quinn guided the Flyers to the Stanley Cup final in 1980, losing to the New York Islanders and the Canucks to the final in 1994, losing to the New York Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011591/7290412-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="2626" height="1709"><figcaption class="caption-body">The $650,000 long-time coach Roger Neilson will earn from the Philadelphia Flyers puts him sqarely in the middle of the salary pack.</figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">Salaries rise quickly</blockquote>A no-nonsense type, Quinn gets players to buy into his program. Unlike some of the NHL&rsquo;s chalkboard specialists who could slip in and out of NHL arenas unnoticed, he makes the same kind of noise as a coach that he did during a nine-year career as a punishing defenseman with the Leafs, Atlanta Flames and Canucks.Who could forget the mighty hit Quinn put on superstar Bobby Orr that nearly brought the house down in Boston in 1969?Quinn takes a calm, almost fatherly approach in the dressing room.&ldquo;I played for Pat and I really like the guy,&rdquo; said Florida Panthers&rsquo; coach Terry Murray, who was in the running to replace Murphy. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good teacher and good in the room with his presentation and communication. When Mike Smith asked me during my interview with Toronto who were some of &rsquo; the coaches I respected the most, the first name I mentioned was Pat Quinn.&rdquo;Smith said he has always been impressed with Quinn&rsquo;s squads.&ldquo;He always had good skating teams and his teams were tough, but not goony,&rdquo; Smith said.The Leafs have missed the playoffs the past two years and it would be naive of anyone to think he can turn the program around overnight.Expectations for the team entering the season were not high-although they did rise after Toronto got off to a 5-1-1 start before a skid dropped the Maple Leafs to 6-5-1.&ldquo;I expect the players, as individuals, to be competitive,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I expect them to be physically and mentally tough, to challenge themselves to be better players.&rdquo;With his new contract, Quinn has a measure of security not always provided coaches. It is wrong, however, to think just because a coach is near the top of the pay scale, he won&rsquo;t be fired. The Rangers gave Colin Campbell a new three-year contract that made him the fifth highest-paid coach in the league last season and then fired him midway through the year.Just where Ftorek fits in on the salary scale is not clear, but this much we know: the Devils have not been cheapskates with their coaches. Lemaire was the league&rsquo;s second highest-paid coach last season at $850,000 and it&rsquo;s believed they are paying Viacheslav Fetisov $350,000 to be an assistant coach this season. It would not be a surprise if Ftorek were in the $650-700)000 range.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021116/7290405-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="616" height="724"></div>Coaches began sharing salary information three years ago at a meeting during the NHL draft. GMs don&rsquo;t like coaches letting each other know what they earn because that type of information drives salaries up. GMs, however, have been known to share similar information about their own compensation packages.Even Quinn isn&rsquo;t comfortable with salary disclosure. &ldquo;In my day, as a player, you didn&rsquo;t talk about your salary,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that when salaries started to be disclosed, it opened the doors for salaries to rise.&rdquo;It won&rsquo;t be long before more veteran coaches such as Quinn start getting $1 million a year. Pat Bums of the Boston Bruins will earn $950,000 in 2000-01, the final year of his four-year contract. His next deal should pay him at least $1 million a season. John Muckier, who replaced Campbell with the Rangers, gets $950,000 a year. There are a number of other coaches who, at the end of their current deals, will be earning close to $1 million a year.Salaries collected by entry level coaches are generally in the $300400,000 range.For example, Barry Trotz was thrilled to take the job as first coach of the Nashville Predators after a successful minor league coaching career. He signed for three years at $975,000. That&rsquo;s $975,000 total. He&rsquo;ll earn $300,000 this season with $25,000 raises each of the next two years. Bob Hartley gets $325,000 as Crawford&rsquo;s replacement. Both just wanted to get their foot in the door.Coaches have argued they must be paid more to have the respect from players who earn an average of $1.2 million a season. They contend that they are the ones who control the organization&rsquo;s most prized and expensive assets, and are held most accountable when things don&rsquo;t go right, so they should be paid more money.Ironically, Quinn doesn&rsquo;t entirely buy into that theory.&ldquo;That would be a naive way of looking at things,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t just hand a coach a huge salary. He has to earn it. And you don&rsquo;t just hand a guy respect. He has to earn that, too.&rdquo;Quinn has earned his respect. And with the up-and-down Leafs, he&rsquo;ll earn every cent of his unparalleled paycheck. &#9632;

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Quinn earns top billing

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011703/7290457-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Outspoken Bernie Nicholls doesn&rsquo;t understand why executives can&rsquo;t &lsquo;leave the game alone.&rsquo;</figcaption></div>Patrick Marleau, Marco Sturm and Jeff Friesen are the future of the San Jose Sharks. Bernie Nicholls&rsquo; only job is to help get them there.As his career winds down, theirs speed past and by the time the kids reach their prime not even a rear-view mirror will be able to find Nicholls. He is their on-ramp to bigger things.&ldquo;The deal was that if these guys slipped up and had a tough time, then that&rsquo;s where Bernie could help us,&rdquo; said coach Darryl Sutter, explaining why the Sharks re-signed Nicholls to a one-year deal this September after he collected six goals and 28 points last season. &ldquo;He has to be able to go in some nights and take those guys&rsquo; place.&rdquo;When he isn&rsquo;t needed, the one-time 150-point man (1988-89 with the Los Angeles Kings) doesn&rsquo;t have much to do with the on-ice product in San Jose; it&rsquo;s as simple as that. The better he does his job-help the kids develop-the less he plays. He&rsquo;s 37 and growing old.&ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t question my offensive abilities,&rdquo; said Nicholls, who needed two points to reach 1,210 and tie Bobby Clarke for 25th spot on the all-time list.But he was a healthy scratch in five of the first 10 games and had just one assist in those he did play, mostly as a fourth-liner. Sutter, who also coached Nicholls in Chicago in 1994-95, speaks plainly about his expectations: &ldquo;He never was a great skater and he&rsquo;s not going to get any better at it. Because of his age, you can&rsquo;t play him every night.&rdquo;In a way, though; it&rsquo;s a surprise Nicholls has made it this far at all, let alone in this role, let alone be happy playing it. Hollywood doesn&rsquo;t move with the times, it makes the times and Nicholls, born 37 years ago in the tiny Ontario hamlet of West Guilford, near Haliburton, is nothing if not Hollywood.Twenty years ago, while playing in the Ontario League, he traipsed around Kingston like a king, an 18-year-old wearing a full-length fur coat. Recently, he became a co-owner of the Western Professional League&rsquo;s New Mexico Scorpions with Sharks&rsquo; teammate Joe Murphy (Texas Rangers&rsquo; pitcher John Wetteland was also an investor, but he pulled out after one year). When Nicholls played in Los Angeles, he dated Playboy bunnies and wore a pink suit and spent more practice time with pitching wedges than pucks. Summer workouts? About as much fun as a trip to Japan. (What was that word he used about starting this season in the Far East? &rsquo;Stupid&rsquo; rings a bell).Bernie Nicholls has never been one to fall in line.&ldquo;My first 15 years in the league I didn&rsquo;t do (any extra work),&rdquo; he says, citing exceptional natural conditioning. &ldquo;Stevie Yzerman stays out, shoots hundreds of pucks a day. I&rsquo;m the last guy on and the first guy off for my first 12 years in the league. No one beats me off the ice. When I the practice is done, I&rsquo;m gone&hellip;I think if I had my attitude of the past couple years when I was younger, I probably could have been a great player in this league.&rdquo;Indeed, his work ethic has changed. He insists he enjoys working out in the summer, lifting weights, staying out on the ice, being with the kids. He&rsquo;s now 195 pounds, the heaviest of his career, and feels stronger because of it. All the better to get through all that clutching and grabbing-which is, by the way, far more deserving of a place in the game than NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, according to Nicholls.Yep, he&rsquo;s still as subtle as a vicious, twohanded slash to the arm. Dealing with head injuries is fine and well, but broken hands and arms are what NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell should really be clamping down on, Nicholls says. Don&rsquo;t believe for a second players don&rsquo;t know what they&rsquo;re doing: It&rsquo;s &ldquo;one of the dirtiest things in hockey.&rdquo;The crease rule? Ridiculous. The schedule? Insane. Changing officiating standards in the middle of the season, as the league did last year with its obstruction clampdown, is nothing short of a farce. Of course, Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux complained the game had to be cleaned up. They&rsquo;re the ones who would be racking up points on the power play.&ldquo;I always have a tough time listening to someone voice their opinion about something they&rsquo;ve never done before,&rdquo; Nicholls said of the commissioner. &ldquo;No one ever questioned when Gordie Howe or Bobby Hull played the game; it was a great game. Now all of a sudden he wants to come in and make all these changes. Every year we&rsquo;re tying new things. What&rsquo;s wrong with the way the game has always been? Just leave the game alone.&rdquo;Planning for his retirement, hopefully after one more season as a walking, talking on-ramp, he&rsquo;s sending out the word: If anyone wants to hire a critic, he&rsquo;d be happy to oblige. &#9632;

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Aging Nicholls backing up kids

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011568/7290495-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="409" height="572"></div>Times have changed in the Wild, Wild West. Coyoteville has cleaned up its act. The riff-raff has been cleared out of town, the slick gunslingers have actually turned into hard-working ranch hands, and the sheriff finally seems back in control of things.Life is good.But how long will it last for the Phoenix Coyotes, one of the NHL&rsquo;s most underachieving clubs the past few seasons?Was their impressive 5-2-1 start a true indicator of successes to come? Was the club&rsquo;s 1.73 goals-against average after eight games an anomaly I or an example of what happens when a team finally makes a commitment to shoring up its defense?Can Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk continue to dispel the critics who claim they won&rsquo;t be able to coexist on the team&rsquo;s No. 1 line?So far, there&rsquo;s no reason to doubt this team is for real, and the rest of the hockey world is beginning to take notice. In its weekly NHL rankings, for instance, the Los Angeles Times fisted the Coyotes as the No. 2 team in the league, behind Dallas and ahead of Detroit, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather be recognized as a top team in June than in October or November,&rdquo; Coyotes&rsquo; coach Jim Schoenfeld said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with our start, but it&rsquo;s only that-a start.&rdquo;As Roenick put it, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still a long way to Kansas, Dorothy.&rdquo;Yes, it is. And just like the Wizard of Oz, in the end, the whole thing might be nothing more than a colorful dream. But don&rsquo;t count on a fade back to grainy black and white just yet.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a different attitude around here this year than I guess there was in the past,&rdquo; said defenseman Jyrki Lumme, who joined the Coyotes last summer as an unrestricted free agent. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played only eight games so you can&rsquo;t get too excited, but I definitely think we&rsquo;re doing the right things and we&rsquo;re heading in the right direction.&rdquo;It started a couple weeks before the season opened, when Tkachuk, the Coyotes&rsquo; captain and leading scorer each of the the past three seasons, returned from his contract holdout a changed man (and yes, richer too). He&rsquo;s gone the extra mile to repair his public image. He is friendly, accommodating almost to a fault, and says he is hungrier than ever.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021100/7290488-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="544" height="959"></div>He and Roenick have also jelled incredibly well together on the same line with gritty winger Dallas Drake. They accounted for 10 goals and 23 points-figuring in on 58 per cent of the team&rsquo;s offense after eight games. And they were a combined plus-25, meaning they also are playing meaningful defense in even-strength situations.Roenick, for his part, is a changed man, too. He made a vow this season to become more of a team player and a better family man, revealing this summer that his personal life was on the skids and in danger of tumbling out of control.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s just say I wasn&rsquo;t being the type of person I should be,&rdquo; Roenick said. &rsquo;1 wasn&rsquo;t focusing on what really was important, like being a good husband, a good father and being the type of hockey player everyone expects me to be, including myself.&rdquo;Nikolai Khabibulin(1.84GAA, .930 save percentage) is on fire and perhaps not surprisingly, happens to be playing for a new contract. Defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky is much-improved in his own zone. And veteran right winger Rick Tocchet, healthy and happy, was working on a seven-game point scoring streak.The Coyotes are doing it all despite having purged a league-high 12 players from their 1997-98 roster.Two of the biggest departures were Craig Janney and most recently, Cliff Ronning, Phoenix&rsquo;s top two centers the past two seasons. They combined for 108 points last year and were the club&rsquo;s top two assist men.The team has got nothing of substance in return in either trade, but with dynamic rookie Daniel Briere moving to the No. 2 center spot, Phoenix hasn&rsquo;t missed a beat.Life is good. They&rsquo;re finally howling in Coyoteville-and this time for all the right reasons. &#9632;

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Howls of happiness heard in Coyoteville

