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 27, 1998

The Hockey News November 27, 1998

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01915/7295289-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01983/7295282-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="7094" height="4116"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011001/7295275-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3446" height="4066"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="byline">By Jason Paul</div>If Joe Fan was NHL commissioner, he would institute a salary cap, play weekend games during the afternoon, move a few teams to Canada and tell expansion teams to take a hike.The NHL Fans&rsquo; Association, an Ottawa-based Internet site, conducted a 77-question fan report of its 2,185 registered members. The results were based on 913 responses.Among the findings in the survey:64 per cent said they don&rsquo;t want tie games during the regular season decided by a shootout.77er cent felt punishments handed out for serious infractions were not severe enough.75 per cent felt there should be a player salary cap.90 per cent were against the idea of a ban on fighting, while six per cent felt a ban would increase the NHL&rsquo;s popularity.66 per cent like afternoon weekend games.76 per cent felt expansion has lowered the quality of NHL hockey.Only 10 per cent want to see more teams based in the U.S., while 81 per cent want more Canadian clubs.65 per cent felt the league was not responsive to fans when making changes.The NHLFA&rsquo;s membership is 56 per cent Canadian and 40 per cent American.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been complaining about issues for years,&rdquo; said Jim Boone, who co-founded the NHLFA with Jim Spendlove during last year&rsquo;s playoffs. &ldquo;We hope The Fan Report is the first step for the fans to have their voice heard.&rdquo;More than 800 fans signed up (membership is free) in the first week and 1,500 by the end of the playoffs. The NHLFA may be the first organized fans&rsquo; union in professional sports.&ldquo;The players have Bob Goodenow looking after them. The teams are being taken care of by Gary Bettman, but who&rsquo;s looking out for the fans?&rdquo; said Boone, who hopes to have 10,000 members by the end of 1998.One of Boone&rsquo;s biggest surprises to the survey results was the reaction to the ice quality. Ninety per cent felt there should be stricter guidelines for ice caliber and 93 per cent said they wouldn&rsquo;t object to arenas being colder if it meant ice quality would be better.The Fan Report can be found in its entirety at <a href="http://www.nhlfa.com">www.nhlfa.com</a>. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Fans say cut salaries, hike Canadian content

<div class="byline">By Brendan Savage</div>During seven seasons in Brantford, Ont., the Smoke were often lucky to draw 10,000 fans a month. In Asheville, N.C., they did it on the opening weekend of the United League season.The Smoke may have lost their first two home games to two-time defending champion Quad City, but they were an enormous hit at the box office by attracting a total o! 10,208 fans for losses of 9-7 and 51 Oct. 21 and 24.That&rsquo;s a huge change from last season, when the club was in Brantford and averaged 1,464, by far the worst in a league that averaged 3,054.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03408/7295055-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="558" height="289"></div>&ldquo;In 20 years in the arena business, I have never seen fans embrace a team so much in such a short period of time,&rdquo; said David Pisha, director of the 5,434-seat Ashevile Civic Center.The Smoke certainly isn&rsquo;t hurting for name recognition, either. The league&rsquo;s third leading scorer is Brent Gretzky, who had 11 goals and 25 points in nine games. And the club is coached by Keith Gretzky, Brent&rsquo;s older brother and Wayne&rsquo;s younger sibling.NEW START: Saginaw was mistic pro hockey had been reborn after three poor seasons that saw the club almost fold twice.Saginaw was renamed the Gears in honor of the city&rsquo;s International League team of the 1970s and &rsquo;80s. New owner Khaled M.Shukairy invested in new uniforms and equipment and did an interior makeover of the Wendler Arena. Saginaw beat the Flint Generals 1-0 in front of 4,307 fans opening night, but went on to lose seven of their next eight games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04278/7295048-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg" title="f0027-04" width="471" height="348"></div>WESTERN PRO LEAGUE: The Tupelo T-Rex became the first team to fire its coach when it relieved Peter Esdale of his duties Nov. 9 and named Dave Latta interim coach. The T-Rex had only one win in 12 games and were outscored 60-27&hellip;The late Scott Brower, former director of ticket sales for the Corpus Christi IceRays, was honored Nov. 6. WPHL president Rick Kozuback announced the league s most outstanding goal will receive the Scott Browt Memorial Tronhy. Brower, a for mer minor league goalie, was killed Oct. 21 by a drunk driver. &ldquo;This is a fitting tribute to a young man who had a tremendous impact not only the Corpus Christi organization, but on the entire WPHL,&rdquo; Kozuback said&hellip;Three Abilene Aviators were married simultaneously in a ceremony Oct. 27. Right winger Francois Archambault, left winger Jean-Francois Gregoire and defenseman Mario Cormier married long-time sweethearts after a morning practice. The rest of the team served as witnesses&hellip;Right winger Sylvain Naud ended his holdout and reported to the New Mexico Scorpions Oct. 31. Naud, one of the league&rsquo;s top snipers the past two seasons, was attempting to sign with a United League team. Naud scored a goal in his econd shift, a 4-2 win over Tupelo ct. 31&hellip;Arkansas GlacierCats&rsquo; fansbbed their top scoring line of left winger Ryan Pawluk, center Jarret Whidden and right winger Tim Findlay &lsquo;The Assembly Line.&rsquo; The trio, known for manufacturing points, racked up 25 goals and 55 points in 11 games, nine of which were wins.-With a file from David Henry &#9632;

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Early Smoke signals indicate Asheville will be quality home

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>The Ontario Hockey Association suspended a player commensurate to the length of time his victim is injured, plus six games.Jason Duthie, a defenseman for Niagara Falls in the Golden Horseshoe Jr. B. League, broke the arm of St. Catharines&rsquo; defenseman Jason Degraw in an October game. He will sit out six games plus the same number of games Degraw misses with the injury.SCOUT JAILED: A former scout was sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to sexually exploiting a young player.Wayne Alexander of Duncan, B.C., confessed to inviting a 17-year-old junior player to engage in a group masturbation session in 1997. Alexander was a scout with the Este-van Bruins of the Saskatchewan Junior League at the time.STILL NO. 1: Sweden&rsquo;s Daniel Sedin remained the top prospect for the 1999 NHL entry draft, according to Red Line Report.Denis Shvidki slipped from No. 2 to No. 4 in the October report. The Russian right winger had 11 goals and 20 points in 18 games for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Barrie Colts. &#9632;

Player issued stiff suspension

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0144/7293387-1-eng-US/c0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cam Neely is attempting a comeback with Boston, but knows he has a long way to go. Pg. 17.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Next Issue

<h2>Yzerman 10th best scorer</h2>1. A perfect 10 Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman now 10th on NHL&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 1,425 points.2. Go Johnny, Go Cleveland center John Cullen ties franchise record with seven points (two goals) in one IHL game.3. Making his Marc Rangers&rsquo; center Marc Savard sets up four goals in one game, registers six points in three games.4. Sergei Krivokrasov With nine goals in 14 games, Nashville sniper four goals away from single-season high.5. Just like the good old days Rangers&rsquo; Kevin Stevens gets three goals, five points in 10-2 win over Tampa Bay.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0247/7293425-1-eng-US/c0002-022.jpg" title="C0002-02" width="344" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">sieve rzerman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0339/7293418-1-eng-US/c0002-032.jpg" title="C0002-03" width="342" height="494"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Stevens</figcaption></div><h2>Blackhawks in basement</h2>1. Tough times Coaches feuding, worst GAA in league, offense AWOL, last overall&hellip;meet the Chicago Blackhawks.2. Two for slew New Jersey&rsquo;s Bobby Holik suspended two games for slew-footing Florida&rsquo;s Paul Laus.3. Waterboy Chicago defenseman Reid Simpson beans heckling fan in head with water bottle.4. Windsor Twit-fires Six players, coach-GM from Windsor (yes, that&rsquo;s Jeff Kugel&rsquo;s team) suspended for brawl.5. Ref penalized Peter Messana fined, docked IHL assignments after allowing penalized player to take part in shootout. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</div>Igor Ulanov is a No. 5 defenseman who wears No. 55 on team No. 5 in the NHL.But for at least four games this season, the Russian-born bruise missile is a No. 1 defenseman with sights set clearly on one of the game&rsquo;s greatest players.Eric Lindros is the best thing that has ever happened to Igor Ulanov.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d prefer to play 80 games against Philadelphia, but it&rsquo;s never going to happen,&rdquo; says the 6-foot-2,205-pound defenseman whose ice time soars when Montreal meets the Flyers. Ever since they first tangled in the early 1990s, Ulanov has been yin to Lindros&rsquo; yang, targeting the behemoth for the kind of attention nobody but the strongest of heart dares shower on him.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0423/7293456-1-eng-US/c0002-042.jpg" title="C0002-04" width="362" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Rocky Widner)</figcaption></div>On one occasion in 1994 while with Winnipeg, the defenseman hit Lindros so hard the Philadelphia superstar&rsquo;s right shoulder popped out of place and Lindros missed four games. For those with a sense of humor and appreciation of punk music, Ulanov has been Iggy Pop ever since.When with Tampa Bay in 1996, Ulanov had a memorable playoff battle with Lindros and it was hard on the heels of another turbulent Philadelphia-Tampa Bay contest last year that the Canadiens traded for Ulanov. It was tacit acknowledgement by the Canadiens that all paths to the Stanley Cup final in the Eastern Conference run through the city of Brotherly Shove. Few are more willing to shove back than Ulanov. 29. who joins Darius Kasparaitis and Ulf Samuelsson as the NHL&rsquo;s top Lindros-tormentors. Montreal assistant coach Dave King, who dispatches the Canadiens&rsquo; defenders during games, says he thinks Ulanov is making a statement on behalf of all Europeans when he goes skate toe to skate toe with Lindros.That is: They won&rsquo;t back down.Ulanov, who has also suited up for Washington and Chicago, says he prefers standing up to Lindros than smaller opponents because, in his words, it&rsquo;s easier to hunt a moose than a little bird. The blueliner, whose weaknesses include puck skills and a tendency to put himself out of position going for the big hit, was a general irritant to Lindros-even flattening him once-during a Nov. 9 victory. Lindros was held pointless, but also was one of the few Flyers to show up in another dreadful outing by Philadelphia. Ulanov, whose season totals stood at one goal and 29 penalty minutes in 13 games, was named a star and acted like one, raising his arms in response to cheers from Canadiens&rsquo; fans. For one night, one of four perhaps, Ulanov was front and center and loving it. &#9632;

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The man who loves to play against Lindros

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div>If Brian Burke&rsquo;s radar is finely tuned, look for the Vancouver Canucks to drop the Pavel Bure trade bornbshell in early December.Maybe on or about Dec. 7, which just happens to be Pearl Harbor Day.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s starting to get more interesting now,&rdquo; the Canucks&rsquo; GM said Nov. 11. &ldquo;And I expect it&rsquo;s going to heat up considerably in the next two or three weeks. There are no guarantees, but it&rsquo;s possible something will get done by the end of the first week of December.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011770/7293494-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="321" height="457"></div>Bure is at I home in Moscow, skating with Central Army I team. The &lsquo;Russian Rocket&rsquo; is awaiting a trade he forced by declaring, for reasons only known &rsquo; to him, he would never again play for Vancouver.Burke said no fewer than five NHL clubs have shown interest in Bure, though detailed trade negotiations lave yet to begin in earnest.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to he to you and tell you we&rsquo;re close to a deal, because we&rsquo;re not,&rdquo; Burke told The Hockey slews. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t even gotten down on specific names with anybody, but interest has heated up considerably.&rdquo;Burke&rsquo;s tentative target date may veil become a self-fulfilling prophecy because of an internal impetus. Vanouver got off to a respectable 7-6-1;tart, but Burke realizes as time marches on the Canucks could be sacrificing valuable points, and ultimately a playoff position, by not getting the Yield on a Bure trade into their lineup.&ldquo;Clearly, it&rsquo;s a balancing act,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;You have to weigh the benefits of waiting (to make the trade) against the real possibility we&rsquo;re losing some points right now we could&rsquo;ve tad if we&rsquo;d made the trade.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021416/7293487-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1983" height="1673"><figcaption class="caption-body">Expect the Canucks to get two good young players and a first round draft pick in a Pavel Bure trade. (Photo by Bruce Benet/BS)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Mike Keenan has done a terrific job. The media has been great, so have the fans. They understand the delay and where we&rsquo;re at. Now, at what point do we say it&rsquo;s time?&rdquo;Early December, it would seem.Burke, though, maintains that oh so-tentative forecast is the result of external interest as opposed to internal pressure.He refuses to divulge the identity of the five interested teams, but the worst-kept secret is the two New York teams, the Islanders and Rangers, are at the top of the list. Everybody presumes the Los Angeles Kings are the next most interested suitor, but they&rsquo;re not nearly so hot for Bure as they&rsquo;ve been portrayed.In the first week of November, Kings&rsquo; owner Phil Anschutz met with his management team, which was tossing around the idea of seriously pursuing Bure.As much as the &lsquo;Russian Rocket&rsquo; might be a boon to the Kings when they move into their new building next year, it was decided at that meeting the Kings would stay their course. That is, continue to develop their own young talent and look into unrestricted free agents in the summer. That doesn&rsquo;t preclude the Kings from getting into the Bure sweepstakes at some point, but it doesn&rsquo;t appear to be a priority.The Islanders are the only team to have requested, and received, permission from the Canucks to talk to Bure&rsquo;s agent, Mike Gillis, about what it would cost to sign Bure to a new long-term contract. His current contract expires at the end of this season.Unsigned Ziggy Palffy, another scoring winger, would be the centerpiece of any Islander deal with the Canucks, but that doesn&rsquo;t address Vancouver&rsquo;s primary needs-center and goal. Many are ruling out the Islanders as a legitimate contender for Bure because of self-imposed financial constraints by new ownership there.As for the Rangers, they have precisely what the Canucks are looking for in terms of players and prospects. There&rsquo;s young netminder Dan Cloutier or veteran Mike Richter; rookie center Manny Malhotra or established forward Niklas Sundstrom. The Rangers simply have to decide if they&rsquo;re prepared to sacrifice more of their future for a much-needed marquee talent.Beyond those three teams, it&rsquo;s difficult to come up with clubs who are prepared to pay Bure&rsquo;s salary (which could be in the $8-million range) and/or the acquisition price in terms of players, prospects and/or picks.When the Bure deal finally gets done-it says here Burke will be hard pressed to close it by Dec. 7-expect the Canucks to net themselves two good young players and at least one first round pick.<h2>BETTING ON BURE</h2>Here&rsquo;s the morning-line odds on the Pave Bure sweepstakes, starting with the favorites.N.Y. Rangers, 5:2. Have the budget anc players to make it happen.N.Y. Islanders, 7:2. Palffy presents some interesting possibilities.L.A. Kings, 10:1. Interest is logical, but somewhat limited.Toronto, Chicago, Buffalo, Florida, Sar Jose, 25:1. Each of these teams has a reason to want or need Bure, but more reason: why they can&rsquo;t or won&rsquo;t make the deal. &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

Bure D-day in December?

Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet, living legends from a team no longer around, enter the Hockey Hall of Fame as teammates.The former sharp-shooters with the Quebec Nordiques were scheduled to be enshrined as Hall of Famers Nov. 16 in Toronto. Stastny and Goulet were one of the NHL&rsquo;s most imposing one-two duos during the 1980s. They combined for 11 100-point seasons during the decade and almost 2,400 points during their careers.Stastny was second only to Wayne Gretzky in total scoring during the 1980s and ranks 22nd in all-time points. He was voted 56th by a panel of hockey experts in THN&rsquo;s The Top 100 NHL Players of All Time.Goulet, with 548 goals, sits 16th on the all-time scoring list. He was an NHL first team all-star three times and a second teamer twice.Recognized posthumously are Roy Conacher in the veteran player category and Monsignor Athol Murray in the builder category.Conacher scored the Stanley Cup winning goal as a rookie in 1938-39, while Murray created the Notre Dame hockey program in Wilcox, Sask.Yvon Pedneault is the recipient of the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, while Howie Meeker won the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. &#9632;

Hall of Fame rolls out red carpet for Stastny, Goulet

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div>It&rsquo;s not often Bob Goodenow is on the defensive, but that&rsquo;s where he found himself, and in front of Canadian parliamentarians at that.The executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association was on the hot seat when Canadian politicians questioned him about the union&rsquo;s tax-free contingency fund of $80 million.&ldquo;We have nothing to hide,&rdquo; Goodenow told a Canadian Commons subcommittee on the study of sport in Canada. The politicians are looking at ways to fund sport and ease the tax burden on Canada&rsquo;s six NHL clubs.The issue of the NHLPA&rsquo;s tax exemption came up as the politicians questioned Goodenow about the financial health of NHL clubs in Canada and the state of Canadian hockey at the grassroots level.The politicians, figuring the NHLPA should pay about $40 million in tax, went after Goodenow.&ldquo;My first reaction (when hearing of the exemption) was &lsquo;Good Lord,&rsquo; said Liberal member Denis Coderre.Pointing his finger at Goodenow as if he was scolding him, Coderre asked: &ldquo;What can you do?&rdquo; to help Canadian teams.&ldquo;You set the market,&rdquo; said independent member John Nunziata, who called the union coffers a &ldquo;slush fund.&rdquo;Goodenow countered by saying the Canadian government gives tax breaks to the banking industry, which has enjoyed billion-dollar profits.The NHLPA&rsquo;s contingency fund is funded by proceeds of hockey cards, hats and other merchandise.Coderre also pushed for a second look at the union&rsquo;s tax exemption.&ldquo;If we want to build a real partnership (with the NHL and NHLPA), we might take that money ($40 million in potential taxes) and reinvest it in amateur sport,&rdquo; Coderre said. &ldquo;Or, I might demand a (change) to get rid of that exemption.&ldquo;The other unions don&rsquo;t have that type of thing (licensing). You don&rsquo;t have any other labor unions selling trading cards.&rdquo;The tax exempt status is covered under Canadian law and it covers all unions or associations like the NHLPA which act like unions.But before there&rsquo;s any change to the tax law, a proposal would have to go through various stages and committee chairman Dennis Mills said that&rsquo;s not the goal of his probe.Goodenow bristled at the comparison to other unions.&ldquo;When the United Auto Workers have a profile that allows them to (sell licensing fees for products and sports cards) to deal with their financial affairs, I&rsquo;m sure they would consider it,&rdquo; Goodenow said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mean that as a smart remark, but (licensing) is the nature of our business.&rdquo;In an effort to raise money for NHL teams and grassroots organizations, committee members made suggestions to Goodenow, including a salary cap and revenue sharing.Mills, meanwhile, thinks the Canadian government should use sports betting as a way to generate money for amateur sport.Mills favors Canada joining other nations such as Australia and England where sports betting is legal. He wants Canada to be a leading nation to make online sports betting legal.Such a new policy would require changes to the Criminal Code of Canada. Currently, sports betting is illegal in North America except in Nevada. &#9632;

Goodenow defends NHLPA’s $80-million contingency fund

<div class="byline">By Steve Keating</div>KLAGENFURT, Austria-It was big week for American oldtimers.John Glenn returned to space and Neal Broten proved he still has the right stuff leading the U.S. back to hockey&rsquo;s &lsquo;A&rsquo; pool at the World Championship qualifying tournament. The Americans, who were forced to requalify after a 12th-place finish at last year&rsquo;s worlds, breezed through the tournament with a 3-0-0 record, outscoring the opposition 12-1.&ldquo;The eyes of America may not be fixed on these players,&rdquo; said U.S. coach Ben Smith. &ldquo;But from a hockey standpoint, the result was important.&rdquo;Team USA opened with a 3-0 win over Kazakhstan then hammered Estonia 7-1, followed by a 20 victory over Austria.Broten, 38, Mark Johnson, 40, and Joe Mullen, 40, were among the veterans pressed into service.Broten showed he hadn&rsquo;t lost his touch around the net, scoring twice and setting up another goal in the 30 win over Kazakhstan.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty sore right now,&rdquo; said Broten. The World Championship is slated for May 1-16 in Norway. &#9632;

