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.

October 27, 1989

The Hockey News October 27, 1989

<h2>OUAA</h2>Western begins the season without six of its top seven scorers from a year ago. Not surprisingly, coach Barry Martinelli expects his new-look Mustangs to play a different style. &ldquo;Defensively we could be fine,&rdquo; said Martinelli, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ll probably have problems scoring goals.&rdquo; Martinelli is philosophical about losing offensive threats Darren Cholod, Scott Tottle, Mike Tomlak and Dave Carreiro. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to average seven goals a game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some bigger players, not grinder types, but they play a more physical style. Instead of having a good-skating, finesse type of team, we&rsquo;ll be a good-skating, physical team.&rdquo;McGill lost OUAA scoring champion Mario DeBenedictis to graduation, but the Redmen&rsquo;s offense likely won&rsquo;t miss a beat. The Redmen have added center Patrice Tremblay, who scored 67 goals last season for Chicoutimi in the Quebec League. DeBenedictis is playing in Italy this year.<h2>AUAA</h2>The Prince Edward Island Panthers, who boasted the league&rsquo;s secondbest offense last season with 153 goals in 26 games&mdash;only AUAA-champion Moncton had more&mdash;will feel the loss of center Randy Muttart and right winger Jerry Fleming.&ldquo;We really haven&rsquo;t got anyone to replace them,&rdquo; admitted second-year coach Bill MacMillan.Muttart, who scored 51 points in 26 games last season, completed his five years of eligibility while Fleming, who had 11-15-26 totals and drew four game misconducts in just 17 games last season, is playing senior hockey with the Fredericton entry.The consensus among league coaches is the Dalhousie Tigers made the greatest strides in the conference during the off-season. In centers Jean-Marc Mackenzie and Mike Griffith, &ldquo;they have the top two recruits in the conference,&rdquo; said Acadia coach Tom Coolen. Mackenzie was 16-18-34 for the International League&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals last season, and Griffith was 47-42-89 for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Ottawa 67&rsquo;s.<h2>CWUAA</h2>University of Saskatchewan defenseman Derrick MacPherson has returned from Austria, where he was nart of a search party looking for his older brother and former Saskatoon Blade, Duncan MacPherson, who disappeared while overseas this summer.&ldquo;The hardest thing is not knowing anything&mdash;whether he is alive or dead,&rdquo; said Derrick. &ldquo;You could deal with his death, or whether he&rsquo;s alive or not. But right now you just don&rsquo;t know what to deal with.&rdquo;A relief fund has been set up in Saskatoon to help pay for the family&rsquo;s search expenses, and two expert search teams have gone from Canada to join in the hunt for Duncan, the New York Islanders&rsquo; first pick in the 1984 entry draft, who last called his parents&rsquo; home Aug. 10 from Austria.The Alberta Golden Bears might be too good for their own good. The annual Ronald McDonald Cup game, between the Bears and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Ooks, is in jeopardy of being scrapped this year because the Golden Bears&rsquo; supremacy in recent matches has caused interest to dwindle. In 1985, when the two Edmonton schools first met for local bragging rights and charity, the game drew 13,354 to the Northlands Coliseum. But with the Bears thrashing NAIT in each of the last three meetings&mdash;7-2, 8-2, and H-4&mdash;crowds have fallen below the 7,000 mark.With files from Claude Scilley, Bill Hunt and Mark Spector. &#9632;

DEPARTMENTS

MUSTANGS WILL BE GETTING DEFENSIVE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-06" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06397/8498944-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011942/8497346-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="524" height="666"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky, the National Hockey League&rsquo;s leading scorer through the first 10 days of the 1989-90 season with 15 points (5-10-15) in six games and the NHL&rsquo;s all-time point leader with 1,852, was named Chrysler Canada Performer of the Week for the period ending Oct. 15.Gretzky, who scored one point in his first game this season, two in his second and three in each of his next four, edged Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; defenseman Paul Reinhart and Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; goaltender Daren Puppa to capture the award.The Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors and Dodge will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization of each performers&rsquo; choice. The Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors and Dodge also sponsor the Performer of the Month and Performer of the Year Awards, for which the latter receives the Dodge vehicle of his choice. In four years, Chrysler Canada and Dodge have contributed more than $125,000 to youth hockey associations across North America.Gretzky opened the season with a one-point game in a 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs (Oct. 5), before recording two goals in a 6-5 loss to the Edmonton Oilers (Oct. 7). He added three assists in a 5-0 shutout of the Detroit Red Wings (Oct. 8) and a goal and two assists in a 7-4 loss to the New York Islanders (Oct. 11). The Kings began a two-game road trip in Vancouver where Gretzky led the club with three assists in a 6-5 win (Oct. 13). He then sur-passed Gordie Howe&rsquo;s all-time points mark of 1,850, recording three points to lead his club to a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers (Oct. 15). &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012051/8497556-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="484" height="626"></div>Hockey broadcasters are funny people.Like Wayne Gretzky and his unerring knack for making the proper pass, play-by-play guys have an exquisite nose for the amusing and absurd. And if you don&rsquo;t believe me, check out some of Brian MacFarlane&rsquo;s, Mike Emrick&rsquo;s and Jiggs McDonald&rsquo;s observations.MacFarlane&rsquo;s bizarre and unusual.1. Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto: &ldquo;My favorite delay was when a game was held up for almost an hour because they forgot to put water in the Zamboni machine&hellip;Another time there was a near-cancellation because of the chocolate-brown ice color. Turned out there had been a rodeo the previous night and the horsedroppings were still present&hellip;One night Bobby Hull&rsquo;s rising slapshot flew into owner Harold Ballard&rsquo;s private box. It broke Harold&rsquo;s nose.&rdquo;2. The Forum, Montreal: &ldquo;We were always hearing about bomb threats in the rink during the late 1960s (during the rise of Quebecois nationalism) but we announcers were told we didn&rsquo;t have to worry. I asked why and was told that broadcasters wouldn&rsquo;t be harmed because the bombers would want the incident fully covered by those of us in the media, so they&rsquo;d leave us alone. By the way, the bombings never happened.&rdquo;3. Chicago Stadium: &ldquo;I had to do my interviews in the basement of the arena. We&rsquo;d throw up a curtain in this open corridor along with the cats and rats who at times would get involved. They also had a ferocious dog named Bruno who was released from his cage when the rink was empty. Thank Heaven he was in the cage when I did the interview or we&rsquo;d all be mincemeat. Player guests were delivered to us, from the dressing room, in a golf cart. One night I was supposed to interview No. 24, Ron Wilson of the Jets. The driver picked up No. 24, Doug Wilson of the Blackhawks.&rdquo;McDonald&rsquo;s games he wishes he had never done:1. Christmas night, 1967, at Pittsburgh: &ldquo;I was handling the Kings, who were playing the Penguins. After a night of flying and missing the holiday&mdash;and my family&mdash;I finally got to the booth. My radio engineer collapsed and died in the booth just before the pre-game show was ready to go on. Fortunately, I knew enough about technology from having worked in a small radio station, so I finished setting up. Later I found out that I had violated union regulations by touching the equipment.&rdquo;2. January, 1973, the Omni in Atlanta: &ldquo;I was doing Flames&rsquo; games in their first season (1972-73) when a severe ice storm hit Atlanta. The winds wreaked havoc with the roof and by the time the game started it was leaking so badly that fans were sitting in the arena with their umbrellas open. One area of the ice near the blue line had water falling on it and freezing until there was a mountain on the ice. Imagine the players skating up and down over this obstruction; but they did.&rdquo;3. Any game in Oakland and Denver: &ldquo;The Seals and then the Rockies had this bald-headed cheerleader named Krazy George. He liked to run up and down the aisles, which was okay, until he came to our broadcast location. He always ended up near me and had no respect for what was being done on television. Then he&rsquo;d make faces and rile the crowd. Those were not easy games to broadcast.&rdquo;Emrick&rsquo;s toughest minor-league rinks:1. Oak Creek Ice Arena, Des Moines, former home of the Caps: &ldquo;After they won the IHL, they retired all the numbers. The radio booth was at one end, so Des Moines would skate right at you for two periods. Most of them wore helmets and they all had sidebums and Fu Manchu moustaches. They looked the same, they had different numbers from the year before, and you could only see their numbers in the second period.&rdquo;2. Toledo Sports Arena, Home of the IHL&rsquo;s Goaldiggers: &ldquo;The booth was suspended from the ceiling. You&rsquo;d sit with your back exposed to the last few rows. You&rsquo;d try to call the game while the crowd was throwing garbage at you. One night they were looking for a guy who was slingshotting bullets at the visitor&rsquo;s bench.&rdquo;3. Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, Va., former home of the AHL Gulls: &ldquo;Rowdy inside, worse outside. Seagulls everywhere. Apparently the birds were trying to buy the place because they kept leaving deposits. Mad dash from the bus to the building. Saturation bombing.4. Fairgrounds Coliseum, Columbus, former home of the IHL Owls: &ldquo;On one promotion night they gave out records before the game. Should have done it after the game. First call against the home team and hundreds were flying all over. Looked as if the Martians had landed, but more dangerous.&rdquo; &#9632;

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COLUMNS

WITTY WORDS FROM MEN OF HOCKEY’S AIRWAVES

&ldquo;Obviously, I can&rsquo;t throw punches with my right. I&rsquo;d get a penalty, but I can still throw lefts.&rdquo;&mdash;Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; defenseman Jay Wells, on the problems of playing with a brace on his right hand. &#9632;

QUOTABLE

In the Nov. 3 issue of The Hockey News, we will profile one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most enigmatic characters and premier talents&mdash;Ron Hextall.Suspended this season by both the league and his club, the Philadelphia Flyers, Hextail is a complex man who is rarely out of the headlines. He&rsquo;s a goalie who scores and a goalie who fights and now he&rsquo;s a goalie who doesn&rsquo;t play goal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04779/8497191-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="572" height="1436"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Hextail</figcaption></div>We&rsquo;ll also take a closer look at his controversial new agent, lawyer Rich Winter of Edmonton, who has burst onto the NHL scene to do battle with the professional hockey establishment.We&rsquo;ll also keep you posted on all the other news and views in the world of hockey, from the NHL to minor pro to major junior to college.Don&rsquo;t miss all that and much more. &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

When Harry Sinden fired Don Cherry as coach of the Boston Bruins in 1979, he promised the fans they&rsquo;d see a better team in the 1980s.Well, the &rsquo;80s have gone by and Sinden was wrong. The Bruins of today can&rsquo;t match the Bruins of Cherry&rsquo;s day and they&rsquo;re a joke against the Bruins of Bobby Orr&rsquo;s day.After the Bruins were beaten in the Stanley Cup finals by the Edmonton Oilers in 1988, Sinden said he would strengthen the forward positions and then went out and did nothing all summer long. Last season, the Bruins outplayed Montreal in the playoffs and the Canadiens won because the Bruins couldn&rsquo;t score any goals.Once again, Sinden promised changes and once again, he did nothing.Tony Martin Norwich, Conn.<h2>WHY NO NATS?</h2>As one of your faithful readers, it bothers me that I rarely see anything mentioned about the Canadian national team and the young players who toil for it.The rigors and team discipline these players endure is tougher than that imposed on any junior or NHL team, but the only names that are mentioned are those of the so-called superstars.I think it&rsquo;s about time people opened their eyes and realized there are other very good young players who play for the national team. Most of Team Canada&rsquo;s games are against world class competition&mdash;competition that has given NHL teams all they could handle.Barb McDougall Calgary, Alta.<h2>BE MY GUEST</h2>Many laurels to your Guest Shot column. You lost so much when Jay Greenberg left, but Scott Morrison was like a breath of new air. Please, may we have more of his column?Mary Carberry Media, Penn.(Ed. note: You&rsquo;ll be happy to know that Scott&rsquo;s work will appear in the Guest Shot column about once a month.)<h2>HAB-BASHER</h2>Stan Fischler recently predicted the Montreal Canadiens will finish last in the Adams Division this season (THN, Sept. 29).In sports journalism, as in life, one should be allowed to freely express his opinions, no matter how biased they may be. However, when you allow your personal dislike for a team or organization to sway your objectivity, you set yourself up for ridicule from your peers.The Canadiens came within a few goals of winning their 24th Stanley Cup last season. If anything, they&rsquo;ll probably be hungrier this season. Montreal is by far the consensus pick to finish first in the Adams Division by an overwhelming majority of hockey writers.To pick them last is Hab-bashing and an insult to any fans&rsquo; intelligence.Rick Stiebel Vancouver, B.C.<h2>HERE, HERE</h2>I could not agree more with columnist Steve Simmons on his assessment of the Los Angeles Kings (THN, Sept. 29).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011989/8497246-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="554" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Tonelli needs some young proteges, reader says.</figcaption></div>Having Robinsons, Tonnellis and Taylors on your team is fine as long as you have some Bryan Fogartys and Dave Chyzowskis to learn from them.It will take more than a couple of years of failed Stanley Cup bids to maintain hockey interest in southern California.D. L. Cameron Saskatoon, Sask.<h2>YOU BE JUDGE</h2>I, like many others, used to think that Wayne Gretzky was a one-way player who always avoids physical contact.I just retired as an NHL goal judge after nine years in Los Angeles. Like most fans, I only saw him play a few times each season. I know now that I never really saw him play until last year.After announcing my retirement, I had the opportunity to take most games off while my replacements were being broken in. This allowed me to stand down by the glass in the comers where Wayne did a lot of his work.No wonder the Edmonton Oiler fans were upset when he was traded. He plays every aspect of the game wonderfully well, including comerwork, forechecking and back-checking.I&rsquo;m delighted to have been able to observe this exceptional player up close, even if it was for only one season. Every fan should be so lucky.Richard F. Lundgren Milford, IowaMake your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News, &rsquo;85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THNreserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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SINDEN PROMISES BUT DOESN’T DELIVER

<div class="byline">BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021570/8497277-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="518" height="604"></div>&ldquo;He was going to be good; he was going to be great. He was going to be better than Yvan Coumoyer&hellip;he had a good game opening night. Next game. yeah, pretty good, looks like Normie&rsquo;s going to be a producer. Then he did it again in his third game and it&rsquo;s, &lsquo;Hey, boys, Normand Leveille is carrying the team.&rsquo; Then, all a sudden, the hook.&rdquo;The hook, indeed. It came without warning between the first and second periods of the Bruin-Canuck game at Vancouver&rsquo;s Pacific Coliseum, Oct. 23, 1982. Bruin Normand Leveille, a sophomore pro taken in the first round of the 1981 entry draft, was struck down by a cerebral hemorrhage.Hours later, while neurosurgeons cut an inchsquare hole in his skull to save his life, the heart of the Bruins, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, was pacing the hospital corridor, genuflecting on the the smiley kid from Montreal who he said was &ldquo;going to be better than Yvan Coumoyer.&rdquo;Seven years later, you may say the snuffing out of his promising pro career is no less tragic now than it was then. But you&rsquo;d be only half right.For as sad as it is, Leveille is alive and as well as can be expected. Put in its proper perspective, his saga does have a happy ending.&ldquo;I believe his spirits and outlook on life are very good,&rdquo; says Boston lawyer Neil Abbott, who has helped the disabled young man through legal and financial wranglings.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not pining away for hockey. He has always been a good kid, a special kid. Sure, he was depressed at times. But he&rsquo;s worked hard to overcome a lot of problems.&ldquo;I think back to when I first saw him after the accident. He was in a hospital bed. He was like a vegetable. He was in really bad shape.&rdquo;But the same joie de vivre and crooked smile that so endeared Leveille to his teammates and fans, served him well in his rehabilitation.The hemorrhage devastated his right side. Even today, neither his right arm, from the elbow down, nor his right leg, from the knee down, are of much use. His speech is still severely impaired. He&rsquo;s on medication for epilepsy; he tires easily.But he walks, most often with a cane. And he can talk, if only halting words to ask a simple question or provide a simple answer. His mind, however, is clear and so is his intent to live an independent life.He lives alone in his own new two-bedroom home in the Montreal suburb of Laval. It&rsquo;s been modified to include an underground parking spot. He drives his own car; sets his own agenda. His handicaps prevent him from working, but he&rsquo;s financially secure. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not rich, he&rsquo;s not poor,&rdquo; says Abbott. &ldquo;As long as he&rsquo;s careful, he&rsquo;ll never have to worry. But he&rsquo;s his own man. He&rsquo;s in control of life and, within his physical limitations, he does as he sees fit.&rdquo;He goes to rehabilitative therapy twice a week, finds time for an annual vacation to the warmth of Florida and casually follows the NHL. His Bruins of 1982 are dispersed throughout the league or have retired. Only defensemen Ray Bourque, Gord Kluzak and Mike Milbury, who is now the coach, are still with the team.Leveille makes occasional appearances at charity golf tournaments, mostly in the Montreal area.He still maintains maintains contact with some of his ex-mates, such as Bourque or Vancouver&rsquo;s Barry Pederson. But when Boston comes to the Forum to visit the Canadiens. he&rsquo;s just as likely to stay home and watch the game on TV.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s mobile, but it can still be an effort for him to get around at times,&rdquo; says Abbott.In recent years, he&rsquo;s turned down invitations to visit Boston, including a chance to be at the 1988 Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s distanced himself from the game a little,&rdquo; says Abbott. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not part of his life anymore.&rdquo;Perhaps that&rsquo;s tragic. But remember that a brain hemorrhage killed only a hockey career, not his will to live.Life goes on for Normand Leveille. &#9632;

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LIFE GOES ON FOR NORMAND LEVEILLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03991/8497315-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="374" height="378"></div>&#9632; Wayne Gretzky. What can you say about &lsquo;The Greatest&rsquo; that hasn&rsquo;t already been said? It&rsquo;s incredible to merely accomplish the feats he&rsquo;s performed, but to do it with the flair, elan and unbelievable sense of timing he ex-hibits, well&hellip;Who would&rsquo;ve thought he&rsquo;d pass Gordie Howe in the Northlands Coliseum? Nobody, except maybe Gretzky himself, who virtually called the shot as far back as last June.&#9632; NHL All-Star Game Skills Contest. It took several years and the acquisition of a major corporate sponsor (Coca-Cola), but it finally looks like the NHL All-Star Game will be blessed with a skills competition between the game&rsquo;s name players. Long overdue.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04556/8497308-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="374" height="378"></div>&#9632; No word on the NHL investigation into the alleged waiver-avoidance deal between Winnipeg and Philadelphia. We hate to be repetitive, but the waiver draft was Oct. 2. On Oct. 16, two full weeks later, there was still nary a sound on whether the of Pete Peeters and Keith Acton to Winnipeg, then back to Philadelphia was in accordance with league by-laws.&#9632; Gordie Howe considers making a one-game comeback. Perish the thought. &lsquo;Mr. Hockey&rsquo; doesn&rsquo;t need to be in the Guinness Book of World Records and the NHL doesn&rsquo;t need a 61-year-old trying to establish a hollow milestone that serves no purpose, save maybe as a cheap publicity stunt. &#9632;