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011490/7290526-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Guerin is off to a great start, but he&rsquo;s cautious of predicting a big year. (Photo by Jim Mclsaac/BBS)</figcaption></div>You can take the player out of New Jersey easily enough. Taking New Jersey out of the player can be more difficult.But the Edmonton Oilers are discovering how rewarding the wait can be as Bill Guerin flourishes in their system, rather than the way the New Jersey Devils made him do it. With the Devils he was a solid two-way forward. Aren&rsquo;t they all?In Edmonton, it&rsquo;s obvious he&rsquo;s built for the role of power forward. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds he has the build. Ask his bruised opponents and they&rsquo;ll tell you he has the nasty streak, too. He has always considered himself ready for the role.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I necessarily played like one, night in and night out,&rdquo; Guerin said. &ldquo;I was trying to find my game. And I&rsquo;m not out of the woods yet. I&rsquo;m learning something every game.&rdquo;The Oilers hope the 28-year-old right winger is learning he can be an impact player for them. That means combining offensive punch with leadership, speed and physical play. It&rsquo;s an all-around game that few players can bring to the rink, but he was doing it in October and November as the Oilers jumped off to a 6-4-0 start and he led the league with nine goals.Last season, he scored just 18 for New Jersey and Edmonton. He has never scored more than 29 in an NHL season. And by his own definition that would leave him off a list of pure goal-scorers.&ldquo;Maybe 35 to 50, because it&rsquo;s hard to score goals in this league,&rdquo; he said, when asked how many a goal-scorer had to score to fill the role. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I would guess, because there are different degrees of goal-scorers. And you want to do it on a consistent basis, game after game, year after year. There are some guys who score 30 once or 40 once. The true goal-scorers are the guys who do it year after year.&rdquo;On his October pace he&rsquo;d score 82, but he wasn&rsquo;t deluding himself. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got nine now,&rdquo; he said. T hope to get 10. I&rsquo;m not saying I have nine now, I hope to get 76.&rdquo;He has never burst out of the gate like this before. And while expectations for Guerin were high coming into the season, they were elevated even more by that frenetic first month.&ldquo;I do expect more from myself,&rdquo; Guerin said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect to score every night, but I expect to contribute every night somehow, some way. I don&rsquo;t think anybody should put that pressure on themselves, to score every night. It&rsquo;s just not possible.&rdquo;Yet, the roll he was on in the first 10 games prompted flashbacks to his six-goal, seven-game series against the Colorado Avalanche in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. And it was almost expected. That&rsquo;s the way his Oiler teammates were feeling about him early this season.&ldquo;So you count on him for 30 or 40,&rdquo; said center Todd Marchant. &ldquo;He has that natural touch around the net. And right now, even in practice, everything he touches goes in.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not effortless, by any means. But it&rsquo;s not exactly like work, either, this business of stepping up his game.&ldquo;It was a conscious thing,&rdquo; Guerin said. &ldquo;I did have to do it, but I wanted to do it. It&rsquo;s been fun. It hasn&rsquo;t been like I&rsquo;m staying on the ice for an extra half hour every day to work on my shot. I&rsquo;m just mentally more ready for it.&rdquo;He had to be considered a go-to guy before he could think of himself that way. Coach Ron Low threw down that gauntlet before Guerin&rsquo;s first Oiler training camp saying he expected much more from the winger they got in a swap for Jason Arnott midway through last season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty much built for the game we&rsquo;re playing here,&rdquo; Low said. &ldquo;But I still don&rsquo;t think he knows how good he can be. I don&rsquo;t know if he was this fast when we got him. He wasn&rsquo;t thrust into the situation enough to use it.&rdquo;It was supposed to be hard for Guerin to get going without Doug Weight. In fact, all those predictions for Guerin&rsquo;s breakthrough season were predicated on the sight of Weight dishing him the puck all night, every night. Well, they played in three games together before Weight suffered a knee ligament tear and was shelved for 10-to-12 weeks.Guerin scored twice against the Washington Capitals after Weight left at the end of the first period. He bagged another in a win over the Vancouver Canucks two games later. In 10 games, he&rsquo;d scored nine goals and it was clear he was ready to be the go-to guy in Weight&rsquo;s absence.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s put it this way, if we&rsquo;re in a tight situation, the one guy we want to have the puck to make something happen is Dougie,&rdquo; Guerin said. &ldquo;With him out there are a couple guys who have to do more. We have to step up.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-01

Slick Guerin reborn with Oil

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011338/7290557-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0017-01

NHL GAME USED JERSEYS, STICKS & EQUIPMENT

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011373/7290588-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="172" height="171"></div>It was a problem for Ron Wilson. It was a problem for Pierre Page. And now it&rsquo;s a problem for first-year Mighty Ducks of Anaheim coach Craig Hartsburg.That problem is finding a consistent second scoring line that can help take the pressure off the terrific top line of Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne and Steve Rucchin.After their first 10 games, the Ducks top fine produced 14 of the Ducks&rsquo; 22 goals (64 per cent). Only three goals, all by right winger Tomas Sandstrom, were produced by the second line. That&rsquo;s the same number as Ducks&rsquo; tough guys, Jim McKenzie and Stu Grimson. The remaining two goals were scored by defensemen Mike Crowley and Fredrik Olausson.Hartsburg said that goal production does not concern him.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any concern with goals and assists,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If guys are working and playing hard and doing the right things, I&rsquo;m not concerned with who has how many goals and who doesn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more concerned about the lack of work and the lack of commitment sometimes. Not a lack of scoring. A lack of scoring probably comes from a lack of work.&rdquo;But Hartsburg has juggled the second fine quite often this season to &ldquo;try to find some chemistry.&rdquo; The only constant has been Sandstrom, who appears to have rebounded from last season, the worst of his 14-season career. Hartsburg has tried combinations of Travis Green, new addition Marty McInnis, Matt Cullen, rookie Johan Davidsson and Jeff Nielsen to complement Sandstrom. But those five had combined for zero goals.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if I said I wasn&rsquo;t frustrated,&rdquo; Green said.While he won&rsquo;t admit it, Ducks&rsquo; goalie Guy Hebert also has to be frustrated. In his nine first starts he had a stellar 2.17 goals-against average and .932 save percentage, but his record was only 3-3-3. That&rsquo;s because the Ducks scored only 2.3 goals per game during those nine games.NOTEBOOK: The Ducks&rsquo; six-game unbeaten streak (3-0-3) through Oct. 31 was the longest since the team went seven games without a loss at the end of 1996-97&hellip;Coach Craig Hartsburg, who spent 11 years in Minnesota as a North Stars&rsquo; player and assistant coach, was happy to see Jesse &lsquo;The Body&rsquo; Ventura elected governor of Minnesota Nov. 3. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good guy,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;He used to come down to the dressing room all the time. He&rsquo;s a very intelligent guy. It&rsquo;s not like all of a sudden he decided he wants to be in politics. He has been a mayor and worked at it."&hellip;Center Ted Drury, a native of Massachusetts, had a tougher assessment of having a former professional wrestler as a U.S. governor: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just an embarrassment to the United States,&rdquo; Drury said. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m in a &lsquo;B&rsquo; movie."&hellip;Center Josef Marha, who has been sidelined since injuring his right ankle in the season opener, is skating again but will likely see some time in Cincinnati (American League) before rejoining the Ducks. &#9632;

f0018-01

NHL TEAMS

Ducks coming up with big zeroes in search for second-line answers

<div class="byline">By Mika Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021024/7290619-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="170" height="170"></div>He had his doubts on the day-long trip from Salt Lake City to Boston, but his first conversation with Bruins&rsquo; coach Pat Bums convinced Anson Carter he was, indeed, back in the NHL.&ldquo;I asked how he felt,&rdquo; Bums smiled, &ldquo;and he said &lsquo;I&rsquo;m kind of tired.&rsquo; I said &lsquo;Get in there.&rsquo;&rdquo;With that, Carter was a second-line forward again and according to both parties, by-gones were by-gones after occasionally testy contract negotiations ended with Carter signing a two-year deal for base salaries of $650,000 and $850,000. The 24-year-old forward earned $350,000 for scoring 16 goals and 43 points in 1997-98, his first full NHL season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy,&rdquo; said Carter, who played 14-plus minutes in a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 5, a couple of hours after signing the deal. &ldquo;If I had to do it all over again, I&rsquo;d do it all over again.&rdquo;Carter, who played five games with the International League&rsquo;s Utah Grizzlies, asked the Brains to trade him while he was there. He said the request came off the table when he signed his new deal, which didn&rsquo;t cover salary lost during the 12 NHL games he missed, but contained modest bonus clauses that could help him recoup.&ldquo;The feelings I had toward the organization have been put aside,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I signed a contract to play hockey here for two years.&rdquo;Assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell said the club didn&rsquo;t set out to make Carter angry and indicated it wasn&rsquo;t particularly upset by critical comments Carter made during on-and-off negotiations.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have any hard feelings,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just looking for him to perform.&rdquo;Carter&rsquo;s arrival left defenseman Kyle McLaren as Boston&rsquo;s last unsigned free agent. Ironically, the Brains were prepared to announce McLaren had signed before they reached an agreement with Carter, but the deal fell through. Salary lost during the negotiations was one known sticking point, and O&rsquo;Connell insisted the Bruins wouldn&rsquo;t pay it.&ldquo;Absolutely no way,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Just six nights after Montreal defenseman Dave Manson&rsquo;s elbow left him with a mild concussion, left winger P-J Axelsson suffered more significant head trauma from a blind-side elbow thrown by Buffalo right winger Matthew Barnaby Nov. 4. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s just bad luck,&rdquo; said Axelsson, who played all 82 games as rookie last year but was expected to miss at least a week after Barnaby&rsquo;s hit, which cost the Sabre a four-game suspension (see pg. 19 for more on Barnaby). Manson was suspended three games&hellip;Axelsson&rsquo;s injury, plus the sprained ankles of forwards Tim Taylor and Rob DiMaio, left Boston without its entire checking line Nov. 5 against Toronto. The trio, which lost just six man-games all last season, lost 15 through the first 13 games of this year&hellip;The No. 1 line of center Jason Allison, right winger Dmitri Khristich and left winger Sergei Samsonov, a combined plus-67 last season, was minus-11 before going plus-3 Nov. 5 against the Maple Leafs. &#9632;

f0018-02

Carter withdraws trade request after signing two-year contract

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011268/7290650-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="172" height="170"></div>Matthew Barnaby did not, we repeat did not, slug Santa Claus.Everyone else wasn&rsquo;t quite so lucky.The Buffalo Sabres forward (affectionately known in Buffalo as &lsquo;Bam Bam&rsquo;) was fined and suspended by NHL vice-president Colin Campbell four games for elbowing Boston Bruins forward P.J. Axelsson during a game Nov. 2 in Buffalo. The day before the suspension, Barnaby rammed teammate Wayne Primeau into the boards in practice, bruising Primeau&rsquo;s shoulder and forcing him out of the lineup for five to seven days.Barnaby might have been upset that day because of an interview with a Buffalo News columnist regarding a rumor he beat up Santa Claus in a local hotspot at 3 a.m. on Halloween. That incident took place the same night he fought twice on the ice in a game with the Toronto Maple Leafs.&rsquo;Bam Bam&rsquo; did not beat up Santa Claus, however. He did slug a patron outside a bar after the person reportedly made some suggestive remarks toward Barnaby&rsquo;s wife and a female friend of hers. It seems the two were dressed in tight &rsquo;60s style miniskirts-it was Halloween-in an area of Buffalo that once had been known as the city&rsquo;s red light district. In the end, a patron and a friend engaged in some unflattering conversation with Barnaby&rsquo;s wife and companion and one of them reportedly struck the companion. Some words were exchanged. Fists eventually flew.Initial reports claimed Barnaby slugged a guy dressed as Santa Claus. Not true, says Barnaby. It seems Santa was arrested because he got involved in the dispute and refused the reasonable request of a police officer.Barnaby did hit the person who allegedly struck his wife&rsquo;s friend, but no charges were filed and no one else was arrested.Said Barnaby: &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t make Santa Claus cry. I don&rsquo;t want to upset any young kids. Santa might have been there, but I wasn&rsquo;t paying any attention to what he was doing. I didn&rsquo;t hit Santa.&rdquo;Also for the record, there was no curfew that night and the Sabres had the next day off.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Matthew Barnaby said the hit on Boston&rsquo;s P-J Axelsson that earned him a four-game suspension was an accident. He said he was trying to use his shoulder and that he was investigating an appeal through the NHL Players&rsquo; Association&hellip;The Sabres recalled left winger Randy Cunney-worth and center Erik Rasmussen from Rochester in the American League&hellip;With a 4-2 win over Boston Nov. 3, goaltender Dominik Hasek became the winningest netminder in Sabres&rsquo; history with 157 wins. The record had been held by Don Edwards. Hasek had previously set club records for minutes played, shutouts and most games by a Sabres&rsquo; goaltender&hellip;Left winger Geoff Sanderson netted a hat trick during a 6-3 win at Toronto Oct 31, his first three-goal game as a Sabre&hellip;Memories of the first year in the Marine Midland Arena came fluttering back during the Bruins&rsquo; game. A small piece of the scoreboard fell to the ice during the game. It was a bit of plastic about the size of a license plate. No one was injured. &#9632;

f0019-01

Barnaby involved in Santa fracas, but punch thrown with just Claus?

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02927/7290681-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="170" height="170"></div>On a Tuesday morning in Detroit, Calgary Flames&rsquo; goaltender Tyler Moss was asked about life as the backup to Ken Wregget.In the Flames&rsquo; first 10 games, Wregget had played every minute, making more starts than he had all of die previous year until a back injury knocked him out of the lineup, paving the way for Moss to pick up his first win in 11 months.The waiting, said Moss, was the hardest part.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty tough to do extra work after practice every day to keep in shape,&rdquo; Moss said. &ldquo;Because that&rsquo;s always in the back of your mind, you worry about whether you&rsquo;ll be in shape or not when you do get to play when you&rsquo;ve sat out for a month. Once you get in, you&rsquo;ve got to make the most of it. If you don&rsquo;t, it&rsquo;s right back to the bench, so you&rsquo;ve got to seize the opportunity.&rdquo;The opportunity came after Wregget experienced back spasms early in a 5-2 win over the Red Wings Nov. 3, an injury that was supposed to keep him out about a week. Moss performed admirably in allowing two goals on 28 shots.Moss, 23, joined the Flames&rsquo; organization in March, 1997, in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning for Jamie Huscroft. The Flames picked up the option year on his contract last spring after he posted a sparkling 19-10-7 record, with a 2.49 goals-against average in Saint John.The second goaltender chosen in the 1993 entry draft after Jocelyn Thibault, Moss bounced around four minor league cities in two years before landing in the Flames&rsquo; organization.&ldquo;I had a short stint in Adirondack (11 appearances) where I didn&rsquo;t play,&rdquo; Moss said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t seize those opportunities, either. I just wasn&rsquo;t happy there. I didn&rsquo;t see the light at the end of the tunnel there.&rdquo;Moss knows for the foreseeable future, coach Brian Sutter is committed to Wregget as the No. 1 goaltender.&ldquo;Being patient isn&rsquo;t too bad,&rdquo; Moss said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re in the NHL. I mean, you want to play. It sucks, sitting out, but you&rsquo;ve got to pay your dues.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Flames brought in a trio of veteran players in the off-season-goalie Ken Wregget, center Bob Bassen and defenseman Steve Smith-in part because of their leadership skills. All have a history of injury problems, however. Bassen had yet to play a game this season because of knee surgery and Wregget was out with back spasms, so of the three, Smith&rsquo;s health has been a pleasant surprise. There was a thought that he wouldn&rsquo;t play back-to-back games this year and actually sat out the second game of the season in Tokyo. However, that was the only game he had missed&hellip;It has been a crazy year for Flames&rsquo; right winger Theo Fleury. In his first 11 games of the seasons, Fleury was held scoreless six times and limited to a single point in two others. However, in the remaining three games, he had 12 points-including a five-, a four-, and a three-point night&hellip;Left winger Cory Stillman, a 27-goal man a year ago, broke out of a one-goal-in-11-games slump with two in the win over Detroit Nov. 4. &#9632;

f0019-02

Moss gathers first win of year by staying patient, ready to play

<div class="byline">By Todd Taylor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011161/7290712-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="171" height="171"></div>As the only NHL franchise to miss the playoffs each of the last six years, it seems that any good news for the Carolina Hurricanes is always balanced by something negative.Sure, the &rsquo;Canes were leading the Eastern Conference in goals against through 11 games behind surprising goalie Arturs Irbe, the NHL&rsquo;s player of the month for October, but their paltry 23 goals scored in that time wasn&rsquo;t making things easy.Part of the dilemma can be explained by the team&rsquo;s new defense-oriented system, but there was no reason for the offensive drought to be so bad. No player was hit so hard as center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill, goalless through 11 games.Coach Paul Maurice reconfigured the lines, replacing O&rsquo;Neill with Ron Francis on a line with top wingers Gary Roberts and Sami Kapanen, but that didn&rsquo;t seem to help the Carolina offense, either.In a Nov. 5 game against the New Islanders, however, Carolina may have found the right combination to complement O&rsquo;Neill: the physical Roberts and the speedy Nelson Emerson. O&rsquo;Neill broke his drought with two goals as the &rsquo;Canes exploded for six in the game-the first time the team had scored that many in nearly a year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a huge confidence-builder for our team,&rdquo; said captain Keith Primeau. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ve given up on the idea of having three balanced lines.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: It would be unfair for center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill to shoulder all the blame for the team&rsquo;s offensive woes. Center Ron Francis was on pace for the lowest production of his illustrious career, and after a hot start, center Keith Primeau cooled down by notching just one point in a five-game span&hellip;The biggest offensive culprit may be the Carolina power play, which went 0-for-4 against the Islanders Nov. 5 to continue an 0-for-20 drought&hellip;Chippy games continue to be dicey situations for the &rsquo;Canes. Their best fighter is probably Primeau, but he&rsquo;s hardly one who should be spending time in the penalty box. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a true heavyweight,&rdquo; said coach Paul Maurice, &ldquo;and there will probably be five or six games this year where that will be a problem.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-01