U.S. qualifies for ‘A’ pool

This is a letter to Trevor Linden.When the new owners of the New York Islanders refused to offer you a deal anywhere near what you&rsquo;re worth, no one would have faulted you for sitting out. When the new owners moved the team out of Nassau Coliseum, no one would have blamed you for not showing up.When the new owners pressured coach-GM Mike Milbury to dump salaries, no one would have thought any less of you for demanding a trade.With the team&rsquo;s future uncertain, with the off-ice distractions, with the owners freezing out your top scorer, no one would place the blame on you.Instead, you have taken a team of underachievers and brought out their heart. You have made us believe again. When the fans start showing up again to watch the NHL&rsquo;s hardest-working team, you will deserve the credit And when the Islanders are again skating the Stanley Cup before sellout crowds, you will be the reason.No. 32 may never hang from the rafters in New York, but we will always remember Trevor Linden as the captain who resurrected our beloved team.John Keitz,Fallon, Nev.(Ed. note: See pg. 13 for more on Linden)<h2>Cheers for Stew</h2>It was a pleasure to have Paul Stewart referee our Cincinnati Mighty Ducks&rsquo; game Nov. 8. Mr. Stewart looked great as he prepared for his NHL comeback from colon cancer.It was also nice to hear the cheers from the fans as he took a quick pregame lap holding his old No. 17 Cincinnati Stingers&rsquo; sweater.Best wishes to Mr. Stewart.Pete Bauer, Cincinnati, Ohio(Ed. note: See pg. 12 for more on Stewart)<h2>Kugel victim, too</h2>The lifetime suspension to the Jeff Kugel of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires is too harsh compared to the one-year ban Jesse Boulerice of the Plymouth Whalers received for his stick attack on Andrew Long of the Guelph Storm. Long suffered major injuries, including a concussion, a broken nose, other facial fractures, 20 stitches, and two black eyes.Kugel didn&rsquo;t hurt anyone. He could have continued pummeling the guy he sucker punched, but didn&rsquo;t. He could have used his stick instead of his fists, but he didn&rsquo;t.Kugel is the author of his own demise, but is he also a victim of discrimination?Grant Laird,Port Perry, Ont<h2>&lsquo;Big E&rsquo; off easy</h2>Can you please explain to me why Dave Manson gets a suspension for elbowing P-J Axelsson but the following night Eric Lindros does not even get a penalty for his hit on Andreas Dackell? When I saw his face on television afterwards it was not pretty.I remember Darius Kasparaitis&rsquo; hit on &lsquo;The Big E&rsquo; last year that gave Lindros a concussion. It was a clean hit, but Kasparaitis is a marked man now.Joey Caron,Campbell River, B. C.<h2>Lindros hit legal</h2>I&rsquo;m a 15-year-old Flyers&rsquo; fan, and I&rsquo;m responding to a few letters about Eric Lindros&rsquo; hit on Andreas Dackell. I&rsquo;m not anywhere close to a big Lindros fan and I&rsquo;d be as quick to criticize him as anyone if he deserved it. But in this case, the reason he wasn&rsquo;t punished is very simple, so listen closely-it was a legal hit.That&rsquo;s all there is to it. Lindros did not elbow Dackell in the head. Lindros is quite a bit larger than Dackell and Dackell ducked when he saw Lindros coming. All Lindros did was finish his check. He did not have the intent to injure anyone.I&rsquo;m sure we all remember a hit by Darius Kasparaitis last season? One that resulted in a concussion and was legal? As much as Flyers&rsquo; fans hated to admit it, we did. If a hit is legal, like it or not, no one gets punished. It&rsquo;s like getting in trouble for doing your assigned job. I suggest the critics get their facts straight before harassing the judgement of Colin Campbell.Kim Twist,Philadelphia, Pa.<h2>&lsquo;Next One&rsquo; not one</h2>How do you rate Eric Lindros 54th on your Top 100 NHL Players of All Time (THN, Oct. 23)? Lindros has yet to accomplish anything in the NHL. Everyone proclaimed him to be &lsquo;The Next One&rsquo; yet he has yet to live up to that potential.Why not rate Steve Yzerman ahead of Lindros? At least Yzerman has led his team to two Stanley Cups. Lindros has potential, but he has yet to prove himself.Brian Testa and Andrew Jordan,DeKalb, III.<h2>Ziggy not No. 5</h2>The Hockey News rated Ziggy Palffy the 32nd best NHL player entering the season. Why then does he believe he should be the fifth-highest paid player? This is a perfect example of how player and agent greed is out of control.Greg Frolek,Calgary, Alta.<h2>Talk pucks not bucks</h2>Would it be possible to write just one issue of THN, or broadcast just one hockey game, without mentioning how much money some guy makes? I know they make more money per game than most of us make in a year, but I really don&rsquo;t enjoy having it shoved in my face every time I turn around.Susanne Trimbath,New Rochell, N. Y.<h2>Hasek has it</h2>I would like a real explanation as to how Dominik Hasek is overrated.David Schwartz (THN Letters, Oct. 23) said that Martin Brodeur is better than Hasek. Brodeur is easily the second best goalie in the NHL, but last season Hasek&rsquo;s save percentage was .932 to Brodeur&rsquo;s .917.Hasek also faced about 600 more shots than Brodeur. The New Jersey Devils also have a much better defense than the Buffalo Sabres, who were routinely outshot, but still won because of Hasek.You can go ask the Philadelphia Flyers if Hasek wimped out. While he was busy whipping the Flyers, the Devils were busy losing to the Ottawa Senators. Do I even need to mention the Olympics? Brodeur is definitely a premier goaltender, but he is not better than Hasek.Matt Burd,New Cumberland, Pa.<h2>Dirk won&rsquo;t work</h2>The Chicago Blackhawks are an embarrassment. President Bill Wirtz and GM Bob Murray screwed up when they went cheap (like always) and signed Dirk Graham as their new coach.Graham may be an icon to Chicago hockey, but this is not a team like the Detroit Red Wings that needs a leader for guidance. There are many young guys on this club that don&rsquo;t have a clue.Go out and get a proven coach such as Ted Nolan or Barry Melrose to guide this ship away from the falls. Spend a few precious dollars and you may fill a few more seats in that plush arena.Chris Truax, Gahanna, OhioFax us your comments at (416) 340-1641 or write to Letters, THN, 777 Bay St, Suite 2700, Box 148, Toronto, Ont., M5G 2N8 in Canada. In the U.S., write to Letters, THN, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. E-mail us at kayj@transcontinentaLca Include hometown as well as home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Linden’s leadership brings class to Isles

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011898/7293693-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011724/7293724-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Swedish-born superstar Mats Sundin says he may settle in Toronto after his playing days are done.</figcaption></div>On this morning, Sweden&rsquo;s boy next door is at least trying to look the part of &lsquo;Captain Canada.&rsquo;Mats Sundin has a fresh gash over his left eye after being pushed to the ice by Rich Pilon. In the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; previous evening&rsquo;s game against the New York Islanders he had a motherlode of terrific opportunities in tight and couldn&rsquo;t convert a single one.Among those who are convinced Canadian hockey is going to hell in a handbasket, this is a common trait among Canuck-born players.Sundin threw away his visor years ago and was shamed by his teammates into changing from that ugly Jofa bucket to a CCM model. There you have it. The Canadianization of Mats Sundin is now complete. Look for him to start chuckin&rsquo; the knuckles any game now.In reality, Sundin made the seamless transition from Swede to Swede-Canadian shortly after he arrived in Quebec City as a rookie phenom in 1WJ. brom one welfare state to another, Sundin has always been comfortable in Canada.&ldquo;I have nothing against the U.S.,&rdquo; Sundin says, &ldquo;but I like the way the society is structured. It&rsquo;s better in Canada. It&rsquo;s very similar to how we live in Sweden. We take good care of our people.&rdquo;In many ways, Sundin is more loyal to Canada than players who are born here. He has no desire to be traded to a U.S. team where he can live in a big American city and blend in with everybody. He makes $7 million a year (that&rsquo;s in U.S. funds, of course) so the tax burden isn&rsquo;t really that bad. And hey, he&rsquo;s the captain, the man, on the team that is most popular in the country where hockey is king.How much better can it get, eh?&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m a Canadian, whether I want it or not,&rdquo; Sundin laughs. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy and very proud to be wearing the &lsquo;C&rsquo; for the Maple Leafs. It puts a smile on my face every day. Before I was named captain, I asked Borje (former Leaf great Salming) what I should do. He said right away I should take it. He told me he got asked to be captain and he said no and he regretted it.&rdquo;Sundin is just 27 years old and still has many NHL years left. There&rsquo;s a good chance he&rsquo;ll spend the rest of them with the Maple Leafs, meaning he&rsquo;ll have played his entire career in Canada. &ldquo;If the Maple Leafs want me for the rest of my career, they can probably have me. I can&rsquo;t see any reason why not.&rdquo;Unlike many of his countrymen, he has no desire to finish his career back home and says it&rsquo;s possible he&rsquo;ll settle in Toronto once his career ends. He still lives alone, but he might just meet the right woman in Toronto, get married, have some kids, retire and pull his pants up to his chest and complain about the government full-time.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;I have nothing against the U.S., but I like the way (Canadian) society is structured.&rdquo; - Mats Sundin</blockquote>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m at the point in my mind where it could probably go either way,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any reason why I wouldn&rsquo;t stay. I feel very much at home whether I&rsquo;m in Toronto or Stockholm.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s also a comfort level on the ice. He&rsquo;s no slouch in the international game-after all, he has led Sweden to two World Championships and was the best player in the World Cup in 1996 (not just the best player for Sweden, he was the best player, period). Sundin thrives, though, on NHL ice surfaces. Despite rarely being blessed with enough teammates who possess his speed and skill, Sundin is always ranked among the top players in the league. He had eight goals and 20 points in 16 games to lead the NHL through games of Nov. 12.&ldquo;As a hockey player and a person, he is a hybrid,&rdquo; says Maple Leafs assistant GM and countryman Anders Hedberg. &ldquo;And I mean that in a good way. It&rsquo;s quite natural for him to have the &lsquo;C&rsquo; on his sweater. He is the leader, but he is somebody who is willing to share both the glory and responsibility of being the leader with his teammates.&rdquo;Sundin has grown to embrace the North American style of play. Although he is not considered a physical player, he has the size, strength and speed to survive and thrive while enduring physical punishment. He rarely plays on the periphery and is not the least bit shy of edging into traffic.&ldquo;In terms of my game, I&rsquo;m more comfortable playing North American hockey, there&rsquo;s no doubt about that,&rdquo; Sundin says. &ldquo;I enjoy more to play on the smaller ice surface. I&rsquo;ve gone back a few years when we&rsquo;ve missed the playoffs to play in the World Championship and I find there&rsquo;s no doubt the game on the small ice surface is not only more fun to play, it&rsquo;s more entertaining for the people to watch. There&rsquo;s a faster pace to the game. In that way, I&rsquo;m very much a North American.&rdquo;Sundin also realizes the responsibility that comes with being captain of the Leafs, a post he has held since last season. He&rsquo;s not about to dispense fire and brimstone speeches, but he realizes he must back up any words with actions. In dealing with reporters after games, he strides up to scrums with authority and gives his take on why the Maple Leafs power play and penalty killing is so bad. Nothing outrageous, nothing controversial or even really that exciting, but it works.How Canadian, er Swedish.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Sundin same person he was at 19</blockquote>If Sundin does settle in Canada and have children, he&rsquo;ll be subjecting them to a hockey system that is counter to everything he experienced as a child. He admits that he&rsquo;s a little bewildered that a hockey country that produces-so many players is dependent on other countries to fill skill positions. When he was 15, his team came to a tournament in Winnipeg and even then he could tell that he and his teammates were superior skaters.&ldquo;I think the biggest difference was in Sweden I played soccer, I played tennis, golf, hockey and bandy. I remember there was no pressure to make a choice of what sport you liked until you were 17,&rdquo; he says.&ldquo;In Sweden there was no focus on systems until you&rsquo;re 15 or 16. The focus is on skill, skating and stickhandling. I remember you played whatever position you wanted until you were about 15.&rdquo;Sundin, the hybrid Canadian-Swede, will likely stay that way. All of his family is back in Sweden and he has a lovely cottage on the Baltic Sea that draws him there every summer. Sundin&rsquo;s father, Tommy, who was a practice goalie for the Swedish national junior team in his day, doesn&rsquo;t notice much of a difference between the boy who went to Quebec City at 19 and the man who returns every year.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the same person. We talk about the same things and he still likes to play golf and fish,&rdquo; Tommy says. &ldquo;He just has a lot more money now.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

FEATURES

‘Captain Canada’

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011791/7293755-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(THN file photo)</figcaption></div>Frank Brimsek. whose superlative goaltending earned him one of hockey&rsquo;s all-time great nicknames, &rsquo;Mr. Zero, &rsquo; died al age 85 on Nov. 11.Brimsek was preparing to help his wife. Peg, shovel snow at their home in Virginia, Minn., when he passed away suddenly. &ldquo;He died very quickly.&rdquo; Peg said. &ldquo;For that we were all gratefid.&rdquo;The Hall of Famer, ranked the 67th-best NHL player ever in a THN poll, had long suffered from circulation problems and was forced to have his left leg amputated in 1996. Brimsek leaves behind his wife, two daughters, five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a legion of fans.THN reflected on Brimsek&rsquo;s place in hockey history in 1997. Editor-in-Chief Steve Dryden&rsquo;s column on Brimsek represents one of the last stories about him and appeared March 21, 1997. It is reprinted below.The phone rings and rings and rings in Virginia, Minn. Finally, a legend answers.Frankie Brimsek doesn&rsquo;t get around his house as quickly as he used to get around the crease. His left leg was amputated last&rsquo;ear because of circulation oblems. Now, the 83-year-old gets around on crutches. He seldom straps on his artificial leg because it hurts too much. In this, the year a modem day season standard has been set for NHL shutouts (105, up from 99), the man they called &lsquo;Mr. Zero&rsquo; continues to follow the game on TV and in the papers. He earned the nickname (Brimsek thinks Boston Bruins&rsquo; teammate Bill Cowley gave it to him) after recording shutouts six times in a seven-game stretch during his 1938-39 rookie season.A good start was essential tor Brimsek, who was replacing Hall of Fame goalie Tiny Thompson.&ldquo;When the Bruins used to go on the ice, the fans would blow the roof off,&rdquo; Brimsek said. &ldquo;The night I went on, could hear the people breathing. When I was skating down the other end, I knew dam well if I had a bad game I&rsquo;d be on the next train out.&rdquo; There were few of those during Brimsek&rsquo;: remarkable 10-year career (1938-50). All but one season was spent with Boston. He was rookie of the year, made the all-star team eight times-his NHL career was interrupted by two-and-a-half years of service in the U.S. military during WWII-and was runner-up for league MVP in 1947-48.Brimsek was a classic stand-up goalie who played with supreme confidence, taunting the opposition on penalty shots by casually leaning back on his net as the shooter approached. His trademark was a heavy stick, both in substance anc style. Brimsek asked the manufacturer to give him lots of weight and he brandished his stick with conviction, either knocking the puck off opponents&rsquo; sticks or their teet from undemeatn them. 1 here are so many goals scored from behind the net now,&rdquo; Brimsek said. &ldquo;They never could do that with me.&rdquo;Brimsek, who was a freight train engineer for 25 years after his NHL career, continues to receive about 10 autograph requests a week. Most of them are routed through the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, where his likeness resides. Virginia, a taconite mining community in northeastern Minnesota, is about five miles from Eveleth, Brimsek&rsquo;s hometown and home to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, another shrine that has honored his career. Fifty-eight years after &lsquo;Mr. Zero&rsquo; fashioned one of the game&rsquo;s great memories, it&rsquo;s appropriate we too honor him.<h2>FRANK BRIMSEK</h2>Born: Eveleth, Minn., Sept. 26,1913NHL: 10 seasons, 1938-39 to 1949-50, nine with Boston, one with Chicago.Claim to Fame: Nicknamed &lsquo;Mr. Zero&rsquo; after collecting six shutouts in a sevengame stretch during his rookie season.Honors: First all-star team (twice), second all-star team (six times), Vezina Trophy (twice), Calder Trophy.Career Record: 252-182-80 (514 games), 2.70 goals-against average, 40 shutouts.Stanley Cups: Two (1938-39,194041) Hockey Hall of Fame: Inducted in 1966 &#9632;

f0008-01

‘Mr. Zero’

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011691/7293793-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="408" height="575"></div>There are times one does not feel proud to be associated with the wonderful game of hockey.Watching giant-sized Jeff Kugel skating around the ice looking for victims to pummel like some crazed monster in an early-November Ontario League game was one of them. And reading Laura Robinson&rsquo;s Crossing The Line: Violence And Sexual Assault In Canada&rsquo;s National Sport, was another.I hated just about everything I read in the book. Hated it because I know it&rsquo;s true. The sporting world, just like the entertainment industry, business and religious communities, has a dark side. In 246 pages of graphic detail, Robinson lets some of that dark side out of the closet. The book is laced with opinion, some of it naive and misguided, but definitely heartfelt and worth exploring. And in spite of how the book leaves you feeling-whether it&rsquo;s shocked, embarrassed, angry-it is a must-read for any parent whose child is involved in organized hockey.An alternate on the Canadian Cycling Team in 1982 and 1983 and a Canadian pairs rowing champion in 1979, Robinson details a number of high-profile sexual assaults and hazing incidents in Crossing The Line. She takes to task those who committed crimes, those who allowed the incidents to occur, those who, in spite of all they knew, continued to treat the perpetrators like heroes and hockey gods simply because they themselves were in search of hockey&rsquo;s holy grail-a championship and a shot at the big time.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021177/7293786-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="547" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Crossina The Line</figcaption></div>&ldquo;All athletes are&hellip;were&hellip;at high risk (of being sexually exploited)&rdquo; Robinson says. &rsquo;1 hope they are less at risk now than at any other time.&rdquo;Robinson says the motivation for her to write Crossing The Line was to make parents aware of the dangers their children face. She wants parents to examine their own ideals and principles before setting their youngsters free to be exploited by people who, in some cases, have ulterior motives. Is the potential of turning professional, achieving fame and making loads of money really worth the risk of turning your child over to strangers? Robinson clearly thinks not. As a 15-year-old, Robinson was attacked by an older male coach, but she had the wherewithal to escape before extensive damage was inflicted upon her. She carries the scar of the attack with her to this day.And though she has been accused of having an axe to grind, Robinson insists that is not the case. And even if it were, does that make what she writes about any less relevant?&ldquo;The way I was brought up by my parents was to be honest,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t pretend that I like what (some coaches she had) were doing because! hated what they were doing. As a teenager, I didn&rsquo;t want to make a team because I kissed butt. I only wanted to make it on my athletic ability.&rdquo;In Crossing The Line we read about Jarret Reid, a star junior hockey player with a penchant for sexually abusing and beating up women. We read about young girls who are first exploited sexually by hockey players and then scorned for coming forth and seeking retribution. Some were forced to leave their home towns to find peace. We read about young hockey players who are put through sickening initiation rituals, in some cases with adults either present or even taking part. We read about hockey executives covering up incidents or pretending not to know they occurred. We read about convicted sex offender Graham James and the nasty deeds he committed before Sheldon Kennedy stepped forward.In some regards, Robinson goes overboard in her assessment of the hockey world, specifically major junior hockey. For instance, she comes down hard on hockey&rsquo;s draft system, in which youngsters are sometimes forced to leave home to pursue their dream of becoming a professional hockey player, but offers no alternatives. That alone is not worth panning her effort.Is everything about organized hockey bad, as it seems Robinson suggests at times? No. Does hockey have severe problems that need addressing? Yes. Do we tear down the entire infrastructure and start over? No. Is there something to be gained from reading Crossing The Line! Absolutely. &#9632;