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CHEERS AND JEERS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>At least one Winnipeg reporter claims the Jets received a cash payment from the Flyers for protecting Pete Peeters and Keith Acton in the waiver draft, then trading the pair back to Philadelphia. Winnipeg reporters say they can&rsquo;t remember GM Mike Smith being as defensive about any issue as he has been over the Peeters-Acton trade&hellip;Neil Smith has taken a step toward defusing his feud with former boss Jimmy Devellano. The Rangers&rsquo; rookie GM still hasn&rsquo;t talked to his adversary&mdash;and vice versa&mdash;but Smith at least made a move in that direction. &ldquo;I sent him a good-luck fax,&rdquo; says Smith,&rdquo; and said I hope he has a real good year. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, there are no ill feelings between us.&rdquo;&hellip;Despite reports Flyers&rsquo; owner Ed Snider is furious over Ron Hextall&rsquo;s &ldquo;walkout,&rdquo; one Flyer says not to worry, all will be well between goalie and management. The solution will be worked out by GM Bob Clarke, a passionate Hextall booster who is expected to persuade his bosses to offer Hextall more up-front money, to complement the goalie&rsquo;s abundant deferred payments.<h2>EAGLE HOT</h2>Of all the dissident players who&rsquo;ve angered Alan Eagleson, none has infuriated him more than the Kings&rsquo; Marty McSorley, particularly over the issue of salary disclosure among NHLPA members. &ldquo;In August, McSorley fillibustered for two-and-a-half hours about how we should reveal the salaries,&rdquo; says Eagleson. &ldquo;Then in October, when we were about to make it a reality he says he&rsquo;d better check with Wayne (Gretzky). The same guys who wanted disclosure were the ones who held it up. We should have had it resolved before training camp &ldquo;&hellip;Ex-Blues&rsquo; defenseman Ed Kea. who suffered a life-threatening injury in 1983, has recovered sufficiently to run three or four miles a day, although he still has difficulty speaking. Violently rammed into the boards by George McPhee, Kea visits St. Louis Arena for Blues&rsquo; games, plays golf and recently attended a hockey camp with Chico Resch. &ldquo;Things are going well,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I do a lot of work around the house and do wood projects in my basement shop.&rdquo;<h2>FIGHTING WORDS</h2>Dave Semenko&rsquo;s new book Looking Out For Number One isn&rsquo;t on sale in Virginia, but Hampton Roads Admirals&rsquo; (East Coast League) coach John Brophy already knows that Semenko delivered a huge putdown (&ldquo;Brophy is the one I would have liked to fight&rdquo;) in print, urging him to play goon hockey. &ldquo;What Semenko says is his business,&rdquo; snaps Brophy. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to get into a pissing contest with him. We&rsquo;re both out of the NHL and nobody cares.&rdquo; Semenko played under Brophy in Toronto in 1987-88, his last NHL season&hellip;Brophy is now working with exadversary Jacques Demers. The Admirals are a part of the Red Wings&rsquo; organization. &ldquo;Our problems,&rdquo; says Demers, &ldquo;were during the heat of battle.&rdquo;<h2>EARLY BIRDS</h2>One NHL expansionist is putting forward an idea sure to anger NHL GMs. He suggests allowing three prospective new big league clubs to start taking players in next June&rsquo;s entry draft, although expansion is not likely to take place until 1992. &ldquo;The new teams would be allowed to draft&mdash;just like any other existing club&mdash;in 1991 and 1992 as well,&rdquo; he suggests. &ldquo;This way, when the teams are actually ready to begin competition they&rsquo;ll have good young kids in a position to step right in and play-&ldquo;&hellip;Injured Flyer Scott Mellanby is targeting Christmas as his return date. Mellanby&rsquo;s arm was badly gashed in August, when he tried to protect a friend during a bar fight. &ldquo;It was the scariest thing I&rsquo;ve ever been through,&rdquo; says Mellanby. &ldquo;It was 11 hours from the time it happened until I went into surgery. A lot of things went through my head about my career-, &ldquo;&hellip;Mike Milbury on often-injured Lyndon Byers: &ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t do it now, you really have to suspect that maybe the best thing for him would be a change of scenery or a change of occupations.&rdquo;<h2>WWF KING</h2>Former Whaler and Oiler Jim Troy represents Titan Entertainment, the exclusive producer and distributor of the World Wrestling Federation. Under his leadership, WWF shows have been globally distributed for eight years, reach 52 countries weekly and are produced in eight languages-&hellip;For the past year Madison Square Garden has been boasting about efforts to clean up the polluted atmosphere in the blue (cheapest) seats. One move was to eliminate 1,000 of the blues while adding 59 luxury suites, which will sell for approximately $100,000 a year. Abusive behavior continues in the remaining blues, so much so that New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick has taken MSG to task. Mushnick urges fans to call him and report on others &ldquo;who behave like animals.&rdquo;<h2>WILD WEST</h2>The continent-wide National Novice Hockey Association reports its largest league exists in the San Jose area. The San Jose-San Francisco chapter has 52 teams, with as many as 20 players per club. All players are 21 and over. There are now seven rinks in the area with three more in the planning stages. Groundbreaking ceremonies for San Jose&rsquo;s NHL-style arena are slated for July, 1990. Target date for completion is September, 1992. &#9632;

DID JETS GET CASH IN WAIVER DEAL?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011949/8497401-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021395/8497432-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="556" height="1182"></div><h2>KEVIN STEVENS</h2>Bom: April 15, 1965, Brockton, Mass. Height: 6-foot-3. Weight: 210 pounds. Team: Pittsburgh Penguins. Position: Left Wing. Acquired: Rights traded to Pittsburgh by Los Angeles, Sept. 9, 1983.Nickname: &ldquo;The guys call me &lsquo;Artie,&rsquo; but I&rsquo;m not sure why. Maybe because my father&rsquo;s name is Arthur.&rdquo;Career Highlight: &ldquo;Playing at the Calgary Olympics (for Team USA) was a great experience, getting to meet athletes from all over the world.&rdquo;Boyhood Hero: Bobby Orr. &ldquo;He made hockey what it is in Boston.&rdquo;Best Hockey Quality: &ldquo;My size and ability to score. I also consider myself a good two-way player.&rdquo;Favorite Movie: The Death Wish films.Favorite Recording Artist: Bob Seger.Favorite Food: Fettucine Alfredo.Most Embarrassing Moment: &ldquo;I was kind of gone one time in college and I sat down for a team meal with the wrong team. It was a while before I noticed I was in the wrong room.&rdquo;Hobbies: Fishing, golfing.Career Alternative: &ldquo;If I wasn&rsquo;t in hockey I&rsquo;d like to be working in baseball. My father (Arthur) played with the Reds (Class D in the Cin-cinnati organization for Hornell and Geneva, 1957-58), and I had a tryout with Philadelphia.&rdquo;What he&rsquo;d do if he were NHL president for a day: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d put expansion teams in Dallas, somewhere in California, Florida and Milwaukee.&rdquo;What he&rsquo;d like to do after hockey: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to coach at my school, Boston College.&rdquo; &#9632;

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PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>Alan Eagleson, the only man who has run the NHL Players&rsquo; Association since its inception in 1967, is looking for a replacement.Eagleson, 56, said Oct. 13 the NHLPA is conducting a search for a deputy executive director. The successful applicant, said Eagleson, will be groomed as his ultimate successor.&ldquo;Ideally, it will be a situation where I&rsquo;m the chief executive officer and he&rsquo;ll be chief operating officer,&rdquo; said Eagleson. &ldquo;Then my hope is that he&rsquo;ll ultimately become the No. 1 man, Sam (Simpson, director of operations) will be No. 2 and I&rsquo;ll be on the outside as an oldtimer to give advice.&rdquo;The moves follows a summer of discontent when NHLPA membership challenged Eagleson&rsquo;s authority. Finding his own successor was a priority insisted upon by the membership.The strain on Eagleson&rsquo;s personal life&mdash;he said he&rsquo;s been to Europe 25 times in the past 18 months&mdash;and the summer of strife also forced him to reassess his priorities.&ldquo;If all this hadn&rsquo;t developed, I wouldn&rsquo;t be doing this,&rdquo; he said.The association has retained the Toronto firm of Price Waterhouse Management Consultants to recruit applicants from the sports, business and labor fields. From there, a selection committee composed of NHLPA members Kevin Dineen, Bryan Trottier, Bobby Smith, Gerald Diduck, Dean Kennedy and Randy Moller will identify and recommend the best applicant. The position should be filled by early 1990.Eaglson also addressed several other issues affecting the NHLPA membership.&#9632; State of the union: Eagleson blasted several of the game&rsquo;s stars, most notably Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, for their lack in involvement in NHLPA affairs. At the union&rsquo;s August meetings, Gretzky didn&rsquo;t show up and Lemieux&rsquo; involvement was minimal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012159/8497470-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="555" height="855"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alan Eagleson has been to Europe 25 times in 18 months.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We badly need the commitment from the superstars of the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If the superstars see it as a necessary nuisance, it will flounder.&#9632; On releasing players&rsquo; salaries: Eagleson said this issue has received increased support from the players to the point where only one team is vehemently opposed. He said salaries should be available to players and agents by December. &ldquo;From there, it will only be a matter of time before someone leaks it to the media. Then it will be out and that will be in the best interests of the players.&rdquo;&#9632; On limiting the number of Soviets in the NHL: &ldquo;We certainly don&rsquo;t want the NHL to become the Soviet farm league.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s up for debate and our position in 1991 (when the union renews its agreement with the NHL) may be that there should be X number of players per team. But unless teams scoop up young players by defection, I don&rsquo;t see another large group next year.&rdquo;<h2>IS HE SERIOUS?</h2>Can Gordie Howe, who is 61 years old, seriously be contemplating a comeback?&ldquo;I get excited and I want to do a lot of things,&rdquo; Howe said of the idea of a one-game comeback with the Los Angeles Kings in 1990. &ldquo;And I love the game, but you also have to have common sense. Honestly, I haven&rsquo;t even given it thought. It&rsquo;s a fantasy, a pipedream, whichever you want to call it.&rdquo;The idea apparently originated as a joke between Bruce McNall and Howe&mdash;who, along with his wife Colleen, accepted the Kings owner&rsquo;s invitation to follow Wayne Gretzky during his assault on Gordie&rsquo;s all-time scoring record.Somehow, it mushroomed into something altogether different.&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t it be something?&rdquo; said McNall. It would, but McNall must first discuss the matter with Hartford Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon, Howe&rsquo;s current employer.Howe didn&rsquo;t exactly quash the idea of a comeback when he said, &ldquo;New Year&rsquo;s doesn&rsquo;t come until January, so we&rsquo;ve got a lot of time to think it over.&rdquo; But he admitted, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in very poor shape.&rdquo;<h2>REAL THING</h2>The NHL and the Coca-Cola Co. have struck a multi-year agreement, a portion of which calls for the soft drink company to sponsor youth hockey programs in NHL markets, a Wayne Gretzky youth hockey camp and skills contests at the NHL All-Star Game.<h2>ALL-STAR NEWS</h2>The NHL announced the names of the 96 players who will appear on the ballot for the 1990 All-Star Game at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. Jan. 21.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021422/8497463-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="558" height="853"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Farrell of Spokane was suspened three games.</figcaption></div>Players on the ballot were selected by members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association. Fans have the opportunity to select one player at each position from the Wales and Campbell Conferences. The remainder of the lineup will be decided upon by the coaches of each team.Ballots were distributed at each of the 21 NHL arenas Oct. 15 and will be available until Dec. 17.The NHL also announced dates and sites for All-Star Games and activities through 1993. Chicago (Jan. 19-20, 1991), Philadelphia (Jan. 18-19, 1992) and Montreal (Jan. 18-19, 1993) have been selected to host the next three All-Star Games.<h2>PARENTS RETURN</h2>Lynda and Robert MacPherson, the parents of former New York Islanders&rsquo; No. 1 pick. Duncan MacPherson, returned to Saskatoon Oct. 15, unsuccessfully ending their seven-week, four-country search for their missing son. The 23-year-old defenseman, who was traveling in Europe this summer, has been missing since Aug. 10. It is feared he perished while snowboarding on a glacier in Austria&hellip;The Western League suspended Spokane Chiefs&rsquo; defenseman Scott Farrell and goaltender John Colvin Oct. 13 for their part in a brawl during a game between the Chiefs and the Kamloops Blazers Oct. 9. Farrell was given a three-game suspension for leaving the bench during a fight, and Colvin had to sit out a game for using his blocker during a fight.<h2>DATEBOOK</h2>Nov. 4: Chicago at Minnesota. Provided he doesn&rsquo;t miss any games until then, Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Larmer will move past Billy Harris and into fourth place in consecutive games played, with 577.Nov. 10: Eastern College Athletic Conference season begins.Nov. 10-13: Next trading period for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s high school players. &#9632;

f0006-01

WANTED: ULTIMATE SUCCESSOR TO NHLPA BOSS ALAN EAGLESON

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>While Gordie Howe gets the publicity and Wayne Gretzky gets the points, the No. 3 scorer in NHL history toils in his new dry-cleaning establishment, starting the rest of his life and collecting money owed him by the New York Rangers.Marcel Elphege Dionne, 38, ex-center, selfstyled entrepreneur and future Hall-of-Famer, has undoubtedly played his last NHL game. But he has not retired.Oh, no. To retire would be to voluntarily forfeit half of his estimated $600,000 salary, as per his contract with the Rangers. That&rsquo;s the one he signed with former GM Phil Esposito after the controversial trade with the Los Angeles Kings on March 10, 1987.And Dionne&rsquo;s too shrewd of a businessman to do that.New Ranger GM Neil Smith and new coach Roger Neilson inherited the dilemma: &lsquo;What to do about Marcel?&rsquo; They invited Dionne to training camp, let him try to make the team, but cut him two days before the season opened. There was no point in demoting him to Flint of the International League, no desire to have him hang around as a spare part. He was never seen as that important a man in their dressing room.&ldquo;If they need me to make their team,&rdquo; the Drummondville, Que., native admitted during training camp, &ldquo;then they&rsquo;re in trouble.&rdquo;Dionne&rsquo;s contract included a 50-per-cent buyout clause, in the event it was mutually agreed upon that Dionne should retire. The key words were &ldquo;mutually agreed.&rdquo; When the Rangers quietly approached Dionne&rsquo;s agent, Alan Eagleson, to see what settlement could be arranged, Dionne insisted he was willing to play. He&rsquo;d take a trade, a demotion, anything. He wanted his money.&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I mean, they want me to give back what they had agreed to give me.&rdquo;The sides finally agreed that Dionne would be paid his final year&rsquo;s salary, deferred over three years. Publicly, though, the protracted saga made for a tasteless final chapter to a great NHL career.Was this any way to depart for a guy who&rsquo;s scored 731 goals and 1,040 assists in 1,328 NHL games? Any regrets?&ldquo;I would not lie,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;After two years of putting up with all this mental stuff, I don&rsquo;t miss it a bit. Enough has been enough.Hey, I&rsquo;ve been rewarded. I have to go on with my life. Somebody said to me, &lsquo;Wait until January, then you&rsquo;ll miss it.&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;No, I&rsquo;ve prepared for this a long time. I&rsquo;m doing what I want to do.&rsquo; &ldquo;When Esposito traded Bob Carpenter and Tom Laidlaw to the Kings for Dionne, a third-round draft pick and minor-leaguer Jeff Crossman, he boldly announced that he was trying to win the Stanley Cup today. People giggled quietly and watched the Rangers lose in six first-round games to the Philadelphia Flyers.When Esposito signed Dionne to a three-year deal worth approximately $1.5 million, people roared. But Esposito the showman and Dionne the businessman both got what they wanted.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t play hockey any more. I don&rsquo;t have to,&rdquo; Dionne said matter-of-factly from his drycleaning business in his new home town of Mt. Kisco, N.Y., a suburb north of New York City. &ldquo;This is only one thing I&rsquo;m going to be involved in. It&rsquo;s a question of establishing myself in different types of businesses.&rdquo; &#9632;

DIONNE LOST IN THE SHADOWS OF HOCKEY’S GREAT ONES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011961/8497525-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marcel Dionne was honored by the New York Rangers when he fired his 700th goal. It was one of the last happy moments in the career of the NHL&rsquo;s No. 3 scorer.</figcaption></div>Dionne never did become a true Ranger. He scored four goals and six assists in 14 games after the trade, then went 31-34-65 in 67 games in 1987-88. Last season, coach Michel Bergeron rarely used Dionne. He didn&rsquo;t play much in the games he dressed for, and did not dress in 19 mid-season games. Finally, on Feb. 2, the Rangers sent him to Denver (IHL) for a conditioning stint. He came back March 3, played four games, and scored what will probably be his last NHL goal against Detroit, on March 9, 1989. Then he was scratched from nine of the final 10 games, and all four playoff games against Pittsburgh.That was no way to treat a former superstar. But as long as Dionne got paid, he did what he was told.Meanwhile, Howe is thinking about a one-game comeback. Gretzky&rsquo;s the new No. 1 scorer of all time. And even Guy Lafleur, 38, chosen No. 1 to Dionne&rsquo;s No. 2 in the 1971 entry draft, is enjoying a renaissance of sorts&mdash;first in New York as a Ranger, now in Quebec as a Nordique. In fact, Dionne has always skated in somebody&rsquo;s shadow.Has Dionne, the forgotten superstar, received his due?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really spend much time on that,&rdquo; he insisted. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have an ego. I did my things. When it gets down to show biz, I back off. I&rsquo;m not that type of guy. If I broke Gordie Howe&rsquo;s record before Wayne Gretzky, people would have said, &lsquo;Big deal, Wayne will break it anyway.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s been the story of my career. It&rsquo;s no big deal, but it&rsquo;s a fact. It&rsquo;s like when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth&rsquo;s record and people felt like it shouldn&rsquo;t have happened.&rdquo;Perhaps Dionne has insulated himself from the pain of 19 NHL seasons that generated only 55 Stanley Cup playoff games. The Red Wings didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs in any of his four seasons there. The Kings made it eight times in his 12 years there, but never got past the second round.Think about it. Marcel Dionne never played in a Stanley Cup semifinal game.&ldquo;People always said, &lsquo;Well, he&rsquo;s a loser. He plays in L.A., who cares? He does it just for himself.&rsquo; Christ! How could I do all that just for myself? It takes dedication. That rap made me better.&rdquo;The Rangers honored Dionne two years ago for scoring his 700th NHL goal and passing Esposito as the No. 2 goal scorer in NHL history. Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall said recently he&rsquo;s planning to eventually decorate the Great Western Forum with Dionne&rsquo;s old purple-and-gold No. 16.&ldquo;Yes, there are plans to do something for Marcel following his definite retirement,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;At the moment, though, we understand he hasn&rsquo;t officially announced his retirement. So it will probably be next year. We&rsquo;ll retire his sweater.&rdquo;A retired sweater, the Hall of Fame, an Art Ross Trophy, two first-team and two second-team all-star selections, two Lady Byngs, two Lester Pearsons, eight trips to the NHL All-Star Game.But no Cups.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure there are guys, I know there are, who would trade their Stanley Cup rings to see the way I&rsquo;m financially set,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can have all the rings. You can have all the awards and trophies looking beautiful in the trophy case. But what do you do the rest of your life if you&rsquo;re not secure?&rdquo;Dionne&rsquo;s set. He&rsquo;s a millionaire.&ldquo;Oh yeah, for sure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not in the Fortune 500, but I&rsquo;m doing very well. I&rsquo;ve given away a lot. I&rsquo;m secure in what I do. And I have my friends and my family.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

IN 19 YEARS, HE NEVER PLAYED IN A STANLEY CUP SEMIFINAL.