O’Neill’s goal breakthrough brings balance to top lines

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03552/7290743-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="606" height="954"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Sakic</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02799/7290750-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="169" height="167"></div>Joe Sakic isn&rsquo;t in denial anymore.Parts of the hockey world may still call the Colorado Avalanche one of the NHL&rsquo;s eUte teams, but Sakic didn&rsquo;t sound like one of the behevers when discussing the 1998-99 edition of the Avalanche.&ldquo;Maybe we&rsquo;re at the point where we just have to battle,&rdquo; said Sakic, whose team got off to a 3-7-1 start. &ldquo;We used to be able to get away with playing a couple of bad periods, but still winning just on talent. We&rsquo;re not that team anymore.&rdquo;The Avalanche had the worst record in the lightly regarded Northwest Division after 11 games and were shut out in three of them. Two came at home, where fans have been booing loudly lately. They also lost to the Nashville Predators and looked Ustless in a 3-0 shutout against the Maple Leafs in Toronto Oct. 4.The Avs&rsquo; play has been a continuation of their first round playoff loss to the Edmonton Oilers last spring and for much of the second half of last season. Sakic beheves the complacency that may have set in during the times they won purely on talent-and not always on hard work-may have finally caught up with the Avalanche.&ldquo;Maybe mentally it hurt us,&rdquo; said Sakic, who had seven goals and 12 points the first 11 games. &ldquo;We got into some bad habits. We would always get by and maybe we thought that&rsquo;s all it took It seems like we would always play down to the level of our competition and would get ourselves in trouble.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Avalanche raised its offer to unsigned defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh by about $180,000-from $9.75 million to nearly $10 million-over a three-year period, but agent Paul Theofanous said it wasn&rsquo;t enough. Ozolinsh is seeking a deal in the range of $4 million a year&hellip;Left winger Valeri Kamensky scored his first goal of the season Oct 31 in Nashville, after an eight-game drought&hellip;Center Peter Forsberg got his first goal of the season the next game, in Carolina, as part of a three-point night. The Avs won the game 3-2&hellip;Rookie defenseman Wade Belak was bothered by a groin pull and was placed on the injured list after the win in Carolina&hellip;Forsberg had a seven-game scoring streak snapped in Toronto Nov. 4. &#9632;

f0020-03

Sakic: Talent not enough

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04355/7290781-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="171" height="168"></div>As players, Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Dirk Graham and assistant Denis Savard were as opposite as it gets.Graham was the ultimate grinder, a defensive forward who won the Selke Trophy in 1991.Savard was pure finesse, one of the greatest scorers in NHL history.So it shouldn&rsquo;t surprise anyone they have different philosophies as coaches, but both Graham and Savard insist suggestions they can&rsquo;t get along are greatly exaggerated.&ldquo;Saying we&rsquo;re not getting along are not the right words,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;We have different thoughts, but when we come out of the talk we&rsquo;re having, we&rsquo;re on the same page.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have opinions, but Dirk makes all the final decisions. He&rsquo;s the boss and that&rsquo;s the way it should be. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s any different anywhere else. I think it&rsquo;s healthy.&rdquo;So does Graham.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s natural for people to look at us with skepticism,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;The funny thing is, when we (started) 4-2, nobody was saying anything about us.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t always agree on everything, but if everybody agreed with each other and everything is rosy, then you don&rsquo;t have a chance to grow. I think adversity is good because you learn about the team and about yourself. I believe it makes you better. You want to win every game, but if you don&rsquo;t have challenges you&rsquo;ll never have a chance to grow.&rdquo;Graham admitted in the midst of the Hawks&rsquo; four-game losing streak after their 4-2-0 start that he has made some mistakes and poor decisions.He took responsibility for not having the Hawks ready to play in the first period of games. In their first 10 games, they trailed six times and led just once. The Hawks surrendered three goals in the first period in three straight home games.&ldquo;Things aren&rsquo;t going to change here overnight or in a week or two,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Eddie Olczyk was waived Oct. 31 and accepted an assignment to Chicago of the International League. It wasn&rsquo;t a pleasant parting as GM Bob Murray criticized Olczyk&rsquo;s work habits. &ldquo;I disagree with Bob Murray to the utmost extreme,&rdquo; said an angry Olczyk, adding not once did coach Dirk Graham ever question his work ethic&hellip;The Hawks spent $600,000 to sign Olczyk as an unrestricted free agent in August, paraded him in front of the hometown media, then gave up on him after just four games&hellip;Tough guy winger Dennis Bonvie took Olczyk&rsquo;s spot in the lineup&hellip; Goalies Jeff Hackett and Mark Fitzpatrick allowed a goal on the first shot they faced in four straight home games. &#9632;

f0020-04

Disagreement healthy, say Hawk coaches

<div class="byline">By Mike Helka</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-06155/7290812-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="598" height="964"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05197/7290819-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="171" height="170"></div>While the Dallas Stars led the NHL with a 6-2-2 record and 14 points after 10 games, it was clear the team hadn&rsquo;t found the chemistry coach Ken Hitchcock was seeking.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s just a lack of concentration,&rdquo; said winger Brett Hull. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough for me (to say), because I&rsquo;m the new guy, but I think it&rsquo;s a situation where we&rsquo;re getting a little too big for our britches. We&rsquo;re 6-2-2, but we haven&rsquo;t played a whole bunch of good games.&rdquo;Hull said the team&rsquo;s successful power play and &ldquo;sometimes spectacular goaltending&rdquo; masked early problems that have been exposed in key games by hard-working teams.&ldquo;I think what we really need is a shot of reality and a kick in the (rear),&rdquo; Hull said after a 4-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks Nov. 4, &ldquo;because I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re looking at ourselves realistically.&rdquo;Hitchcock put the team through an intense practice and promised more of the same &rsquo;Tor the balance of the season.&rdquo;&ldquo;We are not putting enough in and we are not getting enough out,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;As coaches, we have to become more demanding.&rdquo;The Stars averaged almost two power play goals a game throughout the first eight contests, but had been outscored 10-8 at even strength over 10 games.&ldquo;Our power play&hellip;can&rsquo;t carry us, and we&rsquo;ve talked about that before,&rdquo; said winger Grant Marshall.NOTEBOOK: After hearing Detroit complain the Stars have a tendency to set picks, coach Ken Hitchcock spoke out, saying the Wings have a tendency to dive. &ldquo;Detroit has become a very good club at the little areas of getting away with things, so you have to learn from them."&hellip;Center Joe Nieuwendyk became the 51st NHL player to record 400 career goals Oct. 30 in a 3-3 tie with Anaheim&hellip;Hitchcock said he might try pairing winger Brett Hull with Nieuwendyk&hellip;Stars&rsquo; goalies allowed four goals on nine shots in the loss to San Jose Nov. 4.Ed Belfour was victimized for three on six shots, while Roman Turek allowed the other. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the fewest shots ever in an NHL win. &#9632;

f0020-06

Record hides discontent

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-07136/7290850-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="171" height="167"></div>The game tapes are only from May and June, although the time span seems much, much longer.Back then, Sergei Fedorov was on his way to 10 playoff goals and a $28-tnillion payday for four months of hockey.Now, Fedorov is scrutinizing the same tapes-of a dominating performance against the St. Louis Blues, of a winning goal in Game 3 against the Washington Capitals-and wonders how things went so wrong so fast.The only thing adding up is the games-certainly not the goals or the points or even the shots.&rsquo;It&rsquo;s obviously not pleasant,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m off to a slow start. 1 wish by now I would have scored a few more goals. I&rsquo;m aware of that. I&rsquo;m working on it, trying to be a better all-around player.&rdquo;Fedorov&rsquo;s numbers through 11 games were vastly off his career standards. He had recorded just two goals and six points while attempting just 24 shots, fewer than Doug Brown and less than half the 52 taken by Brendan Shanahan. His plus-minus was a team-low minus-5.&ldquo;I have to just pick up my speed and drive the puck to the offensive zone. 1 think if I get my legs going, I should be fine. That&rsquo;s probably why I&rsquo;ve had a slow start,&rdquo; he said.And while Fedorov has never been overly physical, he has always been involved. But he had yet to receive a penalty this season.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Brent Gilchrist has stopped skating after undergoing hernia surgery in September and may seek an opinion from another specialist. A possible return to action in November has been scratched&hellip;Falling in succession to St. Louis, Dallas and Calgary, the Red Wings suffered through a rare three-game losing streak, their longest since a four-game skid in October of 1994, the first month of coach Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s tenure&hellip;Struggling left winger Slava Kozlov was without a goal 11 games into the season&hellip;GM Ken Holland indicated Detroit may carry both backup goaltenders, Kevin Hodson and Norm Maracle. the rest of the season. Either would likely be snapped up on waivers if sent down. &#9632;

f0020-07

Fedorov looking to tapes for slump-ending solution

<div class="byline">By Mario Annlcchlarico</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01923/7290881-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="173" height="175"></div>Early into 1998-99, the Edmonton Oilers weren&rsquo;t just leading the Northwest Division of the Western Conference, but also forging the way in offensive production among the entire 27-team league.The Oilers had collected 41 goals in 11 games, seven more than the second-most prolific team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a startling fact for a club whose biggest concern at the start of the campaign was scoring.&ldquo;Speed,&rdquo; said coach Ron Low, when asked his explanation for the sudden surge. &ldquo;Guys are trying to create stuff. That is really important.&rdquo;Leading the way was Bill Guerin, who had nine goals in 10 games, seven of which came on the power play. (See pg. 16 for more on Guerin).Team speed was obviously influential in having so many man-advantage opportunities. The Edmonton power play was third in the league with 16 goals in 70 chances (22.9 per cent).But Low was also getting some mileage out of role players such as Kevin Brown and Mike Grier, who opened with four and three goals respectively. Brown, who plays on the fourth line along with Boyd Devereaux and captain Kelly Buchberger, has been a solid contributor since coming over as a free agent from the Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; system in the off-season.&ldquo;What he has is a pretty good eye for the puck, he anticipates really well and doesn&rsquo;t stay under cover,&rdquo; Low said.Brown also had two assists for six points. Along with with Devereaux (three goals, five points) and Buchberger (two goals, five points), it has been a dominant line playing five-on-five.NOTEBOOK: Center Doug Weight underwent successful surgery to repair a tom medial collateral ligament in his right knee Nov. 3. &ldquo;We encountered no difficulties whatsoever and, in fact, because I tightened the MCL, Doug&rsquo;s knee will probably be more stable than it was before he suffered the injury,&rdquo; said Dr. David Reid, the Oilers&rsquo; chief of medical staff. Weight injured the knee in a collision with Washington defenseman Mark Tinordi Oct. 28-just four games after he resigned a two-year contract&hellip;Josef Beranek, taking over the No. 1 center spot, had five goals and 12 points in nine games&hellip;Left winger Bill Huard was a healthy scratch for each of the Oilers&rsquo; games through Nov. 5. Huard, rookie defenseman Tom Poti and veteran blueline Frank Musil were the only Edmonton players without a single point&hellip;Injured Oiler defenseman Marty McSorley led FLEX magazine&rsquo;s Top 10 NHL Mean Guys list, ahead of the likes of Bob Probert and Chris Simon. &#9632;

f0021-01

Oilers unleash intimidating speed to create plentiful scoring chances

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02540/7290912-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="170" height="168"></div>Already reeling after a flurry of injuries decimated their offense and two goalies, the Los Angeles Kings sustained a huge blow when it was learned Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Rob Blake was playing with a broken right foot.Blake was hit by a puck in an Oct. 30 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Initial X-rays were negative and he played in pain for two games. An MRI at Centinela Hospital revealed the fracture and he was fitted for a cast. He&rsquo;ll be on crutches until at least mid-December. He had two goals and seven points in 12 games.Just a few days earlier, defenseman Doug Bodger broke his left wrist after he stepped on a puck and fell in warmups. Goalies Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr, who strained groin muscles Oct. 18, remained out, as did center Jozef Stumpel, their leading scorer last season. He was hampered by a sore hip flexor and abdominal strain.Before Blake&rsquo;s injury, the Kings had stepped up their efforts to acquire an impact player such as Pavel Bure or Ziggy Palffy. But before making any major moves, they looked within in the form of center Olli Jokinen.The 19-year-old Finn, who was the third overall pick in the 1997 entry draft, had a good training camp, but was sent to the Springfield Falcons of the American League to get regular playing time and learn the ins and outs of North American hockey.Jokinen was recalled to help the Kings end a scoring drought and he provided help right away.Centering left winger Luc Robitaille and Glen Murray, Jokinen had a strong game and contributed an assist in a 2-2 tie with the St. Louis Blues Nov. 5. He was also on the ice for the Kings&rsquo; first goal, scored by Robitaille, which ended a home scoreless streak of 132:28.&ldquo;I was nervous, but after about 10 minutes I found I could play my game,&rdquo; Jokinen said.Jokinen likes playing in the NHL, period. &ldquo;Nine games in Springfield are enough,&rdquo; said Jokinen, who had three goals and nine points with Springfield.&ldquo;Now I know what style I must play if I want to play in the NHL. I must hit everybody and score goals and shoot the puck. And stop goals.&rdquo;Coach Larry Robinson wanted Jokinen to become stronger defensively.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s at his best when he has the puck,&rdquo; Robinson said.NOTEBOOK: Back-to-back 3-0 losses at home against Tampa Bay and Phoenix Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 were the Kings&rsquo; first back-to-back shutout defeats at home since mid-December of 1967, their third month in the NHL&hellip;Scrappy center Ian Laperriere returned Nov. 5 after missing nine games with a knee injury. He will wear a brace to help strengthen the knee&hellip;The Nov. 5 game against St. Louis attracted 17 GMs or scouts from other clubs. The reason? Perhaps it was the declaration from team president Tim Leiweke that the Kings are looking for an impact player who could add scoring punch and be a gate attraction when the $350 million Staples Center opens next season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m convinced a star in L.A. is critical to the long-term success of hockey,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0021-02