f0009-01

Crossing The Line must-read for parents

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011761/7293831-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Arturs Me: GoaliooboW wanteingw force with &rsquo;Canes (Photo by Jim Mdsac/BS)</figcaption></div>The Arturs Irbe catalogue of stories is as varied and unusual as the man himself.Arturs, the hero of the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; playoff upset of the Detroit Red Wings. Arturs, proud Latvian and foe of Soviet oppression. Arturs, victim of a career-threatening dog bite. Arturs, the hardest-working, best-conditioned goalie in the NHL. Arturs, the worst puckhandling goalie in the history of the game. Arturs, the goalie who sews and repairs his own equipment.So few years in the league-he didn&rsquo;t arrive in the NHL until 1991-92-so many stories about the ultra-congenial 31-year-old who is known to most as &lsquo;Archie.&rsquo;&ldquo;My favorite (Archie memory) is kind of an obscure one,&rdquo; said Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine, who was Irbe&rsquo;s first pro coach, with Kansas City of the International League, and subsequently joined him for the Sharks&rsquo; short-lived glory days.&ldquo;In that first year in K.C., he would be late for practice or a team meeting and his reason would be, &rsquo;No understand English.&rsquo; He was called up to San Jose for a while (13 games), but the Sharks were getting ready to send him back down to us for our playoff run. The San Jose media asked him if he would rather finish the season with a non-playoff NHL team like the Sharks or go back to Kansas City and play for a contending minor league team. I&rsquo;ll never forget his answer.&ldquo;He said something along the line of, &rsquo;I would rather be a pauper amongst kings than a king amongst paupers.&rsquo; It was really quite an eloquent answer, which once you get to know him doesn&rsquo;t surprise you because he&rsquo;s so well read and so intelligent. I cut that out of the paper and when he was sent down, I called him in and showed it to him. I told him it wasn&rsquo;t bad for someone who &lsquo;no understand English.&rsquo; &ldquo;A king amongst paupers. A pauper amongst kings. Irbe, who led Kansas City to a Turner Cup that first year and has faced the prospect of NHL unemployment since, has been both. But there was a time, when he led the Sharks to a one-season, 58-point turnaround and the stunning first-round upset of the Wings in 1994, when he was a king amongst kings.And, one month into the 1998-99 NHL season, King Arturs is back but who could ever have imagined Carolina as his Camelot?The Hurricanes, a franchise which hasn&rsquo;t been in the playoffs for six years and has only one playoff series victory ever, got off to a solid 6-6-3 start, largely because of the play of King Arturs&rsquo;, the NHL&rsquo;s player of the month for October.The diminutive 5-foot-8 netminder relieved starter Trevor Kidd in the second game of the season, a loss to the Nashville Predators, then effectively wrested away the No, l jot. He backstopped the &rsquo;Canes to a pair of ties against the Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers, reeled off three straight wins against the Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks, lost a 1-0 squeaker to the New York Rangers before going win-lose, win-lose against the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals and Boston for a 5-3-2 record. His 1.47 goals-against average and .945 save percentage were No. 1 in the league for goalies seeing regular action.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Stopper battles size stigma</blockquote>Is this the same netminder who the week before training camp opened was still looking for work, who was spumed by a Canuck team in desperate need of a goalie and who played his way out of what seemed a perfect situation in San Jose?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not surprised at all by how well he&rsquo;s playing now,&rdquo; said Detroit center Igor Larionov, who teamed with Irbe in San Jose to lead the Sharks. &ldquo;My only surprise is that he has had some troubles because this is a very good goaltender and a very good guy.&ldquo;There are not many like him in this game. He&rsquo;s the first on the ice at practice, the last off it. No one works harder. He has talent, experience. He deserves to do well and I&rsquo;m happy for him.&rdquo;So is Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock, who had Irbe for one season (1996-97).&ldquo;Archie is a very sincere, special person,&rdquo; Hitchcock said, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;s one of those goalies who when he gets hot can really get on a roll and really go with it. He could go on forever like that&rdquo;Well, if so, why is Irbe on his third team in three years? Why did no one, other than the Hurricanes, come calling until a couple of days before training camp opened?All good questions, but there&rsquo;s no pat answer. Irbe is a complicated man and so are the reasons why he&rsquo;s failed, so far anyway, to carve a solid niche for himself in a league he completely mesmerized during the 1993-94 season.Irbe actually didn&rsquo;t play too badly on a disastrous Canuck team last season. He had a winning record (14-11-6) and respectable GA A (2.73) and save percentage (.907) on a club that fired its coach and GM, finishing 18 points under .500. But some players have difficulty playing for Mike Keenan, who, in turn, has difficulty with some players. That pretty much sums up the Keenan-Irbe relationship.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really a size issue,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; GM Brian Burke of Vancouver&rsquo;s decision to not resign Irbe. &ldquo;Mike doesn&rsquo;t like small goalies and I respect that. It was a good decision for us and we&rsquo;re more than pleased with our goaltending.&rdquo;Just as Irbe is pleased to be out of tumultuous Vancouver, where he never felt as anything more than a &ldquo;last resort.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think I outplayed Garth Snow, at least on that team,&rdquo; Irbe said. &ldquo;But it didn&rsquo;t matter. I was like an outcast, waiting for my shot. It was a great challenge, but I got my winning record. And the experience made me mentally tougher. The year wasn&rsquo;t a complete loss.&rdquo;Two years ago, Irbe also had a winning record (17-12-3) as a backup to Andy Moog with Dallas, but he&rsquo;s the first to admit he didn&rsquo;t play with consistency for the Stars. Once Moog decided to go to Montreal in the summer of 1997, the Stars were prepared to go with Irbe and Roman Turek, but then along came free agent Ed Belfour.&ldquo;If Belfour hadn&rsquo;t been available, we would have re-signed him,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;The only knock I see with Archie is he&rsquo;s a small goalie and does that limit his effectiveness when there&rsquo;s a lot of congestion in the crease?&rdquo;There are other general knocks on him. His concentration drifts, causing him to allow bad goals, especially on long shots. Because he&rsquo;s small, the book on him suggests he&rsquo;s susceptible to high shots. His puckhandling is somewhere on the other side of horrendous.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011583/7293824-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="1632" height="2333"><figcaption class="caption-body">A small frame and poor puckhandling skills have been the knocks on Arturs Irbe. (Photo by Brian Babineau/SA)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Like every goalie he has weaknesses, Larionov said, &ldquo;but he compensates in other areas.&rdquo;The Hurricanes had heard all of the question marks, but desperately needed some proven depth behind the emerging Kidd. Carolina GM Jim Rutherford, himself a small NHL goalie, recognized a bargain when he saw it.Irbe certainly has an endearing quality. Between periods, he leaves his mask and gloves on the players&rsquo; bench. It is, he said, what he always did as a kid in Latvia. When he&rsquo;s the backup, he doesn&rsquo;t watch much of the game, preferring to adjust his equipment or tape his stick.Irbe doesn&rsquo;t see himself as quirky as much as making efficient use of his time. He said it takes him 25 minutes to tape one of his sticks, so he concentrates on that while sitting on the bench.Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding Irbe is what happened to him in San Jose. As a Shark, he had that one brilliant season, the 58-point turnaround punctuated with a seven-game, first-round victory over the heavily-favored Wings.He played more games (74) and minutes that season (4,412) than any NHL goalie.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult for anyone who wasn&rsquo;t there and part of it to realize how popular Arturs was in San Jose and the whole Bay area,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;He was right up there, like a Joe Montana or Steve Young.&rdquo;But then came the summer of 1994.Irbe was at his off-season home in Riga. It was a night in June. He was working out, doing sit-ups actually, alongside his sleeping dog. He bumped the pooch by accident while doing a sit-up and the dog woke up and went wild.By the time the episode was finished, Irbe was taking himself to a nearby hospital with severe damage to both hands. Tendons were cut. Nerves were damaged.&ldquo;I still have a tough time talking about it because that dog was like a member of our family and we had to put the dog to sleep,&rdquo; Irbe said. &ldquo;I was really worried. It was serious damage. I thought I might not play again.&rdquo;The NHL owners&rsquo; lockout of 1994-95 allowed Irbe more time to heal, but other problems arose. Prior to the lockout, Irbe turned down a lucrative, long-term contract. When play finally resumed, the offer wasn&rsquo;t on the table and those who know Irbe said the missed opportunity weighed heavily on his mind. At the same time, he wasn&rsquo;t nearly 100 per cent physically.&ldquo;He had difficulty grasping his stick because of that dog bite,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;No question, he wasn&rsquo;t the same as he was before getting bitten.&rdquo;The next season, the Sharks decided to go in a different direction. Igor Larionov, the heart and soul of the team that upset Detroit, was put on waivers and claimed by the Wings. Two days later, Sandis Ozolinsh, Irbe&rsquo;s best friend and fellow Latvian, was traded to Colorado. His game fell completely apart. The same thing was happening to the Sharks.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t myself,&rdquo; Irbe said. &rsquo;1 didn&rsquo;t handle the adversity well. I&rsquo;ve learned from that. You have to keep it out of your heart. You can&rsquo;t let it affect you like I did.&rdquo;The dog bite alone may have been enough to derail Irbe. But that, combined with the dismantling of the Sharks and Irbe&rsquo;s inability to deal with it, spelled an end to his days in San Jose.So, now, Irbe looks to get his old magic back. Maybe he has found it in Carolina, though Irbe himself cautions against too much hype too soon.&ldquo;It was nice to be wanted even if it was only as a backup,&rdquo; Irbe said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s a starting point. It&rsquo;s up to me to make the most of my opportunities because I feel I am still a young man who can play many years in this league.&rdquo;Make no mistake, Irbe has a special quality as a person and it plays no small part in making him special as a goaltender, too. We all remember how well Irbe played in the 1994 playoffs, when he upset the Wings, but few realize what truly motivated the Sharks to beat Detroit.&ldquo;It was Game 4 in San Jose and we were trailing the series 2-1 and losing 2-1 in the game,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;Arturs came out of his net and put a pass right on Kris Draper&rsquo;s stick, who put it in the empty net to make it 3-1.&ldquo;Well, Arturs was so well-liked by his teammates, they went out, patted him on the head and told him not to worry. On the bench, guys were saying, &rsquo;Let&rsquo;s win this one for Archie.&rsquo; We came back to score three goals and win that game. It was clearly the turning point in the series. I&rsquo;ll always remember that because it was his high character, his personality that motivated our guys to come back and win.&rdquo;Irbe also remembers it well.&ldquo;They all came to me,&rdquo; he said of his teammates. &ldquo;We were so close on that team. I know after I made that mistake, I felt an obligation to do something for the guys. I know my play went up a notch. It was a special time.&rdquo;Irbe would like to find another special time. Could it actually be that King Arturs will turn Carolina into his Camelot? Time will tell.In the meantime, the little Latvian will soldier on. He&rsquo;s earning backup money on a one-year contract. At season&rsquo;s end, he&rsquo;s scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent for the third time in three years.&ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t scare me anymore,&rdquo; Irbe said. &ldquo;The world turns in unimaginable ways.&rdquo;Put it another way. You would like to think good things happen to good people. &#9632;

f0010-01

SAVING GRACE

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div>As Paul Stewart conducts his umpteenth interview in the past month, a sudden shriek can be heard over the phone line.&ldquo;Paul&hellip;Paul&hellip;Come quickly. McCauley is standing up. &ldquo;Racing through his newly built Walepole, Mass., house with the portable phone still in hand, Stewart bursts into the bedroom of his eight-month-old son McCauley to see the sturdy youngster proudly gripping the sides of his crib having just completed his first solo mission. Grandma Stewart witnessed the event.Suddenly the former professional-hockey-tough-guy-tumed-NHL-official turns to mush.&ldquo;Good boy McCauley. Did you do that all by yourself? You&rsquo;re a big boy. Yes, you&rsquo;re daddy&rsquo;s big boy. &ldquo;Then there is silence. Paul Stewart needs a few moments to regain his composure. Over the course of a one-hour interview, Stewart is often overcome with emotion. The tears flow easily these days.Paul Stewart, hard-nosed hockey player, too-flamboyant-for-his-own-good referee, new father, is a cancer survivor. Seldom at a loss for words,Stewart, 43, says it is now his mission in life to spread the word about the importance of early detection of cancer.Four days prior to his scheduled return to the NHL, the New Jersey Devils hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins Nov. 13, the ref was recalling his eyeopening journey and brush with death.It began last January, while watching a segment on colon cancer on The Today Show with his stewardess wife Lori. Today Show host Katie Couric lost her husband, Jay Monahan, to colon cancer and was listing the symptoms. Stewart recognized a few of them and immediately arranged an appointment with his doctor.Stewart will never forget the day he was lying on a hospital bed, having undergone a series of tests, when the doctor came into his room.&ldquo;Well, do you know what it is?&rdquo; Stewart inquired.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not quite sure,&rdquo; the doctor replied. &ldquo;Your wife and son are in the hall. Do you want to bring them in so we can talk about what we found?&rdquo;&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t bother,&rdquo; Stewart replied, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t even have to tell me, I already know. It&rsquo;s in your eyes.&rdquo;Stewart kept his illness a secret from just about everybody except his immediate family and Bryan Lewis, the NHL&rsquo;s director of officiating. He even checked into the hospital under an assumed name, all the while maintaining a strong facade.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011717/7293862-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="626" height="1018"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cancer survivor Paul Stewart urges people not to ignore symptoms. (Photo by Paul Angers/BS)</figcaption></div>Finally, in the middle of the night the day before his operation, Stewart cracked. &ldquo;I was in the shower and it was 2:30 in the morning,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The water was pouring over me and I was petrified&hellip;petrified and crying my eyes out. But I never once said,&lsquo;Why is this happening to me.&rsquo; I just said, &rsquo;Please God, please let me live to see my baby go to school. Let me live with my wife. Hockey was the furthest thing from my mind.&rdquo;Stewart underwent surgery June 10 and it was discovered then he had stage HI cancer, one step away from worst on the scale. Still, when the three-hour operation ended, he refused to be transported back to his room in a wheelchair. With one tube up his nose, one in his penis and two in his arms, Stewart walked instead.There were complications during his recovery and twice he had to go under the knife again. But, typically, hockey did eventually enter the picture for him. He used NHL officials&rsquo; training camp as his carrot.Stewart has been an NHL official for 13 years, having refereed 692 regular season games and 37 playoff games entering this season.That Stewart was in superb condition when he fell ill helped speed his recovery. All along he was told his job would be waiting for him, but in order to make sure he was was up to the rigors of an NHL game, he was started off in the minors beginning Oct. 24 in Springfield, DI. He wound up doing four American League games before getting the call up.&ldquo;I noticed his right hand was constantly down at his side, he drank a lot more water than he usually does and there were just mannerisms that indicated to me he still had a ways to go,&rdquo; Lewis said of Stewart&rsquo;s first game. &ldquo;We told him afterward the next step was to go to a game by plane, check into a hotel, eat restaurant food and, basically, five the way he always had as a ref.&rdquo;At one point in his first AHL game, one of the players bumped into Stewart.&ldquo;He went, &rsquo;Oh my God, I&rsquo;m sorry; Oh my God are you alright?&rsquo; &ldquo;Stewart said. &ldquo;I just shook it off and said, &rsquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about it; I&rsquo;m fine.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s doubtful Stewart&rsquo;s life will ever be the same as it was before his illness. For starters, he pays closer attention to the messages his body sends him. And he hopes others, having heard about his experiences, will too.&ldquo;When I&rsquo;m on the ice, I&rsquo;m in charge,&rdquo; Stewart said. &ldquo;No matter what instructions Lewis or (NHL commissioner Gary) Bettman have given me, I&rsquo;m in charge. In your life, you&rsquo;re in charge, too. You can go to the doctor when you&rsquo;re sick or you can procrastinate and not to go to the doctor. You be the referee.&ldquo;If you have an appreciation for your life and you&rsquo;re not interested in committing suicide, get checked out.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Stewart on mission after brush with death

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011592/7293893-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trevor Linden has carved a reputation as an excellent playoff performer (Photo by Brian Winkler/BBS)</figcaption></div>What a weirdo that Trevor Linden is.He probably could have squeezed a few more bucks out of the New York Islanders by playing hardball, but instead he signs in time to join his teammates for their season opener for exactly the same money he earned last season.He has an injured hand and ankle, but instead of sitting out a few games to let them heal, he plays in pain and then spends close to an hour after games icing them down.You would think he loves the game or something.&ldquo;I feel I owed it to my teammates and to (coach-GM) Mike Milbury,&rdquo; Linden said after signing his new contract. &ldquo;I feel the time was right to get going. I want to play here and be the best captain I can be.&rdquo;Linden, 28, opted not to fight tooth and nail for every last dollar as a restricted free agent, but instead signed for the exact same money he earned last season, $2.5 million dollars. It was an unconventional decision, but one with which Linden felt comfortable.Make no mistake about it, the Islanders are Linden&rsquo;s team. He has only been with them a short while-since last Feb. 6 when he was traded to Long Island for defenseman Bryan McCabe, left winger Todd Bertuzzi and a third round draft pick-but he is the individual others look to for leadership.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t get the deal he wanted, yet he came in and has been the leader of the team,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;He realized things were not right in Long Island from a business perspective and he elected to get on with it, to do what was best for the team. I have come to appreciate what he means to our team.&rdquo;Linden&rsquo;s signing was a controversial one in some quarters-union backers may feel he didn&rsquo;t get market value-but it&rsquo;s one that made perfect sense to a team player. You see, Linden&rsquo;s specialty is the playoffs and he wasn&rsquo;t about to sit around and watch his team&rsquo;s postseason hopes fade in October and November. It&rsquo;s bad enough the Islanders were having to make do without Ziggy Palffy, their only true offensive weapon, who had yet to sign.The Islanders have not made the playoffs for four years, while Linden has watched from the sidelines himself during the past two springs.That has been tough to take for a player who generally shines in the playoffs (80 points in 79 career games). Linden believes it&rsquo;s his attention to detail that has helped him excel in the post-season.&ldquo;People always tell me I&rsquo;m a great playoff player,&rdquo; Linden says, &ldquo;and the only reason I can think that is, is because in the playoffs doing the little things right counts the most.&rdquo;Watch Linden closely and you won&rsquo;t be blown away by any particular skill; his conviction and determination are his strengths. He doesn&rsquo;t have the hardest shot in the league, yet the puck doesn&rsquo;t flutter when he snaps it toward the goal. He is a deceptively fast skater. In a race for the puck, an opponent might look like he&rsquo;s skating quicker, but Linden often gets there first using a long, fluent stride.The 6-foot-4, 210-pound right winger-who had six goals and nine points in 16 games-is physical, but not confrontational. He is business-like in his approach to the game on and off the ice. And other players notice.&ldquo;There are players who play 25-to-30 minutes a game who don&rsquo;t do as much as Trevor and they pace themselves,&rdquo; said teammate Gino Odjick. &ldquo;He just goes out and plays hard every shift. I was 20 when I joined Vancouver and I didn&rsquo;t understand what a leader was. Now, after watching him play, I know.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Linden takes control by putting team first

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div>Everything being equal, Todd Harvey would rather be Paul Kariya.The problem, of course, is that everything is not equal. Kariya skates like a gazelle. Harvey skates like a meat grinder. Kariya has hands of silk. Harvey has hands.No, the Rocket Richard Trophy just wasn&rsquo;t meant to be for some guys. Despite an impressive six goals and 12 points in 13 games, Harvey, traded last March to the New York Rangers from the Dallas Stars, has as much chance taking that hardware home as he does growing back knocked-out teeth. To stay in the NHL, the swashbuckling, 23-year-old right winger will have to continue wreaking havoc with self-sacrificing bodychecks and leave the goals and glory for others.&ldquo;I mean hey,&rdquo; Harvey said, &ldquo;if I can lead in any state, why not?&rdquo;With his crosshairs permanently sighted on enemy defensemen, Harvey was heading in the right direction. After hurling his body for a single hit in the Rangers&rsquo; 10-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 10, he was the most frequent body smasher in the league, with 49 in 13 games for an average of 3.8 per game.Second in average hits was Dallas Stars&rsquo; defenseman Richard Matvichuk (3.5), followed by New York Islanders&rsquo; rearguard Rich Pilon (3.4) and Stars&rsquo; captain Derian Hatcher (3.3).This is the second year the NHL has kept track of hitting, but it&rsquo;s the first season the stat has been widely available. NHL officials in the press box at every game are hooked up to a computer that allows them to credit hits with the touch of a button.The NHL defines a hit as &ldquo;any legal contact&hellip;that exerts enough force as to prevent the player from controlling the puck, knocks him off the puck, or significantly impedes his progress.&rdquo;Harvey defines it in simpler terms.&ldquo;Basically, you want to punish the &lsquo;D&rsquo; as much as you can,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It wears on guys. You get tired. And they&rsquo;re not going to be as eager to go get the puck the next time.&rdquo;There is some question how useful the stats are, both in their accuracy and as a true indication of player performance.Islanders&rsquo; coach-GM Mike Mil-bury isn&rsquo;t enamored with the hitting stat because he says recording standards can vary from rink to rink. In the end, the difference between a hit and a shove along the boards is a subjective judgement. Over the course of a full season, differences can be significant.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011704/7293931-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="610" height="509"></div>The numbers, too, can be deceiving. There were only five forwards among the top 20 in average hits including, among others, Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; center Eric Lindros (2.6). Fair enough.But the fifth forward on the list-and eighth in the NHL in total hits with 38 in 15 games-was noted cruncher&hellip;wait for it&hellip;Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill.&ldquo;What?&rdquo; asked Dallas Stars&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock.See, you&rsquo;re not the only one left scratching your head. Hitchcock says the game today is more physical than ever, but with all due respect, shifty O&rsquo;Neill wasn&rsquo;t exactly what he had in mind.Last year&rsquo;s top hitter, Flyers&rsquo; defenseman Dan McGillis (308) was in the top 20, averaging 2.6 hits per game. Some other big names, though, were nowhere to be found. San Jose Shark assassin Bryan Marchment&rsquo;s came in at No. 81. St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman Chris Pronger was 70th, which Hitchcock called ridiculous: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s as physical or more than Hatcher.&rdquo;Yet the Marchment-style player-the one who will take himself out of position to make a big hit&mdash;is the kind whose presence may have the most impact during a game, even if they only manage to line someone up once or twice a night.Opposing players are wary when Marchment is around. Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; Darius Kasparaitus and the Islanders&rsquo; Pilon are of a similar mould.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an element of crazy there that other teams don&rsquo;t always enjoy having on the ice,&rdquo; Milbury said of Pilon.Yet hitting is not necessarily the be-all and end-all of gritty hockey. Hitchcock said the Stars&rsquo; most physical player is actually winger Jere Lehtinen, who consistently fights his way through checks to get to the puck and maybe takes a hit once he gets there.&ldquo;Some of the best physical players are the ones who arrive before the hit,&rdquo; Hitchcock said.Others pointed out that a player such as Pronger, who averages close to 30 minutes a game, can&rsquo;t afford to be wasting energy taking runs at people.Harvey, meanwhile, can&rsquo;t afford not to.&ldquo;I try to hit them before they&rsquo;re hitting me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have to do that.&rdquo;Harvey assures he won&rsquo;t be strutting like a gamecock if he turns out to be the end-of-season hit king. Frankly, he doesn&rsquo;t even know why the league is keeping the stat at all. He said the mere fact it exists isn&rsquo;t motivation enough to go hit-hunting four times a night just to maintain his league-leading average.If the NHL got serious with the hardware, that&rsquo;t be another story.&ldquo;Maybe there should be a trophy,&rdquo; Harvey said, &ldquo;and then maybe I would.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021280/7293924-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="1302" height="1815"><figcaption class="caption-body">With more plays like this, Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Poulin will climb up the hit charts. (Photoby Andre Pichete/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Harvey leads hit parade

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>As Ron Caron watched a televised game recently, the sports ticker at the bottom of the screen flashed the news about the passing of Hall of Fame goalie Frank Brimsek at the age of 85.Immediately, Caron&rsquo;s thoughts turned to Doug Wickenheiser and his struggle against a rare form of cancer that has left him bed-ridden and breathing with the help of a ventilator.&ldquo;When you're dealing with a 37-year-old, it&rsquo;s so sad,&rdquo; said Caron, the St. Louis Blues executive who played a major role in Wickenheiser&rsquo;s star-crossed NHL career. &ldquo;Frank Brimsek was 85, and Moose Vasko died recently at 63&hellip;Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, you never have enough living, but they had a good share of life. But Doug, he&rsquo;s a young parent and has his responsibilities with his three little ones.&rdquo;Wickenheiser and his wife Dianne are the parents of three young girls-four-year-old twins Rachel and Kaitlin and 17-month-old Carly.Meanwhile, family and friends continue to pray for a miracle. Wickenheiser&rsquo;s condition has deteriorated over the past several months. Between trips to New York for treatment last summer, he was able to play some golf and work out lightly with former Blues&rsquo; teammate Rick Meagher, now a Blues scout. In September, his condition turned for the worse and he&rsquo;s been clinging to life since&ldquo;He&rsquo;s working hard to live,&rdquo; said Caron, who has a deep fondness for Wickenheiser.Caron drafted Wickenheiser first overall for the Montreal Canadiens in 1980, picking him ahead of native son Denis Savard, who had starred for the Canadiens&rsquo; junior team in Verdun.Wickenheiser had been the Canadian Major Junior Player of the Year that season, with 89 goals and 170 points in 71 games with his hometown Regina Pats. Caron picked him over Savard and defenseman Dave Babych, who is still playing for the Philadelphia Flyers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011569/7293962-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="970" height="1162"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Wickenheiser found peace playing for the Blues in St. Louis. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div>It turned out to be the wrong move for both of them. While Savard quickly became a star, Wickenheiser didn&rsquo;t develop quickly enough for either Montreal fans or the Canadiens, who ultimately fired Caron in 1983.As a rookie in the 198081 season, Wickenheiser scored seven goals and 15 points in 41 games. Savard had 28 goals and 75 points in 76 games with the Chicago Blackhawks.&ldquo;The first time Montreal played Chicago, they benched Doug Wickenheiser while Savard scored a goal and became a pseudo-hero immediately,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;What went wrong was Doug being in Montreal. If he had been on another team with less pressure and given a full start, he might have reacted differently to the game. Being expected to do so much so quick made it tough on him.&rdquo;After the Blues hired Caron as GM in 1983, he rescued Wickenheiser from Montreal in one of his first deals, trading Perry Turnbull to the Canadiens for Wickenheiser, Gilbert Delorme and Greg Paslawski on Dec. 21,1983.&ldquo;He became peaceful in St. Louis,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;There was less pressure.&rdquo;Wickenheiser&rsquo;s career appeared to be back on track until 1985, when he suffered a serious knee injury on a team outing-a &ldquo;snipe hunt&rdquo; that went terribly wrong. Undaunted, Wickenheiser came back after seven months, three months ahead of schedule.&ldquo;Doug loved the game so much,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he ever worked as hard as he did to come back, except for now in his sickness to stay alive. He had a purpose.&rdquo;Wickenheiser&rsquo;s return in 1986 led to a game that has come to be known as the Monday Night Miracle in St. Louis-a dramatic come-from-behind 6-5 victory over the Calgary Flames in Game 6 of the Campbell Conference finals in which Wickenheiser scored the winning goal in overtime. It was the pinnacle of his career.Now, Wickenheiser&rsquo;s family, friends and fans pray for another miracle, with his twin girls providing their simple prayer: &ldquo;Baby Jesus, please help Daddy&rsquo;s boo-boo get better.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