Oct. 23, 1966: Legendary Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Bobby Orr scored his first NHL goal in a 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The unassisted goal against Lome (Gump) Worsley was the first of 270 Orr scored during a 12-year-career with the Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hall-of-Famer also added 645 assists for 915 points and accumulated 953 penalty minutes between 1966-67 and 1978-79.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021533/8497587-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="550" height="398"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Orr</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0008-02

FLASHBACK

<h2>BRUINS</h2>The Boston Bruins aren&rsquo;t hiding their desire to obtain Jimmy Carson from Edmonton. GM Harry Sinden admitted he spoke to Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather Oct. 15 about acquiring the disgruntled center. Sinden isn&rsquo;t likely to part with the likes of Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Craig Janney or Andy Moog. but may be willing to offer defenseman Glen Wesley, left winger Bob Joyce, and a draft pick or two in exchange for Carson, who scored 49 goals for the Oilers last season&hellip;Left winger Nevin Markwart played in his first regular-season game in a little more than a year and a half, Oct. 13 against Edmonton. Markwart, who underwent abdominal surgery in July, hadn&rsquo;t played a league game since March 26, 1988&hellip;Center Jarmo Kekalainen (Oct. 13 vs. Edmonton) and defenseman Stephane Quintal (Oct. 15 vs. Vancouver) both netted their first NHL goals&hellip;Boston&rsquo;s 2-0 shutout of Montreal Oct.9 was the first time the Bruins shut out the Canadiens at the Boston Garden since March 8, 1970.<h2>SABRES</h2>There was a bit of a media stir when Alexandr Mogilny missed a scheduled bus trip to Toronto Oct. 11. Mogilny was supposed to meet the team at one suburban hotel parking lot, but went to a different one. He had to catch a ride to Toronto with a friend of Christian Ruuttu&rsquo;s but arrived in time to help the Sabres dump the Leafs, 7-1. Sabres&rsquo; coach Rick Dudley said Mogilny would not be fined for the lapse. It seems he went to the hotel the Sabres used as a headquarters during training camp. &ldquo;It was a natural mistake,&rdquo; said Dudley. &ldquo;He went to the lot we left from for some games during the exhibition season-, &ldquo;&hellip;Left winger Dave Andreychuk had two goals vs. the Leafs and four in his first four games of the season&hellip;Center Pierre Turgeon had three assists vs. Toronto and was the game&rsquo;s first star&hellip;Veteran John Tucker sat out the first three games of the season but played in Toronto only because Ruuttu had the flu&hellip;Scott Amiel is closing in on 100 consecutive games played for the Sabres. Amiel hit 95 Oct. 14 at Detroit, and already has the longest consecutive-game streak on the team.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Defenseman Greg Smyth effectively ended his days with the Nordiques when he sounded off after being assigned to the Nordiques&rsquo; American League farm team in Halifax Oct. 10. A teammate, who requested anonymity, said Smyth believed francophone players received special treatment, and that he was demoted because he wasn&rsquo;t French. Nordiques&rsquo; general manager Martin Madden and coach Michel Bergeron reacted by saying Smyth simply didn&rsquo;t have the skills to play in the NHL. They also said he would never again play for the Nordiques&hellip;Some players were reportedly incensed Daniel Dore had been kept with the team despite a mediocre training camp, while players like Trevor Stienburg and Max Middendorf were sent down to the minors. But Dore is still a junior and the Nords didn&rsquo;t have the option of dispatching him to the minors. Dore scored his first NHL goal in a 4-2 loss to Philadelphia Oct. 12&hellip;Goalie Sergei Mylnikov, who didn&rsquo;t dress in the Nords&rsquo; first five games, doesn&rsquo;t enjoy the &ldquo;fat guy&rdquo; reputation that&rsquo;s being given him around the league. He lost 10 pounds in two weeks and said the fact he was always a little chubby never hindered his performance in the Soviet Union.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Right winger Claude Lemieux returned to the Canadiens&rsquo; lineup for a 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins Oct. 9 after missing all of training camp with a recurring groin injury. The next day in practice, Lemieux reinjured his groin when he fell in front of the net and was out indefinitely&hellip;Tom Chorske connected for his first NHL goal in a 4-2 win over the Bruins Oct. 11. The same night, Russ Courtnall, rebounding from what he called his worst game since coming to Montreal, scored twice&hellip;Co-captain Guy Carbonneau, sidelined with kneeligament damage, traveled with the Canadiens for a 4-3 overtime win over New Jersey Oct. 13 and a 2-1 overtime loss to Pittsburgh the next night. He gave some tips to Brent Gilchrist on how to check Mario Lemieux of the Penguins. Carbonneau was expected to resume skating Oct. 18. &ldquo;I was at home for four days in bed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was getting bored-.&rdquo;&hellip;Rookie center Stephan Lebeau got his first two goals, including the overtime winner in New Jersey. &ldquo;This will take a lot of pressure off my shoulders,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew I would score sooner or later.&rdquo;<h2>WHALERS</h2>Right winger Kevin Dineen made his season debut on a new No. 1 line with Ron Francis and Pat Verbeek Oct. 14 in a 3-2 loss to New Jersey. Dineen, who was named alternate captain, missed the first five games of the season with back spasms and an adverse reaction to his medication. He said he lost 10 pounds from his illness. Dineen already takes medicaton for Crohn&rsquo;s Disease, an intestinal disorder. Bo Mikael Andersson, acquired in the waiver draft from Buffalo, scored three goals in his first six games. That&rsquo;s one fewer than he scored in 99 Sabres&rsquo; games stretched over four seasons. The other Anderson, John, reported to the Whalers&rsquo; American League farm team in Binghamton Oct. 13 after exchanging some public snipes with GM Ed Johnston. Anderson does not figure in the Whalers&rsquo; plans, but wanted a bigger buyout of the last year of his contract. To get his money, he had to go to the AHL. &#9632;

THE NHL

BRUINS EXPRESS INTEREST IN CARSON

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Buffalo Sabres Daren Puppa and Clint Malarchuk both know goaltending is a dangerous business.Both were are both battling back from serious injuries this season&mdash;Puppa in dramatic style, Malarchuk a little more by degrees.Puppa, who broke his upper right arm (catching-glove side) last December in a game against the Montreal Canadiens and missed the remainder of the season, has come back strong. After four starts, he was undefeated (3-0-1) and had a 1.94 goals-against average (second-best in the NHL through games of Oct. 15). Though the effectiveness of his rehabilitation was in doubt right up until the start of training camp, he has shown no ill effects from his injury.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really think about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew when I was getting ready for camp that the arm was good. I just had to show (Sabres&rsquo; management) that.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s been a little tougher for Malarchuk. Coming back from a near-fatal neck injury (he was slashed by a skate during a Feburary game vs. St. Louis), Malarchuk lost the first game he started, a 5-1 loss at Montreal Oct. 7, and had to be yanked from his next start, an eventual 6-2 loss at Detroit. His goals against average was a whopping 6.21.There were, however, extenuating circumstances.Puppa is entering his fifth pro season and all have been with the Sabres. He is familiar with the players and they in turn are comfortable with him. The fact that his injury was serious but not life-threatening, makes things easier.Malarchuk is not as fortunate. He joined the Sabres from Washington just before the March trading deadline last season and appeared in only seven games before he was injured. The numbers from this season show the problem. With Puppa in goal, the Sabres averaged 3.88 goals per game; with Malarchuk, they hit for just 1.38. Malarchuk also saw far more shots than Puppa, an average of 33.8 per game to Puppa&rsquo;s 23.5. Puppa also had the advantage of starting three games at home (two wins and a tie), while both of Malarchuk&rsquo;s starts were on the road.Malarchuk said he wasn&rsquo;t overly concerned about his situation and maintained it would only be a matter of time before he is comfortable with the team and the team with him. He also knows his role is primarily to back up Puppa. It&rsquo;s a position for which he will have to adjust both his game and his outlook.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little tougher when you don&rsquo;t play a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can expect it. I&rsquo;ve been around long enough to know that there&rsquo;s always something and you have to accept it, adjust to it and do your best in the situation you&rsquo;re in. I know they want Daren to play a lot&mdash;he&rsquo;s their future&mdash;and so I have to prepare myself for games with that in mind. That means working extra hard in practice so that you&rsquo;re strong enough and sharp enough to be ready when called upon.&rdquo;Malarchuk didn&rsquo;t want to blame his iniurv for his early-season problems.He does admit to thinking about it occasionally, but not when he&rsquo;s playing.&ldquo;It creeps up in your mind from time to time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sometimes in practice when you have time to think, it pops up and you&rsquo;re thinking about it. It doesn&rsquo;t happen in the games though.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Christian Ruuttu, Benoit Hogue, Jeff Parker, John Tucker.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Scott Amiel, Mike Hartman, Dave Snuggerud.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Kevin Maguire, Alexandr Mogilny, Rick Vaive, Ray Sheppard.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Mike Ramsey, Larry Playfair, Shawn Anderson.RD&mdash;Phil Housley, Dean Kennedy, Grant Ledyard.G&mdash;Daren Puppa, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Uwe Krupp, D, Charley horse, day-to-day<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Andreychuk, 4. A&mdash;Turgeon, 6. P&mdash;Turgeon. 9. PIM&mdash;Hartman, 23. &#9632;

PUPPA’S COMEBACK QUICKER THAN PARTNER’S

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>At least a lack of effort couldn&rsquo;t be blamed for the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; status as the worst team in the NHL.The problem with the Nordiques, off to a 1-4-0 start and tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 20th overall, is simply too little talent and too many mental mistakes&mdash;not that the players aren&rsquo;t trying.But coach Michel Bergeron remains optimistic for one reason. He claims every player is playing with determination.&ldquo;The players are all working their tails off,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;True, we&rsquo;ve gone through at least one bad period per game since the beginning of the season.&ldquo;But the players really have a good attitude. Even though we&rsquo;ve won only once in our first five outings, everyone seems pumped up in the dressing room.&rdquo;Which might be a little hard to understand on a team which finished last overall last season, and appears destined to once again miss the playoffs.Also surprising is that the volatile Bergeron has yet to lose his temper with his young team. However, he has started to lose some sleep.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been patient,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;I need to win, and win a lot. But I&rsquo;m working on it. Mind you, I&rsquo;m already having trouble sleeping and there are only five games out of 80 played, but I know the team can do better and that it&rsquo;s only a matter of getting things into gear.&rdquo;Before that can happen, the Nordiques will have to start playing a more fundamentally sound game. Too often, opposition goals have been the result of stupid mistakes.&ldquo;About 50 per cent of our opponents&rsquo; goals have been scored when we were in possession of the puck,&rdquo; said general manager Martin Madden.That is an opinion shared by Bergeron, who said the Nordiques were trying to get a little too fancy, with disastrous results.&ldquo;The guys are always trying to make the perfect play, the kind of play that ends up as the play of the day,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;But in the NHL, that simply doesn&rsquo;t wash.&rdquo;The Nordiques&rsquo; standing, while disappointing, came as no shock to Madden and Bergeron. They knew there would be difficult times with a team particularly weak on the wings, and inexperienced in goal.&ldquo;At the same time last year (the Nordiques were 3-2-0 after five games) we were winning by the skin of our teeth,&rdquo; said Madden. &ldquo;Then we started losing on a regular basis.&ldquo;But this time around, we&rsquo;re losing by the skin of our teeth. The team is working very hard and it&rsquo;s only a matter of time before everything meshes together.&rdquo;One area where the Nordiques figure to be strong is the power play, where Joe Sakic, Guy Lafleur, Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet have all thrived in the past. But after a good start&mdash;the Nords&rsquo; power-play unit led the league with six goals in 15 chances through the first three games&mdash;it began to flounder badly.The power play was 0-for-5 in a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 12, and 0-for-4 in a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota North Stars Oct. 14.&ldquo;We have to shoot the puck toward the opposing net and we haven&rsquo;t been doing that,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;For once, we have big guys who are crowding the net. But the shots just aren&rsquo;t getting there.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Greg Smyth, D. assigned to Halifax (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Joe Sakic, Claude Loiselle, Lucien DeBlois, Ken McRae.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, liro Jarvi, Greg Adams, Mike Hough, Jeff Jackson.RW&mdash;Daniel Dore, Guy Lafleur, Marc Fortier, Darin Kimble.LD&mdash;Steven Finn, Jari Gronstrand, Curtis Leschyshyn, Robert PicardRD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Joe Cirella. Mario Marois, Michel Petit.G&mdash;Ron Tugnutt, Stephane Fiset, Sergei Mylnikov.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Gillis, C. Guillain-Barre syndrome, indefinite.Stephane Guerard, D, right knee sprain, indefinite.David Latta. LW, sprained ligament in right knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Sakic, 5. A&mdash;Stastny, 7. P&mdash;Sakic, 9. PIM&mdash;Adams, 17. &#9632;

EXTRA EFFORT NOT ENOUGH FOR NORDS

<div class="byline">BY KAREN GUREGIAN</div>Angered, confused and upset by his demotion to the minors, right winger Greg Johnston wants out of Boston.Johnston, who has spent seven seasons in the Boston Bruins&rsquo; organization, simply couldn&rsquo;t accept being sent down to the American League farm team in Maine. Upon learning his fate Oct. 10, the right winger almost immediately demanded a trade.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m fed up and ticked off,&rdquo; Johnston said shortly after receiving the news. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time to see what my options are. I&rsquo;ve got to look to change things.&ldquo;I mean, I&rsquo;ve been in the organization seven years, and I can&rsquo;t see a future here right now.&rdquo;Bruins&rsquo; general manager Harry Sinden said he would try and accomodate the right winger, but wasn&rsquo;t about to let him go for nothing.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not about to give our players away, but yeah, we&rsquo;ll look around,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;If a guy is that unhappy with his lot, and he feels his career is in jeopardy by being sent down, we&rsquo;ll inquire around the league.&rdquo;In the interim, however, Johnston has refused to report to the American League team, forcing Sinden to suspend him.In the meantime Johnston, 24, went back to his Barrie, Ont. home to wait for news of a trade.&ldquo;All I know is, at the end of training camp, I talked to Mike (Bruins&rsquo; coach Milbury). We had a one-on-one meeting,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;I asked him what my situation was and he said to me, &lsquo;At this point I can&rsquo;t see anyone taking your job.&rsquo; But here we are, three games into the season, not even a week along, and I&rsquo;m out of a job. I don&rsquo;t know where that comes from, that decision, whether it&rsquo;s the coach or management. It&rsquo;s unfortunate, and I guess I have to live with it.&rdquo;His forte was killing penalties. Last season, he netted 11 goals with nine assists in 57 games. He also played 15 games with Maine.Of his seven seasons in the Boston organization, only one (1986-87) was spent entirely with the Bruins. That year, he scored 12 goals with 15 assists. His career totals are 25 goals and 27 assists in 176 games.Johnston did not see much action in the three games he played this season. His role as a penalty killer diminished. In a switch from last season, Cam Neely, Craig Janney and Bobby Carpenter were seeing time killing penalties.Sinden said he has spoken to several teams, but he has yet to receive a firm offer for the disgruntled forward.&ldquo;They hold all the marbles,&rdquo; Johnston said of the Bruins. &ldquo;If they ask too much, they&rsquo;re not going to trade me. If they think I&rsquo;m a minor-league player, then why not ask for a minor league-player in return? I still think I can play in the NHL&mdash;if not for Boston, then someone else. And just to say you get dumped on in one organization is not to say that you&rsquo;re going to get dumped on by another organization.&ldquo;Who knows, maybe I have to realize I&rsquo;m not good enough to play in the NHL. Maybe it&rsquo;s just wishful thinking, but I still think I can play.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Greg Johnston, RW, Ray Neufeld, RW, Mike Millar, RW, and Bruce Shoebottom, D, assigned to Maine (AHL). Johnston retired and was suspended by the team.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Bob Sweeney, Bob Gould, Jarmo Kekalainen.LW&mdash;Bob Carpenter, Randy Burridge, Bob Joyce, John Carter, Lou Crawford.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Robert Cimetta, Peter Douris. Nevin Markwart.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque. Stephane Quintal, Greg Hawgood.LD&mdash;Jim Wiemer, Glen Wesley. Allen Pedersen.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Andy Brickley, C. right ankle sprain, day-to-day.Lyndon Byers, RW. right knee bruise, day-to-day.Garry Galley, D. mild left shoulder separation, day-to-day.Gord Kluzak, D, left knee surgery, indefinite.Ken Linseman, C, surgery to correct circulatory problem in left arm, indefinite.Michael Thelven, D, knee, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, Janney, 5. A&mdash;Bourque, 9. P&mdash;Neely, Bourque. 10. PIM&mdash;Kekalainen, Pedersen 8. &#9632;