Blake out until Christmas with fractured right foot

<div class="byline">By David J. Neal</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03319/7290943-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="172" height="169"></div>Only in an NHL rookie&rsquo;s dream world does he break the team scoring record for goals in a game by racking up a bunch in front of his family, friends and girlfriend.That dream world is right winger Mark Parrish&rsquo;s real world and the Florida Panthers are happy he welcomed them to it with the franchise&rsquo;s first four-goal game during a 7-3 rout at Chicago Oct. 30. The performance got him enough attention to be named NHL rookie of the month, an award Parrish didn&rsquo;t know existed until he won it.In the United Center crowd that night were about 20 folks from Parrish&rsquo;s native state of Minnesota.&ldquo;Maybe they ought to start traveling with us,&rdquo; Parrish joked, pointing out that his girlfriend and parents saw him score two goals in the season opener in Florida.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been a little anxious to get another one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The last thing you want to hear, not so much from fans and the media, but from other players, is that it was kind of a fluke.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to know what to expect with young guys,&rdquo; Panthers&rsquo; coach Terry Murray said. &ldquo;Are they sporadic, where their goals will come in bunches? There were a couple of plays he didn&rsquo;t score on, where he beat the defender one-on-one. You get in a zone sometimes.&rdquo;Traffic around the net had been an issue with the Panthers, with only Parrish even getting there part of the time. This game was a reminder for everybody where the goal-scoring areas are.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s kind of where I&rsquo;ve played my whole career,&rdquo; Parrish said. &ldquo;I feel comfortable there. Let everybody else play on the perimeter.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Dino Ciccarelli&rsquo;s return to the lineup was a brief one. His first game since April 14 was Nov. 4 against Chicago and he scored his first goal, a rebound on the power play. Ciccarelli had missed the first two games with a sprained ankle, the next two as a healthy scratch and the next six with back spasms. After the Chicago game, however, his back spasms flared up again and he was out indefinitely&hellip;After a 6-2 loss to the Islanders Nov. 2 in which the Panthers gave away at least four goals and were decidedly soft in their own end, coach Terry Murray responded with a 30-minute postgame meeting with the team&hellip;The Islanders&rsquo; loss was the first game for captain Scott Mellanby, who had been out with a badly pulled groin since late training camp&hellip;The first of center Rob Niedermayer&rsquo;s two goals against Chicago Oct. 30 was his first goal since Jan. 10. Starting with the Oct. 24 game in which he picked up his first point of the season, Niedermayer had three goals and seven points in the next six games. &#9632;

f0021-03

Rookie Parrish sets team mark with four-goal effort against Blackhawks

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011016/7290974-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="172" height="172"></div>It will be a New Year, and perhaps even a new season, before Scott Thornton can expect to play for the Montreal Canadiens again.Now the Canadiens can only hope the news concerning Saku Koivu isn&rsquo;t equally as bad.Thornton, a physical center who got off to a good start this season, will need surgery to repair a tear in his abdominal wall muscle, which could sideline him for most of the regular season, if not all of it.Thornton, who had two goals and 28 penalty minutes in seven games, can expect to be out until at least mid-January. But it isn&rsquo;t uncommon for such an injury to require a full season before healing properly.Koivu also is suffering from an abdominal injury that hasn&rsquo;t responded to rest. He&rsquo;ll probably find out in mid-November whether he requires surgery.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough when you have two centers on the sidelines, because it&rsquo;s a key position and we need two strong offensive lines,&rdquo; said coach Alain Vigneault.Thornton, along with Shayne Corson and Turner Stevenson, are the only forwards who provide the Canadiens with a much-needed physical presence. Thornton&rsquo;s surprising offensive touch to start the season was an added bonus.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real shame because Scott has a lot of respect among our opponents,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;Every good team needs character guys and tough guys as well as skilled guys. That&rsquo;s why they call it a team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With the Canadiens in last place in the Eastern Conference following 10 games, coach Alain Vigneault challenged his player to be more mentally tough. &ldquo;Consistency is all about mental toughness,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think we have players who are mentally tough. I think we have leaders on this team. But it&rsquo;s not enough for me to say it because they haven&rsquo;t shown it. We have to prove to ourselves and our fans that we can do it on the ice. There&rsquo;s no sense talking about leadership and character players until we start winning."&hellip;Rookie left winger Andrei Bashkirov, recovering from a fractured jaw suffered in training camp, has resumed skating, but remains at least one month away from playing in the NHL. &#9632;

f0024-01

Gut check time for Habs as Thornton. Koivu injured

<div class="byline">By Jeff Legwold</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03460/7291005-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="601" height="962"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cliff Ronning</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02692/7291012-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="170" height="168"></div>They&rsquo;re getting more than they thought, probably giving a little more than they should.Respect is what it&rsquo;s all about these days for the Nashville Predators.&ldquo;Anyone who has some pride is going to take pride in what people might say sometimes,&rdquo; said Predators&rsquo; coach Barry Trotz. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s that kind of positive reinforcement a team like this needs. If we get recognized for giving people a little tougher battle than they thought we could, we can use that.&rdquo;Most who have played the first-year team have been surprised in some ways, especially during games at the Nashville Arena, where the team had all three of its wins as it headed into November.In their first 10 games, they were 32-0 at home, 0-4-1 on the road.But overall, while they have let more than their share of leads get away, the Predators have consistently kept their effort level high, gone to the forecheck hard, worked the comers and have done all of things a new team has to do simply to survive.&ldquo;It shows they are coming at you every night,&rdquo; said Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; center Ron Francis, whose team lost to the Predators earlier this season.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re not going to take any nights off and people should realize that. They&rsquo;re not going to be easy to play&rdquo;From the beginning of training camp, players who consistently gave the effort were retained, while some others-perhaps even some who were more physically talented-were sent packing.NOTEBOOK: The Predators acquired veteran center Cliff Ronning and minor league defenseman Richard Lintner from Phoenix for future considerations Oct. 31. GM David Poile said the eight picks Nashville holds in the first three rounds of next season&rsquo;s entry draft would likely not be affected by the deal. The 33-year-old Ronning, now with his fourth NHL team, was put in the lineup immediately, getting five shots in his first game, a 3-2 loss to Edmonton Nov. 4. Ronning will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season&hellip;Lintner, a 6-foot-3, 214-pounder who played for Springfield of the American League last season, was sent to the Predators&rsquo; affiliate in Milwaukee&hellip;There are no Predators on the all-star ballot. &#9632;

f0024-03

Hard work earns kudos

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04299/7291043-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="170" height="168"></div>Having spent a few nights in Utah, Scott Niedermayer decided the life was a little too Grizzlie and so decided once again to make friends with the Devils.Back in action only four days after agreeing to a two-year contract that will pay him $3.25 million each season along with a Norris Trophy and post-season all-star bonus that would make it an even $4 million, Niedermayer displayed an adventurous offensive style in his Nov. 3 debut against the New York Rangers.Although he did not score, the new offensive freedom playing for coach Robbie Ftorek was clearly beneficial to Niedermayer.&ldquo;He played great,&rdquo; said captain Scott Stevens. &ldquo;It looked like he didn&rsquo;t miss a beat. He&rsquo;s always in great shape and he&rsquo;s a terrific skater. It&rsquo;s good to see him back.&rdquo;Niedermayer, who lost $300,000 by missing the Devils&rsquo; first nine games while unsigned, said he was &ldquo;a little&rdquo; nervous in his return.&ldquo;But it was as good as I thought it would be coming back. It was great to be back and get a win in front of the fans,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think having (former Devil John MacLean and) the Rangers in town was good in taking some of the focus off me.&rdquo;Of course, Niedermayer understood the focus would now be on him to earn his new contract.&ldquo;I know that, but I put a lot on myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I see some differences with the team, a little more end-to-end action. It will be a fun way to play.&rsquo;To be honest, when I was in Utah I was having fun&hellip;But the biggest thing is I&rsquo;m glad to be back with my teammates and glad to be back playing hockey in the NHL. I felt strongly about what I did.. .1 have no regrets.&rdquo;He withdrew his trade request and Devils&rsquo; GM Lou Lamoriello said he had no intentions of trading Niedermayer.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a Devil,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going nowhere.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Brad Bombardir was the odd man out on defense when Scott Niedermayer returned and was paired with Ken Daneyko&hellip;Left winger Dave Andreychuk suffered stretched ligaments when Florida defenseman Ed Jovanovski fell on his right knee Oct. 31, but the veteran winger did not miss a game and picked up his 600th career assist Nov. 3&hellip;The Devils reportedly talked to Calgary about a deal for center Theo Fleury involving underachieving Devils&rsquo; right winger Jason Arnott&hellip;Defenseman Scott Stevens said he wouldn&rsquo;t care if the Devils picked up a goal-scorer that is paid more than his $4.15 million, the team&rsquo;s salary ceiling. &#9632;

f0024-04

Niedermayer happy to be Devil again

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-06164/7291074-1-eng-US/f0024-062.jpg" title="f0024-06" width="602" height="968"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bryan Smolinski</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05200/7291081-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="171" height="171"></div>In Ziggy Palffy&rsquo;s absence, Bryan Smolinski is stepping up, all over the ice.Centering the New York Islanders&rsquo; top line with Claude Lapointe and Trevor Linden, Smolinski was bodychecking in the offensive zone, forechecking, making plays and not forgetting to be third-man high at times.He also got three goals and an assist in key back-to-back wins over the Philadelphia Flyers (3-2 Oct. 31) and Florida Panthers (6-2 Nov. 1) and had four goals and 10 points after 12 games for the surprising 6-6-0 Islanders.&ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s goal is to be a complete player,&rdquo; said Smolinski, 26, a native of Toledo, Ohio. &ldquo;Over the summer, it became more of a maturity thing after the disappointing season I had (13 goals, minus-16 rating). I know there was a lot of things I did well and a lot of things I did poorly and playing defensively was one of the things I did poorly.&rdquo;Coach-GM Mike Milbury said he met with Smolinski during training camp to stress the need for him to keep his feet moving and play physically. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t using his speed or his strength as he is now,&rdquo; Milbury said.Said Smolinski: &ldquo;Once we got to camp and I knew what they expected of me and what I expected of myself with Trevor not being there and Ziggy not being there, I knew what my role was leadership-wise. I had to play well defensively, create chances&hellip;! believe I&rsquo;m a totally different player than I was last year or the year before.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The club ignored sparse Nassau Coliseum crowds, including just 8,192 to see a 6-2 win over Florida Nov. 2, to go 4-2-0 on a homestand&hellip;With the score tied 1-1 after the period against Florida, coach Mike Milbury left the bench to watch from a luxury box and assistant Bill Stewart ran the bench. Milbury was in touch with assistant Wayne Fleming, who wore a headset and relayed Milbury&rsquo;s comments to Stewart&hellip;Rookie defenseman Eric Brewer got his first NHL goal Nov. 5 in a 6-3 home loss to Carolina. It was his 10th NHL game, meaning if he is returned to his junior team he will be credited with a year of pro experience&hellip;Forward Mike Hough was scratched for 10 of the first 12 games. &#9632;

f0024-06

Smolinski takes charge

<div class="byline">By Rick Carplniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-07139/7291112-1-eng-US/f0024-072.jpg" title="f0024-07" width="171" height="169"></div>Harry York&rsquo;s career as a New York Ranger has been nothing but fits and starts.The 24-year-old center was acquired at the trade deadline, from the St. Louis Blues for Mike Eastwood, last March. He made an impressive debut, and the next night his season ended when Keith Primeau of the Carolina Hurricanes rammed him into the boards and he suffered a subluxed shoulder.York started over in training camp, but after just two exhibition games, he hit another major obstacle. Rangers&rsquo; coach John Muckier, who counted on York to be a physical, gritty, fourth line center, was so underwhelmed with York&rsquo;s performance, he sent him to Hartford of the American League.There was a catch. Since York would have to go through waivers to be sent to the AHL, he was never really assigned to Hartford. Instead, he was told to report there, to practice with the Wolf Pack.His punishment assignment ended in time for the Rangers&rsquo; final pre-season game. Then after two regular season games, both losses, York was scratched for seven straight games.He had to prove, again, that he belonged.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s like that all the time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not a proven player, you&rsquo;re a young guy and you have to have a sense of desperation. A lot of coaches like that. It&rsquo;s just good to be here with the guys&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Mike Richter, who went all of 1997-98 without a shutout, recorded back-to-back whitewashes against Buffalo (0-0 tie) and Carolina (1-0 win). It was the first time since 1977 the Rangers recorded consecutive regular season shutouts and the first time since 1971 that they won a 1-0 game at home. Richter, however, had put up consecutive shutouts once before, in the first round of the 1994 playoffs against the Islanders&hellip;Left winger Brent Fedyk, who had become an effective member of the Rangers&rsquo; penalty-killing unit, suffered a broken foot Oct. 30, and was expected to miss three-to-four weeks&hellip;The Ranger power play was 3-for-44, a pitiful 6.8 per cent effective at home, second-last in the NHL. &#9632;