Wickenheiser’s brave fight

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011491/7293993-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="184" height="181"></div>Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; right winger Kirk Maltby delivered a hard check that sent his former teammate, Tomas Sandstrom, crashing into the boards.Sandstrom immediately skated to the bench, threw his stick with his right hand and told Mighty Ducks of Anaheim equipment manager Mark O&rsquo;Neill, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m done.&rdquo;The initial diagnosis after the Nov. 8 hit was a broken left wrist that would sideline him four-to-six weeks. But two days later, Sandstrom underwent surgery that will keep him out of the lineup for up to 10 weeks.&ldquo;I feel more badly for Tomas than I do for our hockey team,&rdquo; said Ducks&rsquo; coach Craig Hartsburg. &ldquo;Tomas is an older guy (34) who was off to a good start and was feeling good about himself.&rdquo;Against Detroit, Sandstrom notched his fifth goal and seventh point in 12 games. He produced only nine goals and 17 points last season, the worst of his 14-year career. In the second to last game of the season, he separated his shoulder and he entertained thoughts of retirement.But Sandstrom didn&rsquo;t want his stellar career to end with that disappointing season. He worked hard in the off-season, dropped 15 to 20 pounds, and returned with a vengeance that was noticeable from the first day of training camp.On the night of his fluky accident, Sandstrom called the check &ldquo;just a bad accident. He hit me clean. It was just the way I went into the boards.&rdquo;Sandstrom also described his play this season as, &ldquo;I was doing okay.&rdquo;The truth is Sandstrom&rsquo;s play has been superb at both ends of the rink, with the return of his feistiness that was missing much of last season.&ldquo;It has been fun to come to the rink again,&rdquo; he said the day before he broke his wrist.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big blow, especially on the power play,&rdquo; said captain Paul Kariya. &ldquo;He has been great there. I hope he gets back soon.&rdquo;Before learning the news that he would need surgery, Sandstrom joked that he would be back in four weeks: &ldquo;Young guys are quick healers.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Teemu Selanne blocked the point shot of Detroit defenseman Larry Murphy with his right foot Nov. 8. He finished the game, but was badly limping in the dressing room. He played the next game, but left with an upper thigh strain that was expected to cost him at least two games&hellip;Goalie Guy Hebert, a notorious poor starter during his career, was off to a solid start with a 2.36 goals-against average and .925 save percentage&hellip;Left winger Paul Kariya led the league with 82 shots. He was on pace for a team record 515 shots. That&rsquo;s 35 off the NHL record of 550, set by Phil Esposito for Boston in 1970-71. &#9632;

f0016-01

NHLTEAMS

Fluky wrist injury bad break for surging veteran Sandstrom

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021150/7294024-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="187" height="183"></div>Mike Wilson has gone off to the international League, Donald Audette has gone off and demanded a trade and Lindy Ruff has gone off on the state of the game, its coaches, officials and his players.Hard to imagine the Buffalo Sabres were on a seven-game unbeaten streak.Wilson and Audette, restricted free agents who remained unsigned, went in different directions. Wilson, a defenseman who was among the team&rsquo;s top four at times last season, signed with the IHL&rsquo;s Las Vegas Thunder. His agent, Don Reynolds, said he just wants to get his client on the ice. The two sides have been at a stalemate for weeks although the Sabres did raise the ante a little, offering Wilson $2 million over three years. Wilson has been adamant in asking for $2.25 million with a large payout in the final year.Audette and the Sabres have been stuck on the terms of a three-year deal that would pay him $1.2 mihion, $2 million and $2.5 million. The major sticking point is that the club wants options on the second and third years of the deal. Audette wants them to make a decision after the first year. There had been no real movement on the issue and Audette, through his agent, Gilles Lupien, has demanded the Sabres trade him.Meanwhile, Ruff criticized the referees after a 2-2 tie Nov. 10 with the Ottawa Senators, a game in which the Sabres received five power plays to Ottawa&rsquo;s eight.He also criticized the Senators-and by implication their coach Jacques Martin-for what Ruff said was bending the rules by turning their backs whenever they were about to be hit. Ruff was particularly upset regarding a five-minute major issued to Erik Rasmussen for a hit on Senator Andreas Johansson.Ruff accused Johansson of &ldquo;going down like a deer that has been shot with a 30.06&rdquo; and other crimes of deception that were not good for the game. He also criticized his own team, especially the defense for not playing well and for relying too much on goalie Dominik Hasek.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Dominik Hasek made several key saves and the team stood up well in front of him as he notched his third shutout of the season in a 2-0 win at Washington Nov. 12. It was Hasek&rsquo;s 36th career shutout and came fewer than two weeks after the Caps and goalie Olie Kolzig shut out Hasek and the Sabres 1-0 in Marine Midland Arena. It also marked Hasek&rsquo;s 13th consecutive start this season&hellip;Hasek didn&rsquo;t have three shutouts last season until the first week of December. He then notched six in that month&hellip;Veteran defenseman James Patrick was scratched against Washington as coach Lindy Ruff attempted to shake up his defensive corps. Rumun Ndur played in his place. &#9632;

f0016-02

NHL TEAM

Ruff rants, Audette makes demands amidst seven-game unbeaten streak

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03861/7294055-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="187" height="184"></div>The wait, for Jean-Sebastien Giguere had been 15 months and counting.The Calgary Flames surrendered a big part of their present (Gary Roberts and Trevor Kidd) in the August, 1997, deal that brought them Giguere from the Carolina Hurricanes-the player they believe is the key to their future.So when back spasms sidelined Ken Wregget in early November, all eyes were on Giguere to see if he was perhaps ready for prime time.Giguere did not disappoint, winning his first two starts before struggling in his third-a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks Nov. 12. Coach Brian Sutter said he had no hesitation putting in Giguere after Wregget went down with his injury.&ldquo;(Giguere has) been absolutely outstanding since we sent him down,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;We just needed a solid game. It was a situation where I thought he deserved to go in. Here&rsquo;s a kid who&rsquo;s playing all the time and has been outstanding-and &lsquo;Mosser&rsquo; (backup Tyler Moss) hadn&rsquo;t been playing much.&rdquo;Sutter called Giguere, &ldquo;one of best goalies outside the National League&rdquo; and praised his upright, controlled playing style.&ldquo;If a goalie stays up and is square to the shooter, he&rsquo;s never going to be in trouble. It&rsquo;s amazing-guys like that don&rsquo;t give any rebounds.&rdquo;Even though his Nov. 8 win over Colorado was his first with the Flames, it wasn&rsquo;t the first of his NHL career. As a 19-year-old, Giguere had one win in eight games with the Hartford Whalers during an emergency injury recall two years ago.Even with his strong start, there is no guarantee Giguere will stay up permanently. The thinking is the Flames want him to play 65 games this year and then challenge for the No. 1 job next season. Once Wregget returns, they do not want him languishing on the bench for long periods of time. That task, presumably, will fall to Moss.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a little break here now,&rdquo; Giguere said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to make the most of it. If they send me down to Saint John, that&rsquo;s where 1 was supposed to be all year. If I&rsquo;m here and they ask me to play, I&rsquo;m going to be my best and see what happens.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Although defenseman Steve Smith suffered bruised ribs against Los Angeles Nov. 10, he shrugged off the pain and played two nights later in a 43 loss to the Vancouver Canucks&hellip;Flames&rsquo; right winger Valeri Bure stays in constant touch with his older brother. Pavel, who was skating with Central Army. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a bunch of rumors flying around and he hears pretty much every one,&rdquo; Valeri said. &ldquo;Sometimes, he gets them off the Internet or I&rsquo;ll tell him the stuff he didn&rsquo;t hear. It seems like the deal is getting closer."&hellip;Center Jason Wiemer was fourth in the NHL with 63 penalty minutes behind Islanders&rsquo; left winger Gino Odjick (84), Toronto&rsquo;s Tie Domi (69) and Chicago&rsquo;s Bob Probert (68). &#9632;

f0016-03

Giguere gets chance in Calgary and impresses with standup play

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>What I liked about Dave Taylor&rsquo;s long-term plan for turning the Los Angeles Kings into a contender again was how nicely he was getting the timing right.Until last spring, the Kings had missed the playoffs every year since qualifying for the Stanley Cup final in 1993. Their succession of awful teams effectively killed whatever enthusiasm for hockey that the Wayne Gretzky era generated.As a result the Kings were down to about the same 8,000 diehard supporters that watched them play in their purple pajama days. In many respects, things were actually worse than before because their building had degenerated into the not-so-Great Western Forum. All of a sudden, their cross-town rivals, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, were playing in a state-of-the-art facility and boasted two of the game&rsquo;s pre-eminent superstars in Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.Los Angeles is different than even New York in its need for a marquee player. The Rangers need a visible attraction as well, but they have enough hard-core hockey fans who will support the team.In L.A., you don&rsquo;t need to just win, baby, you need to win in style. So it&rsquo;s logical to think the Kings-once they move into the new Staples Center next season-will eventually remedy that shortcoming by importing one of the league&rsquo;s top box-office attractions. And what a time it will be to do just that. The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Mark Recchi will become an unrestricted free agent as will the Rangers&rsquo; Brian Leetch and the Calgary Flames&rsquo; Theo Fleury.The problem is, to acquire any of the above in trade today-or, for that matter, Pavel Bure or Ziggy Palffy-you&rsquo;d be obliged to surrender a significant part of your future. It just doesn&rsquo;t make sense to give up Josef Stumpel or Olli Jokinen in order to get some quick-fix for 199? 98. It flies against Taylor&rsquo;s orderly rebuilding philosophy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04642/7294086-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="400" height="533"></div>The problem is, the Kings are dying at the box office right now. With the National Basketball Association locked out and Major League Baseball over and no National Football League franchise in the area, that must seem like a catastrophe. Right now, they&rsquo;re the only professional game in town and even then, they cannot do anything to fill those empty seats.But you know what? It really isn&rsquo;t that bad. After all the lean years the Kings put up with to get to this stage in the team&rsquo;s development, really, what&rsquo;s another nine months of poor crowds in an unappetizing venue?Long-term, Taylor&rsquo;s plan always was to get a contender in place to coincide with the opening of a new building and then go out and spend some of owner Philip Anschutz&rsquo;s money to bring in a boffo box office attraction. Sure, it would be nice, next summer, to market a team that made the playoffs and maybe won a round or two. The reality is, you&rsquo;d get just as big a jolt out of a major off-season acquisition as you would a decent playoff run, especially if it means you don&rsquo;t have to undermine the foundation of long-term success you&rsquo;ve worked so hard to get in place.So the advice for the Kings is simple: Even though you lost both goalies for a while and now Rob Blake, close your eyes to the crowds and muddle through. If the Kings make a move now to bring in Bure or Palffy and weaken themselves for the long haul, then you know that the marketing department, not the hockey department, made the call.And that would be too bad. &#9632;

f0016-04

Patience will bring Kings just reward

<div class="byline">By Dustin Long</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011339/7294117-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="188" height="182"></div>For the first time in three years, Gary Roberts is healthy and he has returned to his old physical ways.Of course, there is no other way for the 32-year-old left winger, who retired after the 1995-96 season because of a neck injury.&ldquo;If you play physically, you&rsquo;re going to be in the tight areas, you&rsquo;re going to be in the goal area, you&rsquo;re going to be in the comers and that&rsquo;s where most of the contact is going to be,&rdquo; said Roberts who missed 20 games because of injuries and illness last season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to be in the thick of things to have success.&rdquo;He is. Roberts has been Carolina&rsquo;s tough guy this season in the comers, along the boards and in front of the net. He led the team with 15 points through the first 16 games. He had a team-high 12 assists and was on pace to record more than 60 assists.&ldquo;Gary has been our best forward, maybe our best player,&rdquo; said coach Paul Maurice. &ldquo;He has been very consistent and has played a very physical game.&rdquo;Last year&rsquo;s comeback was not a smooth one for Roberts. A slap shot broke his foot in the team&rsquo;s first game. Roberts suffered from asthma, a groin injury, a strained abdomen, a strained rib muscle and the flu last season. This year has been a different story.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been feeling good,&rdquo; said Roberts with a nervous smile. He has made others feel good, especially center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill, who has struggled offensively.&ldquo;He has taught me that working hard and competing every night goes a long way,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neill, who didn&rsquo;t score a goal until the season&rsquo;s 12th game. &ldquo;In this league, they talk about John LeClair and Keith Tkachuk as two premier left wingers, but before Gary retires, he&rsquo;ll be among the top three.&rdquo;Maurice said the best could be forthcoming from Roberts.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re starting to see glimpses of why this guy is such a great player,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Carolina&rsquo;s power play had failed on 44 consecutive attempts through their 3-0 loss at San Jose Oct. 12&hellip;Coach Paul Maurice made defensemen Sean Hill and Curtis Leschyshyn healthy scratches for the San Jose game after they were a combined minus-5 against Anaheim Oct. 11. They were replaced by Nolan Pratt, who hadn&rsquo;t played in 10 games, and rookie Mike Rucinski.Jn losses to Boston, Anaheim and San Jose, the &rsquo;Canes were outscored 7-2 in the third periods&hellip;Center Ron Francis had one point in a seven game stretch through Nov. 12 and was seventh in team scoring after 16 games with seven points&hellip;After finishing its West Coast trip, Carolina has 10 of its next 13 games at home. The &rsquo;Canes were 2-3-3 in Greensboro&hellip;Goalie Trevor Kidd allowed three or more goals in 19 of 47 starts last year. He allowed three or more goals in all five starts this season having given way to Arturs Irbe as the team&rsquo;s most trustworthy goalie (see pg. 10 for more on Irbe). &#9632;

f0017-01

Veteran Roberts finds old game, leading Hurricanes by example

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021023/7294148-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="188" height="185"></div>With goalie Jeff Hackett slumping, the Chicago Blackhawks didn&rsquo;t waste any time sending out an S.O.S. distress call.It was answered in Moscow by Hawks&rsquo; parttime goalie coach Vladislav Tretiak, who jumped on the next flight to North America. Tretiak normally makes from four-to-six visits a year to Chicago.&ldquo;Vlady wasn&rsquo;t due to come back until late November, but I guess they sent out an A.P.B. for him,&rdquo; joked Hackett. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s great because as much as the coaches like to think they know about goaltending, they don&rsquo;t understand like (Tretiak) does.&rdquo;Normally a poor starter, Hackett was fighting the puck more than ever the first month of the season. He hit rock bottom in a 10-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 12, allowing six goals on 20 shots before being pulled.Coach Dirk Graham had no choice but to turn to backup Mark Fitzpatrick, who started five of six games in one stretch while Hackett sat with a 2-6-1 record, 3.79 goals-against average and .870 save percentage.&ldquo;Jeff is just not playing the way I know he is capable of playing,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;Absolutely, &rsquo;Hack&rsquo; is still our No. 1 goalie. Jeff has earned that status on this team over a number of years, not over a number of games. We&rsquo;re expecting Jeff to go back in there and play well.&rdquo;When Tretiak arrived he and Hackett got down to the business of correcting some technical flaws.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m too far back on the goalline and pucks are dribbling through me,&rdquo; said Hackett, one of the league leaders in goals-against average and save percentage the past two seasons. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not Jeff Hackett. I&rsquo;m not attacking. I&rsquo;m not solid right now. I don&rsquo;t have my sharpness.&rdquo;Tretiak, the former Russian Red Army great, wasn&rsquo;t worried about Hackett.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re correcting mistakes every day,&rdquo; Tretiak said. &ldquo;Sometimes you think too much. I&rsquo;m pushing him to be more aggressive, more free, but I&rsquo;m not worried. He&rsquo;ll be fuie.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: A humiliating 10-3 home-ice loss to Toronto Nov. 12 extended the Hawks&rsquo; winless streak to eight games (0-7-1) and had fingers being pointed at rookie coach Dirk Graham, his coaching staff and GM Bob Murray&hellip;Defenseman Reid Simpson was facing possible discipline from the league after TV cameras caught him throwing a water bottle and hitting a fan in an incident near the penalty box Nov. 12&hellip;Center Roman Vopat. acquired from Colorado Nov. 10 in exchange for defenseman Cam Russell, was hoping his days of moving were over. &ldquo;I hope this is my final destination,&rdquo; said the 22-year-old Vopat, now with his fourth NHL team in four years (St. Louis, Los Angeles and Colorado were the others)&hellip;Russell had been with the Hawks since 1989, making him the most senior member of the club. He wasn&rsquo;t playing much and Murray had a feeling the veteran was going to ask for a trade. &ldquo;He was getting close and I didn&rsquo;t want to put him in that position,&rdquo; Murray said. &#9632;

f0017-02

Hawks summon legendary Tretiak to find out why Jeff can’t Hackett

<div class="byline">By Nancy L.Marrapese</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04535/7294179-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="610" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cam Neely</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03731/7294186-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="188" height="184"></div>Cam Neely first began talking about a possible resumption of his hockey career back in September while working out with physical therapist Dan Dyrek of Wellesley, Mass.Dyrek, National Basketball Association experts believe, extended Larry Bird&rsquo;s career by five years. Neely&rsquo;s goal at the beginning was much more modest. The former menacing right winger just wanted to be able to walk without pain in his arthritic right hip.But as his workouts progressed, he felt better and better and the hip, which forced him to retire prior to the start of 1996-97, improved dramatically.After skating with Bruins&rsquo; head coach Pat Bums and assistant coach Jacques Laperriere for the better part of a week, Neely and the coaching staff agreed he was ready for the next step-a full-blown workout with the team at their practice rink.After two skates, Nov. 11 and 12 which lasted about 45 minutes each, Neely was encouraged.&ldquo;I had some pain (after the initial practice),&rdquo; Neely said. &ldquo;But it subsided enough to come out here and try it again. The second day was more important than the first and the third will be more important than the second.My biggest concern and what I&rsquo;m really going to watch and judge for is, I de still have pain, but is the pain going to increase over use.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not getting all that excited just yet. It has only been a couple of days on the ice. I mean, it&rsquo;s nice to be oul here, don&rsquo;t get me wrong, but I&rsquo;m not doing cartwheels yet.&rdquo;The club has unofficially market Nov. 23 as the date they are likely to know if this comeback is going to be t reality. As president/GM Harry Sinder pointed out, the odds are against a 33-year-old player who hadn&rsquo;t competed in a game since Feb. 21,1996. From 1991-92 through 1995-95, Neely played just 162 games out of a possible 542.Only four players remain from the teams that Neely used to play on in Boston: Ray Bourque, Steve Heinze, Don Sweeney and Kyle McLaren.Neely said he doesn&rsquo;t expect to be the dominant player he once was, but won&rsquo;t come back at half speed or resume his career as some sort of sideshow.&ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t feel I can play at the level I want to play at, it&rsquo;s just not worth it to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The Bruins are giving me an opportunity to take it to another level and get some quality practice time that I can&rsquo;t get by myself. I&rsquo;m not concerned about anything else right now except giving my hip another test.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Kyle McLaren returned after agreeing to terms on a contract late on the evening of Nov. 9. The deal ended his status as a Group II free agent, the Bruins&rsquo; last regular to come to terms, and was a big deal&hellip;for one day. The fanfare died down the second day because of the presence of Cam Neely&hellip;McLaren remains bitter that the three-year deal averaging $1,325 million per year doesn&rsquo;t pay him what he believes he deserves. After three days of practice and one morning skate, McLaren jumped into the lineup Nov, 13 against the Rangers in New York&hellip;Center Tim Taylor, who missed 12 games because of a badly sprained right ankle, returned to the lineup Nov. 13 against the Rangers. &#9632;