JOHNSTON DEMANDS TO BE TRADED

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>Bobby Smith of the Montreal Canadiens doesn&rsquo;t believe everything he reads.&ldquo;I have to live with my own game,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;I have been in this game for 12 years now and I don&rsquo;t run for the paper every morning. I don&rsquo;t believe it when they say how great I am and I don&rsquo;t believe it when they say how terrible 1 am.&rdquo;The Montreal media weren&rsquo;t saying many great things about Smith after he got off to one of the worst starts of his career with one goal in six games. While Smith didn&rsquo;t seem to be bothered by the bad press, the 6-foot-4 center was deeply concerned about the lack of offensive production.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only six games but at the same time, I am concerned when I have a bad practice,&rdquo; said Smith, who finished second on the Canadiens in scoring with 32 goals and 51 assists last season. &ldquo;I would like to be playing better right now. I was encouraged by the game in Pittsburgh (a 2-1 overtime loss to the Penguins Oct. 14). I thought I moved better in that game.&ldquo;You always want to get off to that good start. It takes the pressure off and you can put some goals in the bank for the bad spell in November or December.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t always happen. I&rsquo;m just going to have to work hard every day, every practice&mdash;and it&rsquo;s going to break for me.&rdquo;Smith is an important piece in the Canadiens&rsquo; offense, which is hardly overpowering at the best of times. They need goal production from both Smith and Mats Naslund, who turned in 1-2-3 totals in his first five appearances.What made Smith&rsquo;s start more noticeable this time around was the quick start of 1988-89, when he had four goals and five assists in the Canadiens&rsquo; first six games. In fairness, Smith has been called upon to work with a variety of people in the early part of the season because of the spate of injuries.He opened the season with Russ Courtnail on his right side, but Mike Keane took over the spot the next night. Claude Lemieux played with Smith in the Canadiens&rsquo; third game in Boston (a 2-0 loss Oct. 9), whileJocelyn Lemieux was on the left side. When Claude reinjured his groin, Keane was back with Smith in the return match against the Bruins (a 4-2 Canadiens&rsquo; win Oct. 11) and for part of the Canadiens&rsquo; 4-3 overtime win against New Jersey Oct. 13. Rookie Tom Chorske finished the Devils&rsquo; encounter with Smith, then played withSmith and Naslund throughout the Canadiens&rsquo; game at Pittsburgh.&ldquo;I feel very confident that I can do my part and help the team win,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;Six games does not make a bad start. It makes a bad week, I guess. I want to pick up my level of play immediately.&ldquo;When you are not scoring as much as you feel you should, sometimes you hesitate too much. Sometimes you don&rsquo;t shoot when you should. You don&rsquo;t react instinctively. You always want to think about what you are doing.&ldquo;This is a natural game. It&rsquo;s a fast game. You have to do it without thinking.&rdquo;<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 11: Martin Desjardins, C. recalled from Sherbrooke (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bobby Smith, Brent Gilchrist, Stephan Lebeau. Martin Desjardins.LW&mdash;Mats Naslund, Ryan Walter, Shayne Corson, Jocelyn Lemieux.RW&mdash;Tom Chorske. Russ Courtnall, Stephane Richer, Mike Keane.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Sylvain Lefebvre, Jyrki Lumme.RD&mdash;Petr Svoboda, Chris Chelios, Eric Desjardins.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Guy Carbonneau, C. twisted right knee ligaments, indefinite.Jean-Jacques, Daigneault, D, bruised right hand, day-to-day.Donald Dufresne, D. separated shoulder, indefinite.Claude Lemieux, RW, groin pull, indefinite.Steve Martinson, LW, back spasms, day-to-day.Mike McPhee, LW, pulled abdominal muscles, day-to-day.Brian Skrudland, C, sprained ankle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Corson 3. A&mdash;Richer 3. P&mdash;Richer 5. P1M&mdash;Svoboda 19. &#9632;

SMITH CONFIDENT HE’LL ESCAPE DRY SPELL

Whether his team wins or loses, Paul Tzountzouris, a defenseman for the Leaside Kings&rsquo; bantam AA team, loves to play hockey.Last season, Paul&rsquo;s minor bantam Kings made it as far as the Metro Toronto Hockey League East Division finals, losing that series nine points to five to the Hillcrest Summits.But Paul was still happy with the Kings&rsquo; season. His team, coached by Larry Cerqua and Charlie Rampula, and managed by Ron Klausz, won the Coronation Cup, finishing first over the 42-game regular season, losing just four times.A 15-year-old Grade 10 student at East York Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Paul is looking forward to another great season.While hockey is Paul&rsquo;s favorite sport, he&rsquo;s also taken an interest in football since attending high school last year. In his spare time Paul likes to follow his favorite NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and his favorite player, Steve Yzer-man of the Detroit Red Wings.You or someone you know can be part of the JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph (non-returnable), along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to JOFA-TITAN SHOWCASE, c/o The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Player of the Year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011963/8497738-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="569" height="1257"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Tzountzouris</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA TITAN

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Okay, so it wasn&rsquo;t as bizarre a story as Gordie Howe coming out of retirement.But Mike Liut, the forgotten goalie with the Hartford Whalers, hadn&rsquo;t appeared in a meaningful game in quite some time either. It was March 18, 1989, to be exact. That was the night Dino Ciccarelli lit up Liut for four goals and three assists in an 8-2 Washington Capitals&rsquo; rout.After sitting out 15 games stretching over seven months, Liut finally emerged for his first start. Ironically, it was against the Capitals Oct. 11. This time, Liut stopped 24 of 25 shots in a 4-1 victory. As teammate Brian Lawton suggested, Moses had returned.He also established himself as a contender for at least one of the two jobs in the Hartford nets.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a 40-save shutout (he had one against the Caps in 1985), but then again I don&rsquo;t think I had a 40-save shutout in me at this point,&rdquo; said Liut, 33. &ldquo;I believe I can still contribute to the Whalers. I really do.&rdquo;&ldquo;When I came to Hartford, I thought Lootie had the quickest legs in hockey,&rdquo; said teammate Dave Babych. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s showing that again.&rdquo;Although Liut lost a 3-2 game to New Jersey three nights later, he held the Whalers in the game. During a sloppy second period, he made a brilliant extended-leg save on Brendan Shanahan and stopped a clean breakaway by Kirk Muller.One goal Liut allowed was by exteammate Sylvain Turgeon: &ldquo;I broke in on Lootie and he has those quick legs. So, I went top shelf.&rdquo;While NHL shooters think about going high on Liut, the Whalers are trying to figure out whether one of their three goalies&mdash;Liut, Peter Sidorkiewicz and Kay Whitmore&mdash;will be taking the high road to another team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021544/8497769-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="559" height="805"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Liut dusted himself off for a win over Washington.</figcaption></div>Whitmore, 22, is the acknowledged talent of the future. But in his only start, a 9-6 win in Quebec Oct. 8, he seemed unsure and backed into his net too often.Sidorkiewicz, 26, started the season 0-3, with a 4.69 goals-against average. Last season&rsquo;s NHL allrookie team goalie was off to a rocky start. His 6-4 loss to Minnesota Oct. 7, particularly, was not good.In Sidorkiewicz third deteat, a 4-1 loss in Buffalo, coach Rick Ley blasted his team&rsquo;s &ldquo;no-shows&rdquo;, benched Paul MacDermid for the last half of that game and didn&rsquo;t use Ray Ferraro or Lawton against New Jersey.While Ley tried to inspire his skaters, he and general manager Ed Johnston were wrestling with what to do with their goalies.&ldquo;No one jumped up and showed me he&rsquo;s ready to take over as No. 1 goalie,&rdquo; Ley said before Liut&rsquo;s first start. &ldquo;The way training camp went, we had a hard decision to make because all three goalies were playing well.&ldquo;They were excellent in preseason, but they started the season below average. Now, it&rsquo;s Liut&rsquo;s turn.&rdquo;Liut has been the subject of so many trade rumors, it&rsquo;s become tiresome for the 12-year veteran. Last year, it was Los Angeles, Chicago, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Washington and Detroit. His young daughter, Jenna, came home recently in tears asking, &ldquo;Are we getting traded?&rdquo;&ldquo;The three-goalie system never worked, never has, never will,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;The only thing I can do is give them an equal opporunity to make the team. If there&rsquo;s a little added pressure, well, that&rsquo;s too bad.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Norm Maciver, D, traded to Edmonton for Jim Ennis, D. Ennis assigned to Binghamton (AHL).Oct. 13: Scott Daniels. LW, returned to Regina (WHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Ray Ferraro, Dean Evason, Mike Tomlak. Brian Lawton.LW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, Todd Krygier, Bo Mikael Andersson, Tom Martin, Marc Laforge. Chris Govedaris.RW&mdash;Kevin Dineen, Paul MacDermid, Ed Kastelic. Scott Young.LD&mdash;Randy Ladouceur, Joel Quenneville, Adam Burt, Grant Jennings, Al Tuer.RD&mdash;Sylvain Cote, Brad Shaw. Dave Babych.G&mdash;Kay Whitmore, Peter Sidorkiewicz, Mike Liut.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jody Hull, RW, Charley horse, day-to-day.Ulf Samuelsson, D, knee surgery, indefinite.Dave Tippett, LW, thumb surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Francis, 5. A&mdash;Verbeek, Francis, 5. P&mdash;Francis, 10. PIM&mdash;MacDermid, 23. &#9632;

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LIUT’S SHARP PLAY CREATES CROWD IN WHALER NETS

<div class="byline">BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011785/8497800-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="500" height="636"></div>Did you hear the voice the other day? I did. &ldquo;If you sign him, he will play.&rdquo; It was greatness calling greatness, yesterday confronting today.Who knows if it will happen? Who knows if Gordon Howe of Floral, Sask., will play one more game, in the 1990s, to say he played in six decades? But how can we not root for it to happen? How many times do our parents and grandparents get to feel young again? If the Rolling Stones can still start it up, so can he.If his doctors say he&rsquo;s healthy enough, here&rsquo;s hoping Gordie decides to go through with it. It doesn&rsquo;t matter to me if the game&rsquo;s grand old man plays on Jan. 3, 1990, for the Whalers, or Jan. 2, 1990, for the Red Wings, or New Year&rsquo;s Day, 1990, for the Kings on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s right wing.People will come, Gordie. People will definitely come.I want to see him, at the age of 61, elbow somebody again. I want to watch those huge paws cradle the puck in the slot and snap it, even if there&rsquo;s no snap left in the wrists. I want to see some self-absorbed physio-macho-Cybex specimen work the comers against Gordie, maybe find out how the game should be played.I want to see Gordie&rsquo;s 1,851st NHL point. His 802nd goal. His 1,686th penalty minute.I wasn&rsquo;t old enough to catch Howe until the late &rsquo;60s, when he was still good enough to beat up the Rangers. I followed his WHA days and loved watching his 1979-80 season for Hartford.No, I never saw the real Gordie Howe. Never will. But seeing him now, one more time, would be my field of dreams.Six decades. Imagine that. He played in the NHL before the ice was regularly painted TVwhite. He won his first Art Ross Trophy before teams were permitted only one power-play goal per minor penalty. He was sitting through his first retirement when the NHL invented &ldquo;third man in.&rdquo; He played in all 80 games for the 1979-80 Hartford Whalers at the age of 51, and turned 52 on March 31, 1980, before he retired the second time.For the record, Howe is an executive with the Whalers. His contract stipulates he cannot perform for another team. Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall, who knows how to get his man, says he&rsquo;d love to put Gretz and Gordie together for one game. I&rsquo;m sure McNall could work it out with Hartford owner Richard Gordon. Maybe McNall can find Bobby Hull, too, throw him on left wing.This is not a freak show I&rsquo;m after. I&rsquo;d bet Howe could do a better job than a few of the forwards playing in this league right now. No joke. The man belonged to a generation that played professional sports more for the love than for the money.Call me a purist. But if you think 61 is ridiculous, take a look around. Eighteen years old? Some of those NHL kids walking around with $100,000 signing bonuses don&rsquo;t know how to make credit-card calls to their baby-sitting agents.And if it&rsquo;s just a publicity stunt, well, so what? The NHL has no problem watching its teams charging $25 a game for 840 games just to eliminate five in April. If Hartford or Detroit or Los Angeles won&rsquo;t dress him for a game, maybe one of the Original Six will.How about it, Montreal? Too bad Espo&rsquo;s not running the Rangers anymore. He&rsquo;d trade for his rights.Gordie&rsquo;s wife Colleen runs the family business, and from what I read she&rsquo;s not too keen about this whole idea.&rdquo;I hate to put a damper on things,&rdquo; she was quoted as saying when the story broke. &ldquo;But there are a lot of things that have to be discussed. It&rsquo;s my husband, and his safety is my first concern.&rdquo;Allow me to personally attest to the fact that as of six years ago, the man was still a thoroughbred. The date was Feb. 24, 1984. Broome County Arena, Binghamton, N.Y. It was the city&rsquo;s first Face-off For Cancer and I paid who knows how much to skate a shift at left wing against him.Since he didn&rsquo;t mind politely rubbing his glove in my face, I didn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d care if I gently ran him into the boards. I tried, but bounced off what felt like a concrete wall. He turned, smiled, and waited for me to rise. Then he held the top of the puck with only the tip of his blade as I gave chase.He skated slowly. He skated backward. He skated left and right as he played Harlem Globetrotter and I played Washington General. When I got tired, he turned to the guys who knew how to play hockey, skated through all of them, and rifled a quick shot, top shelf.That&rsquo;s when he was almost 56.I hope he plays at the age of 61. I hope he plays at the age of 71 and 101.Gordie, go the distance. &#9632;

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MR. HOCKEY SHOULD COME BACK FOR SIXTH DECADE

The New York Rangers&rsquo; all-time leader in games played (1,160) and penalty minutes (1,147), Harry Howell now scouts the AHL, IHL and NHL for the Edmonton Oilers. Howell, 56, played 24 seasons in the NHL and WHA. A Hall-of-Fame inductee in 1979, Howell says today&rsquo;s players are generally &ldquo;much bigger, faster and shoot harder, but the clutching and grabbing that goes on now takes away from the game.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021252/8497831-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="536" height="398"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harry Howell</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THEN & NOW

<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Not only were the North Stars undefeated after five games, they were also a little richer. Each player earned an extra $1,100 in team bonuses after the team&rsquo;s first five-game segment. The players got $250 for earning at least five points and another $250 for keeping total goals against below 15. They earned an extra $100 for every point above five (they had nine, for a bonus of $400) and for every goal against under 15 (they had 13, for a bonus of $200)&hellip;Center Steve Gotaas, who injured his knee last March in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, underwent major reconstructive surgery on the knee Oct. 12 and will be lost for the entire season. He had arthroscopic surgery after the playoffs. Gotaas had been playing with the North Stars&rsquo; International League farm team in Kalamazoo.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>The Wings raised their fourth banner in three seasons, commemorating their Norris Division title last season, before their home opener. &ldquo;In a way it&rsquo;s more rewarding than the year before, because of the conditions,&rdquo; coach Jacques Demers said. &ldquo;The players can look at that flag and be very proud of themselves for winning it again. I know a lot of people downplay it because it&rsquo;s the Norris Division, but I don&rsquo;t agree with that-.&rdquo;&hellip;Rookie goalie Tim Cheveldae, 21, found himself a little star-struck with Wayne Gretzky bearing down on him in his first NHL start at Los Angeles Oct. 8. &ldquo;I never saw him play live before,&rdquo; Cheveldae said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a treat to watch&hellip;but it&rsquo;s a little tough when you have to play against him, too.&rdquo; Cheveldae gave up five goals in less than 30 minutes before giving way to Glen Hanlon&hellip;GM Jimmy Devellano&rsquo;s reaction to a report in a Toronto newspaper that Demers is losing the respect and support of his players and will be gone by the end of the season if the Wings have another disappointing season: &ldquo;Ignore it. That&rsquo;s silly nonsense.&rdquo;<h2>BLUES</h2>Defenseman Tom Tilley suffered severe back spasms after being sideswiped by Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Thomas and Troy Murray in the Blues&rsquo; 2-1 victory over the Blackhawks Oct. 14. Tilley wasn&rsquo;t hit hard, but his back was twisted in several different direc-tions. At first he felt nothing, then came the pain. He&rsquo;s out on a day-to-day basis, although trainer Mike Folga is taking a cautious approach. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those things that could be better in a day, a week, or a month,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unpredictable type thing. Any time you deal with the lower back, it&rsquo;s a tough thing-.&rdquo;&hellip;Steve Tuttle&rsquo;s right shoulder injury apparently isn&rsquo;t as severe as originally thought. After being hurt Oct. 12, Tuttle faced a 10-day recovery period, but he may be back earlier. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s coming along well,&rdquo; Folga said&hellip;The Blues had two listless efforts after winning the season opener, but they got back on track with the 2-1 victory over Chicago. With an average age of 24.8 and 12 of 24 players 23 years old or younger, the Blues will likely face some ups and downs this season. &ldquo;Often around here, we get too high when we win one,&rdquo; goaltender Greg Millen said. &ldquo;We have to be very cautious.&rdquo;<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Left winger Mike Eagles failed to report to Indianapolis of the International League following his demotion Oct. 6, and returned to his home in Sussex, N.B. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going through a tough decision process because he feels he can play in this league,&rdquo; said GM Bob Pulford. &ldquo;But all he&rsquo;s doing is hurting himself.&rdquo;&hellip;Unhappy with his team&rsquo;s performance in a 2-1 loss to St. Louis Oct. 14, coach Mike Keenan benched three regulars the next night in a game against Detroit. Jeremy Roenick, Steve Thomas and Al Secord sat out the game as the Hawks shut out the Wings 3-0. All three were expected to be in the lineup for Chicago&rsquo;s next game, Oct. 17 in New York against the Rangers&hellip;Defenseman Doug Wilson tied a career high with four points (two goals, two assists) in a 9-6 win over Toronto Oct. 12&hellip;In that same game, left winger Wayne Van Dorp scored his first goal as a Blackhawk-&hellip;Keenan blamed referee Terry Gregson and linesmen Ron Assel-stine and Dan Schachte for being unprepared for the Oct. 8 game against the Rangers that featured 205 minutes in penalties and seven player ejections. &ldquo;Everyone has to gear up for the season, including the officials,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;They weren&rsquo;t prepared to do such a tough game so early, and they didn&rsquo;t want a tough game. That&rsquo;s why I was incensed.&rdquo;<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Head coach Doug Carpenter will remember his first night behind the Leafs&rsquo; bench at Maple Leaf Gardens for all the wrong reasons. Forty seconds into Toronto&rsquo;s home opener against the Buffalo Sabres Oct. 11, the Leafs were penalized for an illegal substitution. Carpenter, in making out his starting lineup, circled the line of Wendel Clark, Daniel Marois and Gary Leeman. He meant to circle Vincent Damphousse instead of Leeman. The Sabres scored on the power play and went on to an easy 7-1 win. &ldquo;I circled the wrong guy,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;I take full responsibility-.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Al lafrate blasted Leaf fans after the Buffalo loss. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never an advantage for us to play at home. We could be up 5-0 or down 5-0 and it wouldn&rsquo;t make any difference. Any other rink you go to in this league the fans are an advantage to the home team. Our fans should be more suooortive.&rdquo; &#9632;