f0024-07

New Ranger York struggles to become New York Ranger

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrloch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01912/7291143-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="173" height="170"></div>It was a long wait, but the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; super Swede has finally been given clearance for takeoff.Right winger Daniel Alfredsson, who missed the first nine games of the regular season with a knee injury, returned to the lineup in a 4-2 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Nov. 5.Because Alfredsson-who suffered the knee injury when his left leg caught a rut in the ice during training camp-missed all of the exhibition season, he hadn&rsquo;t played a game since May 15 in the playoffs against the Washington Capitals.&rsquo;I feel good,&rdquo; he said following his first trip back to the lineup. &ldquo;The knee feels good, but I&rsquo;m not completely satisfied with my performance. I can play better than I did.&rdquo;Still, troubled by injuries, the Senators welcomed Alfredsson back with open arms. He played a regular shift with captain Alexei Yashin and speedy winger Shawn McEachern, but was also used on other lines.Through the first 10 games of the season, goal-scoring hasn&rsquo;t been a problem for the Senators. However, the players understand getting Alfredsson back into the lineup wasn&rsquo;t going to hurt.&ldquo;Anytime you put a player like that in the lineup it makes it that much tougher for the other team,&rdquo; said winger Vaclav Prospal. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big player for us and he plays a big role. You&rsquo;re always happy to get guys like that back.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Andreas Dackell is recovering from the concussion he suffered after getting slammed into the boards by Philadelphia center Eric Lindros Oct. 30. Dackell admitted he had nowhere to go and ducked when he saw Lindros coming. &ldquo;I saw the freight train coming and I was just a little beetle,&rdquo; Dackell said. The Senators were upset Lindros received no fine or suspension for the hit&hellip;GM Rick Dudley is studying the possibility of placing an American League team in Quebec City. The Senators still hold the rights to the Prince Edward Island franchise they folded two years ago&hellip;Faced with a surplus of defensemen, the Senators sent Sami Salo to the minors because he was the only one exempt from waivers. &#9632;

f0025-01

Alfredsson’s rosy return Swede news for ’mates

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03380/7291174-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="609" height="961"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Clarke</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02588/7291181-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="170" height="167"></div>Putting a rookie defenseman into his first NHL game on short notice is like throwing a non-swimmer into the deep end of the pool-especially when two rookie defensemen are already there.Ryan Bast didn&rsquo;t have time to reach for a life jacket because he hadn&rsquo;t had time to get a telephone put in his new apartment.Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke tried to get a call through by way of Philadelphia Phantoms&rsquo; coach Bill Barber the morning of Nov. 1, a day after regulars Petr Svoboda and Dave Babych went down with injuries. Bast didn&rsquo;t find out about his call-up until he arrived at the Phantoms&rsquo; bus as it was about to depart for Hershey.Instead, the 21-year-old backliner grabbed his bag and headed for the First Union Center to play his first NHL game against Ottawa Nov. 1. He joined Phantom teammate Andy Delmore and first-year pro Dmitri Tertyshny on the blueline. The trio held its own, but the Flyers still dropped a 5-4 decision to the Senators.Two nights later, Bast and Delmore had their hands full with Jaromir Jagr out in Pittsburgh, but came away relatively unscathed in a 4-4 tie.Clarke has said he believes Bast has enough talent to win a job with the Flyers. Bast wanted to return the compliment with some decent play.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got a contending team here and you don&rsquo;t want to go through the motions Bast said. &ldquo;You want to come in and perform and contribute. I don&rsquo;t think it has gone too badly.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After beating Ottawa 12 straight times over the past three seasons, the Flyers dropped two games to the Senators in four days (Oct 29 and Nov. 1). Goalie Ron Hextall was on the losing end of both games and remained stuck on 231 career Flyers&rsquo; wins, one short of Bernie Parent&rsquo;s club record for goaltenders&hellip; Right winger Mike Maneluk finally scored his first goal in a 3-2 loss on Long Island Oct. 31. Maneluk, a 25-year-old rookie playing on the Eric Lindros-John LeClair line, proceeded to register five points in three games. Two other forwards, left winger Chris Gratton and right winger Dainius Zubrus, were still looking for their first goals after a dozen games. &#9632;

f0025-03

Bast swims in NHL debut

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04238/7291212-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="171" height="168"></div>During training camp, someone asked rookie center Daniel Briere if he gave any thought to possibly being in the race for the Calder Trophy this season.&ldquo;Oh, gosh. No. Not at all,&rdquo; the 5-foot-9 Briere blushed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more concerned about just making the team. I&rsquo;ve got a long way to go yet. Thinking about maybe winning the rookie of the year hasn&rsquo;t even crossed my mind.&rdquo;Maybe it should now that Briere, 21, has been handed the keys to the Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; No. 2 line, centering veteran wingers Greg Adams and Rick Tocchet. GM Bobby Smith, feeling Briere can be a cornerstone of the franchise&rsquo;s future, cleared the way for the rookie on Halloween by trading away second-line center Cliff Ronning and minor league defenseman Richard Lintner to the Nashville Predators for future considerations.&ldquo;We have to take a look at Daniel Briere. He&rsquo;s not a player who&rsquo;s going to improve in the (American League),&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;He was the best player in that league last year. And he&rsquo;s not going to improve playing a minor role on our team.&rdquo;In his first game in a featured role (3-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings Nov. 1), Briere had one assist and a ton of scoring chances. &ldquo;He could have had a hat trick in the first period,&rdquo; Tocchet said.&ldquo;If there&rsquo;s no chances, then you can start worrying. But this is a good sign,&rdquo; said Briere, who initially had mixed emotions about the Ronning trade. &ldquo;Cliff is a great player and a good guy to have in the locker room, too. It&rsquo;s sad to see him leave&hellip;but at the same times, this is a chance for me to get more ice time.&rdquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t surprise Briere&rsquo;s teammates if he makes a run at the Calder.&ldquo;Danny&rsquo;s going to have a great year,&rdquo; said captain Keith Tkachuk. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great little hockey player and playing with guys like (Adams) and (Tocchet) is really going to help him. That line looks awfully good.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Nikolai Khabi-bulin tied Bob Essensa&rsquo;s franchise record for career shutouts by registering his 14th during the 3-0 blanking of Los Angeles. In six starts after Phoenix&rsquo;s 4-1 season-opening loss to Ottawa, Khabibulin had allowed a total of nine goals&hellip;Right winger Rick Tocchet extended his consecutive points streak to seven games. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to find out what he&rsquo;s eating and drinking,&rdquo; said coach Jim Schoenfeld&hellip;The Coyotes tracked down rookie defenseman Bryan Helmer at the airport to recall him moments after they&rsquo;d assigned him to Las Vegas (International League) Oct. 31. After playing two shifts the next day against the Kings, he was sent back to Vegas. &#9632;

f0025-04

Briere gets chance on second line

<div class="byline">By Joe Starkey</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011012/7291243-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="171" height="170"></div>Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Darius Kasparaitis still doesn&rsquo;t know if the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee is tom.Obviously, he doesn&rsquo;t want to know. He just wants to hit people.Kasparaitis finally got the chance on Oct. 31, when he made his season debut against the Edmonton Oilers. He ^didn&rsquo;t play much that night, but he returned to form three nights later against Erie Lindros and the Philadelphia Flyers. By the end of the second period, Kasparaitis had six hits, which was two more than any Penguin had recorded in a game up to that point.After one of those hits, he rubbed his glove in Lindros&rsquo; face-perhaps a little reminder that &lsquo;Kaspar the Unfriendly Host&rsquo; was back.&ldquo;I wanted to come out and make something happen,&rdquo; Kasparaitis said. &ldquo;I tried to give us a lift. I can&rsquo;t worry about my knee anymore. I&rsquo;m playing, so I&rsquo;m going to play hard.&rdquo;Kasparaitis injured his knee Sept. 20 in a pre-season game, but declined exploratory surgery in favor of a rehabilitation program. He began practising in mid-October, wearing a knee brace that weighs less than a pound. He is fully aware playing with such an injury is risky.&ldquo;My knee is still damaged,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;ll be OK, maybe it won&rsquo;t. I did a lot of off-ice work to get ready to play. I strengthened the muscles around the knee. We&rsquo;ll see what happens.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Co-owner Roger Marino made a second $2.5-million loan to the team so it could meet payroll Oct. 30. The Penguins are seeking a $20-million bank loan to meet future payrolls&hellip;Papers filed in bankruptcy court showed the Penguins owe $137.45 million to their creditors&hellip;It has also been revealed the Penguins owe about $35 million in deferred salaries and signing bonuses to 22 current and former players. The three players owed the most in deferred salaries are Mario Lemieux ($17.94 million), Tom Barrasso ($2.68 million) and Kevin Stevens ($2.66 million)&hellip;The Penguins went more than four games without an even-strength goal before right winger Jaromir Jagr scored late in the first period of a 4-4 tie Nov. 3 against Philadelphia. &#9632;

f0026-01

Kasparaitis feisty as ever despite knee uncertainty

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03542/7291274-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="602" height="959"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Maclnnis</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02683/7291281-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="170" height="167"></div>Craig Conroy referred to defenseman Al Maclnnis as &ldquo;our knight in shining hour.&rdquo;Using the same high-wind-up that first made him a name in the NHL, Maclnnis powered a slapshot past Manny Legace to give the St. Louis Blues a 2-2 tie with the Los Angeles Kings Nov. 5.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s unbelievable,&rdquo; Conroy said. &ldquo;He shoots it so hard&hellip;He&rsquo;s on a roll &ldquo;Maclnnis, 35, has had an amazing start for the Blues. Through 11 games, the man they call &lsquo;Chopper&rsquo; led the team with seven goals and 12 points, single-handedly accounting for 42.9 per cent of the Blues&rsquo; 28 goals.He also had specialized in scoring big goals, what he called &ldquo;needy goals.&rdquo; With two game-winners and two game-tying goals, he was responsible for earning six of the 5-3-3 Blues&rsquo; first 13 points.&ldquo;Things go in streaks,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in this game long enough to realize that there are times where you shoot it at the net and everything goes in for you, but then you go through stretches where you have quality chances and you hit sticks and posts. It&rsquo;s just a streaky time of year.&rdquo;It couldn&rsquo;t have come at a better time for the Blues, who were otherwise struggling to score.Maclnnis was on a record 52-goal pace. Paul Coffey holds the record for goals by a defenseman with 48, set in 1985-86 with the Edmonton Oilers.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t imagine keeping this pace up,&rdquo; said Maclnnis, whose career high is 28.NOTEBOOK: After losing 2-1 Oct. 27 at Philadelphia, the Blues put together a four-game unbeaten streak at 2-0-2 through Nov. 6. They were 5-3-3 overall, with a 4-12 record since back-to-back losses-to Detroit and the Islanders in their third and fourth games of the season&hellip;Right winger NScott Young broke his season-long scoring slump with a goal in the Blues&rsquo; 2-2 tie with Anaheim Oct. 31&hellip;Left winger NPavol Demitra had goals waved off in back-to-back games against Detroit Oct. 29 and Anaheim Oct. 31 before scoring the winner in a 3-1 victory Nov. 4 against the Ducks and netting another in the 2-2 tie with the Kings. &ldquo;I probably own the record for disallowed goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve probably had five taken away in the last two years,&rdquo; Demitra said. &#9632;

f0026-03

Maclnnis still marvels

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04384/7291312-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="172" height="169"></div>Could this possibly have been the same bunch that began the season as the NHL&rsquo;s most inept team, with only two ties to show for its first eight games?The San Jose Sharks finally put something together in back-to-back home victories over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars, outscoring their two opponents by a combined 10-1 in games Oct. 31 and Nov. 4.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been kind of building up to it,&rdquo; said defenseman Bill Houlder.Success was a long time coming for the Sharks, who avoided a winless opening month with a 6-1 triumph over the Lightning on Halloween. The victory brought San Jose&rsquo;s all-time October record to 16-58-9, which goes a long way toward illustrating the club&rsquo;s consistent pattern of slow starts.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a hole and we&rsquo;re trying to climb our way out,&rdquo; said center Mike Ricci. &ldquo;Every little bit helps.&rdquo;A shrinking injury list had a lot to do with revitalizing the Sharks. San Jose welcomed defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson (broken thumb) and right wingers Ron Stem (charley horse) and Joe Murphy (pulled hamstring) back for the game against Tampa Bay. It marked Ragnarsson&rsquo;s first appearance of the season after he sustained an injury in the exhibition finale Oct. 3.&ldquo;Those guys are very important to us, not only on the ice, but in the room,&rdquo; said assistant coach Bob Berry.The only other Sharks&rsquo; injury of note was defenseman Gary Suter&rsquo;s troublesome right elbow. Suter is out indefinitely with a triceps tendon problem.With a six-game homestand set to begin Nov. 7, San Jose had a chance to climb back into the Stanley Cup playoff race in the Western Conference.&ldquo;We have a great schedule right now,&rdquo; said left winger Jeff Friesen. &ldquo;We have to take advantage of it.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Sharks topped visiting Dallas 4-0 Nov. 4 despite establishing a franchise record for fewest shots on goal (nine) in a game. The previous mark was 10, set in a 2-2 tie with visiting Los Angeles Jan. 11, 1994&hellip;Fourth-line center Ron Sutter, who scored only two goals in 57 games last season, exceeded that total in a span of five days. Sutter scored twice in a 6-1 victory over Tampa Bay Oct. 31, then added another goal against Dallas&hellip; Center Bernie Nicholls was eligible to return from the injured-reserve list Nov. 6. Nicholls missed two games because of a deep cut over his right eye at Colorado Oct. 29&hellip;Goaltender Mike Vernon registered his 19th career shutout with 21 saves in the 4-0 win over Dallas. &#9632;

