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December 17, 1999
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.
Pens play musical goalies as No. 1 Barrasso returns
Tom Barrasso’s return from a sprained knee set off a chain reaction in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ organization. Call it the goaltender shuffle. First, Jean-Sebastien Aubin was sent to the Penguins’ American League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Nov. 30. As a result, Craig Hillier, the Penguins’ first round draft pick from 1996, was sent from Wilkes/Barre-Scranton to Johnstown of the East Coast League. Hillier initially balked at the demotion, but Craig Patrick, GM of the Penguins and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team, said, “I’m sure he’ll play.” The rationale behind both moves was to keep Aubin and Hillier on the ice. Aubin wouldn’t have played much behind Barrasso. Hillier wouldn’t have played much behind Aubin and David Weninger. “Everybody plays,” Patrick said. “That’s the objective of the whole thing.” Finances also factored in. The Penguins’ other backup goal tender,…
Rangers place big Pilon in middle of soft defense
Rich Pilon fidgeted when the New York Rangers’ public relations staff asked him to stand in front of the team’s banner and address the media for the first time. In the flickering rivalry that once raged in New York between the Rangers and Islanders, Pilon was one of the few who still played as if the battle was still burning. Now he was standing in front of a Rangers’ logo, having been claimed on waivers from the Islanders Dec. 1. One way to look at it is the Rangers got another aging (31), expensive ($3.6 million for the next two years) injury-prone player, one who wasn’t even good enough for the cellar-dwelling Islanders. But the Blueshirts feel they got a player who, when healthy, will add toughness to their soft defense and they got…
Two pro teams in Little Rock equals little attendance
Two minor league teams in one city doesn’t equal success for either club. Dayton, Ohio and Jacksonville, Fla., have discovered that truism and now Little Rock, Ark., is finding out the same thing. The Arkansas RiverBlades of the East Coast League and the Arkansas GlacierCats of the Western Professional League are going head-to-head this season and the results so far are predictable. Neither club is drawing very well. After eight home dates, the expansion RiverBlades were averaging 4,404 in the new, ALLTEL Arena, which seats 16,377 for hockey. The GlacierCats, in their second year of operation, were averaging 3,199 after eight dates in the 8,000-seat Barton Coliseum. “We knew the situation in Little Rock would have some kind of impact on the attendance,” GlacierCats’ GM Derek Bundy told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The GlacierCats and RiverBlades…
Bonvie proving he’s more than one-dimensional thug
On the day winger Robert Dome was returned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick checked in with brother Glenn, Wilkes-Barre’s coach, to see what the lineup would be for the AHL team that night. And Glenn managed to dumbfound Craig. While giving the run-down of the line combinations, Glenn said the center for Dome and rookie winger Greg Crozier would be Dennis Bonvie. That’s right, the tough guy right winger whose 2,080 penalty minutes are third-most all-time in the American League. Once the shock wore off and Craig could speak, he asked for the reasoning. “Sometimes you just go with your got feeling,” said Glenn, who has dared to use Bonvie in all roles-regular shift on a scoring fine, power play and penalty killing-and is being rewarded by finding the seventh-year veteran…
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