STARS REAP BENEFITS OF FAST START

<div class="byline">BY DAMIEN COX</div>Only two months after accepting the job as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Floyd Smith made a trade that could make or break his employment future.On Oct. 16, Smith made a move to patch one of the gaping holes in his club by acquiring defenseman Tom Kurvers from the New Jersey Devils for Toronto&rsquo;s first-round selection in the 1991 entry draft.The Leafs, winners of only one of their first five games, were desperate for both a competent NHL blueliner and an injection of optimism into the badly-decaying attitude that engulfed the team.Kurvers, 27, set a Devils&rsquo; record by scoring 66 points last season on 16 goals and 50 assists. Half of those points came on the power play, so he should be able to lend a hand when the Leafs have the man advantage. His experience should also help the team in its own end of the rink, too.The Leafs may have received the goods but the price may prove far too costly, especially if the team finishes 21st overall in 1990-91.Toronto native Eric Lindros, recognized as the best young prospect in North America, will be available in the 1991 entry draft. Some people, including Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke, think the 16-year-old could immediately step in and play in the NHL. The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder has been projected as a future star.What Smith is gambling on is that Kurvers will add that extra ingredient that will help the Leafs move toward a .500 record. That way. reasoned Smith, the choice will amount to only a 10th- or 11th-overall selection.Whatever the pick turns out to be. Kurvers will be a welcome short-term addition for Leaf coach Doug Carpenter.&ldquo;I think he can help our club,&rdquo; said Carpenter, who coached Kurvers for part of one season when Carpenter was the head coach of the Devils. &ldquo;We need help in our back end. I was asked if he could help us, and I said, &lsquo;Yes&rsquo;.&rdquo;Leaf winger Lou Francheschetti was well acquainted with Kurvers while a member of the Devils&rsquo; Patrick Division rivals, the Washington Capitals.&ldquo;Offensively, he&rsquo;s very clever.&rdquo; said Franceschetti. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very good at moving the puck out of his own end.&ldquo;I think it will help bring us a little fresh air. I don&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;ll bring for the guy he replaces, though.&rdquo;Smith explained the trade as a drastic remedy for a drastic situation.&ldquo;And if things get worse, we might have to do something even more drastic,&rdquo; said Smith, refusing to rule out the possibility he would also deal the team&rsquo;s 1990 first rounder, and a possible shot at Peterborough Petes&rsquo; superstar Mike Ricci.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll do almost anything to improve this team I think this kid (Kurvers) will help us.&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 13: Mike Blaisdell. RW. loaned to Canadian national learn f63Oct 16: Tom Kurvers. D. acquired for first-round choice in 1991 entry draft<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ed Olczyk. Vincent Damphousse. Tom Fergus. Dave Hannan, Dan DaoustLW&mdash;Mark Osborne, Wendel Clark, Paul Lawless. Lou Franceschetti, Dave ReidRW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Daniel Marois, Rocky Dundas, John KordicLD&mdash;Luke Richardson. Brad Marsh, Brian Curran. Jack Capuano.RD&mdash;Rob Ramage, Al lafrate, Tom Kurvers. Todd Gill, Darryl ShannonG&mdash;Allan Bester. Jeff Reese<h3>INJURIES</h3>None<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Clark, 4. A&mdash;Leeman, 6. P&mdash; Leeman. 9. PIM&mdash;John Kordic. 24. &#9632;

LEAFS MORTGAGE SOME OF FUTURE FOR PRESENT

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>Brian Bellows and Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coach Pierre Page had a little communication problem a year ago.Last season. Bellows gave Page what he thought was a helpful suggestion. &ldquo;Play me more and I&rsquo;ll play better,&rdquo; said Bellows. To which Page replied, &ldquo;Play better and I&rsquo;ll play you more.&rdquo; The two had several talks but neither seemed to listen.Now, Bellows has allowed his performance to do the talking. And you can&rsquo;t get the two guys to shut up.&ldquo;If you do the things I like. I&rsquo;ll give anybody more ice time,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;A year ago, Brian was minus-15 right off the bat and only had four goals (in 16 games). I can&rsquo;t afford that. This year, he&rsquo;s a plus player (plus-6) and has six goals in five games.&rdquo;&ldquo;The last four years at this time I was still trying to figure out what the coach wanted and what his system would be,&rdquo; Bellows said. &ldquo;Having the same coach and the same management for two years in a row makes a big difference.Bellows was one of the biggest reasons why the North Stars were the only undefeated team in the league (4-0-1) as of Oct. 16. It was the team&rsquo;s best start since 1982, when it was undefeated in its first six games.Bellows, a right-handed shooter, was playing on the left side of a line with Neal Broten at center and Mike Gartner on the right. They were averaging better than four points a game.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want Brian or Neal or Mike to have a great year and us have a horse&mdash;year,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;If Brian Bellows has a great year and the team doesn&rsquo;t, I could care less.&ldquo;My job is to make Brian a better player even though he&rsquo;s already one of the better players in the league. My other job, my No. I job, is to make the team better. Right now, Brian is helping me make the team better.&ldquo;I know he wants to win and if that remains his top priority, we&rsquo;ll get along just fine. Last year, I wanted things done my way and he wanted things done his way. Now, it&rsquo;s not my way or his way, it&rsquo;s midway.&rdquo;Bellows is only 25, but this is his eighth season in the NHL. His best was 1983-84. when he scored 41 goals and 84 points. Two years ago, his second for coach Lome Henning, he had 40 goals and 81 points. But he dropped to 23 goals and 50 points last year, when pulled stomach muscles caused him to miss 20 of the last 24 games.&ldquo;The last few seasons we haven&rsquo;t had enough talented players to go around and I always seemed to get the new guys. By December or January, they weren&rsquo;t around. The attitude seemed to be, Play with these guys and bring them up to your level. How often does that really work? What usually happens when you take someone from Grade 12 and put them in your junior accounting class?&ldquo;May be I&rsquo;ve played down to someone else&rsquo;s level instead of getting them to play up to mine. It&rsquo;s hard for me to keep my enthusiasm when we play the whole shift in our zone.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m anxious to get my game back to the level that I know I&rsquo;m capable of playing. Our quick start is a great feeling, especially for the guys who&rsquo;ve been around here for a while. &ldquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Neil Wilkinson, D, recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).Oct. 13: Wilkinson and Keri Leiter, D, assigned to Kalamazoo<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten. Mike Modano, Dave Gagner, Bob BrookeLW&mdash;Brian Bellows. Gaetan Duchesne. Basil McRae. Clark Donatelli. Curt Fraser, Dave Mackey.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner. Dave Archibald. Stewart Gavin. Perry Berezan. Shane Churla. Helmut BalderisLD&mdash;Ville Siren, Frantisek Musil. Mark Tinordi, Rob ZettlerRD&mdash;Larry Murphy. Shawn Chambers. Curt GilesG&mdash;Jon Casey. Kari Takko<h3>INJURIES</h3>None.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Bellows. 6. A&mdash;Gartner, 6. P&mdash;Bellows 9. PIM&mdash; McRae 21. &#9632;

BELLOWS SHINES FOR SURGING STARS

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>Bob Brind&rsquo;Amour says the family surname translates to &ldquo;a little bit of love.&rdquo;In the case of his son Rod and the St. Louis Blues, it may mean more than a little bit of love. The Blues love Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour a lot.Brind&rsquo;Amour, the Blues&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the 1988 draft, led the team in scoring after four games with six points.He had a goal and assisted on Paul MacLean&rsquo;s game-winner in an 8-3 victory at Chicago. And he had a goal and an assist against Toronto in an 8-5 loss.He was shut out in the third game, but so was everyone else in a 3-0 loss to Minnesota. He and the team rebounded for a 2-1 victory over Chicago Oct. 14. Brind&rsquo;Amour assisted on both goals and was the game&rsquo;s No. 1 star.He also survived his first professional fight, handling Chicago&rsquo;s Bob McGill in a tussle in front of the Blackhawks&rsquo; goal. A small cut on the nose was his badge of honor.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still here so I must have done all right,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said.He&rsquo;s done more than all right. He was one of the Blues&rsquo; best players in training camp. He was fourth in scoring in camp with seven points.He gave the Blues a brief glimpse of what to expect last season joining the team for the playoffs and scoring goals on his first two shots. He played five of 10 games in the playoffs.Brind&rsquo;Amour came to the Blues afer one year at Michigan State University. He signed a four-year contract for a reported $900,000, including a six-figure signing bonus.He&rsquo;s earning every cent of it so far. His development has been remarkable considering he has broken into the National Hockey League at a position unfamiliar to him. A center by trade, Brind&rsquo;Amour is playing left wing with Adam Oates at center and MacLean on right wing.Not bad for a kid who turned 19 just three months ago. Even the Blues&rsquo; management has a hard time believing he&rsquo;s just a rookie.General manager Ron Caron said, &ldquo;I do not consider Brind&rsquo;Amour a rookie.&rdquo;Brind&rsquo;Amour differs. He&rsquo;s still something of a rookie at heart.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still learning,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve not really played (left wing) before. I&rsquo;m learning my way through it. I prefer center, but I&rsquo;ll play wherever I can. I&rsquo;m trying every day to do my job.&rdquo;Brind&rsquo; Amour is built like a mini-Charles Atlas. He&rsquo;s 6-foot-l and a rock-solid 200 pounds.He may be built like a rock, but he&rsquo;s not a rockhead. Brind&rsquo;Amour carried a 3.6 gradepoint average on a 4.0 scale at Michigan State last year, and had a 4.0 for two classes this summer.Brind&rsquo;Amour downplays his own accomplishments and quickly gives credit to his teammates. On his assists against Chicago, he said other players did the work and the goal-scorers screamed to tell him they were open.Still, he had the presence of mind to make the plays. He&rsquo;s not one to brag about his accomplishments. and he&rsquo;s something of a perfectionist, driving himself to do better.&ldquo;I want to do well, but I make dumb mistakes,&rdquo; he said during training camp. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to learn to forget it because one error can turn into another error. I don&rsquo;t want to make dumb mistakes. I&rsquo;m trying to work hard.&rdquo;Make no mistake. The hard work is paying off and the Blues love it.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Peter Zezel, Rick Meagher, Tony Hrkac.LW&mdash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Sergio Momesso, Dave Lowry, Gino Cavallini.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, Brett Hull, Herg Raglan, Keith Osborne.LD&mdash;Mike Lalor. Gordie Roberts, Tony Twist.RD&mdash;Paul Cavallini, Randy Skarda. Brian Benning.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Vincent Riendeau, G, compound fracture on little finger on left hand, day-to-day.Tom Tilley, D, lower back spasms, day-to-daySteve Tuttle. RW, strained shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 3. A&mdash;Brind&rsquo;Amour, Oates, 4. P&mdash; Brind&rsquo;Amour, 6. PIM&mdash;Twist, Raglan, 9. &#9632;

A LOVE AFFAIR IN ST. LOUIS

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>What would a Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; season be without a little goaltending controversy?Last season the Hawks played musical goalies with Darren Pang, Ed Belfour and Jimmy Waite until late January, when Alain Chevrier arrived from Winnipeg to solidify the position.It took only 10 days into this regular season for coach Mike Keenan to proclaim the No. 1 job wide open once again, after incumbent Chevrier started slowly, failing to finish two of his first four starts.The second time Chevrier was removed from a game, Oct. 12 against Toronto, Jacques Cloutier came in and played well enough to get his first Chicago win as the Hawks rallied three times for a 9-6 victory.Two nights later in St. Louis, Cloutier got his first start and was good in a 2-1 loss to the Blues. He was even better the next night, Oct. 15, when he blanked the Red Wings 3-0. The shutout was the first by a Hawks&rsquo; goaltender in 195 games, dating back to Jan. 28, 1987, when the now-retired Bob Sauve whitewashed Toronto, 5-0.It was after the game in St. Louis that Keenan said the No. 1 job was there for either goaltender to seize. Keenan also took a jab at Chevrier in the process.&ldquo;Mr. Chevrier hasn&rsquo;t won any position on this hockey club in terms of making a No. 1 impression,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He has to work harder than he has in the pre-season and the regular season. The only way to get out of a slump is to work harder.&rdquo;Chevrier, who missed the first two days of training camp with contract problems, said his confidence had slipped a little.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not playing as well as I should be.&rdquo; Chevrier said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of working hard to get back where I was. I&rsquo;m not as confident as I was before, but I&rsquo;ll get that back. It&rsquo;s only four games. Last year it seemed like everything fell into place for myself and the team.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Cloutier is confident he can be the No. 1 goaltender with the Hawks. However, he&rsquo;s quick to point out that in the NHL. a goalie is only as good as his last game.&ldquo;You guys (reporters) have put a lot of pressure on the situation in the last week, but I think the No. 1 job is open on about 16 teams in the NHL,&rdquo; Cloutier said. &ldquo;Only guys like (Grant) Fuhr, (Ron) Hextall and (Kelly) Hrudey are guaranteed. It&rsquo;s just wide open in a lot of places. I&rsquo;m here to do my best when I play, no matter how many games that is.&rdquo;Cloutier came to the Hawks in a Sept. 29 trade with Buffalo for minor-league center Steve Ludzik and a 1990 mid-round draft choice. He arrived with the idea he could play anywhere from 40 to 50 games with his new team.He&rsquo;s familiar with Keenan, too, having played for him while with Rochester of the American League. Cloutier was Keenan&rsquo;s goalie in 1983 when the Americans captured the Calder Cup.&ldquo;My playing time here will depend on the way we play as a team and the way I play,&rdquo; Cloutier said. &ldquo;That will dictate how many games I play. Me and Alain, the competition will make us better goaltenders. I think it&rsquo;s a healthy situation.&rdquo;&ldquo;Whoever plays that night is the No. 1 goaltender,&rdquo; Chevrier said. &ldquo;As long as the team wins, that&rsquo;s all that matters.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 15: Everett Sanipass, LW, Mike Peluso, D-LW, Ryan McGill, D, and Bob Bassen, LW, recalled from Indianapolis (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Adam Creighton, Troy Murray. Jeremy Roenick, Mike Hudson.LW&mdash;Greg Gilbert. Steve Thomas. Al Secord, Wayne Van Dorp. Everett Sanipass, Bob Bassen.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham. Wayne Presley, Duane Sutter.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson. Dave Manson, Steve Konroyd, Mike Peluso.RD&mdash;Bob McGill, Trent Yawney. Keith Brown, Bob Murray, Ryan McGill.G&mdash;Jacques Cloutier, Alain Chevrier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Darren Pang, G, left knee surgery Sept. 11, out for season.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Wilson, Savard, 4. A&mdash;Wilson, 6. P&mdash;Wilson, 10. PIM&mdash;Manson, 23. &#9632;

YET ANOTHER GOALTENDING CONTROVERSY IN CHICAGO

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>It&rsquo;s not exactly the way the Detroit Red Wings wanted to start the new season. In fact, it hardly could have been worse.Not only did the Norris Division champs begin the campaign going 0-3, allowing 20 goals on a three-game road trip, but they also lost some key veterans in the process.Goalie Greg Stefan was injured before he played a minute, prompting suggestions by some teammates he would be better off with a fresh start elsewhere.Center Shawn Burr was demoted to Adirondack for poor defensive play. He was joined by defenseman Chris Kotsopoulos, who was sent down to get in shape.And left winger Gerard Gallant was suspended five games for slashing the Canucks&rsquo; Garth Butcher Oct. 7 in Vancouver.Stefan, entering his ninth season with the Wings, is Detroit&rsquo;s longest-serving active player. But if the rumblings in the Wings dressing room mean anything, he may have overstayed his welcome.The morning after Detroit&rsquo;s opening night 10-7 loss at Calgary Oct. 5 (with Glen Hanlon in net for all 10), Stefan came up lame, complaining his chronic back spasms were giving him problems. The Wings sent him home to Detroit to have the problem examined. He was practicing a week later, but it was uncertain when he would return.Coach Jacques Demers confirmed some players were angered by Stefan&rsquo;s departure and were suspicious of the circumstances surrounding it&mdash;the timing, his poor training camp, and his track record.Stefan tried to downplay the remarks, but it was obvious he was disappointed.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re blaming (the poor start on) the goaltending,&rdquo; he said with a sardonic laugh. &ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t want to say anything about that. Right now, I&rsquo;m not really concerned about it (what some teammates have said). It&rsquo;s my back I&rsquo;m concerned about. &ldquo;Until recently, Wings&rsquo; management virtually ignored the idea of upgrading their goaltending. Now, a team that had training-camp visions of challenging for the Stanley Cup will have its hands full just winning the Norris Division if the goaltending situation hasn&rsquo;t cleared up soon.With Stefan injured, the Wings are bargaining from a weak position. In the meantime, Glen Hanlon&mdash;whom the Wings consider to be the best backup goalie in the NHL&mdash;has assumed the No. 1 duties, with 21-year-old rookie Tim Cheveldae serving as understudy.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing we cando with our goaltending right now,&rdquo; Demers said bitterly. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re stuck.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the Red Wings could have a problem on their hands with Burr. Known for his excellent defensive play, Burr was sent down to Adirondack of the American League Oct. 12.When he will return is anybody&rsquo;s guess. But Burr, angered over the way the demotion was handled, doesn&rsquo;t plan to be a farm-hand too long.&ldquo;If they think I should play a few games there, fine,&rdquo; Burr said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not going to spend my whole career down-there. I can play for any team in this league (the NHL), if they don&rsquo;t want me.&rdquo;<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 6: Tim Cheveldae, G, recalled from Adirondack (AHL).Oct. 10: Chris Kotsopoulos. D, Dean Morton, D. assigned to Adirondack.Oct 12: Shawn Burr, C, assigned to Adirondack.Oct. 13: John Mokosak, D, recalled from Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman. John Chabot, Bernie Federko, Adam Graves.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Petr Klima, Tony McKegney, Torrie Robertson, Joe Murphy.RW&mdash;Dave Barr, Brent Fedyk, Marc Habscheid, Jim Nill.LD&mdash;John Mokosak, Lee Norwood. Borje SalmingRD&mdash;Doug Houda, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Rick ZomboG&mdash;Tim Cheveldae, Glen Hanlon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Stefan, G, back spasms, indefinite.Steve Chiasson, D. groin pull, indefinite.Joe Kocur, RW. back spasms, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gallant, 6. A&mdash;Yzerman. 7. P&mdash; Yzerman, 11. PIM&mdash;Gallant, 46. &#9632;

ANOTHER SEASON OF TURMOIL IN MOTOWN?