f0017-04

Neely comeback talk causes stir, but actual return remains longshot

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011374/7294217-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="184" height="183"></div>Another week, another couple of trades by the Colorado Avalanche.In what has quickly become a revolving-door season around the Avs&rsquo; dressing room, the team made two more moves-one out of desperation, the other out of mutual agreement with one of their players.In the bigger deal, the Avs sent disgruntled left winger Keith Jones to the Philadelphia Flyers for left winger Shjon Podein. Jones wanted out of Colorado after his playing time was reduced.The Avs also acquired veteran defenseman Cam Russell from the Chicago Blackhawks for Roman Vopat and a sixth round choice in 1999. With six regular defenseman out with injuries or because of contract differences, the Avs had to to something to shore up their blueline.In Podein, the Avs get a gritty, defense-minded forward who has scored in double-figures the past three years.&ldquo;I knew something might happen, bu I was a little shocked it was me that go traded,&rdquo; said Podein, who had only one goal in 14 games at the time of the deal &ldquo;Still, I&rsquo;m excited to go to Colorado.&rdquo;Jones was a well-liked member of the Avs&rsquo; dressing room, but he appeared to still be slowed somewhat by a knee injury first sustained in the 1997 playoffs. Still. Jones hadn&rsquo;t missed a game this season because of injury.NOTEBOOK: Sylvain Lefebvre (bruised left eye) and Aaron Miller (bruised knee) joined the Avs&rsquo; injured list that includes fellow defensemen Adam Foote. Eric Messier and Wade Belak. Other than Messier, all were expected to return by the end of November, however&hellip;Captain Joe Sakic, a center, managed just one assist on a six-game road trip. Colorado went 2-3-1 on the swing&hellip;There still was no progress toward a resolution of the Sandis Ozolinsh situation. The offense-minded defenseman, a restricted free agent, continued to demand more than the three-year, $9.9-million offer on the table from the Avs&hellip;Left winger Valeri Kamensky (bruised left foot) missed games against Phoenix (Nov. 10) and Tampa Bay (Nov. 13). &#9632;

f0018-01

Deal for Podein addresses Avs’ penalty killing woes

<div class="byline">By Mike Helka</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03718/7294248-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="612" height="961"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021025/7294255-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="186" height="183"></div>Brett Hull believes he has been wronged. The high flying winger has adopted a &ldquo;no comment&rdquo; approach to the media after being burned in what he called a nonissue.Hull was shifted off a line with Mike Modano Nov. 7 for the first time since joining the Stars and played just 11 minutes and 55 seconds in a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings.When asked how he felt about the ice time, Hull responded: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no possible way Brett Hull can do anything in 11 minutes. There&rsquo;s no flow, there&rsquo;s no feel.&rdquo;Hull added: &ldquo;I got all of three minutes in the first period and I told (linemate Joe Nieuwendyk), &rsquo;I&rsquo;m finished. I had no chance.&rsquo; &ldquo;Ironically, Hull finished with six shots and scored a goal. But he said the goal was scored on a lucky bounce and he could have had four goals.&ldquo;My timing was all (messed up) and my legs were asleep,&rdquo; Hull said.Coach Ken Hitchcock said the penalty-filled game was an anomaly, and Hull should average between 17-to-20 minutes a game. He was averaging just under 17 minutes through 12 games. But Hitchcock also took the opportunity to both privately and publicly discuss the statements with Hull.&ldquo;To me, this is a really good lesson for Brett Hull,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;He allowed himself to get going there and you can&rsquo;t do that. I don&rsquo;t know what he did before, but you don&rsquo;t do that here.&rdquo;Hitchcock added Hull&rsquo;s comments were blown out of proportion.NOTEBOOK: The Stars were shut out twice in three games and coach Ken Hitchcock said the forwards&rsquo; lack of grit was the reason for the offensive slump. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s missing is shift-in, shift-out passion,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s an ongoing problem with our team and it has to be corrected.&rdquo; Hitchcock pointed to center Mike Modano. who was in the midst of a nine-game goalless drought. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t score from the perimeter and that&rsquo;s where he&rsquo;s at. He&rsquo;s on the perimeter all the time."&hellip;To spark the offense, Hitchcock was experimenting with defenseman Darryl Sydor as a left wing&hellip;After witnessing their first home loss of the season (2-0 to Phoenix Nov. 11) following a 6-0-1 start at Reunion Arena, fans booed the Stars. &#9632;

f0018-03

Hull-abulloo overblown?

<div class="byline">By David J. Neal</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04458/7294286-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="185" height="182"></div>No matter how well things go for Florida Panthers&rsquo; right winger Peter Worrell, a seventh-round project pick in 1995, something always seems to drag attention back down to his race.On Nov. 11, Worrell played a key role in establishing the Panthers&rsquo; physical game early in a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers. He even picked up his first NHL point, an assist. But the next night, a clump of reporters was asking him about yet another alleged racial slur incident.Just 6:16 into the Panthers&rsquo; 2-1 triumph over Philadelphia, a TV camera seemed to catch Flyers&rsquo; center Chris Gratton yelling &ldquo;You (expletive) ape!&rdquo; at Worrell during a ruckus behind the Panthers&rsquo; net. The following day, Gratton said he yelled, &ldquo;Learn how to play the (expletive) game.&rdquo;The two players subsequently met and agreed no racial slur was uttered.For Worrell, however, it was the latest in a series of incidents regarding his race. During the pre-season, Panthers&rsquo; management claimed Tampa Bay Lightning winger Darcy Tucker called Worrell &ldquo;a (expletive) ape&rdquo; as they were led off the ice after a fight. Worrell said he didn&rsquo;t hear anything and Tucker was exonerated by the NHL after an investigation. Last season, Washington&rsquo;s Craig Berube was suspended for calling Worrell a &ldquo;monkey.&rdquo;Despite facing Gratton, being a foot away at most and showing visible anger as he was led off the ice after the scrum, Worrell had the same response he did in September.&ldquo;I have no comment because I didn&rsquo;t hear anything,&rdquo; he said.Asked if he thought too much can be made out of such comments, he said, &ldquo;I think sometimes, things get blown out of proportion. That&rsquo;s your guys&rsquo; job. We just won a big game tonight, but nobody wants to ask me about that. That&rsquo;s life.&rdquo;The NHL investigated the matter and found no wrong-doing.NOTEBOOK: After being a goat on three goals in a 4-3 loss to New Jersey Nov. 7, defenseman Ed Jovanovski fell on the knife, calling his performance &ldquo;terrible.&rdquo; Four days later, he stuck the knife in the Rangers with the game-winning goal and an assist in the 4-1 victory&hellip;Goals by Jovanovski and Robert Svehla against the Rangers marked the first time the Panthers have gotten two goals from their defensemen since Nov. 22, 1997, when Jovanovski had two against New Jersey&hellip;The Panthers saved around $500,000 in trading defenseman Jeff Norton to San Jose for left winger Alex Hicks Nov. 11. This leaves Florida about $1.5 million over their salary budget for this season. &#9632;

f0018-04

Worrell mired in yet another racial tempest

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-06239/7294317-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="608" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Yzerman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05303/7294324-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="186" height="185"></div>Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s reasoning is as consistent as his play.Just a couple seasons ago, when his 100-point seasons seemed like a thing long past, Yzerman maintained statistics provide a misleading portrait. Now that he&rsquo;s one of the hottest players in the NHL-and has been since the Olympic break last season-Yzerman has kept the same view.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t consider it a great start,&rdquo; said Yzerman, back among the top 10 with five goals and 17 points in 14 games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to be playing a lot better than I am. Accumulating points isn&rsquo;t necessarily an indicator of how you&rsquo;re doing. You can get a couple assists while doing absolutely nothing.&rdquo;In this case, Yzerman has clearly been doing something. He credits skating at a higher tempo, a bit of Far Eastern enlightenment he picked up while playing for Canada in Nagano. Including his playoff MVP performance, Yzerman has 22 goals and 67 points in 56 games since the Winter Olympics.He also passed Bryan Trottier-his childhood hero and the inspiration for wearing No. 19-for 10th on the alltime scoring list (1,426 points) with a goal and an assist Nov. 11 against the St. Louis Blues.&ldquo;Bryan Trottier was, and always will be, my favorite,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not something I think about. It&rsquo;s kind of weird, but whether your idols are hockey players or actors or whatever, it&rsquo;s not like they&rsquo;re real.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Brent Gilchrist underwent his second surgery in two months Nov. 10 to relieve tension on a groin muscle. Gilchrist, who has not played or practised this season, is not expected back until at least mid-January&hellip;Defenseman Aaron Ward, through his agent, is seeking a trade again. The Red Wings say they have no interest in making a deal now&hellip;Left winger Slava Kozlov finally notched his first goal, 14 games into the season. He scored 84 goals in the previous three seasons&hellip;Coach Scotty Bowman blamed some special teams troubles on the absence of defenseman Uwe Krupp, who missed seven games with a bruised knee. The Wings signed Krupp as an unrestricted free agent last summer. &#9632;

f0018-06

Yzerman makes point

<div class="byline">By Robyn Tychkowsk</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-07203/7294355-1-eng-US/f0018-072.jpg" title="f0018-07" width="182" height="177"></div>They have the fourth-lowest payroll in the NHL.I hey are six months removed from an ownership crisis that almost uprooted the franchise. They lost goalie Curtis Joseph and got nothing in return because they simply can&rsquo;t compete at the top end of today&rsquo;s free agent market.And oh yeah, five-time scoring leader Doug Weight blew out a knee ligament a week into the season and won&rsquo;t be back until late January.So why are the Edmonton Oilers off to their best start (8-6-1) in a decade?They haven&rsquo;t been this quick out of the gate since 1989. When they moved briefly into first place overall, it marked their first trip to the penthouse since 1984.Even GM Glen Sather, the architect of this comeback story, admits he&rsquo;s a little surprised.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have any inkling that we&rsquo;d be in first place this year,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;I know last year we really came together, but the turmoil with &lsquo;Cujo&rsquo; and having Doug Weight injured, this team would have had a reasonable excuse to lay down.&rdquo;They haven&rsquo;t. Bill Guerin has shaken off his New Jersey shackles and flourished in Edmonton. The defensive trio of Boris Mironov, Roman Hamrlik and Janne Niinimaa has been superb. Goaltending? Edmonton&rsquo;s goals-against average under Bob Essensa and Mikhail Shtalenkov (2.52) is actually down from last year (2.70).NOTEBOOK: Not surprisingly, the Oilers&rsquo; hot start coincides with right winger Bill Guerin&rsquo;s. The winger is having a career year, netting 10 goals in 14 games. The Oilers were supposed to struggle offensively with Weight out of the fine-up, but Guerin hasn&rsquo;t let them. He&rsquo;s on pace to shatter his personal best of 29 goals set two years ago in New Jersey&hellip;Left winger Ryan Smyth, who missed all of training camp and the first two games of the season in a contract stalemate, has struggled ever since. With but one goal and three points in his first 10 games, he has already been banished to the press box for a game and was playing on the fourth line. Smyth scored 39 goals two years ago and had 20 last year. &#9632;

f0018-07

Oilers surprise themselves with stellar start to season

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011269/7294386-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="185" height="184"></div>Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; coach Larry Robinson is good for two or three tirades per season. Typically, he pulls no punches and threatens lineup changes because players haven&rsquo;t responded to what he and the other coaches have said.Robinson was seething after the Kings squandered a third-period lead and lost 5-4 in overtime to the Calgary Flames Nov. 10 to split a two-game road trip.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who the hell we think we are that we think we can sit on a two-goal lead or a three-goal lead or any lead,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just frustrating like hell and you get tired of screaming and yelling. Sometimes they are brick walls. Brick walls between their shoulders.&rdquo;The only thing worse than another tirade might be the kind of cold anger he displayed after a 3-1 loss to the expansion Nashville Predators Nov. 12. That dropped the Kings&rsquo; home record to 1-4-2 and prolonged a slump in which the Kings were 1-5-1.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen the fire and desire I&rsquo;d like to see,&rdquo; Robinson said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to suck it up and win some hockey games.&rdquo;Losing defensemen Doug Bodger (broken hand) and Rob Blake (broken foot), he said, is no excuse. &ldquo;When I look at the first three lines, they&rsquo;re probably the best we&rsquo;ve had since I&rsquo;ve been here as far as a balance of scoring and speed&hellip;Maybe there&rsquo;s a question that we&rsquo;re not sticking to the game plan.&rdquo;Robinson was especially irked that the line of Luc Robitaille, Olli Jokinen and Glen Murray had developed a habit of staying out for extended shifts.&ldquo;If they feel they can stay out over a minute, a minute and 20 (seconds), we&rsquo;ll find out. They&rsquo;ll do it in practice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been warned. Enough is enough.&rdquo;In truth, injuries have limited Robinson&rsquo;s options when it comes to benching players. However, Ray Ferraro, Nathan LaFayette and Dan Bylsma were available and at least one of them was expected to crack the lineup again.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re having some breakdowns and they&rsquo;re just killing us,&rdquo; said right winger Russ Courtnall. &ldquo;Before, we were getting away with things, but now it&rsquo;s catching up.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Ryan Bach made his second appearance and first start in the Kings&rsquo; 5-4 loss at Calgary&hellip;Center Jozef Stumpel, who played the first four games of the season with hip and abdominal ailments before going on the injured list, returned against Calgary Nov. 10 and had an assist. &ldquo;I felt pretty good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was good to get that (point) right away. It showed me that my game is still there."&hellip;Left winger Steve McKenna&rsquo;s abdominal strain was worse than originally thought and he might be idled two months. McKenna was injured during a Nov. 5 fight with St. Louis enforcer Tony Twist&hellip;The Kings&rsquo; power play was a league-worst 7.2 per cent (five-for-69). &#9632;

f0019-01

Frustrated Robinson blasts King players for lack of fire, desire

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02928/7294417-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="189" height="183"></div>After playing sparingly to begin the season, he figured it was about time to start earning some brownie points.Defenseman Brad Brown became a full-time member of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; blueline in a pair of road games, Nov. 11 and 12 against the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders. He was used regularly beside Brett Clark after spending most of the season as a spare part.Brown had dressed for only three of Montreal&rsquo;s first 13 games, playing a total of seven shifts. His total ice time was fewer than eight minutes.But the Canadiens had no choice but to play him following injuries to Vladimir Malakhov and Craig Rivet. Malakhov was suffering from back spasms while Rivet had a sprained right shoulder.&ldquo;I look on this as a chance to show what I can do,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;I have to do something to build up the coaches&rsquo; confidence in me.&rdquo;The hulking 6-foot-3, 206-pounder was the Canadiens&rsquo; first round choice in 1994, 18th overall, but has spent the past two seasons gaining experience with Fredericton of the American League Nonetheless, the Canadiens gave Brown a boost this season, signing him to a one-way contract Unfortunately, it didn&rsquo;t translate into playing time.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone with eight defensemen all year and guys earn their playing time,&rdquo; said coach Alain Vigneault. &ldquo;You can talk about wanting to get more ice time, but when you get it, you have to produce. He&rsquo;s getting that chance. I guess you could look at it as a vote of confidence, but this is a chance for him to show us what he can do.&rdquo;At the beginning of the season, Brown talked about the excitement of being on an NHL roster and how he could improve just by practising with the best. But his tune, tempered by his obvious frustration, was starting to change.&ldquo;There are times I feel stupid because I&rsquo;m not getting any ice time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not complaining. I realize the guys ahead of me have more experience, but if I&rsquo;m not going to play, I might be better off going back to Fredericton and getting some ice time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The news on injured center Saku Koivu is generally good. After undergoing a bone scan, Koivu was advised that he doesn&rsquo;t require surgery for his pulled abdominal muscle. Had the abdominal wall been tom, Koivu would have required surgery, as did teammate Scott Thornton, and would miss up to 12 weeks. Koivu was expected to be back on skates by midNovember&hellip;Losses to New Jersey and the Islanders Nov. 11 and 12 marked the first time since March, 1964 that Montreal was shut out in back-to-back games&hellip;Against New Jersey, center Benoit Brunet was called for two different penalties on the same play by two different referees-Dennis LaRue and Lance Roberts. &#9632;

f0019-02

Brown desperate to make impact while injured mates lick wounds

<div class="byline">By Jeff Legwold</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03619/7294448-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="193" height="189"></div>After spending so much time preparing and planning for the future, the Nashville Predators hockey hierarchy took a little detour off the down-the-road blueprint when they traded for veteran center Cliff Ronning.Ronning joined the team on its first extended road trip and immediately found his way into the lineup. He scored his first goal as a Predator in the team&rsquo;s 4-2 win over the San Jose Sharks Nov. 10 and has played on a line with wingers Ville Peltonen and Scott Walker. The line had two goals and four assists in its first three games together.Ronning had put up seven points in seven games with the Coyotes before GM David Poile acquired him Oct. 31 for a conditional draft pick in the 1999 entry draft. The 33-year-old, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, fits the team&rsquo;s profile in that his contract-like most of the team&rsquo;s players-only has this season on it.But he does not fit the youth-first approach the team has staunchly defended.However, Ronning has fit in nicely with Peltonen and the feisty Walker. He has also put the puck on the net, something the Predators have not done often even in their wins.Ronning had five shots alone in his first game and has received plenty of ice time.Coach Barry Trotz has said he considers Ronning and Peltonen &ldquo;pretty good in the offensive end and hopefully Walker can keep the peace and move the puck, work along the wall a little bit for us.&rdquo;Ronning&rsquo;s addition, while likely for just this season, has given a team struggling for offense a little more playmaking ability and another aboveaverage skater. He had 44 assists last season and has five 20-goal seasons, the last in 1995-96.&ldquo;I think overall we have shown a little more speed that some people think we have,&rdquo; said center Greg Johnson. &ldquo;That gives us a chance to make a few more plays, forecheck hard and make some things happen. All of us need to not wait for the pretty play-we can do that, but it has to come naturally. Work hard, throw it on the net and go from there.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Blair Atcheynum returned to Nashville during the team&rsquo;s six-game, 12day road trip after suffering a severe knee injury against Vancouver Nov. 7. Atcheynum tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will likely have to wait until late November before doctors can determine if surgery is necessary&hellip; Backup goalie Tomas Vokoun made his first start of the season (and the second of his career) in a 5-3 loss to Vancouver Nov. 7&hellip;Coach Barry Trotz made healthy scratches of defensemen Jamie Heward and JJ. Daigneault on the road trip, saying both needed to pick up their play. Heward was the team&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer in the pre-season. &#9632;

f0019-03

Speedy Ronning no spring chicken, but playmaking skills still valuable

<div class="byline">By Rich Chare</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011162/7294479-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="188" height="185"></div>Bobby Holik didn&rsquo;t want to become the new poster boy for slew-footing, so the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; center was happy when his clean record in the past led to only a two-game suspension and $1,000 fine from NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell.The punishment was the result of a Nov. 7 incident when Holik flipped Florida Panther Paul Laus onto his back as the two players headed for the comer. Panthers&rsquo; coach Terry Murray accused Holik of kicking the skates out from under Laus, a tactic Campbell detests.Since Campbell had issued a five-game suspension to Ruslan Salei of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks earlier in the season, the Devils were pleased that Holik missed only the games of Nov. 8 and 11. Part of Devils&rsquo; GM Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s case during the Nov. 10 hearing was that Holik had 543 penalty minutes in 571 career games while Laus hac 1,141 PIM in 320 career games. Holik said any kicking was accidental.&ldquo;I was honest. I told them what happened. We had the opportunity to go over the play frame-by-frame,&rdquo; Holik said. &ldquo;What I honestly said was there was no kicking the feet from under the other player&hellip;It was more of an upper body flip than kicking his feet out.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather not be in the position of judging if the decision was fair or not. No player wants to be suspended and I hope I&rsquo;m never in this situation again. This is one of the things I don&rsquo;t want to be known for.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Brendan Morrison was knocked unconscious, but escaped serious injury Nov. 11 when he was checked into the boards by Montreal defenseman Patrice Brisebois&hellip;Left winger Dave Andreychuk missed back-to-back games with a bruised sternum following a hit from Florida right winger Peter Worrell&hellip;Coach Robbie Ftorek said defenseman Scott Niedermayer would have been considered for alternate captain this season had he not missed training camp while unsigned. Ftorek said defenseman Ken Daneyko and right winger Denis Pederson would both wear an &lsquo;A&rsquo; all season&hellip;Niedermayer scored on a penalty shot Nov. 11 against Montreal while right winger Randy McKay played in his 500th game as a Devil. &#9632;

f0020-01

Holik’s two-game sentence took account of clean past

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03553/7294510-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="612" height="966"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Donato</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02800/7294517-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="186" height="180"></div>It is ironic that Ted Donato was traded from the Boston Bruins to the New York Islanders, of all teams, because his uncharacteristic stick swat to the head of Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Rich Pilon last season was the catalyst for the worst scoring slump of his career.A three-time 20-goal man, Donato was the Bruins&rsquo; leading scorer with 14 goals and 27 points after 36 games when he drew a three-game NHL suspension for the Dec. 20 incident.Donato apologized to Pilon, but in his next 57 games over two seasons, he had only three goals and 16 points. The Bruins traded him to the Islanders Nov. 7 for left winger Ken Belanger.The deal reunites Donato, a 29-year-old winger, with eight people he knows: former Bruins&rsquo; teammates Mariusz Czerkawski, Bryan Smolinski and Barry Richter, former Team USA teammates Scott Lachance, Joe Sacco and Bryan Berard plus coach-GM Mike Milbury and assistant GM Gordie Clark, both of whom used to be in the Bruins&rsquo; front office.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any easy answer (for the slump),&rdquo; Donato said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m real excited about coming to the Islanders. With so many familiar faces in the organization, plus guys I played with on the Bruins and with Team USA, it certainly makes it a lot more comfortable. Now, the ball&rsquo;s in my court.&rdquo;Milbury installed Donato at left wing on the second line with Robert Reichel and Jason Dawe. He got his first Islander point, an assist, in a 4-0 home win over the Montreal Canadiens Nov. 12.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Tommy Salo was the only NHL goalie to start the first 16 games (Buffalo&rsquo;s Dominik Hasek was at 13 and counting) and looks like a good bet to break Ron Hextali&rsquo;s club record for appearances in a season (65), set in 1993-94. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;ll play all 82,&rdquo; said coach-GM Mike Milbury, &ldquo;but we might try."&hellip;Right winger Mike Hough, scratched for 11 of the first 13 games, played back-to-back games in Toronto and Pittsburgh to give him 700 in the NHL&hellip;Right winger Gino Odjick, whom Milbury was using at times with offensive linemates, had three goals and six points in 14 games. Outside of 1993-94, when Odjick scored 29 points playing with Pavel Bure, he has not exceeded five goals nor eight assists in a season. &#9632;