f0026-04

Sharks start climbing from deep hole

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06231/7291343-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="611" height="966"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05281/7291350-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="171" height="169"></div>The veteran free agent was looking for work this past summer and couldn&rsquo;t even find it in the city where he and heart reside.Wendel Clark was written off in Toronto and many other NHL cities for that matter. He wound up signing a one-year contract, but it was with the laughingstock of the NHL, the lastplace Tampa Bay Lightning.And now Clark is the one laughing hardest. He is playing on the Lightning&rsquo;s top fine, scoring goals at a torrid early-season pace and-knock on wood-managing to stay injury-free.&ldquo;Wendel Clark could be the comeback player of the year,&rdquo; said coach Jacques Demers said after Clark scored two goals in a 5-3 victory at Washington Nov. 4.Clark&rsquo;s two in Washington gave him eight for the season in 12 games and placed him in a tie with Theo Fleury for third behind Eric Lindros and Bill Guerin among NHL goal-scorers.Clark, 32, attributes much of the early success to linemates Craig Janney, his center, and right winger Mikael Renberg. &ldquo;The puck has just been bouncing right,&rdquo; Clark said, &ldquo;and a lot of it has to do with C. J. (Janney).&rdquo;Some figured it would just be a matter of time before Clark, who has missed 337 games over his 14-season career, crushed a collarbone or sustained some other sort of medical malady in Tampa Bay, but so far he has managed to stay out of the medical room.&ldquo;Anyone who said Wendel Clark was finished looks pretty silly right now,&rdquo; Demers said.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Bill Ranford left the Anaheim game after defenseman Jassen Cullimore&rsquo;s stick got jammed into his-mask, scratching the cornea of his left eye. Ranford saw an Anaheim-area eye specialist, but practiced the next morning and made his next start&hellip;Right winger Mikael Andersson played his 400th game for the Lightning at Los Angeles Oct. 30 and Ranford appeared in his 600th NHL game at San Jose Oct. 31&hellip;San Jose team officials apologized to Lightning winger Alex Selivanov for mocking the fact his Mercedes had been stolen from the players&rsquo; parking lot at the Ice Palace in Tampa. The Sharks team mascot held a sign referencing the incident and ridicule was posted on the video scoreboard at San Jose Arena. &#9632;

f0026-06

Healthy Clark on hot streak

<div class="byline">By Paul Hunter</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-07201/7291381-1-eng-US/f0026-072.jpg" title="f0026-07" width="170" height="167"></div>When comparing special teams, the word &ldquo;rank&rdquo; is usually used as a noun. For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it&rsquo;s the perfect adjective.Something decidedly odoriferous occurs whenever a penalty is assessed during a Toronto game.The Leafs have achieved a disgraceful double. Both their power-play and penalty-killing units are ranked last in the NHL.&ldquo;Special teams are killing us,&rdquo; said captain Mats Sundin. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re costing us points in the standings.&rdquo;The numbers are are both baffling and embarrassing.Through 12 games, the Leafs scored on just five of 67 man advantage situations, a dismal 7.5 per cent success rate. Three of those goals came in the first two games of the season.Toronto yielded 14 goals in the 54 times it was shorthanded, killing just 73.3 per cent of the penalties it was assessed. In all but two games, the team has given up a power-play goal.Those truly awful numbers are undercutting the Leafs&rsquo; improved play during five-on-five situations and, as coach Pat Quinn observed, &ldquo;special teams are dramatically influencing the outcome of our games.&rdquo;The team&rsquo;s struggles on the power play are not a surprise. The Leafs were the NHL&rsquo;s second worst team in this category last season and they&rsquo;ve yet to acquire an accomplished quarterback to man the point.NOTEBOOK: Rookie defenseman Tomas Kaberle, who averaged almost 25 minutes of playing time in early-season games, was a healthy scratch for consecutive nights against Colorado and Boston. He was struggling in his own end and coach Pat Quinn said he thought it best for the 20-year-old&rsquo;s development if he watched a couple of games from the press box&hellip;Center Darby Hendrickson missed those same two games with back spasms&hellip;Igor Korolev was promoted from center on the third line to left wing on the No. 1 unit, taking the place of Fredrik Modin&hellip;Goalie Curtis Joseph&rsquo;s first shutout as a Leaf came against Colorado-a team against which he&rsquo;d previously posted a 4.08 goals-against average and a 413-2 lifetime record. &#9632;

f0026-07

Horrible specialty teams source of much anguish

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01958/7291412-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="172" height="172"></div>A season of promise for Todd Bertuzzi was shattered Nov. 1 when the hulking Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; left winger suffered a broken leg.Bertuzzi was struck down by a shot from teammate Mattias Ohlund, whose point blast caught him below the left knee during a power play against the Washington Capitals. The force of the puck fractured Bertuzzi&rsquo;s tibia, which is the bigger of the two bones in the lower leg. Bertuzzi had been attempting to screen Capitals&rsquo; goalie Olie Kolzig on the play.&ldquo;It was just one of those situations where I was in front of the net,&rdquo; Bertuzzi lamented &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve taken a lot of shots in that situation and never got hurt. I just didn&rsquo;t get a chance to see where it was coming from and I tried to jump but lifted the wrong leg.&rdquo;At the time of his injury, Bertuzzi, 23, was the Canucks&rsquo; first-line left winger and playing extremely well. In the five games prior to the unfortunate break, he had three goals, one assist, 17 shots on goal and was plus-5.Needless to say, he was crushed by the turn of events. He is expected to miss at least eight weeks.&ldquo;I was shocked to find out it was broken,&rdquo; Bertuzzi said &ldquo;I knew it was serious right away because I hadn&rsquo;t felt pain like that before, but I didn&rsquo;t think it would be this severe.&rdquo;Canuck captain Mark Messier, whose own production soared with Bertuzzi on his line, called the injury a devastating one for the talent-thin Vancouver lineup.&ldquo;I feel really bad for Todd,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;He came into camp with the thought of having a great year. He did all the things that were necessary as far as conditioning and attitude. He&rsquo;s a real leader on and off the ice and to have him out is a huge loss.&rdquo;Bertuzzi, something of an enigma while playing with the New York Islanders, has been a solid performer since coming to Vancouver in a Feb. 6 trade involving Trevor Linden. In 22 games after the deal last season, Bertuzzi had six goals, 15 points and 63 penalty minutes.NOTEBOOK: Canuck GM Brian Burke is trying to create a bidding war for suspended star right winger Pavel Bure and said talks were finally beginning to heat up the first week of November. &ldquo;We want as many teams in the sweepstakes as possible,&rdquo; Burke said&hellip; Josh Holden, the Canucks&rsquo; first round pick in 1996, made his NHL debut Nov. 1 against Washington. He picked up his first point the next night during a 5-3 loss to Edmonton, setting up center Mark Messier. Holden, a natural center, was seeing duty at left wing and in the middle&hellip;Goalie Corey Hirsch picked up his first NHL victory since March 22, 1997, when he beat the Capitals 4-1 Nov. 1. Hirsch got the start when Garth Snow came up lame with a strained hip flexor. &#9632;

f0027-01

Broken leg fells Bertuzzi

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02612/7291443-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="173" height="171"></div>Everybody knew Adam Oates would eventually get his 800th NHL career assist, but at the rate the Washington Capitals were scoring, there was no telling when it would come.At 18:45 of the second period Nov. 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, with the Caps on a power play, Oates spotted long-time co-conspirator Joe Juneau in the slot. Juneau&rsquo;s stick was on the way down as the puck arrived and Lightning goalie Daren Puppa was beaten cleanly. Coincidentally, all three are RPI alumni.It was only Washington&rsquo;s 18th goal of the season-in its 11th game, a 5-2 loss to Tampa-one reason it took the veteran so long to get the four assists he needed to hit a special plateau. He is just the 21st player in history to get to 800.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a remarkable player because he senses the tempo of the game, senses the tempo his teammates are playing at and can adjust,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson.&ldquo;He knows where most of the guys are on the ice and the speed they&rsquo;re at, an ability only a handful of players have. He wants to know as much as possible about other teams and individuals and he tries to exploit that.&rdquo;Oates&rsquo; assist total hasn&rsquo;t been hurt by some of the linemates he has had. He had Brett Hull on his right wing during his stay with the St. Louis Blues then teamed with right winger Cam Neely (and to a lesser extent Juneau) in Boston.Besides Juneau, Peter Bondra and Brian Bellows have also benefited from the center&rsquo;s passes in Washington.The Oates&rsquo; milestone briefly took the spotlight off the struggling Washington offense. The Caps were tied with the New York Rangers for fewest goals scored (18) through games of Nov. 5.How bad had things gotten? Just two players-Juneau with four and Oates with three-had scored more than two goals. Injuries certainly were a factor as the Caps&rsquo; injury list featured nine regulars.NOTEBOOK: The Capitals recorded the second 0-0 tie in franchise history Oct. 30 in Calgary. The official shot count was 27-20 in Washington&rsquo;s favor, but the number of actual scoring chances was fewer than a dozen combined. The club&rsquo;s other 00 tie came Dec. 10, 1988, in Montreal&hellip; Goaltender Rick Tabaracci, who got the shutout against the Flames, tweaked a groin muscle sometime in the second period of that game, but didn&rsquo;t realize how serious it was until the next day, when he joined eight other teammates on the injured list&hellip;When the Caps lost 4-1 to Vancouver Nov. 1, it dropped the team record below .500 (3-4-3) for the first time since Ron Wilson took over as coach at the start of last season. &#9632;

f0027-02

Oates finally gets No. 800

<div class="byline">By Justin Cohn</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01995/7291474-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Cullen had one assist in his IHL debut with the Lumberjacks.</figcaption></div>John Cullen knows about traumatic experiences and getting sent to the minors doesn&rsquo;t qualify.Try being told you have a form of cancer.Try drawing up a schedule for chemotherapy, radiation treatments, then a bone marrow transplant.Try &ldquo;lying on a hospital floor with a defibrillator to get myself back to life,&rdquo; then being told a complication in the bone marrow operation caused your heart to stop beating for 60 seconds. That&rsquo;s what happened. That&rsquo;s real trauma.Getting sent to the minors? When does the fun begin?If Cullen, 34, hadn&rsquo;t survived a hellish year fighting non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma, he never would have accepted a demotion to the International League.If Cullen hadn&rsquo;t endured the chemotherapy, radiation and bone marrow transplant, turning down an offer to become a NHL assistant coach would have been unthinkable.But Cullen didn&rsquo;t fight death and then exhort the importance of resilience to other cancer patients, only to give up on the dream of again playing hockey, even if it is in the minors. So the two-time 90-point NHL center declined the Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s offer to be an assistant Oct. 26 and instead opted to join the IHL Cleveland Lumberjacks.Don&rsquo;t expect him to change his mind anytime soon. If anybody knows about not giving up, it&rsquo;s Cullen.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not done playing yet. That&rsquo;s why I did it,&rdquo; a healthy-looking Cullen said from the lobby of the Marriott hotel in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he was relaxing before his first IHL game in more than 10 years. The Oct. 30 game marked the one-year anniversary of when Cullen began treatment for the baseball-sized cancerous lump found in his chest, which he learned in April was in remission.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not ready to quit. I&rsquo;ve battled so hard to get back to (the NHL) level and I wouldn&rsquo;t be comfortable in my mind to give it up after two weeks.&rdquo;Cullen had a solid pre-season for the Lightning, scoring two goals and an assist in six games, He beat out Daymond Langkow and Jason Bonsignore for the fourth center&rsquo;s job with the Lightning, behind Craig Janney, Vincent Lecavalier and Darcy Tucker.But after four regular season games in which he was pointless, Cullen was asked by Lightning coach-GM Jacques Demers to trade in his skates for a seat behind a desk. The offer didn&rsquo;t come as a surprise to Cullen-in fact, it was written into his one-year contract, signed during the summer.Cullen gets paid a base salary of $500,000 for playing with the Lightning, opposed to $110,000 as an assistant coach or as a minor league player.He decided he might as well play in the minors, since the money&rsquo;s the same as coaching. Plus, he wanted to practice the resilience he condones.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve preached to so many people who have cancer that you can&rsquo;t give up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to so many people at hospitals, families of people, and I said, &rsquo;The day you want to give up is the day that it&rsquo;s going to get you. The days you feel awful and the chemotherapy or radiation has taken so much out of you, that&rsquo;s when you have to dig down and say &lsquo;Hey, I&rsquo;m going to beat this.&rsquo; When people see me back at this level, they&rsquo;re going to get hope.&rdquo;Cullen hopes NHL scouts keep tabs on him in the IHL, where he set the league scoring record of 157 points with the Flint Spirits in 1987-88. If Cullen can manage even half of that production, there&rsquo;s a good chance the Lightning will recall him.And if the production doesn&rsquo;t return, Cullen says he&rsquo;ll harbor no regrets about his attempted comeback, even though he could have signed with the Ottawa Senators and played under GM Rick Dudley, his former coach in Flint.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through so much (in Tampa Bay),&rdquo; said Cullen, who had one assist in his first two games with Cleveland. &ldquo;The fans have been great. I just felt some loyalty there. I said, &rsquo;I&rsquo;ve been up against numbers before, so I&rsquo;m going to go there.&rsquo; Do I have a chance to get back there as a player? I&rsquo;m not sure if I do or not.&rdquo;Demers said he faxed a message to every NHL GM making known the availability of Cullen and encouraging them to speak with Cullen. Only one team showed interest.If Cullen doesn&rsquo;t get recalled to the Lightning and he doesn&rsquo;t get traded, there&rsquo;s a standing offer for him to coach in Tampa Bay. Cullen&rsquo;s supposed to talk with Demers before the end of November to discuss his future, but he said coaching doesn&rsquo;t appeal to him right now.&ldquo;I ain&rsquo;t coming down here to just fill a spot. I&rsquo;m coming down here to play well and show people I can still do it,&rdquo; Cullen said. &ldquo;And if I can&rsquo;t do it well at this level, then it&rsquo;s over.&rdquo;Cullen isn&rsquo;t looking for charity, either. Demers, whose wife Debbie is fighting breast cancer, said he would never insult Cullen by taking pity on him.&ldquo;He has to be able to do the job,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;Otherwise, we would have put him in the public relations department. I treat him with respect.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t give him something because he has cancer. That would be totally wrong.&rdquo;Cullen&rsquo;s priority with the Lumberjacks is to continue getting into game shape. That may be easy to do, since most I HL teams ice three forward lines rather than four.&ldquo;Some of the guys play 25 minutes a game. I was playing eight minutes up in Tampa,&rdquo; Cullen laughed. &ldquo;I was telling a couple of my linemates, Corey Spring and Brent Peterson, &rsquo;You guys forecheck real hard and I&rsquo;ll kind of hang back for you.&rsquo; &ldquo;Cullen&rsquo;s wife and daughter will stay in the Tampa area during his sojourn in Cleveland. That&rsquo;s the hardest part. That and the fact doctors told him there&rsquo;s a five-year window of concern regarding the cancer. It&rsquo;s gone for now and regular checkups every six months will hopefully support that.The easy part? Playing hockey. &#9632;