<div class="byline">STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011542/8498006-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="512" height="627"></div>For now it is merely a fantasy which will be given some further thought by Gordie.&mdash;Colleen HoweSay it ain&rsquo;t so, Gordie. Say you&rsquo;re not coming out of retirement to play a meaningless game for a meaningless record.You have already established an unsurpassable mark for longevity. Nobody will ever match your 26 NHL seasons and 32 professional years&mdash;a career that spanned five decades.Who cares about a sixth?Nobody will ever play to the age of 52 as you did. What possible satisfaction could come from playing one more shift as a 61-year-old?If you want to play again, see about appearing in the 1990 All-Star Game. Now that&rsquo;s the perfect place for another opportunity to play with Wayne Gretzky.A regular-season NHL game is not. It would undermine the league&rsquo;s credibility. The Los Angeles Kings have a responsibility to ice the best team possible every single game of the season. The Kings may not have great depth, but surely they&rsquo;ve got someone younger than half Howe&rsquo;s age who can skate faster than Gordie.Kings&rsquo; coach Tom Webster is saying all the right things. You know, the stuff about giving you a boot in the behind to get you on the ice. But if he really wants to sacrifice a place in his lineup, then he&rsquo;s been listening to Bruce McNall too much.And Bruce, settle down already. Good work on Gretzky. Way to change the Kings&rsquo; uniforms. And thanks for getting rid of Ftorek. But don&rsquo;t fool with Father Time. Howe was bom in 1928, for God&rsquo;s sake. He&rsquo;s almost as old as the NHL itself. It was just 11 years earlier that the league was founded.The temptation is to say the entire suggestion is below Howe&rsquo;s dignity, but that&rsquo;s nonsense. Dignity has nothing to do with this. This is about common sense.Do you see the Montreal Canadiens proposing Jean Beliveau emerge from retirement to play with Stephane Richer? Let&rsquo;s see. Beliveau played in the 1950s, &rsquo;60s and &rsquo;70s. He could play Dec. 23 when the Philadelphia Flyers visit the Forum. At 58, he should be good for a couple of goals.Then, having played in his fourth decade, he could rest for two weeks and play Jan. 6 when the Buffalo Sabres travel to Montreal. It would be a nice touch that the Sabres&rsquo; first year in the league, 1970-71, was his last.That would make it five decades for Beliveau. And, he&rsquo;ll only be 69 in the year 2000, so he could work out a little and play again following the turn of the century. Pas de problem.It could be a great crowd-pleaser in other sports too. Maybe Don King could get Muhammad Ali to get in the ring again for one more punch to the head. Man, wouldn&rsquo;t that be great? Or George Blanda could make one last completion.How about Ted Williams thumbing his nose at the fans just once more? Hell, why not? Minnie Minoso has made pinch-hitting appearances in the &rsquo;70s and &rsquo;80s to stretch his elongated career to five decades. Like Howe, he played in the &rsquo;40s, &rsquo;50s and &rsquo;60s. But unlike Howe, he did not make legitimate appearances during the &rsquo;70s and &rsquo;80s.The Chicago White Sox dressed him for three games in 1976-&mdash;Minoso was 53&mdash;and twice more in 1980&mdash;when he was 57&mdash;to make it five decades. (For the record, he had one hit in eight 1976 at bats and none in two 1980 at bats.) They plan to have him make one more appearance in 1991&mdash;he&rsquo;ll be 69&mdash;when the new Comiskey Park is opened.Baseball allows such departures. They have designated hitters, don&rsquo;t they? Besides, the sport truly serves players of all shapes and sizes. After all, Terry (The Big Tub of Goo) Forster pitched for the Atlanta Braves. And only enormous egos keep bellies in proportion with a good number of baseball players.Traditionally, the NHL has been a little more choosy than Major League Baseball about who plays. (Although some thugs have provided contrary evidence.). Call it one of hockey&rsquo;s charms that players are expected to exert themselves for more than five-second intervals.Howe long ago earned the nickname, &lsquo;Mr. Hockey.&rsquo; It is richly-deserved. The legend is complete, although he continues to serve the game and the NHL well. But the league doesn&rsquo;t owe him one last skate around the rink. Not that he expects it. Howe isn&rsquo;t twisting any arms.The next time I see Gordie Howe on the ice, I hope it&rsquo;s to present an NHL award, not to achieve a milestone that will be a millstone around the game&rsquo;s neck. Sure, it would all be in good fun, but it would be more the stuff of Saturday Night Live than Hockey Night in Canada. &#9632;

f0017-01

HOWE COME MR. HOCKEY WANTS TO PLAY AGAIN?

New York Rangers&rsquo; right winger Chris Nilan, with 2,491 career penalty minutes, needs 82 to move past Willi Plett and into second place among the all-time NHL leaders. The next target for Nilan, 31, will be difficult to reach. Dave (Tiger) Williams is 1,475 minutes ahead of the Ranger.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021203/8498037-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="710" height="417"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Nilan</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

NUMBERS

<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Center Mario Lemieux, who led the NHL with 85 goals last season, got his first of this season in the Penguins&rsquo; fifth game, a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers&hellip;Defenseman Rod Buskas has been with the Penguins since the 1982-83 season&mdash;easily the longest of anyone on Pittsburgh&rsquo;s roster&mdash;but he might not be for much longer. Buskas, scratched from the Penguins&rsquo; lineup for the first five games, asked to be traded&hellip;Defenseman Jim Kyte, whose last two-goal game had come during a youth hockey game in Ottawa, scored twice in the Penguins&rsquo; home-opener, a 5-1 victory against Winnipeg Oct. 10. Kyte particularly enjoyed the outburst, since the Jets traded him to Pittsburgh in June. Randy Gilhen. also part of that six-player deal, got the Penguins&rsquo; third goal against the Jets&hellip;Defenseman Chris Dahlquist was suspended briefly when he refused to accept a demotion to Muskegon, but was reinstated after he agreed to join the Lumberjacks.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Tom Kurvers, who led Devils defensemen in scoring last season with 66 points, was dealt to Toronto Oct. 16 for a first-round draft pick in 1991. With the arrival of Soviet defensemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Starikov, Kurvers was seeing little playing time and was expected to be traded&hellip;Kirk Muller played in his 400th NHL game, a 4-3 overtime loss to Montreal Oct. 13, but the captain started the season without scoring a goal on his first 20 shots on goal&hellip;While Viacheslav Fetisov&rsquo;s teammates have their stick blades wrapped with black tape, the Soviet defenseman&rsquo;s stick is wrapped with (of course) red tape. Fetisov, playing exceptionally well, has been a workhorse paired with Bruce Driver. When Fetisov was quoted as saying Sergei Priakin didn&rsquo;t excel in the Soviet Union because &ldquo;he didn&rsquo;t show enough character,&rdquo; Flames&rsquo; coach Terry Crisp made sure Priakin found out. Crisp then dressed Priakin against the Devils and he scored the game-winning goal in a 4-2 Calgary win at the Meadowlands Arena Oct. 10.<h2>RANGERS</h2>When asked about the wisdom of trying to distract Mario Lemieux, Roger Neilson had a cynical response. &ldquo;It would be (a good idea) in theory, but they have a different set of rules for him,&rdquo; the Ranger coach noted following a 4-2 victory over Pittsburgh Oct. 16. &ldquo;For instance, the two-hander he hit (Mark) Janssens with near the end of the third period would have been a five-minute penalty for anybody else in the league. But it was Lemieux, so it gets overlooked-.&rdquo;&hellip;Neilson said he wouldn&rsquo;t send videotapes of the slash to the league, adding a shot aimed at Chicago coach Mike Keenan, who sent tapes of a Chris Nilan high stick on Alain Chevrier to the league. &ldquo;No, we don&rsquo;t send tapes on every little thing to the league,&rdquo; Neilson replied. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s for losers.&rdquo;<h2>FLYERS</h2>The Calgary Flames 3-2 victory over the Flyers at the Spectrum Oct. 15 increased their winning streak against the Flyers to nine games, dating back to December 1986&hellip;The Flyers have announced that former coach Fred Shero and former center Rick MacLeish have been elected to the club&rsquo;s Hall of Fame. Previous inductees are Bob Clarke, Bill Barber, Bernie Parent, and club owner Ed Snider&hellip;Veteran defenseman Mark Howe and left winger Brian Propp are both unsigned and in the option years of their contracts. Howe is looking for a two-year deal (plus an option year) at about $550,000 per season. The Flyers are not balking at the number, but they want to make largely deferred payments, which is not agreeable to Howe, who already has deferred payments coming to him until 1999&hellip;Clarke has still not talked to holdout goalie Ron Hextall, nor Hex-tall&rsquo;s agent, Rich Winter. The second week of October was the first week Hextall missed a paycheck&mdash;a result of his 12-game suspension for chasing Chris Chelios in the Wales Conference finals. The Flyers&rsquo; slow start has resulted in the fans placing pressure on the club to sign the goalie. One sign at the Spectrum read, &ldquo;The Flyers without Hextall are like a junkie without crack. Very shaky.&rdquo;<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>It was a happy homecoming in L.A. Oct. 11 for former Kings&rsquo; goalie Mark Fitzpatrick, who came to the Islanders in the Kelly Hrudey trade. In his first game against his exteammates, Fitzpatrick was a 7-4 winner. Wayne Gretzky, with whom Fitzpatrick roomed last season while he was up with the Kings, had a goal and two assists, part of his pursuit of Gordie Howe&rsquo;s record. Fitzpatrick, who allowed Lanny McDonald&rsquo;s 500th NHL goal last season, didn&rsquo;t want to be a victim again. &ldquo;I saw McDonald&rsquo;s goal 10 times this summer on tape,&rdquo; Fitzpatrick said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to be in the record books for Wayne&rsquo;s because that would be much bigger.&rdquo;<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Olaf Kolzig, 19, made his NHL debut at Hartford Oct. II. Kolzig, who was hit by a virus after the Capitals returned from the Soviet Union, yielded four goals in 23 shots as the Whalers won, 4-1. &ldquo;I was so nervous I felt like I had cement for feet,&rdquo; he said.. Mike Ridley broke a 4-4 tie by scoring two goals 63 seconds apart in the third period as the Capitals defeated the New York Rangers 7-4 Oct. 13. It was the Rangers&rsquo; first loss of the season. Ridley has 11 goals in 19 games against the Rangers, who traded him to Washington Jan. 1, 1987. &#9632;

GOAL DROUGHT ENDS FOR LEMIEUX

<div class="byline">BY SHERRY ROSS</div>New York Islanders&rsquo; coach Al Arbour was hoping for a pleasant surprise to emerge in his lineup, and he lucked out. He got two.The first was 1989 first-round draft choice Dave Chyzowski, who not only made the team, but started the season at left wing with the Islanders&rsquo; best offensive center, Pat LaFontaine. But when Chyzowski was lost to a shoulder injury in the second game of the season, it was the emergence of a second player, center Tom Fitzgerald, which allowed Arbour to successfully tinker with his lineup.Arbour promoted Fitzgerald from part-time fourth-liner to full-time on the third line and the rookie responded. Aging veteran Bryan Trottier was moved to left wing on LaFontaine&rsquo;s line to take Chyzowski&rsquo;s place.In his first game with the added reponsibilities, the 21-year-old Fitzgerald found himself squaring off with Wayne Gretzky in Los Angeles Oct. 11.&ldquo;I had never seen him face-to-face, or stick-to-stick, until I lined up against him for the first faceoff,&rdquo; Fitzgerald said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d only seen him in games on TV or in his commercials.&rdquo;With Kings&rsquo; coach Tom Webster getting the last line change, Gretzky was usually matched against Fitzgerald instead of the Islanders&rsquo; more experienced centers. The Great One did get three points in the Islanders&rsquo; 7-4 win, but all of his points came on the power play. At even strength, Fitzgerald notched a goal and an assist, both at the expense of Gretzky&rsquo;s line.&ldquo;Fitzy did a real good job (against Gretzky) and he got a big goal for us, too.&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing very well. His puckhandling is improving all the time and his skating is improving. He&rsquo;s always going and getting in the way, taking the body. He plays with a lot of enthusiasm.&rdquo;Fitzgerald, a first-round draft pick in 1986, played two years at Providence College before turning pro last season. He split last season between the Islanders and their American League farm team in Springfield, getting most of his NHL ice time late in the season after the Islanders made their commitment to the youth movement.With the Indians, he had 24 goals and 18 assists in 61 games. With the Islanders, he had three goals and five assists in 28 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m real confident now,&rdquo; Fitzgerald said. &ldquo;Handling the puck last year I was really intimidated and nervous. I&rsquo;m seeing a lot more ice time now in different situations, and once you get that confidence, you can just go out and play your game.&rdquo;Fitzgerald won a three-way battle for the fourth center spot in training camp over Gilles Thibaudeau and Rob DiMaio. Thibaudeau was recalled from Springfield after Chyzowski&rsquo;s injury.Trottier, who saw occasional shifts at left wing last season, also clicked instantly with LaFontaine and Mikko Makela in the Kings&rsquo; game. The line accounted for four goals (two by LaFontaine) and five assists. Trottier had a goal and two assists while Makela had a goal and an assist.&ldquo;He (Trottier) is capable of playing anywhere,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s good chemistry with that line. I had been considering it for a while, but I wanted to look at our other options first. If the team needs it. Trots will do anything for the team.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 14: Brad Lauer, LW. assigned to Springfield (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, Brent Sutter, Tom Fitzgerald, Gilles Thibaudeau.LW&mdash;Bryan Trottier. David Volek. Randy Wood, Don Maloney.RW&mdash;Mikko Makela, Patrick Flatley, Alan Kerr. Mick Vukota.LD&mdash;Jeff Norton, Rich Pilon, Gary Nylund, Marc Bergevin.RD&mdash;Dean Chynoweth, Doug Crossman, Gerald Diduck.G&mdash;Mark Fitzpatrick, Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Chyzowski, LW, bruised left shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Flatley, LaFontaine, Sutter, 3. A&mdash;Crossman, 6. P&mdash;Crossman, Flatley, 8. PIM&mdash;Vukota. 20. &#9632;

FITZGERALD GIVES KINGS FITS WITH PERFORMANCE

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to hope we get a break with injuries. &ldquo;&mdash;New York Ranger GM Neil Smith, on the Rangers&rsquo; decision not to acquire a veteran center in the 1989 NHL waiver draft.No such luck.Four games into the 1989-90 season, the New York Rangers found themselves without captain Kelly Kisio (back spasms), and rookies in three of the four center slots in their lineup.Smith, who admitted he was &ldquo;a little apprehensive&rdquo; about starting the season with two rookies in the middle, had to be even more concerned when the injuries hit his team&rsquo;s most vulnerable area.But coach Roger Neilson was optimistic.&ldquo;The bad news may be that they are rookies,&rdquo; Neilson said after a 4-2 win over Pittsburgh Oct. 15. &ldquo;But the good news is that they are all playing well.&rdquo;Troy Mallette, 19, played his first two NHL games as a left winger. He joined fellow rookies Darren Turcotte and Mark Janssens as the Rangers&rsquo; centers during a 7-4 loss at Washington Oct. 13, then helped his team bounce back two nights later against the Penguins.And that victory was due, in large part, to contributions of the rookies.Turcotte, who scored seven goals in 20 games for the Rangers last season, was the first to contribute, stealing the puck from Mario Lemieux and blasting a 45-foot shot by Penguins&rsquo; goalie Wendell Young.Mallette, who scored his first NHL goal at Washington, made a slick centering pass to send Brian Mullen in for New York&rsquo;s second goal.Janssens, matched up against Lemieux for much of the evening, centered a checking line which limited the Penguin superstar to one goal.Of all the rookies, Mallette was considered the biggest surprise. A second-round draft choice (22nd overall) by the Rangers in 1988, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound rookie made the team as a left winger. But&hellip;&ldquo;When Kisio had to miss practice one day, we moved Troy into the middle and he looked so good that we just left him there,&rdquo; said Neilson. &ldquo;He has played a lot of center and doesn&rsquo;t seem to be bothered by anything.&rdquo;The Rangers could have avoided having three rookies at center by picking up a veteran in the waiver draft. They escaped further trouble when nobody claimed center Jason Lafreniere, who was left unprotected and then sent to Flint of the International League.&ldquo;If we were to call up a center from the minors it would probably be Lafreniere,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;He went down with a good attitude and we&rsquo;ve received good reports on him from (Flint coach) Paul Theriault.&ldquo;We exposed him in the waiver draft because that is what he requested. We aren&rsquo;t going to give him away. He&rsquo;s too valuable a player&hellip;especially the way things have gone so far.&rdquo;The loss of another rookie, Corey Millen, hasn&rsquo;t helped matters. He came to training camp as the most likely center to earn a regular roster spot.The 1988 U.S. Olympic team scoring leader scored in his first pre-season game Sept. 17, but suffered a knee injury after being checked by the Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Trottier.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 16: Marcel Dionne. C, unconditionally released.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Carey Wilson, Darren Turcotte, Mark Janssens, Troy Mallette.LW&mdash;Ulf Dahlen. John Ogrodnick, Jan Erixon, Kris King.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom. Brian Mullen, Tony Gra-nato, Rudy Poeschek.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Ron Greschner, Lindy Ruff.RD&mdash;David Shaw, Rudy Poeschek, Randy Moller.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Bob Froese, Mike Richter.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Cyr, C, knee surgery. Dec. 1.Mark Hardy, D, back spasms, indefinite.Kelly Kisio, C, back spasms, indefinite.Corey Millen, C, sprained left knee, Dec. 1.James Patrick, D, back spasms, indefinite.Normand Rochefort, D, knee surgery, Dec. 1<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Dahlen. Ogrodnick, 4. A&mdash;Leetch, 4. P&mdash; Dahlen, 6. PIM&mdash;Nilan, 44. &#9632;