f0020-03

Donato seeks end to slump

<div class="byline">By Rick Carplniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04356/7294548-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="186" height="180"></div>The New York Rangers badly needed a creative, offensive center. Marc Savard is a creative, offensive center. It seemed a simple solution.But Savard didn&rsquo;t get the chance to be the No. 2 center behind Wayne Gretzky until Nov. 7, when he was called up from Hartford of the American League to ignite a spark under the offensively challenged Rangers.And what a spark he lit. Savard had four assists in his season debut at Toronto, a 6-6 tie with the Maple Leafs, and followed that up with a goal and an assist in a 10-2 romp over the Tampa Bay Lightning.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a helluva start,&rdquo; Rangers&rsquo; coach John Muckier said of Savard. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to stay if he becomes a consistent hockey player and there&rsquo;s no reason he can&rsquo;t because he has the skill level to play in the NHL. It&rsquo;s just hard work and I told him to approach it like he has never played his best game yet.&rdquo;Savard&rsquo;s third game was an example of the inconsistency. Muckier was not happy with Savard&rsquo;s play in a 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.But it was clear that, if he can stay, Savard has the ability to produce.&ldquo;Geez, it just feels great to start like this,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I tried to show them I can help on the attack. 1 didn&rsquo;t try to be someone else like I did last year. I was trying to be a different player last year. I was just trying to get the puck into the zone, trying to be a forecheck player and rushing things.&rdquo;In his debut, he held the puck, he showed the patience of a legitimate playmaker, he shot from every angle. His first assist against Toronto was a beauty on a give-and-go pass to Todd Harvey; his fourth came on the tying goal by Wayne Gretzky. His goal against Tampa was a roof job against Bill Ranford.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very confident,&rdquo; Muckier said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s confident-cocky, I guess you&rsquo;d call it. He has got that kind of swagger, which you like to see.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Rangers, who had scored 18 goals in their first 12 games, exploded for 16 in two consecutive games. The 10 goals in Tampa Bay marked the first time since 1992 that they&rsquo;d hit double figures&hellip;Goalie Dan Cloutier was the benefactor of the 10-goal game in his first start since Oct. 16&hellip;Rookie center Manny Malhotra played his 10th NHL game Nov. 11, meaning the Rangers must pay him his entire salary of $975,000. Malhotra can still be returned to junior, but that became improbable once the financial deadline passed. Malhotra, with limited ice time, had three goals and four points in his first 10 games&hellip;Right winger Alexei Kovalev returned from a separated shoulder Nov. 11. &#9632;

f0020-04

Savard debut swaggering success story

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-06156/7294579-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="608" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Gratton</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05198/7294586-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="188" height="187"></div>Chris Gratton knew in training camp the conversion from fife-long center to left wing was going to be a tough one.But 15 games without a goal? Not in his wildest nightmares.Gratton couldn&rsquo;t buy luck. If he wasn&rsquo;t hitting a post, his foot was in the crease. Coach Roger Neilson tried him with three different centers (Alexandre Daigle, Mike Sillinger, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour) and nothing worked.Expectations for Gratton, who had two assists in 15 games, were raised high-perhaps unreasonably so-after he received a $9-million signing bonus to join the Flyers last year.By the time the Flyers&rsquo; winless streak hit seven games (0-5-2) in the Panthers&rsquo; loss, Gratton&rsquo;s play was really under the magnifying glass.The 1997-98 season was a mild disappointment. He scored 22 goals-down from 30 the previous year. This year, trying to figure out a new position, Gratton has looked even more uncomfortable.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still making some mistakes,&rdquo; Gratton said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re being physical and we&rsquo;re getting chances, so they&rsquo;re going to go in and I think things are going to take off for us.&rdquo;Compounding his problems was the allegation that he made disparaging remarks to Florida Panthers&rsquo; winger Peter Worrell in Philly&rsquo;s 2-1 loss Nov. 12. A day later, the NHL cleared him of any wrongdoing. When asked about the alleged incident, Gratton called it a &ldquo;dumb question.&rdquo; (See pg. 18 for more.)NOTEBOOK: Left winger Shjon Podein was dealt by president-GM Bob Clarke to Colorado Nov. 12 for right winger Keith Jones. Clarke had earlier put left winger Dan Kordic on waivers&hellip;Left winger Chris Gratton wasn&rsquo;t the only young gun struggling. Forward Alexandre Daigle had just two goals, winger Dainius Zubrus none&hellip;The Flyers&rsquo; seven-game winless streak from Oct. 29 to Nov. 12 (05-2) tied their longest such skid since 199192, when they went eight games without a victory. The franchise record is 11 games (0-9-2), set on two occasions (1968-69 and 1970-71)&hellip;Clarke criticized his team&rsquo;s inability to keep set lines after a 5-1 loss in Montreal Nov. 9, including moving Daigle from his natural center position. &#9632;

f0020-06

Gratton off to bad start

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrloch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-07137/7294617-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="186" height="182"></div>Ottawa Senators&rsquo; president Roy Mlakar thinks his team is playing a man short when it comes to filling the seats at the Corel Centre.In a state of the union address to the media, Mlakar maintained he was happy with the number of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers in the arena nightly, but said the team needed more doctors, lawyers and bankers.While the Senators season ticket sales stand at 10,447, Mlakar-who confirmed the club will lose money again this season-needs to move closer to the average of 13,000 season tickets and wants to sell more seats.Ten corporations make up more than 44 per cent of team and arena revenues. The huge shortfall is among small business. Of 9,431 registered business in the area, only 245 have purchased seats, so Mlakar is planning a power play to boost ticket sales to small and medium-sized local businesses.&ldquo;People might say this is early to be doing this, but this is something we need to address right now,&rdquo; he said.The Senators average attendance dropped from 16,295 after seven home games last year to 15,646 fans this season in the 18,500-seat arena. Mlakar said season ticket sales have to rise because it is too difficult trying to sell 8,000 non season-ticket seats.&ldquo;This is not a threat,&rdquo; he said. &rsquo;We&rsquo;re not about to put this arena on wheels and move it to Oklahoma City. That&rsquo;s not what we&rsquo;re looking at here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Stephen Leach was sent to Detroit of the International League Nov. 12 after appearing in nine games for Ottawa. Had he played 10 games, Leach would have started to receive bonuses that could have earned him as much as $390,000 (U.S.). Because he had off-season neck surgery, Leach&rsquo;s contract-with the lowest base salary in the league at $97,500-was loaded with incentives. &ldquo;This was not just a financial decision,&rdquo; said Ottawa GM Rick Dudley&hellip;Right winger Daniel Alfredsson is out of action until at least Nov. 20 with a blood spot in his right eye. Alfredsson was hit in the eye by Edmonton defenseman Sean Brown&rsquo;s stick Nov. 12. The league is investigating the incident. &#9632;

f0020-07

Sens trying to Corel fans to offset small revenues

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02541/7294648-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="324" height="441"><figcaption class="caption-body">Oleg Tverdovsky</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01924/7294655-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="187" height="184"></div>If you&rsquo;re looking for reasons why the Phoenix Coyotes bolted to the best start in franchise history, look no further than their blueline. The team boasts one of the top group of defensemen in the NHL.&ldquo;Our &lsquo;D&rsquo; has been absolutely incredible,&rdquo; said captain Keith Tkachuk. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you how important they&rsquo;ve been for us during this run of ours.&rdquo;Simple statistics tell the story. In their first 11 games, the Coyotes&rsquo; defense had allowed a paltry 16 goals against, by far the fewest in the NHL. I Of those 16, nine were at even | strength, twice as few as the next closest opponent.As a result, the hard-charging Coyotes jumped out to a record-setting 7-2-2 start, their best beginning in 20 seasons. After blanking the Dallas Stars 2-0 Nov. 11, Phoenix extended its undefeated streak to seven games (5-0-2) and had held the opposition to two goals or fewer for the 10th consecutive time (an average of 1.20 goals).The Coyotes were leading the league with a .777 winning percentage and had the greatest goal differential with 14 more goals scored than against, even though they didn&rsquo;t have a player in the top 25 in scoring.For the most part, their success has come almost exclusively with a five-man defensive rotation of Teppo Numminen, Gerald Diduck, Keith Carney, Jyrki Lumme and Oleg Tverdovsky.&ldquo;The schedule has been on our side so we&rsquo;ve been able to do it, but we can&rsquo;t keep going with five &lsquo;D&rsquo; for the whole year or even very much longer because it&rsquo;s too tough,&rdquo; Numminen said.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much pressure on four or five guys and there&rsquo;s no depth if you get penalties or (an injury).&rdquo;Tverdovsky, an offense-minded defenseman (four goals and six points) who has made great strides tending to business in his own zone, got knocked out of the lineup during the Dallas game with a badly bruised elbow and could be sidelined indefinitely.But the defense won&rsquo;t rest.&ldquo;As long as we don&rsquo;t spend a lot of time in our own end and everybody keeps making the commitment to playing defense first, we&rsquo;ll keep it going,&rdquo; Carney said.But he also added that the team&rsquo;s | &ldquo;best defensemen&rdquo; actually have been the guys guarding the net.The Coyotes goaltending tandem of Nikolai Khabibulin and Jimmy Waite was leading the league with a stellar 1.45 goals-against average and .946 save percentage.NOTEBOOK: Center Bob Corkum was expected to be sidelined at least a week after twisting his ankle while in-line skating during an off-day. He played the next night against Colorado Nov. 10, however, and was a huge factor on faceoffs and penalty killing as Phoenix came back to force a 1-1 tie. &ldquo;You wonder without him what the outcome might have been,&rdquo; said coach Jim Schoenfeld.. Left winger Keith Tkachuk extended his point-scoring streak to seven games when he got his eighth goal of the season at Dallas. He was on pace for 60 goals after 11 games&hellip;The Coyotes snapped the Stars&rsquo; 13-game undefeated streak (12-0-1) at Reunion Arena when they won 2-0&hellip;Defenseman Deron Quint returned after missing the first nine games of the season recovering from a concussion&hellip;Defenseman Michel Petit cleared waivers Nov. 10 and was assigned to Las Vegas of the International League&hellip;Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was expected to be back in the lineup after missing two games in early November with a bruised right hand. &#9632;

f0021-02

Fab five Phoenix defensemen help Coyotes to howling start

<div class="byline">By Joe Starkej</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04231/7294686-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="323" height="436"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robert Lang</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03320/7294693-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="185" height="184"></div>Any list of the NHL&rsquo;s best bargains has to include Pittsburgh Penguin Robert Lang.The 27-year-old center led the Penguins with six goals after 13 games. Only four centers-Eric Lindros, Mark Messier, Pierre Turgeon and Joe Sakic-had more goals than Lang at that point.The difference? Those players are all making millions of dollars. Lang is making $500,000.Pens&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine moved Lang and German Titov onto the top line with right winger Jaromir Jagr the first week of November. The trio clicked, as Lang posted three goals in four games.Last year, Lang was a checking-line center and had nine goals and 22 points in 51 games after being signed as a free agent by Pittsburgh. He says that while notoriety is the big difference between checking and scoring, there is pride in both jobs.&ldquo;Last year, your goal had to be to shut down Lindros or whoever was the top line,&rdquo; Lang said. &ldquo;If you did that, nobody knew about it in The Hockey News or on the other team. But you and your teammates and coaches-they knew you did your job.&rdquo;The loss of free agent Ron Francis created an opening next to Jagr. Martin Straka filled it for the first 10 games and did well. But Constantine wanted to shake things up, so he matched Straka with Stu Barnes and Aleksey Morozov on the second line.Lang was more than happy to join Jagr. Who wouldn&rsquo;t be? Jagr had assisted on four of Lang&rsquo;s six goals.&ldquo;You have to play pretty much off him,&rdquo; said Lang, who was his teammate on the Czechs&rsquo; gold-medal squad at the Olympics. &ldquo;Let him go wherever he wants and read off it.&rdquo;Constantine doesn&rsquo;t want Lang to forget what got him a regular job in Pittsburgh last season.&ldquo;As long as he keeps the details in his game and doesn&rsquo;t lose all the ground that was gained last year in becoming a well-rounded player, he&rsquo;ll be fine,&rdquo; Constantine said.Lang isn&rsquo;t thrilled with his salary (he sat out part of training camp in an effort to get more). But when he considers that he was picked up on waivers twice last season and played two weeks in the minors, he realizes it&rsquo;s not so bad to be making half a million dollars in the NHL.&ldquo;Some guys never make anything their whole career,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to be happy with the decisions you make and not worry about it.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Pittsburgh City Council delayed plans to bar the Pens from the Civic Arena after the team paid the city $52,000 in amusement taxes from October. The team still owes back taxes, which prompted city councilman Jim Ferlo to threaten to padlock the arena. That&rsquo;s unlikely since the Penguins financial matters are tied up in bankruptcy court&hellip;The Pens were expected to secure a bank loan worth more than $20 million to meet payroll for the rest of the season.. Right winger Ian Moran has a broken bone in his left ankle, but was expected to resume skating Nov. 16&hellip;Forward Patrick Lebeau hoped to avoid shoulder surgery through a rehabilitation program and was practicing with the team&hellip;Defenseman Jiri Slegr sustained a broken right hand when he was slashed Nov. 12 at Ottawa and will be out until at least mid-December&hellip;The Penguins&rsquo; streak of goals on 12 consecutive power plays, from Oct. 12 through Nov. 3, set a modern-day NHL record. Buffalo set the old record of eight in 1991-92. &#9632;

f0021-04

Lang goes from stopping goals to scoring them on No. 1 line

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011017/7294724-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="186" height="183"></div>As if losing goalie Grant Fuhr for six-to-eight weeks wasn&rsquo;t bad enough, the St. Louis Blues nearly lost backup Jamie McLennan in the same game in which Fuhr was injured-a 2-2 tie against the San Jose Sharks Nov. 7.&ldquo;It was not a good alternative,&rdquo; coach Joel Quenneville said.Fortunately, X-rays showed no broken bones and McLennan played in the next two games despite a badly bruised right thumb.Fuhr, 36, likely won&rsquo;t play until the new year. He suffered a severe tear of the adductor muscle on the inside thigh of his right leg just before the midway point of the game against the Sharks.Fuhr was injured when he went down awkwardly trying to stop Mike Ricci&rsquo;s deflection of Marco Sturm&rsquo;s shot-a goal that didn&rsquo;t count because Ricci was in the crease.&ldquo;I twisted and turned my leg and landed on it pretty hard,&rdquo; said Fuhr, who wasn&rsquo;t touched by a San Jose player. &ldquo;The puck got deflected and I forgot I&rsquo;m not 20 years old anymore and tried to change directions in midair with it. It really hurt.&rdquo;Losing Fuhr for any amount of time is bad news for the Blues. After a poor start this season, he was 3-1-2 at the time of his injury, with a 2.06 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big part of our team,&rdquo; said center Pierre Turgeon. &ldquo;We need him healthy.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Jamie McLennan was praised for playing despite his thumb injury. He allowed two goals on 13 shots in 2-1/2 periods against San Jose in the 2-2 tie and then stopped 12 of 14 in the Blues&rsquo; 5-2 victory over Chicago Nov. 10. However, he gave up four on 13 shots in the Blues&rsquo; 6-2 loss Nov. 11 at Detroit and was yanked after the first period&hellip;Rich Parent relieved in that game and gave up two goals on 18 shots&hellip;Center Pierre Turgeon had a four-point night against Chicago, but was minus-4 the next night against Detroit&hellip;Right winger Pavol Demitra had two goals and three assists against Chicago, but was minus-3 against Detroit. Turgeon, Demitra and defenseman Al Maclnnis each had seven goals. &#9632;

f0024-01

Fuhr likely out until 1999 after tearing thigh muscle

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03461/7294755-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="613" height="972"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeff Norton</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02693/7294762-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="188" height="181"></div>Desperate for an offensive defenseman to fill the void left by injured free agent acquisition Gary Suter, the San Jose Sharks reached into their past to bring back Jeff Norton.The Sharks dealt seldom-used left winger Alex Hicks and a fifth-round selection in next year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft to the Florida Panthers Nov. 11 to acquire Norton, who played with San Jose in 1993-94 and part of the lockout-shortened 1994-95 campaign.Norton teamed with since-traded Sandis Ozolinsh to form San lose&rsquo;s top defensive pairing when the club upset the Detroit Red Wings and took the Toronto Maple Leafs to seven games in the 1994 Stanley Cup playoffs.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited,&rdquo; Norton said. &ldquo;I just want to play. Hopefully, I can bring something. I&rsquo;m looking forward to the opportunity, that&rsquo;s for sure. I didn&rsquo;t get it in Florida.&rdquo;The defenseman had played in only three games with Florida this year. Norton, who turns 33 Nov. 25, has played for four NHL teams since the Sharks swapped him to the St. Louis Blues in 1995 for center Craig Janney.&ldquo;Norton can help the power play and will help us because he skates so well,&rdquo; said Sharks&rsquo; GM Dean Lombardi.The Sharks struggled on the power play without Suter, who had played just one game and remained sidelined indefinitely because of a tom triceps tendon and complications from off-season surgery. Through 13 games, San Jose ranked 21st with a 12.5 per-cent success rate with the man advantage.NOTEBOOK: San Jose returned rookie defenseman Scott Hannan to Kelowna of the Western League Nov. 12. Hannan had two assists in five games with the Sharks&hellip;The acquisition of defenseman Jeff Norton enabled San Jose to send struggling second-year defenseman Andrei Zyuzin to Kentucky of the American League. The Sharks also assigned rookie defenseman Andy Sutton to the Thorough-blades and recalled center Jarrod Skalde. Zyuzin and perhaps Sutton figured to return to San Jose shortly&hellip;Center Ron Sutter, who had three goals and an assist in the previous four games, missed contests Nov. 10 against Nashville and Nov. 12 against Carolina because of a strained back. Sutter had only two goals in 57 games last season. &#9632;

f0024-03

Eager Norton makes return

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04300/7294793-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="188" height="183"></div>Tampa Bay Lightning forward Benoit Hogue if happy to talk about hockey.Sadly, though, he found himself discussing another subject following his return to the team one week after learning his younger sister, Marlene Hogue, had been found stabbed to death Nov. 1 in St. Damase, Que., i tiny rural community about 35 miles east of Montreal.&ldquo;Regardless of what happened, oi what she went through and all, she is still my sister,&rdquo; Hogue said of Marlene, who fell into the seedy Montreal drug scene and had been estranged from all family members for about four years.&ldquo;I think about growing up with her, the things we used to do. And that makes it hard.&rdquo;Yann Desrosiers, 21, and Francois Beauregard, 27, were charged with second-degree murder on the day of Marlene Hogue&rsquo;s funeral.Provincial police in Quebec allege the pair was out celebrating Desrosiers&rsquo; 21st birthday when they met Marlene Hogue at a bar in St. Cesaire, Que., where she worked as a nude dancer. Police believe Hogue agreed to leave with the pair and go to a neighboring town, where an argument broke out among the three because Hogue refused to provide Desrosiers and Beauregard sexual favors.She left on foot, but the two suspects allegedly picked her up in a vehicle and stabbed her to death.Hogue attended his sister&rsquo;s funeral in Montreal Nov. 5, missing three games to be with family members, but returned to play in Tampa Bay&rsquo;s 10-2 loss to the New York Rangers Nov. 10.&ldquo;Life goes on and it&rsquo;s time for me to move on,&rdquo; said Hogue, a 12-season NHL veteran who played for the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars before signing with Tampa Bay last off-season. &ldquo;But it has been a rough week.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Lightning experienced a rash of injuries in a short time. Defenseman Kjell Samuelsson broke a bone in his left foot; defenseman Pavel Kubina bruised his right knee when hit by Chicago left winger Bob Probert in a Nov. 6 game; left winger Rob Zamuner restrained his groin; right winger Andrei Nazarov broke a finger while fighting New Jersey left winger Krzystof Oliwa in a Nov. 8 game and right winger Mikael Renberg broke his left thumb in a Nov. 10 game against the Rangers. Renberg was expected to be out four-to-six weeks&hellip;Defenseman Enrico Ciccone was suspended one game without pay and fined $1,000 for elbowing Rangers&rsquo; center Marc Savard in the head. &#9632;

f0024-04

Hogue soldiers on through difficult times

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01913/7294824-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="188" height="187"></div>One thing that killed Mike Johnson last season in his quest for the Calder Trophy was that he couldn&rsquo;t put up points outside the 416 area code. This season, he set out to change all that.But a complete reversal probably wasn&rsquo;t quite what he had in mind. Johnson has made the complete transition from homer to road warrior, but this is a little extreme.Of Johnson&rsquo;s 10 points in his first 16 games, only three of them were scored within the comfortable confines of Maple Leaf Gardens. The other seven came on the road, leaving him just four points shy of the total he scored in visiting rinks all of last season.Johnson rolls his eyes when asked about the trend and clearly isn&rsquo;t eager to put too much importance on it this early in the season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not too worried about it,&rdquo; Johnson said, who plays right wing on a line with center Alyn McCauley and left winger Derek King. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve only played seven games at home. If it&rsquo;s still this way after 20 games, then come and talk to me.&rdquo;Still, the reversal is amazing. Last season, Johnson tied Sergei Samsonov of the Boston Bruins for the rookie scoring lead with 37 points, 26 of which were scored at home. His ratio of 3.3:1 in home/road points represented the most disproportionate ratio of any player in the league last season. This season it was 2.3:1 the other way.Johnson, 24, stayed the road dragon early in the season when he turned in a two-goal performance against the Calgary Flames in the Leafs&rsquo; second road game of the season.But he has failed to grasp the consistency he needs to be an impact player in the league. At one point, he went four straight games at home without a point.&ldquo;Everybody said I couldn&rsquo;t score on the road and now that I&rsquo;ve done that they&rsquo;re wondering why I&rsquo;m not scoring at home,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s something that will balance out as the season goes on. But I&rsquo;m not worried as long as we&rsquo;re winning.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Leafs&rsquo; offensive output in a 103 win over Chicago Nov. 12 represented the first time since Feb. 17, 1989 that they had scored 10 goals in a game&hellip;Within a span of six days, a former Leafs&rsquo; player and coach took shots at the team&rsquo;s front office, and indirectly at associate GM Mike Smith, for a lack of communication. Defenseman Mathieu Schneider, who was traded to the Rangers earlier this year, said &ldquo;there was no communication at all. Guys were kept in the dark.&rdquo; Former coach Mike Murphy, now an assistant with Ottawa, said, &ldquo;the situation is not conducive to a trustful environment.&rdquo; Smith did not respond to either charge&hellip;Right winger Tie Domi played his 500th career game Nov. 9 against the Islanders. Should Domi keep up his current pace of 4.64 penalty minutes per game, he&rsquo;ll break the career record for penalty minutes by his 855th career game. Former Leaf Dave &lsquo;Tiger&rsquo; Williams accumulated 3,966 minutes in 962 games. &#9632;