f0028-01

Cullen’s return journey goes through Cleveland

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div>Sean Pronger was going about his business at the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; training camp. In his estimation, things were going solidly.While he may not have been a candidate to replace departed captain Ron Francis, who signed with the Carolina Hurricanes as a free agent, Pronger thought his job as a third or fourth line center was secure.Wrong.Penguins&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine came in and told Pronger he felt he needed to improve his quickness. With that, the Penguins sent him to the Houston Aeros of the International League.Pronger, 25, was less than thrilled to get the news and the result has shown up in his play. He has taken his anger out on IHL goalies and after the season&rsquo;s first month led the league in both goals and points. He had 10 goals in nine games-eight of which were played on the road-and had 14 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m kind of sour that I&rsquo;m here,&rdquo; said Pronger, whose younger brother, Chris, is captain of the St. Louis Blues. &ldquo;Honestly, I didn&rsquo;t realize things were going badly in Pittsburgh. I didn&rsquo;t know I was having a bad camp until I talked to Kevin. It all seemed fine and then, &rsquo;Boom.&rsquo; I was gone.&ldquo;When I got sent down, there were two ways ft look at it: I could pout or do something about it on the ice.&rdquo;Pronger has done the latter, filling the net with regularity and helping the Aeros get off to a 7-20 start despite a road-heavy opening.If and when Pronger returns to the NHL, it would likely be as a role player, so he continues to work on the things that are expected of that type of player in the NHL. He does drills after every Houston practice to help improve his quickness and he has not needed a road map to find his own end.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02667/7291505-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="746" height="301"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Scott Wysoglad)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t control what the Penguins are going to do,&rdquo; Pronger said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s out of my hands. I can control what I do, though, and I want to make it tough on them to keep me here.&rdquo;BANKS GETS PENALTY: Bob McCain mon, the IHL&rsquo;s vice-presi dent of hockey operations showed he will react swiftly to stick incidents when he gave Detroit Vipers&rsquo; Darren Banks a 10-game suspension for high-sticking Michigan K-Wings&rsquo; Brad Lukowich Oct. 29.Lukowich and Banks were jostling coming up the ice when Banks turned and chopped Lukowich up high with his stick. He was given a match penalty for high-sticking.&ldquo;The league office has determined Mr. Banks acted in a deliberate and malicious manner,&rdquo; McCammon said.&ldquo;He demonstrated disregard for both the playing rules of the IHL and the safety of the game&rsquo;s participants.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: When the Chicago Blackhawks recalled center Todd White from the Chicago Wolves, they assigned winger Ed Olczyk to the Wolves&hellip;Through nine games, the Grand Rapids Griffins had seven shorthanded goals while the rest of the league combined for eight. In all, the Griffins had seven shorthanded goals, eight on the power-play and 12 even-strength goals&hellip;Detroit&rsquo;s Andy Bezeau was on a monstrous penalty minutes pace. The pesky Vipers&rsquo; winger had 100 minutes in nine games, which puts him on a pace for 911. &#9632;

f0028-02

Pronger hopes quickness arrives quickly

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>At 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds, you&rsquo;d think Zdeno Chara should be a power forward in the National Basketball Association. But the Czech Republic native loves hockey. A month into the American League season, hockey&rsquo;s incredible hulk is learning to use his size to his advantage.A third round draft pick of the New York Islanders in 1996, Chara, 21, has been a force on defense for the Lowell Lock Monsters. Offense will never be his game-he had one goal and 21 shots-but he was plus-4 with 17 penalty minutes through 11 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing a game that really wasn&rsquo;t created for big people,&rdquo; said Lock Monsters&rsquo; coach Fran! Anzalone. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re 6-foot-2, you&rsquo;re a big guy in hockey. A guy who is 6-foot-4 can be a little awkward unless he&rsquo;s very coordinated.&ldquo;But Chara is learning to condense his body and condense his game. The Islanders have made a commitment to his development and he&rsquo;s logging a lot of ice time.&rdquo;Chara split time between the Islanders and the AHL&rsquo;s Kentucky Thorough-blades last season. While he showed promise in his 25 NHL games, an admittedly poor training camp put him in Lowell.&ldquo;I felt really, really comfortable last season (with the Islanders), but after the season I probably put too much pressure on myself to make the team and I was scared to do some things in camp,&rdquo; said Chara, who admires the play of fellow big man, Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Kjell Samuelsson (6-foot-6,235 pounds).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01884/7291536-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="445" height="445"></div>Chara will always have the reach and pokecheck advantage. But Anzalone said it&rsquo;s important that he let the play come to him, that he avoids stepping up too quickly and becoming vulnerable because of slow foot speed.&ldquo;He can&rsquo;t overcommit or step into their territory (when dealing with the rush),&rdquo; Anzalone said. &ldquo;He has to let them have a little space. I&rsquo;ve told him to do it on (his own) terms, not theirs. He needs to play his game so he looks big in the end, not goofy and awkward in the beginning.&rdquo;Drills to improve his foot speed and quickness are part of Chara&rsquo;s daily routine.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty hard to be 6-foot-9 and more than 250 pounds and move as fast as guys that are 6-foot and 200 pounds,&rdquo; Chara said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m slow, but it&rsquo;s something I know I have to work on.&rdquo;SHUTOUT MANIA: Despite rule modifications designed to increase scoring, goalies were on a record shutout pace through the first month of the season.There were 11 shutouts in the first 91 games, putting the league on pace to shatter the single-season record of 61 in 1996-97. At the current pace, there would be 91 shutouts.Overall, scoring was down just slightly, with an average of 6.1 goals per game compared to 6.2 over the same period last season.NOTEBOOK: Providence Bruins&rsquo; second-year goalie John Grahame shut out the Beast of New Haven (3-0 Nov. 30), giving him four career shutouts among his 18 wins&hellip;After an opening loss, the Saint John Flames romped through the rest of October, going 7-0-3 before its 10-game unbeaten streak ended with a 3-2 loss at Worcester Nov. 1. &#9632;

f0029-01

Monster Chara out to prove he’s not too big for hockey

Hard work, on and off the ice, paid huge dividends for a pair of young hockey players last season.Mark Douglas of Clifton Park, N.Y., and John Pellegrino of East Haven, Conn., worked hard, played hard and were each recipients of a CCM American Hockey League Scholarship.The high school students were singled out for exceptional work in the classroom and arena and were each awarded $3,500 scholarships to the post-secondary school of their choice.The joint venture between CCM and the AHL was established in 1996 to identify and honor some of the top senior student athletes in hockey. Players must have a 3.0 grade point average and play on a sanctioned team.Each AHL team this season will nominate one candidate. Two scholarships will be awarded.&ldquo;We think this is a pretty effective way for us to be involved at the grass roots level,&rdquo; said Michael Humes, AHL Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a way of reaching out to a different level.&rdquo;Douglas had a 95 per cent average, was a member of the National Honor Society and named to Who&rsquo;s Who among American high school students. He led Shenendehowa to a 17-8-1 record and scored 25 goals and 55 points in 26 games. He is now at Bentley College in Waftham, Mass., and plans to major in business.Pellegrino had an 88 per cent average, was a member of the student council, an honor student, active in Students Against Drunk Driving. He led the Yellowjackets to a 21-4 record scoring 38 goals and 89 points in 25 games. He is now at Northeastern University and plans to major in business.An AHL graduate is honored each month for his performance and $1,000 will be contributed in the graduate&rsquo;s name to the CCM AHL Scholarship Fund. The AHL and CCM also contribute $500 in the winners name each month to the charity of his choice. &#9632;

Outstanding students recognized with CCM AHL scholarship

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>A player who said his role is &ldquo;to be a tough guy and strike fear into the opposing players,&rdquo; was banned for life from the Ontario League.Windsor Spitfires&rsquo; 6-foot-7, 255-pound left winger Jeff Kugel was kicked out of the league for coming off the bench to join a brawl with the Owen Sound Platers Oct. 25.Commissioner Dave Branch handed down the sixth lifetime suspension in OHL history after Kugel, 18, sucker-punched Slovenian Juri Golicic twice and then chased Chris Minard to center ice. Golicic wasn&rsquo;t injured.Branch suspended Kugel for 25 games, a ban Branch expects other leagues will honor. After that, Kugel can play wherever.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re shocked&hellip;fighting is still part of the game,&rdquo; said coach-GM Tony Curtate, who said he&rsquo;d received phone calls from several minor league teams inquiring about Kugel.But Kugel said he wants to return to the OHL.&ldquo;I want to prove&hellip;1 can play in this league,&rdquo; said the native of Roseville, Mich., in his second OHL season. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll look at avenues of appeal and if we can&rsquo;t do that, then I guess I&rsquo;m going to have to get a lawyer. I&rsquo;m going to play hockey, no matter what. They can&rsquo;t stop me.&rdquo;A day after the brawl, Kugel said: &ldquo;They tried to stop me, but there was no holding me back.&rdquo; During a hearing, he said his role is to strike fear into opposing players That bothered Branch.&ldquo;This was an-extreme and unpro-voked act of violence and given that statement, it gave me cause to be concerned for the safety of other players in our league,&rdquo; he said.In an interview a week after the incident, Kugel had a change of heart and expressed remorse.&ldquo;I never meant to hurt or demean anybody,&rdquo; Kugel said. &ldquo;I apologize to everyone for putting a black eye on hockey. I know what I did needed punishment. I can&rsquo;t apologize enough.&rdquo;The Spitfires will appeal to the board of governors. In a survey, 11 of 13 governors contacted said they support commissioner Branch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01998/7291622-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="757" height="254"></div>&ldquo;This guy has been a concern to the coaches,&rdquo; said Kingston Frontenacs&rsquo; governor Wren Blair. &ldquo;It appears he was told he was hired as an enforcer and now the poor kid believes it and he&rsquo;s stuck with the tag of trying to tell the truth.&rdquo;The last player to get a lifetime ban was Plymouth Whaler defenseman Jesse Boulerice for his twohanded slash across the face of Guelph Storm Andrew Long in last season&rsquo;s playoffs.Boulerice, clear to play with the American League&rsquo;s Philadelphia Phantoms Nov. 15, awaits trial in Michigan on felony assault charges, which carry up to 10 years in prison.STING BUZZING: Yevgeny Lazarev agent said the Sarnia Sting legal action against his client, the Colorado Avalanche and NHL could put the NHL-Canadian Hockey League agreement in jeopardy.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an underlying potential for a bigger case,&rdquo; Scott Norton of Chicago said after an Ontario court judge Nov. 2 upheld an injunction sought by the Sting to prevent Lazarev from playing anywhere but with them.The Sting claim the Avalanche should have returned Lazarev to them instead of assigning the 18-year-old to the American League&rsquo;s Hershey Bears. The Sting chose the Ukrainian native from Jr. B in the CHL import draft. After the Avs picked him in the third round of the entry draft, they sent him to Hershey.The Avalanche and the NHL contend the NHL-CHL agreement doesn&rsquo;t apply to players from Jr. B.MAJOR DECISION: Mark Napier stepped aside as coach of the Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors Nov. 3 and will concentrate on being GM.Assistant coach Michael Futa was promoted to guide the team. Napier was hired in May, 1997 and had the GM title added earlier this season. He said it was too much to handle. &#9632;

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Kugel suspended for life for wild behavior in brawl

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherland</div>Fernand LeBlanc&rsquo;s first Quebec League coaching job didn&rsquo;t last very long.LeBlanc, 42, became the first coaching casualty of the season Nov. 2 when the Baie-Comeau Drakkar fired him after just 17 games. Baie-Comeau, a second-year franchise, got off to a 1-12-4 start.&ldquo;It was a difficult decision,&rdquo; said GM Marcel Labelle, &ldquo;but we gave him as many chances as we could.&rdquo;Richard Martel, who has previously coached the Vai d&rsquo;Or Foreurs, St-Hyacinthe Laser and Verdun College Francais in the QMJHL, was named LeBlanc&rsquo;s successor.&ldquo;He has a lot of experience and knows the game,&rdquo; Labelle said of Martel.LeBlanc, a native of Baie-Comeau, knew he was on thin ice most of the season.&ldquo;It was in the paper for a month, so I was expecting it,&rdquo; LeBlanc said.NEW PAL FOR AL: Halifax Mooseheads&rsquo; star center Alex Tanguay has hired Don Meehan as his new agent.Unhappy with the way contract talks went with the Colorado Avalanche, Tanguay fired Boston-based agent Kent Hughes after rejoining the Mooseheads.Tanguay made Colorado&rsquo;s opening-day roster, but Hughes and the Avalanche were unable to reach a contract agreement by the Oct. 7 deadline.&ldquo;The deal didn&rsquo;t work out with Colorado and it was tough to accept,&rdquo; said Tanguay, who is out of Halifax&rsquo;s lineup with a concussion sustained Oct. 18. &ldquo;I think it could have gone a little better and that&rsquo;s why we wanted to make a move.&rdquo;GETTING DEFENSIVE: When the season started, the Moncton Wildcats looked like they would be weak on defense, but it has quickly become their strong suit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02662/7291653-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="562" height="518"></div>Just 12 days after welcoming defenseman Dmitri Kalinin, the Wildcats announced the return of Alexei Tezikov, who made his debut Oct. 28.The two Russian defensemen are draft picks of the Buffalo Sabres, but neither is signed.Tezikov, 20, returned to Moncton in mid-October after contract talks with the Sabres broke off.&ldquo;They don&rsquo;t understand me and I don&rsquo;t understand them,&rdquo; Tezikov said of the Sabres. &ldquo;I was drafted in the fifth round (in 1997) and they gave me an offer for a fifth round (pick). But I told them I didn&rsquo;t care what round I was drafted. I care about how I play hockey., &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not even close for a contract.&rdquo;With the maximum two import players already in the lineup, the Wildcats traded winger Dimitri Afanasenkov to the Sherbrooke Castors to make room for Tezikov. In return, Moncton received a sixth round pick in next June&rsquo;s midget draft and a first round pick in next July&rsquo;s import draft.MONTREAL-BOUND: QMJHL president Gilles Courteau wants a team in Montreal and it will likely happen by next season.A group wanting to start a franchise in Montreal applied for an expansion team before the Nov. 1 deadline.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll make a decision by mid-December, which is our next board of governors meeting,&rdquo; Courteau said.Marc Campagna is the front man for the group, which wants the team to play out of Montreal&rsquo;s Maurice Richard Arena, located near Olympic Stadium. Courteau said he didn&rsquo;t receive any other applications for expansion.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Jonathan Girard made his season debut with the Bathurst Titan Oct. 30. Girard, 18, appeared in three games with the Boston Bruins before being returned to Bathurs&hellip;the Quebec Remparts traded Slovakian winger Juraj Kolnik to the Rimouski Oceanic for a third round pick in June. &#9632;