ROOKIE CENTERS FILL IN ADMIRABLY

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>For the past three seasons with the Quebec Nordiques and New York Rangers, Walt Poddubny has been an impact player with an accurate shot and a nose for the net.Primarily a first-line center for those clubs, he&rsquo;s averaged 38 goals each of the last three seasons. But since coming to the New Jersey Devils, he&rsquo;s seen his role drastically change. Just as importantly, he hasn&rsquo;t complained publicly about his reduced ice time.After a wide range of experiments by coach Jim Schoenfeld, Poddubny has been most effective as a third-line left winger.&ldquo;When I came here they expected me to produce, of course, but they also wanted other things,&rdquo; said Poddubny, acquired from the Nordiques on June 17 in a trade for Joe Cirella and Claude Loiselle. &ldquo;They wanted leadership and for me to be good with the kids. No matter how many shifts I play, I want to help this team. I want to win and I&rsquo;ll do what I can to help.&rdquo;The 29-year-old native of Thunder Bay, Ont., scored two goals in a 4-4 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins Oct. 7. Skating on the left side with rookie center Janne Ojanen and right winger Doug Brown, Poddubny made the most of his limited ice time.&ldquo;Who am I to complain? I&rsquo;m just happy to be here,&rdquo; said Poddubny. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t really thought about it. I guess there is an adjustment for me. I don&rsquo;t look at it as going from the first to the third line. It&rsquo;s not easy to sit on the bench for long stretches and then get your legs going, but I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;ll take that much of an adjustment?&rsquo;However, he struggled after his two-goal game and following several shifts at left wing on the No. 1 line with Patrik Sundstrom and John MacLean, Poddubny was benched by Schoenfeld in the third period of a 3-2 triumph over the Hartford Whalers Oct. 14.He is likely to return to the team&rsquo;s third line, where both Brown and Ojanen benefitted from Poddubny&rsquo;s experience.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if chemistry is the right word,&rdquo; said Poddubny. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ve yet developed a chemistry. Dougie works his butt off and Janne is playing good positional hockey. Chemistry will come in time.&rdquo;Of course, Poddubny is just happy to be out of Quebec, where he escaped what might have been a long season playing for Nords&rsquo; coach Michel Bergeron. His troubles with Bergeron in New York have been well-documented.&ldquo;For me, there have been two situations in my career I had to get out of&mdash;Toronto and Quebec,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Getting traded from the Rangers (at Bergeron&rsquo;s insistence) was a shock.&ldquo;The problem with Michel is he&rsquo;s a manipulator. I respect him as a coach, but he uses people to further himself. It seems as if no one will say it, but I noticed that even players on the Rangers who were his favorites eventually were criticized. I respect him as a coach, but I didn&rsquo;t like him as a person.&ldquo;I heard all last season about the bad things he was saying about me,&rdquo; said Poddubny, &ldquo;But a player can&rsquo;t really win in a debate or disagreement with a coach. I just went to Quebec and did the best job I could and when I heard they were going to hire Bergeron back, I asked to be traded.&rdquo;Wearing his fourth different sweater in five seasons, Poddubny is hoping the Devils&rsquo; sweater is the one that fits him best.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Tom Kurvers, D, traded to Toronto for first-round pick in 1991 entry draft.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Patrik Sundstrom, Kirk Muller, Janne Ojanen, Mark Johnson, Dave Maley.LW&mdash;Brendan Shanahan, Sylvain Turgeon. Walt Poddubny, Jim Korn.RW&mdash;John MacLean, Aaron Broten. Doug Brown, Neil Brady. Peter Sundstrom.LD&mdash;Bruce Driver, Tommy Albelin, Randy Velis-chek.RD&mdash;Viacheslav Fetisov, Ken Daneyko Craig Wolanin, Sergei Starikov.G&mdash;Sean Burke, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Reijo Ruotsalainen, D, sore groin, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Turgeon, 5. A&mdash;Albelin, Fetisov, Muller, 4. P&mdash; Turgeon, Brown, 5. PIM&mdash;Shanahan, 18. &#9632;

THIRD-LINE STATUS FOREIGN TO PODDUBNY

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>The training room of a professional sports team contains all kinds of contraptions to help heal the injured.The Philadelphia Flyers have all of those, but when Jay Wells arrives in the dressing room after games, he doesn&rsquo;t need any of them.In his 10 seasons, Gordon Jay Wells&mdash;possibly the NHL&rsquo;s biggest John Wayne fan&mdash;has never been a fancy sort of guy. And when he walks into the room he simply plunges his sore right hand into a bucket of ice.Just like &lsquo;The Duke&rsquo; would do.Well, first he takes off the brace he has been forced to play with, and then he dunks the hand into the bucket. He&rsquo;s even got his own personal bucket which the club takes on the road.It&rsquo;s a real fancy one, too. An old coffee can which trainer Dave Settlemyre has covered with some masking tape.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all it needs,&rdquo; said Wells, after the Flyers had earned their first win of the season, defeating Quebec 4-2 Oct. 12. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s sore, but I can guarantee you that I won&rsquo;t miss any games this season because of this hand.&rdquo;The hand, which was first damaged several years ago when he played with Los Angeles, was re-injured last season when he was slashed in St. Louis. Wells played through the season, and then had surgery in June.&ldquo;Basically, they removed part of the fifth metacarpel (knuckle),&rdquo; said Wells, &ldquo;and they tried to repair some nerve damage.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t the pain so much as a lack of feeling. It would be like my hand was asleep.&ldquo;So, what I&rsquo;ve got now is a cast I wear to bed. That cast holds my hand in a position to alleviate some pressure, and I don&rsquo;t have that numbness.&ldquo;And for the games, I wear this brace.&rdquo;Wells has never been afraid to mix things up a bit&mdash;he&rsquo;s averaged nearly 200 penalty minutes per season&mdash;and fighting has always been a part of his game. Thus, a cast might present a problem.&ldquo;Obviously, I can&rsquo;t throw punches with my right,&rdquo; said Wells. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d get a penalty (for hitting with the brace), but I can still throw lefts. &ldquo;The big hits he&rsquo;s thrown with his fists are not as important to the Flyers as the big hits he&rsquo;s thrown with his body. Over the Flyers&rsquo; early-season trials (a 1-4-1 record, last in the Patrick Division), Wells was the most consistent defenseman and has delivered the biggest hits.He even made a nice play to set up Dave Poulin&rsquo;s goal, which earned the Flyers a 3-3 tie with the New York Islanders Oct. 14.&ldquo;We need his leadership abilities,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; coach Paul Holmgren. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very vocal guy, a real leader, both on the ice and in the locker room.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a great influence since he&rsquo;s been here.&rdquo;Actually, Wells got off to a slow start when he arrived just before the start of the 1988-89 season. He was traded from Los Angeles, where he had played his entire career and, like many players who are moved after a long stay on one team, he didn&rsquo;t make a smooth adjustment.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Sutter, Dave Poulin, Keith Acton, Murray Craven.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Pelle Eklund, Derrick Smith, Jeff Harding.RW&mdash;Mike Bullard, llkka Sinisalo, Brian Dobbin, Tony Horacek.LD&mdash;Mark Howe. Gord Murphy, Dave Fenyves.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Jay Wells, Jeff Chychrun.G&mdash;Ken Wregget, Pete Peeters<h3>INJURIES</h3>Murray Baron, D, bruised left shoulder, day-to-day.Craig Berube, LW, groin injury, day-to-day.Terry Carkner, D, surgery on left knee, Nov. 5-12.Kerry Huffman, D, slightly separated left shoulder, day-to-day.Tim Kerr, RW, strained left shoulder, day-to-dayScott Mellanby, RW, surgery on left arm, indefinite.Rick Tocchet, RW. back spasms, day to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tocchet, 5. A&mdash;Sinisalo, 5. P&mdash; Tocchet. 6. PIM&mdash;Horacek. 24. &#9632;

WELLS DOES IT THE WAY ‘THE DUKE WOULD

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Tom Barrasso will be a pivotal character in the story of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s quest for a Patrick Division championship.But that doesn&rsquo;t mean his backup, Wendell Young, won&rsquo;t author a significant chapter or two.Barrasso was brilliant in the early part of the season, but the Penguins were expecting nothing less. It is the reason they parted with Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon to get him last November.Barrasso started the first four games of the regular season, but left 5:49 into the fourth game after his right (catching) hand was badly bruised by a Russ Courtnall slapshot.Enter Young, who stopped 28 of 29 Montreal shots the rest of the way in a 2-1 overtime victory against Montreal. He was back in goal again the next night in a 4-2 loss at Madison Square Garden, giving up three goals. New York&rsquo;s final tally was into an empty net.Barrasso&rsquo;s injury is not serious&mdash;he is listed as day-to-day&mdash;but Young&rsquo;s performance meant the Penguins were under no pressure to rush Barrasso back into the lineup.For Young, whom the Penguins acquired from Philadelphia before last season, it was just the latest trip from the jump seat to the hot seat. Be a backup goalie long enough, and you get used to that sort of thing.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to stay ready all the time,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s tough, because it drags on sometimes. You practice so much. That&rsquo;s the tough part of being a backup goalie, the mental part.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011371/8498188-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="746" height="1122"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendell Young, above, has proved to be a capable backup to Tom Barrasso.</figcaption></div>Young obviously handles it well, however. Last season, he was in goal for victories in places like the Spectrum and Boston Garden, arenas the Penguins traditionally leave with nothing more than soiled uniforms.&ldquo;When has Wendell ever let us down?&rdquo; center Dan Quinn asked rhetorically.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of faith in Wendell,&rdquo; defenseman Jim Johnson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always come in cold and come up big.&rdquo;Young held onto his job this season despite a strong challenge from Frank Pietrangelo, who was recalled from Muskegon of the International League while Barrasso was out of action.&ldquo;Wendell has looked sharp from Day 1,&rdquo; coach Gene Ubriaco said. &lsquo;&lsquo;We&rsquo;ve got ourselves two real good goalies.&rdquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean there is a goalie controversy brewing, however. The job is&mdash;and will be&mdash;Barrasso&rsquo;s as long as he is healthy enough to hold it.Effective as Young has been in relief, there is no question Barrasso is the more gifted of the two. And on a team like Pittsburgh, which occasionally strays from the rudiments of sound defense, it is important to have a goalie who consistently makes the big save.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we need a Barrasso,&rdquo; Ubriaco said.If anything, the Penguins sometimes take Barrasso for granted, counting on him to compensate for some of their defensive lapses.&ldquo;He plays the puck so well, sometimes you&rsquo;re looking for a breakaway because he can almost pass the puck right on your stick,&rdquo; center John Cullen said.&ldquo;Or you don&rsquo;t backcheck that hard because you think he&rsquo;s going to make the save. He&rsquo;s such a great goalie that you could take him for granted, and that could hurt us sometimes.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s easy to see why the Penguins have such unwavering faith in Barrasso. He has already stolen a few points and saved a few others this season, like when he stopped a penalty shot by Winnipeg&rsquo;s Doug Smail in the Penguins&rsquo; home opener.A goal could have given the Jets the impetus to overcome a 3-0 Pittsburgh lead. The stop Barrasso made&mdash;giving Smail nothing but the right post to shoot at&mdash;all but clinched the Penguins&rsquo; 5-1 victory.&ldquo;If we score that goal, our guys are all excited,&rdquo; Winnipeg coach Bob Murdoch said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t score that goal, so their guys are all excited and they think Barrasso is invincible.&rdquo;So far this season, there hasn&rsquo;t been much reason for them to think otherwise.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 14: Frank Pietrangelo, G, recalled from Muskegon (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, Randy Gilhen, Dave Capuano.LW&mdash;Bob Errey, Phil Bourque, Kevin Stevens. Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Rob Brown. Andrew McBain, Jock Callander, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Zarley Zalapski, Jim Johnson, Jim Kyte.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Gilbert Delorme, Rod Buskas.G&mdash;Wendell Young, Frank Pietrangelo.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tom Barrasso, G, bruised right hand, day-to-dayJohn Cullen, C, viral infection, indefinite.Gord Dineen, D, broken finger on right hand, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Errey, Kyte. Cullen, Quinn, 2. A&mdash;Lemieux, 8. P&mdash;Lemieux. 9. PIM&mdash;Kyte. 11. &#9632;

f0020-01

YOUNG EASES PAIN OF BARRASSO INJURY

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>One period a career does not make, but it may have secured NHL employment for Washington Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Bill Houlder.When the regular season began, Houlder was with the Capitals&rsquo; American League farm team in Baltimore for what was supposed to be an extended stay. After the left side of the Capitals&rsquo; blue line suffered three injuries in two games, however, Houlder was back in the NHL.It figured to be a brief stay, until Rod Langway, Calle Johansson and Scot Kleinendorst were able to return to action. But after his performance in the third period of a 4-4 tie against Calgary Oct. 14, Houlder may finally have earned a big-league job.With 7:05 remaining. Houlder started the play that culminated in Michal Pivonka&rsquo;s second goal and a 3-3 tie. Then, after Joel Otto regained the lead for the Flames, Houlder scored an unassisted goal with six seconds left.The fact that Houlder was on the ice at that stage was as much a tribute to his improving situation as the goal itself, which he claimed was &ldquo;nothing dramatic.&rdquo; Houlder picked off an attempted clearing pass at the left point and simply whacked it in the direction of the net.&ldquo;Honest, I was just waiting for someone else to bang it in,&rdquo; said Houlder, the Caps&rsquo; fourthroundchoice in the 1985 entry draft. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m at the blueline just hoping to get it near the net. It went off their guy sliding, then off their defenseman&rsquo;s skate. No big slapper. Nothing dramatic.&rdquo;The crowd of 17,108 thought otherwise, sending the noisemeter into triple figures. The come-from-behind tie, which gave the Caps a 2-2-1 record and a four-way tie for second place in the Patrick Division, also sat well with coach Bryan Murray.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011113/8498219-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="712" height="1133"><figcaption class="caption-body">Three injuries, including one to Calle Johansson, weakened the Caps&rsquo; defense.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;That was a lot of determination, a pretty big effort,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To almost give it away like that only to come back at the end&hellip;a real character game, that was.&rdquo;Houlder. 22, was playing his third game of this season and his 41st for Washington over three campaigns. For a long time, he looked like the Capitals&rsquo; best young defenseman, but as he struggled, general manager David Poile began to lose hope and the acquisition in March of Johansson and Bob Rouse left Houlder hanging.<blockquote class="pullQuote">REARGUARD GETS SECOND CHANCE AFTER POOR CAMP.</blockquote>&ldquo;That was discouraging for me,&rdquo; Houlder said. &ldquo;I thought I was playing really well in Baltimore and I was expecting to be called up. but they (the Capitals) went elsewhere. That leaves it up to me to get a spot back in the lineup. I know no one&rsquo;s going to give it to me.&rdquo;Although he was one of nine defensemen to make the pre-season trip to Europe for training camp, it was obvious that the first five spots were solid and that Neil Sheehy and Kleinendorst were ahead in the battle for six and seven.Houlder did not help his cause, playing and practising without much spark in the Soviet Union.&ldquo;I thought I had a fairly good training camp until midway of the Russian trip,&rdquo; Houlder said. &ldquo;Then everything seemed to go downhill. I don&rsquo;t know if I lost my concentration or what. I guess I tried too hard. You don&rsquo;t help yourself when you try to do more than you can do.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;d written off his chances to play before camp started,&rdquo; said Murray. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t able to convince him that there was a door open. He had a poor camp. He wasn&rsquo;t strong and he wasn&rsquo;t involved.&ldquo;Bill Houlder is one of the guys who can help us. But nobody else can make it happen, only him. He has to show us he can do the job.&rdquo;Murray made that statement four days before the Calgary game. Apparently, Houlder got the message.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter. Michal Pivonka, Rob Murray.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller, Geoff Courtnail, Doug Wick-enheiser, Robin Bawa, Nick Kypreos.RW&mdash;Dave Christian, Dino Ciccarelli, Steve Leach, Alan May, Yvon Corriveau.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Bill Houlder, Brian Tutt.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Kevin Hatcher, Neil Sheehy. Chris Felix.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Olaf Kolzig.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Calle Johansson, D, strained lower back, day-to-day.Scot Kleinendorst, D, torn ligament in left knee, indefinite.Rod Langway, D. strained ligament in left knee, Oct. 20.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Courtnail, Hunter, Ridley, 3. A&mdash;Hatcher, 5. P&mdash;Hunter 6. PIM&mdash;May, 29. &#9632;

f0021-01

NHL DEFENSE JOB IN THE EYE OF B. HOULDER

<div class="byline">BY JEFF FLANAGAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011253/8498250-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phoenix Roadrunner Keith Gretzky (shown celebrating a recent goal) is under contract to Buffalo, but most of his teammates are free agents. (Photo by Benny sieu)</figcaption></div>Quick now, which of the following seems out of place in Arizona?A) Palm trees.B) Cactus.C) Desert.D) Ice hockey.While the choice might seem obvious, don&rsquo;t expect folks in Phoenix to consider &ldquo;D&rdquo; the automatic answer any more. That&rsquo;s because hockey has returned to the Valley of the Sun.After a 10-year absence, the Phoenix Roadrunners have been resurrected, thanks to Edmonton businessman Lyle Abraham, who, after failing to secure an International League franchise for the 1988-89 season, landed one for this season.Abraham, who is in the oil business, got the idea to return hockey to Phoenix during visits the past several winters.&ldquo;Phoenix is a good city,&rdquo; Abraham says. &ldquo;It has all the ingredients to be a successful franchise.&rdquo;And, believe it or not, Phoenix has a proven history of success in the hockey market.Previous incarnations of the Roadrunners usually drew around 5,000 fans a game, while playing in the Central League, Western (Pro) League, World Hockey Association and Pacific League.The Roadrunners finally folded in 1979, but only because the PHL disbanded. The team had already secured about 1,100 season-ticket subscriptions for the following season. Even the team&rsquo;s booster club died hard, remaining in existence and going to Los Angeles to watch the Kings until 1984.&ldquo;There was a hard-core group of fans in the past,&rdquo; Abraham says, &ldquo;and we expect to get those back. Plus we hope to attract a new group of fans, too.&rdquo;Abraham&rsquo;s marketing research two years ago led him to believe hockey would sell again in the desert. Early returns have been good, with season-ticket sales climbing over 2,200.&ldquo;The people here are somewhat Midwestbased,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;with a lot of people coming from hockey cities. I think they&rsquo;ll want to see hockey again.&rdquo;Yet to many Northerners, the thought of hockey in such a warm climate seems odd.&ldquo;Hey, you don&rsquo;t have to have snow up to your butt to be a hockey city,&rdquo; says Roadrunners&rsquo; general manager Adam Keller. &ldquo;Hockey did fine here before and we believe it will again.&rdquo;Keller might know, since he was a captain and coach of the Roadrunners in their Western League days, the late 1960s and early &rsquo;70s.&ldquo;I think the location of Phoenix is a great asset,&rdquo; Keller says.&ldquo;You ask most hockey players if they want to play hockey in Phoenix, and you don&rsquo;t have to do much arm-twisting.&rdquo;But not everything has gone smoothly during the Roadrunners&rsquo; rebirth. Two years ago, in Abraham&rsquo;s first attempt to land an IHL franchise, he could not gain an NHL affiliation, which was one of his provisions before he would join the league.This time, Abraham decided to go ahead without affiliation if need be. A franchise was awarded in January, Keller was appointed in February, and the team moved close to signing an affiliation agreement with the New York Rangers in early July.The Rangers all but promised an agreement, but on July 20, three days after Neil Smith was named general manager, they signed a working agreement with the Flint Spirits.Keller and Co. scrambled and constructed partial agreements with the Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres.Fifteen of the 27 players currently on the roster are the property of NHL clubs, including eight from the Sabres&rsquo; organization. Most of the remaining players are on 25-game IHL tryout contracts.NHL affiliation hasn&rsquo;t been the only snag. Because of its Midwestern-based cities, the IHL requires Phoenix and Salt Lake, the two most Western sites, to subsidize opponents&rsquo; travel costs. Those costs can run between $4,500 and $6,000 a trip.The team began its season-opening nine-game road swing with a shootout loss at Milwaukee and a shootout victory at Peoria, good for three points in the standings and a tie for first place with Salt Lake in the West Division.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t expect to do that well so quickly,&rdquo; says coach Garry Unger. &ldquo;We were just hoping to be competitive the first few games.&rdquo;Unger has no false hopes of championships, although he concedes with a smile, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going into this thinking we can&rsquo;t win it all.&rdquo; He is merely happy to be coaching on this continent. For the past four years, Unger, the former St. Louis Blues star and one-time holder of the record for consecutive games played (914), coached in Great Britain.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty much a thrown-together bunch of guys,&rdquo; Unger says. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not complaining. These guys love to play and they don&rsquo;t complain about a thing. I&rsquo;m having a great time.&rdquo;The players, too, are enjoying themselves, even though they won&rsquo;t play their first home game until Nov. 1. The Roadrunners will host the Admirals at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which holds 13,737 fans for hockey.&ldquo;This is a great opportunity for many of us,&rdquo; says center Bruce Boudreau, 34, who has played parts of eight seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks. &ldquo;We re sort of like the Dirty Dozen. Nobody wanted us, nobody needed us. But we&rsquo;re just banding together and hoping to make something out of it.&rdquo;But in the desert?&ldquo;Hey, it doesn&rsquo;t matter where you are,&rdquo; Boudreau says. &ldquo;Hockey will sell itself no matter where you are.&rdquo;And besides, Phoenix may offer the right exposure for players like Keith Gretzky, the Roadrunners&rsquo; center who is currently under contract with Buffalo, but is hoping to attract offers from other clubs.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t come to a place like Phoenix and just think of the palm trees.&rdquo; Gretzky says. &ldquo;This is a good opportunity for me, an opportunity to get noticed, to play.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what a lot of these guys are thinking. They just want to play. That&rsquo;s all that matters.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0022-01