f0025-01

Reversal of fortune for Johnson as homer becomes road warrior

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02589/7294855-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="186" height="183"></div>When Washington Capitals&rsquo; goalie Mike Rosati skated out onto the Corel Centre ice to take on the Ottawa Senators, crowd noise prevented anyone from hearing the sound his knees were making as they knocked against each other all the way to the goal.&ldquo;It took the whole second period for my legs to stop shaking once I got in there,&rdquo; he said of the Nov. 7 appearance.Though his nerves were working overtime, he wouldn&rsquo;t have traded the night for anything. That&rsquo;s because he knew an 11-year roundabout journey had come to an end: He had finally made it into an NHL game.Rosati, 30, entered the game 11:49 into the second period, replacing starter Olie Kolzig with the Caps down 5-3. He finished the game, turned aside 12 harmless shots and skated off with an 85 victory wearing the biggest smile this side of Rome.Rosati was drafted by the New York Rangers in the seventh round of the 1988 entry draft, but had three established goalies in front of him. After an injury and one year in the minors, it was off to Italy for six years and then to Germany for two more, winning four national titles while playing for Italy in the World Championship and Olympics.Finally, last summer, goalie coach Dave Prior brought an offer from the Caps to come back across the Atlantic and give the NHL a second try.&ldquo;I went to Europe eight years ago and never once thought about coming back here, Rosati said. &ldquo;I was trying to get in as many years as I could over there and make a career out of it. But Dave Prior had enough confidence in me to think maybe I could play in this league at least in a backup role. I was given a chance and it went well.&rdquo;With Kolzig and Rick Tabaracci on hand, Rosati was assigned to Portland of the American League after training camp. He was called up Nov. 1 after Tabaracci pulled a groin in Calgary.Rosati&rsquo;s moment in the sun didn&rsquo;t last long, however. Just 48 hours after beating Ottawa, Tabaracci returned and Rosati was back in Portland, but his name was in the record books forever.NOTEBOOK: During and after his breakthrough season last year, goalie Olie Kolzig always said he had another year to go on his existing contract and intended to honor it-unless the Caps said they&rsquo;d like to renegotiate. They did. On Nov. 9, Kolzig dropped his $600,000 bargain-of-the-decade tag when he signed a four-year, $12-million deal. &rsquo;1 wanted to send the right message and reward a player who was absolutely outstanding last year,&rdquo; said GM George McPhee&hellip;Defenseman Steve Poapst was called up from Portland of the American League to play in Ottawa Nov. 7. The last time he saw any NHL action was April, 1996&hellip;The Caps snapped an 0-4-2 slide with the 8-5 cotnefrom-behind win in Ottawa Nov. 7. Right winger Peter Bondra had a hat trick, his first goals since Oct. 18&hellip;Left winger Steve Konowalchuk&rsquo;s sprained right ankle continued to give him discomfort when he tried to skate. His return date is uncertain&hellip;The team&rsquo;s injury list was down to just six Nov. 12, the smallest since Oct 24. It tied the team single-game record when it hit 10 on Nov. 7. &#9632;

f0025-02

Rosati travels overseas and back to make good on unlikely dream

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03381/7294886-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="184" height="180"></div>After two months of haggling, the Vancouver Canucks and defenseman Bryan McCabe finally reached a contract agreement.On Nov. 10, McCabe signed for two years plus a club option for a third. The total package, if the option year is picked up, averages out to slightly under $1.6 million (U.S.) per season. The 23-year-old will receive $1.3 million (U.S.) this season minus the month he missed-roughly $225,000. Next season he gets $1,575 million (U.S.), followed by $1.85 mihion (U.S.) in the option year.McCabe said missing training camp and the first 13 games of the regular season was gut-wrenching. &ldquo;Trust me, it was the longest two months of my life,&rdquo; McCabe said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t wish that upon anyone. There were times when I wanted to just call it quits and jump off a building.&rdquo;The third year was always the sticking point in talks. McCabe, who had been training and playing with the Canadian national team, becomes eligible for salary arbitration in the year 2000. He and agent Jeff Solomon were convinced they would have hit something in the mid-$2 million (U.S.) range in an arbitration hearing two years hence.Canuck management, of course, wanted to avoid that possibility. There is almost no chance the team won&rsquo;t elect the third-year option.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s fine,&rdquo; said McCabe, who scored for the Canucks in his first game back, a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames Nov. 12. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to complain. I just wanted to play again. It wasn&rsquo;t doing me any good to sit out. I&rsquo;m happy and excited to be back.&rdquo;Despite the agonizing process, McCabe had no regrets.&ldquo;None at all,&rdquo; McCabe said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way it went. Players without arbitration rights have to fight the only way we can and that&rsquo;s by holding out. Money wasn&rsquo;t even an issue, it was just a matter of where everyone fits in the marketplace. I couldn&rsquo;t care less what I make, but when everyone else makes a certain amount, I just felt I* should be there, too.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Canucks announced a loss of $36 million (Cdn.) for the fiscal year ending June 30, $7 million of that in depreciation&hellip;The Canucks played to the smallest crowd in the four-year history of GM Place Nov. 9 when 13,906 showed up to see Los Angeles. The previous low was 14,109 against Buffalo in 1996&hellip;Right winger Alexander Mogilny had this response when asked about the record-low attendance against the Kings. &ldquo;Monday Night Football, man. Green Bay at Pittsburgh. What can I tell you?"&hellip;GM Brian Burke said he felt a trade involving holdout right winger Pavel Bure wouldn&rsquo;t come before the end of November at the earliest&hellip;There were reports the Islanders had contacted Bure&rsquo;s agent Mike Gillis and suggested a contract worth $21 million over three years that would begin next season. Bure, who will make the average of the top three salaries in the NHL this season (roughly $8.5 million U.S.), can become an unrestricted free agent next summer. &#9632;

f0025-03

McCabe relieved to finally return from stressful contract stalemate

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011013/7294917-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Vezina Trophy winner Jim Carey has put up impressive numbers with Providence</figcaption></div>Back in 1995, Jim Carrey emerged as a superstar on the big screen, leaping into the forefront of movie mania as the star of The Mask and A.ce Venture: Pet Detective.About the same time, the other Jim Carey was emerging as the next superstar goalie in the NHL with the Washington Capitals. By stonewalling hockey&rsquo;s best sharp-shooters, he was runner-up as NHL rookie of the year in 1994-95, then earned the Vezina Trophy in 1995-96 on the strength of a league-high nine shutouts and a 2.26 goals-against average.He was the other Mask; he was &lsquo;Ace Ventura: Net Detective.&rsquo;But now, 2-1/2 years later, the general consensus in the hockey world is Carey has become net defective.Part of a blockbuster trade with the Capitals that also brought Jason Allison and Anson Carter to the Boston Bruins for Bill Ranford, Adam Oates and Rick Tocchet, Carey has taken a freefall back to his minor league roots.Instead of basking in the glory of the NHL, he&rsquo;s riding buses to New Haven and Fredericton, buses he could buy with pocket change. With a salary of $2.3 million on a one-way contract, he&rsquo;s the highest-paid player in American League history.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough situation when you&rsquo;re in the minors after you&rsquo;ve proven a little bit in the NHL,&rdquo; Carey said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s survival of the fittest. If you can&rsquo;t produce, you&rsquo;ll be gone.&rdquo;Carey would like to be gone from the Bruins&rsquo; organization, but until he is traded or bought out, he says he&rsquo;s out to show he&rsquo;s a capable goalie. Could a former first-team NHL all-star with a career record of 78-63-16 and 2.55 goals-against average have lost it? Carey says no and so far he has played well in Providence.The 24-year-old Carey had the AHL&rsquo;s seventh-best GAA (2.23) in mid-November. His record was just 2-3-1 for a .500 team and he had one shutout and .918 save percentage. Since the parent Bruins consider second-year Providence goalie John Grahame a prospect, Carey is splitting time in goal. Grahame was 4-2-0 with a 4.13 GAA and .839 save percentage.First-year Providence coach Peter Laviolette says Boston management hasn&rsquo;t told him who to play or when to play them. Starts in goal and shift! for skaters are determined solely on merit.&ldquo;I had a discussion with Jim (before the season&rsquo; and he said he was going to try to be the best goalie in the American League,&rdquo; Laviolette said &ldquo;So far he has backed it up with his hard work am his play in games.&rdquo;Which is just what Carey said he will do this season, even if he&rsquo;s in a rotation system.&ldquo;I understand I&rsquo;m not in a situation where IT play 70 games,&rdquo; Carey said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a goalie&rsquo;; dream, to play every night. But John&rsquo;s on his way up in this organization and I&rsquo;m pretty sure I&rsquo;m or the way out.&rdquo;That he&rsquo;s not out already still baffles Carey While his excessive salary complicates trade talks and kept any team from claiming him in the waiver draft, he and agent Brian Lawton lobbied hard for a buyout over the summer. Instead of a buyout at $2.3 million in July ($1 million in signing bonus, plus $1.33 million for the two remaining years on the contract), the Bruins kept him and are obligated to pay him $5 million total for this season and 1999-2000.&ldquo;I was shocked they didn&rsquo;t buy me out,&rdquo; Carey said. &ldquo;The buyout is a money-saving thing and that&rsquo;s why they have them in the contract. Any club wants to save money if they have a player they don&rsquo;t want. I&rsquo;d like to be out of the organization, but I&rsquo;m making the best of the situation.&rdquo;Bruins&rsquo; assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell said there was no buyout because he still may have a future in Boston.&ldquo;If he can regain his style and his game, who knows where he fits in,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;We just thought we&rsquo;d give it another shot. You can&rsquo;t rule anything out. This guy was a Vezina Trophy winner. We&rsquo;re watching, we&rsquo;re hopeful.&rdquo;Lawton is sure that as long as Pat Bums is coaching in Boston, Carey won&rsquo;t play there. Carey was 1-1-1 with a 1.94 GAA and .918 save percentage in the pre-season, but couldn&rsquo;t oust incumbent No. 1 Byron Dafoe or backup Rob Tallas.Last season, Carey went 3-2-1 with a 2.90 GAA, two shutouts and .893 save percentage in 10 NHL games before his Dec. 2 demotion to the AHL. He was 2-7-1 with a 3.98 GAA and .878 save percentage for Providence before shoulder surgery ended his season in January.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re not really given a shot to produce, to do what you&rsquo;ve done for three years, it&rsquo;s tough,&rdquo; Carey said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think bad play got me to the minors. I just think it was a new coach who wanted to bring in his own players and own systems and I can buy that, I have no problem with that.&ldquo;But usually they trade the guy they don&rsquo;t want.&rdquo;To be wanted by another team, Carey must change popular opinion that big money made him lazy and he has poor practice habits. Those are views shared by several pro scouts.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s absolutely no doubt those beliefs are out there but I think it&rsquo;s a misnomer,&rdquo; Lawton said. &ldquo;I just think they were started by people who don&rsquo;t want to see him do well.&ldquo;Jimmy&rsquo;s a man with strong morals who is committed to his family. He&rsquo;s not a partyer, he doesn&rsquo;t want to go out and drink beer all night. Because he doesn&rsquo;t go out with the boys all the time, people say he&rsquo;s not a team guy.&rdquo;Laviolette says Carey has been a positive influence in Providence and is capable of winning games on his own as he did as the AHL&rsquo;s top rookie with the Portland Pirates in 1994-95.&ldquo;When he was in Portland, we played him all the time and he was phenomenal, and he was phenomenal when he was in Washington,&rdquo; said Laviolette, who played against Carey in 1994-95. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s playing well he&rsquo;s fighting through traffic and he&rsquo;s not giving up many rebounds.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s also not giving up on his career.&ldquo;His resume is so impressive,&rdquo; Lawton said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t write off a goalie at 24 who won the Vezina.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-01

Carey not giving up on NHL

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>Lowell Lock Monsters&rsquo; defenseman Jeff Libby had his right eye surgically removed, five days after a horrifying accident during an American League game against the dt. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs.Libby, a second-year veteran under contract to the New York Islanders, had his fight eye sliced by an opponent&rsquo;s skate during a Nov. 7 game.While Libby underwent 4-1/2 hours of surgery three hours after the injury occurred, the damage was so severe that &rsquo; saving the eye became impossible.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02684/7294955-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="279" height="399"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeff Libby</figcaption></div>&ldquo;There was a full thickness laceration through the lower lid and through the eyeball,&rdquo; said Dr. John McNicholas, an eye specialist who performed the emergency surgery in St. John&rsquo;s. &ldquo;The eyeball was actually opened and he lost part of the contents of the eye, the vitreous. Although you can put the eye back together, when the vitreous is lost through the wound, you can&rsquo;t just put it back in and stitch it up. Once it&rsquo;s out, it&rsquo;s gone and when the retina is damaged like that, it can&rsquo;t recover.&rsquo;Libby was moving toward the boards to check Mark Deyell when the Leafs center was upended by another Lowell player. As Libby arrived, Deyell&rsquo;s skates flipped into the air and sliced across Libby&rsquo;s face.While the Lock Monsters returned to Lowell after the game to play a home game the next night, Libby remained in St. John&rsquo;s until Nov. 10, when the team sent a private jet for the player and his parents.Specialists at a Boston hospital spent a few days trying to determine whether the eye could be saved. If the damaged eye remained in place much longer, McNicholas said a condition called sympathetic ophthalmia may Fave developed.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t remove the eye, he can get inflammation in the good eye,&rdquo; McNicholas said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a condition not very well understood because it&rsquo;s not very common. But it&rsquo;s actually the body attacking itself.&rdquo;The doctor spoke as though Libby shouldn&rsquo;t resume his career.&rsquo;&ldquo;His depth perception is permanently altered and he&rsquo;d be handicapped,&rdquo; McNicholas said. &ldquo;Plus, &rsquo; he&rsquo;d only have one more chance. One eye is already gone.&rdquo;Libby, 24, was signed by the Islanders as a free agent after four years at Maine, He played one NHL game in his rookie pro season last year.The next day, the Lock Monsters learned of another tragedy, as the father of defenseman Mike Gaul was killed in an auto accident Nov. 7.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03543/7294948-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="462" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Rachel Ritchie/Providence Journal)</figcaption></div>While Gaul returned home to Quebec, the team defeated the Portland Pirates 6-4, then gathered for prayer afterward at the urging of defenseman Zdeno Chara.Merely playing the game was difficult, said winger Mike Kennedy, who scored three goals against Portland. &ldquo;I woke up every 15 minutes lastnight thinking about Jeff Libby.&rdquo;AHL TIDBITS: Rumors out of Quebec City have two NHL teams interested in putting an AHL franchise in the vacant Le Colisee. The Montreal Canadiens are reportedly interested, as are the Ottawa Senators, who own the dormant AHL franchise that they pulled out of P.E.I. two years ago&hellip; Beast of New Haven right winger Shane Willis shared the league scoring lead and was the rookie of the month for October with eight goals and 18 points in 12 games. &#9632;

f0026-02

Libby has eye removed following accident

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div>Referee Peter Messana was fined, reprimanded and had several assignments pulled in the wake of a snafu at the end of a game between the Houston Aeros and Utah Grizzlies Nov. 3.The score was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation and Houston appeared to win when Jeff Christian scored in the shootout.The Aeros celebrated, then went to their dressing room, but the Grizzlies refused to leave the ice. Christian, coach-GM Butch Goring insisted, was not eligible to shoot since he was serving a bench minor when the game ended.After Utah captain Gord Dineen pleaded with Messana to read the rule book, Messana realized he had made a mistake. He ordered the Aeros back onto the ice after a 20-minute delay and the Grizzlies then won the game in the shootout.&ldquo;It was a fiasco on all sides,&rdquo; said Bob McCammon, the IHL&rsquo;s vice-president of operations. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t know the rules. I&rsquo;ll back my officials all the way, but they have to be held accountable, too.&rdquo;Messana also officiates in the United League, which allows players in the penalty box at game&rsquo;s end to participate in the shootout. Messana told McCammon he was confused.McCammon wouldn&rsquo;t disclose the fine or reprimand issued to Messana.KENNEDY TRYOUT: Former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy said his passion for hockey is back and the Manitoba Moose are giving him a chance to prove it.Kennedy, who stunned the hockey world last year when he revealed he was sexually abused by junior coach Graham James, signed a 25-game tryout contract with the Moose. He&rsquo;s attempting to return to the NHL.Kennedy, 29, said his problems with James stole his love for the game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01959/7294986-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="760" height="317"></div>&ldquo;When I was playing, I&rsquo;d see guys who obviously loved the game so much and I wondered why I wasn&rsquo;t like that,&rdquo; Kennedy said. &ldquo;I never wanted anything to do with the game.&rdquo;Kennedy hasn&rsquo;t played since 1996-97, when he appeared in 56 games with the Boston Bruins and three in the American League with Providence.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be more nervous than I was in my first NHL camp,&rdquo; Kennedy said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give myself the opportunity to be the best player I can be, which I never did before.&rdquo;Moose coach-GM Randy Carlyle said there&rsquo;s no guarantees for Kennedy, who was skating with the Canadian national team.Kennedy recently completed an in-line skate across Canada as part of a fund-raising effort for abused children, which he said put him in the best shape of his career.&ldquo;Sheldon has a lot of * speed and has shown he can score at this level,&rdquo; Carlyle said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a big guy, but he&rsquo;ll bang and play physical. He can bring a lot of different things to us.&rdquo;CULLEN NETS SEVEN: Attempting to make his way back to the NHL after battling cancer, John Cullen of the Cleveland Lumberjacks erupted for seven points in a 7-3 win over the Chicago Wolves.Cullen scored two goals and had five assists on goalie Glenn Healy Nov. 7.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe I was lacking a little confidence and I gained some back tonight. And to play this game, that&rsquo;s what you need.&rdquo;STAUBER, McRAE RETIRE: Manitoba goalie Robb Stauber, 30, retired Nov. 3, saying he lost his love for the game.Stauber, who was 20-10-6 with a 2.31 goals-against average for the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL last season, played in five games for the Moose with a 4.78 GAA. In 62 career NHL games with the Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo Sabres, Stauber was 21-23-9 with a 3.81 GAA.&ldquo;The same qualities that have made me a success for the last 10 years are no longer there,&rdquo; Stauber said. &ldquo;This is the fairest decision for myself, the coaching staff and my teammates.&rdquo;Houston center Ken McRae, 30, also retired on the advice of his doctors. McRae has been plagued by recurring blood clots in his legs. He was hired by the Aeros as an assistant coach.McSORLEY HIRED: The suspended San Francisco Spiders&rsquo; franchise, which hopes to begin play in Victoria, B.C., in 2000-01, hired former Las Vegas Thunder coach Chris McSorley as director of professional hockey development.He will provide assistance on hockey issues relating to the construction of the Victoria Center and will work in a public and community relations role for the time being. &#9632;

f0027-01

Referee disciplined for shootout bungle

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>It looks like they&rsquo;re finally going to raise the roof at the Toledo Sports Arena.A group of Toledo investors, led by Tim Gladieux, purchased the Storm from Chicago-area businessman Barry Soskin Nov. 5 and the deal is expected to expedite the renovation and expansion of the Toledo Sports Arena.The sale, which was in excess of $2 million, will allow V/Gladieux Enterprises to pin sue plans, unveiled two years ago but not yet acted upon, to modernize the 51-year-old facility.The plans called for 10,846 seats for hockey-more than doubling the present capacity of 5,160. The projected improvemenl cost was $17.5 million in 1996.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02613/7295017-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="418" height="433"></div>Twenty sky boxes, 1,500 club seats, a restaurant and second sheet of ice for practice and amateur leagues were also part of the project. The arena would have a regulation-size (200 feet-by-85 feet) ice surface. The current rink size (180-by-80) is well below NHL standards.No action had previously been taken because there was no long-term commitment from a primary tenant and Soskin and his four minority owners were embroiled in a lawsuit that began in May, 1997. The sale ends the legal wrangling.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to require the help of a lot of leadership in Toledo,&rdquo; Gladieux told the Toledo Blade. &ldquo;Not one person can get it done. The real work begins now.&rdquo;Gladieux hopes to have the work completed before the 2000-01 season.The sale was not expected to have any effect on the franchise&rsquo;s personnel. GM Pat Pylypuik will retain his title and Murray Eaves remains coach.CHAMPIONSHIP FORM: The Hampton Roads Admirals have picked up where they left off in winning the Kelly Cup last spring. Coach John Brophy&rsquo;s club won eight of nine games to start the 1998-99 season and led the Northeast Division by four points in midNovember.Two Washington Capitals&rsquo; draft choices, left wingers Brad Church and Alexander Kharlamov, along with center Dan Ceman, a holdover from last season, were leading the offense while rookie goaltender Steve Valiquette (6-00 and 2.67 goals-against average) was solid between the pipes.There&rsquo;s a lot of talent, a lot of character, a lot of heart on this team, defenseman Chris Phelps told the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. &ldquo;All the games we win now count for (playoff) seeding.&rdquo;The Admirals&rsquo; defense had allowed a league-low 2.44 goals per game, while both specialteam units were ranked No. 1.COAST LINES: Toledo winger Andrew Williamson, who was leading the league with 12 goals in nine games, was player of the month for October. He accounted for 30 per cent (10) of the Storm&rsquo;s 33 goals in the month&hellip;Augusta Lynx winger Jonas Soiling was rookie of the month with six goals and 12 points in October. Wheeling Nailers&rsquo; David Brumby was goalie of the month after going 4-1-0 with a 2.41 GAA&hellip;Pee Dee right winger Peter Geronazzo had four goals and an assist as the Pride born bed the Birmingham Bulls 12-6 Nov. 6. Left winger Allan Sirois and centers Ryan Petz and Kurt Mallett all added a pair of goals as Pee Dee outshot the Bulls 51-21. &#9632;