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LeBlanc first on firing line with one win in 17 games

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Apology accepted.Due to a display of contrition by an unidentified Medicine Hat Tigers&rsquo; player, he will not be suspended by the Western League for directing a racial taunt toward Calgary Hitmen left winger Brent Dodginghorse during an Oct. 27 game.Dodginghorse, 20, is a member of the Tsuu T&rsquo;lna Nation. The epithet precipitated an on-ice brawl.&ldquo;The player had extended three apologies during the course of the game,&rdquo; said WHL commissioner Dev Dley Nov. 2 after league officials met with all parties involved. The WHL refused to reveal the identity of the player.&ldquo;I suppose that, during the heat of the battle, the apologies didn&rsquo;t have the effect he hoped it would. He extended further apologies during the meeting and Brent accepted the apology.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t taken any additional sanctions against the player. The player is extremely remorseful and it&rsquo;s not going to happen with him &rsquo; again. We want to send a message to the, rest of the players that this type of conduct will not be tolerated.&rdquo;Although, in this instance, league discipline will not be imposed.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s always a danger in overreacting or underreacting,&rdquo; Dley said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that the player involved understood the severity of the situation.&ldquo;Had we not been satisfied that he appreciated the impropriety of his comments-and that Brent Dodginghorse had unequivocally accepted the apology-additional sanctions would have been taken.&rdquo;WHL vice-president Richard Doerksen indicated a suspension will be levied against any player who utters racial slurs in the future.&ldquo;This is the first time we can remember this happening in any of our games,&rdquo; Doerksen said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re quite concerned with. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re trying to ensure it doesn&rsquo;t happen again. If it does, we&rsquo;ll deal with it then.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03456/7291684-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="411" height="419"></div>Doerksen suspended Medicine Hat defenseman Brady Austin for two games and fined him $250 for being the first player involved in a skirmish which led to the Tigers-Hitmen brawl.Austin provoked an altercation as the Tigers&rsquo; player was apologizing to Dodginghorse. Tigers&rsquo; coach Rick Carriere made the player apologize when he became aware of the situation.&ldquo;There was definitely something said,&rdquo; Dodginghorse told the Calgary Sun. &ldquo;He made a jab at my native culture.&rdquo;KUGEL CAPER: The WHL is prepared to honor the Ontario League&rsquo;s lifetime suspension of Windsor Spitfires&rsquo; enforcer Jeff Kugel.The 6-foot-7, 255-pound Kugel was suspended for an incident Oct. 25 against the Owen Sound Platers. In that game, Kugel left the Windsor bench and felled the Platers&rsquo; Juri Golicic with two punches. He &rsquo; then chased Owen Sound&rsquo;s Chris Minard to center ice.Kugel&rsquo;s suspension is for 25 games. After the suspension ends Jan. 3, Kugel would be allowed to play in another league.&ldquo;Our position is that we do honor suspensions by member leagues in the CHL,&rdquo; vice-president Richard Doerksen said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to get clarification on how the suspension reads. We hope to clarify the CHL&rsquo;s position as to what takes place when the 25-game segment of the suspension is served.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for something from the CHL&rsquo;s perspective as to whether that suspension should be served outside or inside the CHL.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Kamloops Blazers boasted a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1) in early November. Rookie goalie Kenric Exner began the season undefeated (9-0-2)&hellip;The Swift Current Broncos de-activated left winger Andrew Milne Nov. 1, but retained him as an associate coach. Milne was the odd man out as the Broncos opted to keep center Chad Beagle, defenseman Kurt Drummond and right winger Jeremy Rondeau as their 20-year-olds&hellip;Prince Albert Raiders&rsquo; defenseman Richard Seeley had 21 points-all assists-through 18 games. &#9632;

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Racial slur goes unpunished as contrite player apologizes

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>It is akin to christening a new ship by breaking a bag of garbage across the hull.Wisconsin hoped its season-opening five-game homestand at the new Kohl Center would energize fans and propel the Badgers into the Western Collegiate Hockey Association chase.The result? Wisconsin lost four of five, scoring just six times in the four setbacks. Included were a series sweep at the hands of Minnesota Oct. 30-31. Both games saw the Gophers rally from 2-1 deficits to claim 3-2 victories.Badgers&rsquo; coach Jeff Sauer expected his club to win at least four of the first five, but that is a very tough order to fill when your offense has no punch.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re probably putting too much pressure on themselves,&rdquo; Sauer said, referring to his veteran forwards. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got to relax and show some more poise.&rdquo;Wisconsin has taken up residence in the $76 million Kohl Center (hockey capacity 14,385) after spending the past 30 years at the Dane County Coliseum. But the new digs are hardly the reason why the Badgers are off to their worst start since 1983.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if the veterans are trying to do too much,&rdquo; said senior defenseman Craig Anderson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just not scoring goals and we should.&rdquo;Through five games, the Badgers had led after a period only once, that coming in their 3-2 win over Michigan Tech Oct. 17. In addition, they had been outscored 5-1 in the first period.<h2>WCHA</h2>FIGHT NIGHT: Two-time defending champion North Dakota swept its WCHA series opener against Minnesota-Duluth, but the 3-0 and 4-1 wins Oct. 30-31 were overshadowed by a record-setting evening of penalties in the finale.Referee John Boche handed out 64 penalties for a combined 257 minutes in the Oct. 31 game. Minnesota-Duluth was assessed 35 of the infractions for 133 minutes. Five players on each team received game disqualification penalties for fighting, meaning they must sit out the next game.When the dust settled, the Fighting Sioux set 11 school records, including most penalty minutes in a game (124) and a period (70). Minnesota-Duluth also set school standards for most penalties and minutes in a game.NATIONAL PRIDE: Wisconsin and North Dakota made contributions to the Team USA outfit that played in the World Championship qualification tournament Nov. 5-8, but the help came from different ends of the spectrum.Mark Johnson, a 41-year-old assistant coach with the Badgers and former Olympic hero, made a temporary comeback to skate with the Americans. At the same time, Jason Blake, a 25-year-old senior center with the Fighting Sioux, was given permission to be the only college player assigned to Team USA. &#9632;

Offense-starved Badgers open rink with whimper

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div>Another Michigan school has muscled its way into the group of contenders for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association title.While Michigan and Michigan State compete perennially for the CCHA title, the Northern Michigan Wildcats were off to a 3-0-1 start after splitting two games with their intra-state rivals. Northern Michigan lost 3-1 to Michigan State Oct. 30 then rallied to beat Michigan 6-1 Oct. 31.Northern Michigan is a puck-pressure team with a lot of speed. They excel on the forecheck and in the transition game. Michigan State coach Ron Mason walked away impressed.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a very scary team,&rdquo; Mason said. &ldquo;So fast, yet so strong. They seem to come at you in waves.&rdquo;And, as expected, the top wave is the line of senior center Buddy Smith between junior wingers Roger Trudeau and J.P. Vigier. Smith led the CCHA in scoring with four goals and 12 points in six games. Trudeau had four goals and nine points and Vigier had five goals and 13 points.Experience will surely keep Northern Michigan in the hunt this season. There are 14 seniors and juniors on the team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s maturity,&rdquo; said Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley. &ldquo;Normally in college hockey, you really have to have an older and mature team (to be successful). You can&rsquo;t win with freshmen.&rdquo;<h2>CCHA</h2>BUCKEYES FALL: Mark the Ohio State Buckeyes as the second victim of growing independent legend Niagara.Just two weeks after toppling the NCAA champion Michigan Wolverines 2-1, the Niagara (N.Y.) University Purple Eagles stunned Ohio State 6-3 in Buffalo Oct. 31.Michigan was ranked No. 5 in THN&rsquo;s U.S. college ranking prior to the season, while the Buckeyes were No. 4.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re surprisingly fast and they&rsquo;re playing with no fear,&rdquo; said Ohio State coach John Markell, who has watched his team get off to a disappointing 1-5-1 start. &ldquo;Their goaltender played well. We could&rsquo;ve put the game away in the first period.&rdquo;Markell has a warning for Niagara&rsquo;s upcoming opponents.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a pretty good team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A team that takes them for granted is going to get a butt whipping like we did.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Miami junior left winger Mark Shalawylo was offensive player of the week. He had two goals, four points and was plus-5 as the RedHawks won and tied against visiting Western Michigan Oct. 30-31&hellip;The defensive player of the week was Ferris State sophomore goaltender Vince Owen. The native of Thompson, Man., stopped 54 of 59 shots in two victories against visiting Alaska-Fairbanks. &#9632;

Wildcats poised to join Michigan’s contenders

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>Any defenseman would be happy to score four goals in the first four games of a new season.But just playing in four straight games is probably enough to keep Vermont Catamounts&rsquo; senior Jason Reid satisfied.Reid missed a year and a half of hockey after sustaining a serious back injury during his freshman season and went through an extended period of self-doubt upon his return.&ldquo;Jason is picking up where he left off,&rdquo; said Vermont coach Mike Gilligan. &ldquo;He was very good coming out of prep school, but he never really got a chance to show it until halfway through last year.&rdquo;The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Reid, an eighth round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 1994, had a freshman season that sounds like it was scripted by horror writer Stephen King.Reid broke his wrist in the summer of 1994 and spent the fall rehabilitating the injury. After getting into the lineup in November, he contracted mononucleosis. He was out of the lineup until February, then played four games before breaking a vertebrae in his lower back when he was checked into the boards Feb. 17,1995.He underwent spinal fusion surgery four days later in a Rhode Island hospital where his self-doubt began to fester.Reid, 23, was a medical redshirt in 1995-96 and played all 36 games in 1996-97. But the biology major never really got on track, even though he finished the season at plus-13, best among Vermont defensemen.<h2>ECAC</h2>The native of Sharon, Ont., finally broke through last season, scoring his first career goal Nov. 25 against UMass-Amherst. He finished with five goals and 12 points in 34 games.&ldquo;When I was in a back brace for eight months, I didn&rsquo;t think (playing again) was possible,&rdquo; said Reid, who led the team with four goals and seven points in four games. &ldquo;There was never any question of my quitting. The only question was if I would be forced out because I had lost so much of my skill.&rdquo;WELCOME HOME: RPI freshman center Matt Murley celebrated his homecoming in a big way Oct. 17.Murley, who grew up in Troy, N.Y., but attended high school in the Syracuse area so he could play for the Syracuse Stars in the Metro Toronto Junior League, scored RPI&rsquo;s first goal of the year as the Engineers opened with a 4-3 overtime win over Boston University.EARLY HOBEY HOPEFULS: A number of ECAC players are already being mentioned as Hobey Baker candidates.Included in early-season discussions are defenseman Steven Shirreffs and winger Jeff Halpern of Princeton, and winger Jeff Hamilton and goalie Alex Westlund of Yale. Shirreffs, Westlund and Hamilton are all returning all-Americas. &#9632;

Catamounts’ Reid makes inspirational comeback

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>First-year coach Chris Serino acknowledges having sleepless nights after his Merrimack Warriors struggled to an 0-3-0 start.&ldquo;I was wondering what was going on,&rdquo; said the former New Hampshire assistant coach.But the 49-year-old Serino finally got a good night&rsquo;s sleep after his team treated him to his first win, 5-1 over Union of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Halloween night.&ldquo;I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders,&rdquo; Serino said. &ldquo;We implemented some new systems and the kids have worked hard to learn them. They&rsquo;ve kept getting better and better every game.&rdquo;Serino said his team turned in an impressive performance against Union and maintained their discipline against the physical Skating Dutchmen by not taking retaliatory penalties.&ldquo;The nice thing after the game was each one of our players came over to shake my hand,&rdquo; said Serino whose next milestone will be his first Hockey East win.KILLERS WANTED: The Boston University Terriers are dying on the vine due to their penalty killing.Boston University had the best penalty-killing percentage in the league the previous two years and had the third best percentage three seasons ago.But it has been the major culprit behind BU&rsquo;s 0-4-0 start-its worst since 1976-77. The Terriers allowed 12 power play goals on 26 opportunities.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done a lousy job coaching them,&rdquo; said coach Jack Parker. &ldquo;The players just don&rsquo;t grasp the idea. If we had killed at just a decent rate, we&rsquo;d probably be 3-1 right now.&rdquo;Parker has little experience along the blueline with &ldquo;three guys who have never played defense in this league playing regularly.&rdquo;And senior goalie Michel Larocque, who had shared the job with Tommy Noble for three years before becoming the No. 1 man this year, has gotten off to a slow start.&ldquo;We need great goaltending with such a young defense,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;I thought our biggest problem would be our offense. But we&rsquo;ve been scoring goals.&rdquo;Junior winger Chris Heron had five goals, one more than he had in 32 games last season.NOTEBOOK: Providence received seven goals and 16 points from the line of Jerry Keefe, Mike Omicioli and Fernando Pisani in its sweep of Boston University Oct. 30-31. Keefe (three goals and eight points) and Boston College winger Jeff Farkas (five goals in a sweep of UMass-Lowell) were co-players of the week. UMass-Amherst defenseman Chris Brannen, who had a goal and assist in UMass&rsquo; 3-2 win over Merrimack, was the rookie of the week and New Hampshire defenseman Jayme Filipowicz was defensive player of the week. &#9632;

Merrimack’s first win music to Serino’s ears

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01887/7291825-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011000/7291818-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="7337" height="4226"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01903/7291811-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3671" height="4226"></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01807/7291863-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01880/7291856-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3671" height="4226"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GAME SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01832/7291894-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01540/7291925-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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EAST COAST LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="c0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01250/7292025-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

November 20, 1998

Fighting raises its ugly head

CANADIAN LEAGUE

Good start has Lynx in sync after bad season in Raleigh

SCOREBOARD