f0027-02

New Storm owners prepared to repair, renovate new home

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>What to do with an NHL first rounder who isn&rsquo;t playing to expectations?That dilemma faces Sarnia Sting coach-GM Mark Hunter. For now, Hunter is not considering trading Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; 1998 first rounder Patrick DesRochers, but he wouldn&rsquo;t rule out moving the goalie in the future.&ldquo;Patrick is trying to find his way,&rdquo; Hunter said. &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t the first guy to come back from a big club&rsquo;s camp and not play up to what&rsquo;s expected.&rdquo;DesRochers, taken 14th overall by Phoenix, watched as unknown backup Greg Hewitt started three in a row and helped the Sting to back-to-back ties with the league-leading Plymouth Whalers Nov. 7-8.Hewitt, Sarnia&rsquo;s 11th round midget pick in 1996, played nine of 12 games and was second in the OHL with a 2.11 goals-against average. He was 5-2-2 with two shutouts. DesRochers was 3-4-0 with a 3.60 GAA.There were high expectations for DesRochers and the Sting this season. The 7-6-0 team wanted to be in a position after 40 games to bid for the Memorial Cup tournament.&ldquo;Everyone looks at Patrick, but there are other guys not playing up to expectations,&rdquo; Hunter said. Hunter thinks DesRochers is already looking ahead to next season-his first as a pro-instead of where he&rsquo;s playing right now.DesRochers&rsquo; play began faltering las&rsquo; season and he was or the bench for the final game of a first round playoff loss to Plymouth.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01996/7295086-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="764" height="270"></div>That was also the beginning of a rumored rift between coach and goalie.&ldquo;Things could be better,&rdquo; DesRochers said. &ldquo;There are all kinds of trade rumors. You don&rsquo;t stay in a slump forever. I like it here.&rdquo;SHOT DOWN: The Windsor Spitfires were dealt major suspensions for bench-clearing brawls twice in the same week.Six players and coach-GM Tony Curtale were suspended a total of 27 games by commissioner Dave Branch Nov. 3.Three days earlier, Branch banned left winger Jeff Kugel for life after he came off the bench and sucker-punched Owen Sound&rsquo;s Juri Golicic.The latest suspensions came after the Spits and Plymouth brawled and occurred only hours after the league held a formal hearing with Kugel and Curtale for the Owen Sound brawl.Windsor&rsquo;s Mark Ridout and John Cilladi were disciplined for a 2-on-l fight. Ridout, suspended five games for the Owen Sound brawl, was given eight more. Cilladi got five games.Curtale got four games-two because the Spits left the bench first and an extra two &ldquo;for general concern by the league as to the deportment of the Windsor players,&rdquo; said OHL director of operations Ted Baker. Four Plymouth players were suspended a total of 10 games.Meanwhile, the Spitfires formally appealed Kugel&rsquo;s ban Nov. 10. The appeal now goes to the board of governors at a future date.&ldquo;Based on the severity of the suspension and a through examination of previous actions that have occurred within the league, the organization feels it is vital to do everything in our power to represent and support one of our players,&rdquo; said owner Steve Riolo.SIN BIN: Defenseman Kurtis Foster of the Peterborough Petes received an automatic 1 flgame suspension by the OHL Nov. 13 for intentionally bumping referee Bob Langdon in a Nov. 7 game against the Windsor Spitfires.SIN BIN II: The league was investigating an off-ice brawl Nov. 8 in Kingston between the Frontenacs and London Knights.Supplemental discipline was expected after five players-Brett Clouthier, D J. Maracle and Walker McDonald of the Frontenacs, and John Erskine and Krys Barch of the Knights-were ejected for fighting in the penalty box. All five were automatically suspended two games each. &#9632;

f0028-01

Slumping Desrochers may be issued ticket out of Sarnia

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherlam</div>Patience is a word that holds a lot of meaning for Alex Tanguay these days.Sidelined with a concussion since Oct. 18 Tanguay, who is still experiencing neck pair and dizziness, knows he can&rsquo;t rush his recovery But the Halifax Mooseheads&rsquo; star is doing everything he can to return as soon as possible.That includes a November visit to Dr. J ante.&rsquo; Kelly, who heads up a rehabilitation clinic it Chicago for brain injuries.&ldquo;He knew a lot about it,&rdquo; said Tanguay, a 19-year-old center who has 15 points in five Quebee League games with Halifax. &ldquo;It takes your worries away.&ldquo;He told me that he wants me to be a couple of weeks free of headaches before I go back on the ice and that&rsquo;s probably how it is going to be.&rdquo;Tanguay&rsquo;s agent, Don Meehan, booked him an appointment with Dr. Kelly, who has treated NHLers Pat LaFontaine, Paul Kariya and Brett Lindros.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02668/7295117-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="577" height="524"></div>Although he still teels woozy at times, 1 anguay says he is getting better. He is receiving acupuncture treatments in hopes they will make the headaches disappear faster.With the Mooseheads winning, the Colorado Avalanche first rounder in 1998 doesn&rsquo;t feel pressure to return, but he would like to play some games to be in shape for camp with Canada&rsquo;s national junior team in December.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really frustrated, but, hey, that&rsquo;s life and I&rsquo;m better to take this time off than rush back and get injured over again,&rdquo; he said.MAXINGOUT: It appears Russian winger Maxim Balmochnykh will play the rest of the season with the Quebec Remparts.Balmochnykh, 19, had been playing on a temporary transfer granted by the International Ice Hockey Federation in October, but the Remparts pursued a binding solution this month when they gained an injunction from a Quebec court allowing him to play the entire season.Balmochnykh s Russian team, Lada Togliatti, contends he is still under contract with them.&ldquo;He never had a contract, so they had no right to keep him,&rdquo; said Brian Lawton, Balmochnykh&rsquo;s agent. &ldquo;They tried to falsify his contract. That is not something they&rsquo;ll admit, but yet it was governed to be true over here.&rdquo;Balmochnykh had 17 points in his first nine games contributing to Quebec&rsquo;s 16-game unbeaten streak through Nov. 13.Russia&rsquo;s national junior team may leave Balmochnykh off its World Junior Championship roster because of his dispute with Lada. He was a first-team all-star at the WJC last season.MAKING WAVES: Goalie Sebastien Car on has made the most of his chances with the Rimouski Oceanic and it may just get him drafted in 1999.Caron. 18. was a relative unknown until he recently filled in for No. 1 goalie Philippe Sauve, who missed time with a groin injury and tonsillitis. In 13 games, Caron has a 121 smals-apainst average and .913 save percentage.&ldquo;Game after game, he has been getting better and better,&rdquo; said Rimouski coach Doris Labonte. &ldquo;Central Scouting has asked a lot about him and I&rsquo;m sure he will be rated because he is tall and he has good skills.&rdquo;Caron, 6-foot-l and 155 pounds, cracked Rimouski&rsquo;s lineup as a free agent.Some second-guessed Caron&rsquo;s ability thinking he made the team because of his local ties, not his skill. Caron is from Lacau-Saumon, Que., a village about an hour from Rimouski. He was never drafted and played AA midget last season in Rimouski.&ldquo;He could be a No.l in this league the way he&rsquo;s playing,&rdquo; said teammate Brad Richards.SIDELINED: High-scoring winger Christian Daigle is out of the Vai d&rsquo;Or Foreurs&rsquo; lineup with a broken bone in his right wrist. Daigle and linemates Alain Charbonneau and Benoit Dusablon have been among the league&rsquo;s top-20 scorers. Daigle, who has 34 points in 20 games, isn&rsquo;t expected back until December. &#9632;

f0028-02

Tanguay isn’t rushing return from mid-October concussion

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>The Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; torrid start is a hot topic in the Western League-except around the team&rsquo;s dressing room.&ldquo;As a group, the players and coaches have turned a blind eye to it,&rdquo; said Blazers&rsquo; coach Marc Habscheid as his team sported a 15-game unbeaten streak (14-0-1).&ldquo;Our motto is &lsquo;a day at a time.&rsquo; We&rsquo;re living by that. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s possible to completely ignore it because you always get people outside the organization or on the street reminding you about it. But, as far as day-to-day activities and practices, we do as good a job as we can of keeping everything in perspective.&rdquo;The Blazers boasted an nine-game winning streak and 12-game road undefeated run (11-0-1).The Blazers compiled a leaguebest 17-3-4 slate (.792) on the strength of teamwork. They&rsquo;re a team built on balance.Kamloops&rsquo; top point producer, Donnie Kinney, was in an eight-way tie for 15th place in the WHL&rsquo;s scoring derby. Kinney, a center, had 23 points after 23 games. He and winger Konstantin Panov (17 points in 17 games) were the Blazers&rsquo; only point-per-game players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03477/7295148-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="416" height="421"></div>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a team,&rdquo; Habscheid said. &ldquo;We win as a team and lose as a team. We&rsquo;re a close-knit group. Every night, a different person steps forward.&rdquo;The Blazers have stepped forward after two atypical seasons.After winning 40-plus games for seven straight years-and Memorial Cups in 1992, 1994 and 1995-the Blazers had so-so seasons of 28-37-7 (1996-97) and 37-32-3 (1997-98).&ldquo;Even last year, the people of Kamloops were understanding,&rdquo; Habscheid said. &ldquo;They looked at the team and saw us competing every night and working hard. They understood that and they understand this year as well.&rdquo;At the same time, Habscheid warned of complacency.&ldquo;The guys understand that. There&rsquo;s a sense of confidence with the players, which you want to have, but there&rsquo;s no arrogance,&rdquo; he said.PATS STAND PAT: The Regina Pats announced Nov. 10 that coaches Tim Tisdale and Chad Mercier had signed contract extensions which carry them through next season.Tisdale was appointed interim coach Oct. 15 when GM Brent Parker fired Parry Shockey. Mercier, a former Regina goalie, filled the assistant coaching job created by Tisdale&rsquo;s promotion.Regina was 2-6-1 at the time of the coaching change. The Pats won seven of their first 11 games under Tisdale and Mercier. Parker proceeded to remove &lsquo;interim&rsquo; from their job descriptions and lengthened their contracts.&ldquo;Wins and losses weren&rsquo;t the biggest issue,"Parker said. &ldquo;The biggest issue is the improvement in overall morale and the atmosphere in the dressing room. There has been a marked improvement.&rdquo;Tisdale, 30, became the WHL&rsquo;s second-youngest coach. Ryan McGill, 29, of the Kootenay Ice, is nine months younger than Tisdale.McGill and Tisdale were teammates with the 1986-87 Swift Current Broncos. Tisdale scored the winning goal for Swift Current in the 1989 Memorial Cup.&ldquo;Growing up in Swift Current, it was natural to hate Regina,&rdquo; Tisdale said. &ldquo;But. being here and getting the opportunity, I really appreciate what Brent has done for me and Chad.&ldquo;I felt this opportunity would come along one day. This is a lot sooner than expected.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Kamloops goalie Kenric Exner was undefeated (13-0-2). He had a 1.87 goals-against average, two shutouts and a .931 save percentage&hellip;The Lethbridge Hurricanes released 6-foot-7, 245-pound right winger Mike Varhaug, 20. He latched on with the Western Professional League&rsquo;s Austin Ice Bats&hellip;The Ice was 10-6-3 after 19 games. At the same juncture last year, the Edmonton Ice was 0-18-1. The franchise transferred to Cranbrook, B.C., after two years in Edmonton. &#9632;

f0028-03

Kamloops again Blazing path after two rebuilding seasons

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Four weeks into the season, have Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams were averaging less than three goals per game.Only one of those five, Wisconsin, had a better goal differential than its opponents (2.33 goals per game for compared to 2.00 against).The team struggling the most? Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs scored only six goals in six games while allowing 18. Their 0-5-1 start was the worst in school history, matching their 1988-89 start.Before Minnesota-Duluth&rsquo;s back-to-back 3-1 losses to visiting Wisconsin Nov. 6-7, coach Mike Sertich acknowledged the Bulldogs lack of offensive punch.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty much a one-forward team,&rdquo; he said.Sertich was referring to junior center Jeff Scissons, who had two goals and four points before being held pointless in the two games against Wisconsin.Through six games, Minnesota-Duluth had yet to hold a lead and was 3-for-37 on the power play. Opposing goaltenders had a .962 save percentage against the Bulldogs.Of course, it probably did not help that Minnesota-Duluth opened the season with seven of its first 10 games on the road, including a non-WCHA series at Providence Nov. 13-14.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had any moments in games where we&rsquo;ve taken over for a period of time,"WCHA said Bulldogs&rsquo; defenseman Bert Gilling. &ldquo;and it doesn&rsquo;t seem like we&rsquo;re getting any second or third chances.&rdquo;<h2>WCHA</h2>ROARING TIGERS: So far Colorado College has lived up to its pre-season billing as THN&rsquo;s third-ranked NCAA team.The Tigers opened 6-0 for the first time in 42 years, including an impressive 7-1 and 6-1 series sweep at Minnesota Nov. 6-7. The last time Colorado College won its first six games was in 1956-57 en route to an NCAA title.Colorado College had scored 16 goals in the third period-twice the number the Tigers had allowed overall.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no rah-rah stuff,&rdquo; said coach Don Lucia of his veteran team. &ldquo;This is a great group of players, as fun a group as I&rsquo;ve been around.&rdquo;REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: Denver wobbled to an 11-25-2 overall record last season, an underachieving mark built mainly on a poor work ethic. But the Pioneers have opened by winning five of their first six games, the secondbest start in school history.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re back where we expected to be (last season),&rdquo; said Denver coach George Gwozdecky, whose club was averaging 4.5 goals per game and had a league high 31.3 power play percentage.&ldquo;This is tire team we thought we would have a year ago.&rdquo; &#9632;

Bulldogs lack serious bite with ‘one-forward team’

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div>Michigan State has gotten even stingier on defense. The Spartans, who only gave up 1.8 goals per game last year, have allowed only 10 goals in their first seven Central Collegiate Hockey Association games.The 5-0-2 Spartans have changed their style from last season when they were dependent on a strong defense and goaltender Chad Alban. This year Michigan State has blended a bit of the &ldquo;they can&rsquo;t score if we&rsquo;ve got the puck philosophy&rdquo; into the mix.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pursuing the puck a little more than last year,&rdquo; said coach Ron Mason. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing better defense from the blueline to the other team&rsquo;s zone. We haven&rsquo;t been in our zone as much.&rdquo;Mason said sophomore goalie Joe Blackburn has been a big factor in the early success. Blackbum, who played in 11 games last year, had a 1.40 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in the first seven games this season.Although the Spartans haven&rsquo;t been allowing too many shots, a lot of them have resulted in good scoring chances.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re giving up some good shots and Joe has been there to save them,&rdquo; Mason said.Offensively, Michigan State has been led by the fine of senior center Mike York between senior left winger Bryan Adams and freshman right winger Adam Hall.York had a goal and 10 points, Adams hadsix goals and nine points while Hall had three goals and five points in five games.<h2>CCHA</h2>&ldquo;York and Adams bring great speed and puck control to the line,&rdquo; Mason said. &ldquo;Adam is a freshman and has size (6-foot-2, 201 pounds). He creates space and he&rsquo;s a finisher too. He compliments those guys well.&rdquo;&rsquo;NANOOKS HOT: When Alaska-Fairbanks swept two games (3-2 and 5-2) against visiting Miami Nov. 6-7, it was the first time the Nanooks had swept a CCHA opponent since becoming a full CCHA member in 1995-96. It was also the first time Miami had lost two games in a row since Feb. 18, 1995.Nanooks&rsquo; senior goalie Ian Perkins, who made 55 saves in the series, was CCHA defensive player of the week.NOTEBOOK: The offensive player of the week was Northern Michigan&rsquo;s J.P. Vigier, who had four goals and an assist in a split with Bowling Green Nov. 6-7. The junior winger had a hat trick in the 6-5 loss Nov. 6 and scored the winner in the 4-1 win Nov. 7&hellip;Lake Superior State was winless in its first eight games (0-7-1) scoring only 13 goals. It would have been an 08-0 start if not for a goal by senior Tobin Praznik with 5.9 seconds remaining against Western Michigan Nov. 6 to give the Lakers a 2-2 tie&hellip;Defensive player of the week Ian Perkins of Alaska Fairbanks was incorrectly identified in the Nov. 6 issue of THN. &#9632;

Spartans sparkle in net as Blackburn burns foes

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh has his math backwards. Somehow, he&rsquo;s adding by subtracting.Let&rsquo;s see if we can get this right. Take an allEastern College Athletic Conference center off a team that struggled to get into the playoffs and you wind up with the No. 10 team in the nation? It doesn&rsquo;t make sense.But it has the Canton fans hooking up to the bandwagon. After the first five games, the Saints were 4-1-0, good enough to place 10th in the nation in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll.And Marsh&rsquo;s team is doing it without Paul DiFrancisco, who graduated last spring after setting a school record for career assists.&ldquo;The difference is we&rsquo;re getting a little more production from the lower lines,&rdquo; said Marsh, who is in his 14th season at St. Lawrence. &ldquo;Teams were concentrating on DiFrancisco last year and we weren&rsquo;t getting scoring from the second, third or fourth lines.&ldquo;We have a chance to develop a good team in terms of depth. Not depth in just counting numbers. Kids have to feel confident in critical situations. I&rsquo;ve used 27 different players so far this year. The team chemistry has been real good.&rdquo;Among those making an impact on offense wete: sophomore center Vic Natali, a fourthliner who had three goals in three games; highly touted freshman right winger Brandon Dietrich, who had four goals in five games; and sophomore center Eric Anderson, a gifted offensive player who had four goals in five games.<h2>ECAC</h2>&ldquo;Eric&rsquo;s one of the strongest kids on the team, and he has shown an ability to score,&rdquo; Marsh said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not trying to make him another DiFrancisco. He only had 18 points last year, but I thought he had a good year and he will get his points as time goes on.&rdquo;Defensively, the Saints have been strong, especially on the penalty kill. The club allowed, just one goal in 34 shorthanded situations through the first five games for a 97.1 per cent penalty-kill rate.GREEN MACHINE: Dartmouth answered any questions about its ability to score when the Big Green opened its season with an 8-5 nonconference win over Niagara Nov. 7.The eight goals were the most scored in the first game of the season since Dartmouth routed Union 9-2 to open the 1982-83 season.Senior center Curtis Wilgosh led the attack with two goals and two assists.NOTEBOOK: Clarkson, the pre-season favorite in the ECAC, fell to 0-4-0 after losing a pair of road games to North Dakota by scores of 6-2 and 5-1 Nov. 6 and 7. Poor starts are nothing new to the Golden Knights. Clarkson was 03-0 in 1996-97, but came back to win 25 games and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinal before losing to Boston University. &#9632;

St. Lawrence starts strong, though top Saint elsewhere

<div class="byline">BY Larry Mahoney</div>While Marty Reasoner and Brian Gionta were receiving much of the attention last season, Boston College&rsquo;s Mike Mottau quietly led the nation&rsquo;s Division I defensemen with 49 points-inchiding 13 goals-in 40 games.He has picked up where he left off with nine assists in his first five games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with my start,&rdquo; Mottau said. &ldquo;I feel stronger this year, especially in the 1-on-ls.&rdquo;Mottau and several other Eagles worked out together over the summer to improve their conditioning and skating. The 6-foot, 196-pound Mottau, who was a seventh round draft pick of the New York Rangers in 1997, has always been offense minded.&ldquo;I played some forward growing up,&rdquo; said Mottau, who says he has to be more selective jumping into the play in college.Boston College coach Jerry York mentions him in the same vein as two former Bowling Green greats-Rob Blake and Garry Galley.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s our quarterback on defense,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;He is strong and has great vision. He plays 30 minutes a game. Mike has a tremendous work ethic and is very well-respected in the locker room.&rdquo;Although the Eagles got off to a 4-0-1 start, York and Mottau don&rsquo;t feel they have strung together a 60-minute game yet.Mottau said it is obvious teams are gunning for them this year since the Eagles are the No. 1rated college team in most polls. Boston College lost to Michigan 3-2 in overtime in the NCAA final last season.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>&ldquo;We sruck up on some teams last year but we can&rsquo;t do that this year,&rdquo; said Mottau, Hockey East player of the month for October. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s intense when they play us.&rdquo;Mottau said this Boston College team is as good as last year&rsquo;s and could be even better.&ldquo;We have a lot of depth. And our defense is more experienced,&rdquo; Mottau said.DOWN THE RIVER: You&rsquo;ll have to excuse UMass-Lowell coach Tim Whitehead if he doesn&rsquo;t send a Christmas card to the Hockey East schedule maker. *His young River Hawks played four of their first five league games against THN&rsquo;s pre-season favorite Boston College and No. 2 Maine. Both Boston College and Maine are ranked in the nation&rsquo;s top five. They lost all four games, but two were by two goals or less.&ldquo;We knew we had a challenge ahead of us,&rdquo; Whitehead said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re keeping things in perspective. We saw some encouraging things.&rdquo;PANDOLFO&rsquo;S TRICK: Boston University winger Mike Pandolfo became the first Terriers&rsquo; rookie since older brother Jay to notch a hat trick. It came in a 9-1 win over Princeton Nov. 6. Jay Pandolfo had his hat trick against Merrimack in 1993. Mike was Hockey East rookie of the week. &#9632;

Mottau assisting Eagles with strong performance

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NHL SCHEDULE

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NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

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NHL GAME SUMMARIES

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NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

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INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

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November 27, 1998

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

Fans say cut salaries, hike Canadian content

Early Smoke signals indicate Asheville will be quality home

Player issued stiff suspension