RAISING ARIZONA

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Rand Simon</div>The Fort Wayne Komets may be the IHL&rsquo;s oldest franchise, but they do have something in common with the expansion Phoenix Roadrunners. Those are the only two-minor pro teams that aren&rsquo;t affiliated with an NHL team.Operating since the 1952-53 season, the Komets have been an independent club since inception. Yet, they have managed to finish first overall three of the last six years and have won three Turner Cups in their history.&ldquo;Somehow, they always manage to come up with a great team,&rdquo; says IHL commissioner Tom Berry. &ldquo;It seems they&rsquo;ve always had great goaltending and coaching.&ldquo;Current NHL netminders Alain Chevrier, Bob Essensa and Pokey Reddick are all former Komets. Last season&rsquo;s coach. Robbie Laird, is now an assistant with the Washington Capitals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re under a real tight budget here in Fort Wayne,&rdquo; says Komets&rsquo; owner-general manager David Welker. &ldquo;We have to find the right blend of veterans and youth. We need to get kids with desire.&rdquo;The Komets have a secondary agreement with the Winnipeg Jets, who have provided the club with their two goalies, Stephane Beauregard and Frank Furlan. Six other players on the roster are under contract to NHL teams. The rest of the players are on IHL contracts.Being an unaffiliated team provides the Komets with a further disadvantage come playoff time.&ldquo;Last year we beat Muskegon eight out of 14 games in the regular season.&rdquo; says Welker. &ldquo;But, for the playoffs, Muskegon got five guys from Pittsburgh (and defeated the Komets 4-1 in the semi-finals). We don&rsquo;t get any help in the playoffs.&rdquo;The new coach in Fort Wayne is nine-year NHL defenseman Al Sims.&ldquo;Al is a blend of Don Cherry and Harry Sinden,&rdquo; says Welker. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re after one thing, and that&rsquo;s to win. But, it&rsquo;s a long season and we want the guys to have fun. Al brings in a loose atmosphere. I think he&rsquo;s going to be a great assest.&rdquo;Sims credits Cherry with having the biggest influence on him as a coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to be a personable coach,&rdquo; Sims says. &ldquo;I try to find out what all my players are thinking about. Cherry always knew when his players were up and when others were down. It&rsquo;s a really important thing nowadays to be able to take to the players, to be a players&rsquo; coach.&rdquo; &#9632;

KOMETS PROVE INDEPENDENCE CAN WORK

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>A couple of rookies made their presence felt during the International League season&rsquo;s first weekend.Jason Hannigan. 20, a right winger with the Fort Wayne Komets, scored the first hat trick of the season as the Komets defeated the Indiana-polis Ice 5-4 Oct. 7.The Komets beat the Ice in a home-and-home series, winning both games after regulation time. Fort Wayne disappointed an openingnight crowd of 7,307 fans in Indy by winning a double shootout 4-3, then dumping the Ice in overtime the following night, in the Komets&rsquo; home opener before a crowd of 3,600.The 6-foot, 180-pound Hannigan was spotted by Fort Wayne coach Al Sims at the Winnipeg camp. &ldquo;When they told me they were releasing him, I brought him back to Fort Wayne with me,&rdquo; Sims said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got an NHL shot. He just needs to leam the game and I&rsquo;m trying to help him out along those lines. He&rsquo;s one of our top three right wings and he&rsquo;s working well with (center Colin) Chin. I&rsquo;ll probably keep him, Chin and (Carl) Mokosak together for a while.&rdquo;Hannigan, an NHL free agent, played in 54 games for the Cornwall Royals of the Ontario League last season, where he had 32 goals and 23 assists.The other impressive newcomer was Phoenix netminder David Liftman, who stopped 31 shots, as the Roadrunners defeated Peoria 4-3 in a shootout Oct. 7.Littman &ldquo;just about stood on his head in the shootout,&rdquo; said Phoenix GM Adam Keller.The Roadrunners started slowly over the first two periods and got behind 3-0. It could have been worse except for the rookie out of Boston College, a 1987 draft selection (11th-round) by Buffalo.Littman, 22, was a first-team all-star in Hockey East last season, and a second-team AllAmerican (East).<h2>BY THE TIME&hellip;</h2>Goaltender Randy Exelby, who had announced his retirement when the Edmonton Oilers tried to demote him to their AHL affiliate in Cape Breton, agreed to report to Phoenix Oct. 7.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011132/8498305-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="718" height="720"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Exelby came out of a brief retirement to join the Phoenix Roadrunners.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to go to Cape Breton,&rdquo; said Exelby, a first-team all-star last season for Sherbrooke in the AHL. &ldquo;I have nothing against the town (Sydney, N.S.), I just didn&rsquo;t think it was the right thing to do.&rdquo; Exelby said he preferred going to a team not affiliated with any one NHL club.<h2>RECORD-BREAKER</h2>Kalamazoo&rsquo;s Kevin Schamehom, returning to the Wings after a four-year absence, needed just one goal to equal the club record of 239, set by Mike Wanchuk. He is already the Wings&rsquo; leading point-getter with 472. Schamehom sat out the first two games with a bruised shoulder and was listed as day-to-day&hellip;Milwaukee started the season by drawing nearly 17,000 fans in two nights. The Admirals led the IHL in attendance last season with 7,000-plus per game&hellip;At Flint, the new home of the New York Rangers&rsquo; minor league affiliate, the Spirits drew 2,352 on opening night&hellip;Defensemen Link Gaetz and Neil Wilkinson joined Kalamazoo from Minnesota Oct. 10. Both had been recalled by the North Stars two days earlier&hellip;Also on Oct. 10, the Vancouver Canucks sent defenseman Kevan Guy and right wingers David Bruce and Ronnie Stem to Milwaukee. &#9632;

f0023-01

A BIG WEEKEND FOR ROOKIE PROS

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>The Rochester Americans opened their season on the good news-bad news principle.The good news, for a dub that lost its first 10 games last season, was a pair of overtime victories. The bad news is the Amerks gave up 11 goals at home in the process.&ldquo;They weren&rsquo;t pretty games, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; said Amerks&rsquo; coach John Van Box-meer. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been putting lots of pucks in the net and we get a lot of shots, but we&rsquo;re playing loosy-goosy. I think when you get a lot of scorers you tend to play that way.&rdquo;There is no doubt the Amerks are blessed with skilled forwards. Veterans Jody Gage, Jim Jackson and Mike Donnelly are back with the club. So is young center Ken Priestlay, who scored 56 goals last season despite being recalled by the Buffalo Sabres eight times.Newcomers up front include veteran Steve Ludzik, who was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks for goaltender Jacques Cloutier, and center Scott McCrory, who came over from Baltimore in an off-season trade for defenseman Mark Ferner.The Amerks are also blessed with several young prospects at the forward positions. Rookie Donald Audette picked up four assists in the two games, and Van Boxmeer has four other top prospects; left winger Darrin Shannon and right winger Joel Savage, first-round picks in 1988; and third-round picks Bob Corkum and Darcy Loewen. Donnelly and Jackson provided the game-winners in the victories over Utiea and Newmarket.Defensively, the Amerks are talented and experienced. Perennial all-star Richie Dunn is the leader of the group that includes Jim Hofford, Steve Smith, Bob Halkidis, Don McSween and rookie Brad Miller. No other team in the league has as many proven veterans at that position.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s been a surprise that we&rsquo;ve given up 11 goals, because our defense has made a lot of mistakes,&rdquo; Van Boxmeer said. &ldquo;A lot of it is guys trying to do too much. I think it&rsquo;s starting because our forwards are not forechecking that well in the other team&rsquo;s end. We&rsquo;re not playing a grinding game. We&rsquo;re playing more of a wide-open game and we&rsquo;re getting a lot of outnumbered situations and not reading them properly. There have been some ugly goals scored against us.&rdquo;Van Boxmeer says he can accept the uneven play for a while. After all, it&rsquo;s an improvement on last season.A major improvement.<h2>HELLO, GOODBYE</h2>Binghamton Whalers&rsquo; coach Doug McKay has been busy greeting and saying goodbye to defensemen, as he seeks a workable lineup for his young team.During the first five days of the season, veteran Steve Dykstra was signed as a free agent, Norm Maciver was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for Jim Ennis and Mike Berger was obtained from the Minnesota North Stars for the rights to right winger Kevin Sullivan. Another rearguard, Sean Clement, was released.Also, the Whalers released veteran right winger Gilles Hamel. Hamel, 29, a nine-year pro, subsequently retired.<h2>HERSHEY HURTS</h2>Injuries continue to mount in Hershey. The Bears started the season with Don Nachbaur, Glen Seabrooke, Chris Jensen and Mike Stothers on the injury list. Nachbaur and Seabrooke are recovering from shoulder surgery, while Jensen and Stothers have hand injuries. Center Mark Freer joined the injured list Oct. 8 when he broke a finger in the Bears&rsquo; second game. He is expected to be out a month. Veteran center Tim Tookey played the opening weekend despite having a knee injury that required an arthroscopic procedure&hellip;Peter Ihna-cak&rsquo;s second goal in the first period of Newmarket&rsquo;s 7-6 overtime season-opening loss at Rochester was a painful one. A shot by Scott Pearson struck Ihnacak in the face just over an eye and deflected past Amerks&rsquo; goaltender Brian Ford. Ihnacak missed the second period while he recieved 12 stitches, but returned for the third&hellip;Adirondack raised its Southern Division and Calder Cup banners prior to its home opener Oct. 7 and drew a record opening-night crowd of 5.253. &#9632;

AMERKS WIN UGLY, BUT IT’S AN IMPROVEMENT

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Less than six months after his playoff heroics for the Los Angeles Kings, left winger Chris Kontos was back in the minors.Kontos, 25, set a team record by scoring eight goals in a playoff series as the Kings eliminated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games, in the Smythe Division semifinals. However, when the 1989-90 season opened, he was with the New Haven Nighthawks.&ldquo;I was surprised,&rdquo; Kontos said. &ldquo;(Training camp) didn&rsquo;t go as well as the playoffs, but I didn&rsquo;t think it was bad enough to warrant this.&ldquo;I had no indication. But I&rsquo;ve played here before. I just have to work hard to get back where I want to be, that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;Kontos emerged as an unexpected hero last spring. He signed with the Kings as a free agent after playing the season in Finland. He played seven regular-season games with Los Angeles, but had just two goals and an assist. In the playoffs, he exploded.&ldquo;It was the highlight of my career,&rdquo; said Kontos, a first-round draft pick by the New York Rangers, 15th overall, in 1982. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the kind of thing you dream about as a kid.&ldquo;It just felt good. Everything was finally coming around. I was in the right place at the right time.&ldquo;You just have to position yourself and just read the game. I was just in a groove, I guess. &ldquo;In training camp, though, Craig Duncanson was in a groove. The Kings&rsquo; first-round pick in the 1985 entry draft beat Kontos for the job as fourth-line left winger.&ldquo;I guess I was a little surprised considering his (Kontos&rsquo;) success last season,&rdquo; said New Haven coach Marcel Comeau. &ldquo;But I would certainly be surprised if he was here the whole year.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s the type of guy who could come here and get some ice time and, certainly, if they had a problem I would think he&rsquo;d be on his way in the other direction.&rdquo;Kontos did not get off to a quick start for the Nighthawks, who lost their first three games. Kontos failed to record a point in the losses.&ldquo;I still feel that I&rsquo;m that same player,&rdquo; Kontos said. &ldquo;Time will take care of itself. There is nothing really to think about. They made a move that they thought would be beneficial to the team and they just have to go with it and see how it goes.&rdquo;<h2>MARINERS SAIL</h2>For the first time since 1982-83, the Maine Mariners won their first two games of the season. The Mariners won a home-and-home series from the Nighthawks, 6-1 at New Haven Oct. 6 and 4-2 the next night.Defenseman Jim Wiemer was the offensive force with two goals and four assists in the two games. For his performance, Wiemer was recalled by Boston and accompanied the Bruins on a six-game road trip.John Carter, who was also recalled, had two goals on the weekend, as did rookie Todd Lalonde. Goalie Norm Foster, who earned a contract in training camp, got both victories by stopping 41 of 44 shots.Bruce Shoebottom, Ray Neufeld, Mike Millar and Greg Johnston were demoted by the Bruins to Maine on Oct. 10. Johnston agreed to report but has asked Bruin GM Harry Sinden to trade him.<h2>QUICK START</h2>The Springfield Indians also got off to a 2-0 start, their first since 1985-86. The Indians, who have not made the playoffs the last four seasons, beat two Southern Division teams at home&mdash;Baltimore 7-3 and Hershey 9-5.Center Gilles Thibaudeau had three goals and five assists for the Indians and was selected the league&rsquo;s first player of the week. He was recalled by the Islanders Oct. 8. Thibaudeau had two goals and two assists in the Baltimore victory, and a goal and three assists against Hershey.Springfield right winger Mike Walsh had three goals against Baltimore and two against Springfield as he was the league&rsquo;s top goal scorer after the first weekend.The parent Islanders also recalled left winger Brad Lauer Oct. 8. He had three goals and one assist in the two wins. &#9632;

KING FOR A SERIES NOW A NIGHTHAWK

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011209/8498384-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Sevigny, left, and Patrick Poulin&mdash;last year&rsquo;s and this year&rsquo;s No. 1 draft picks respectively&mdash;show their enthusiasm about playing in St-Hyacinthe.</figcaption></div>As persistent as he is, there were days when Michel Rousseau thought he would never realize his dream.For 10 years, he&rsquo;d been trying to bring major junior hockey to St-Hyacinthe, a city of 45,000, about 35 miles southeast of Montreal. And for 10 years he&rsquo;d been meeting frustration.In 1979, he agreed to purchase the Sherbrooke Castors from Georges Guilbault. But the deal was nixed by Sorel governor Rodrigue Lemoyne, who was looking to transfer his team and didn&rsquo;t want anyone beating him to St-Hyacinthe. In the end, Lemoyne moved his team to Verdun instead.Three years ago, Rousseau thought he had acquired the Granby Bisons, only to have that city raise funds to save the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a patient guy,&rdquo; says Rousseau, 42, brother of former Montreal Canadien Bobby Rousseau. &ldquo;There were times I felt like giving up, like after what happened with Granby. I thought, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s it,&rsquo; especially since some of the governors said the only way to have a team was through expansion.&rdquo;But he never gave up, and the Quebec League is glad he didn&rsquo;t.Last May, he succeeded when he negotiated the sale of the Verdun Junior Canadiens from the Montreal Canadiens to four St-Hyacinthe businessmen for $300,000. Rousseau was installed as general manager of the newly-named Laser shortly after the sale.&ldquo;St-Hyacinthe is hockey crazy,&rdquo; says Rousseau, also a city councillor. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve always been a good sports city, but we never had a team in major junior. Now that we do, the fans are willing to wait until the team becomes good. They are behind us. This is no flash in the pan. &ldquo;With a modest 3-5-0 record to start the season, the Laser hardly resembles the sad-sack outfit from Verdun that finished in last place the past three years. Last year, the Baby Habs needed 18 games to achieve their third win.The Laser has made moderate improvement in the standings, but a giant leap in the stands. Last season, Verdun averaged 834 fans per game, second lowest in the league. This season, St-Hyacinthe averaged 2,000 through its first four home games.With a season-ticket base of 800, it seems certain the Laser will turn a profit immediately. An average of 1,300 per game is required to break even.Rousseau, a native son, isn&rsquo;t the least bit surprised.&ldquo;I always felt St-Hyacinthe needed a team. It&rsquo;s good for the people here and it&rsquo;s good for the city,&rdquo; he says.Two years ago, Rousseau received a call from Junior Canadiens&rsquo; president Jean-Luc Lussier. Attendance in Verdun was faltering and Habs&rsquo; president Ronald Corey contemplated unloading the junior team. Lussier told Rousseau that if the team was ever sold, St-Hyacinthe would have the first right of refusal.Finally, at last spring&rsquo;s Memorial Cup in Saskatoon, it was decided the team would be sold.The most important task facing Laser management is improving a team that has posted the worst record in Canadian major junior hockey two of the last three seasons. Last year&rsquo;s team, rife with tensions between English and French players, bottomed out with a 12-56-2 record.A change of scenery&mdash;and more supporters in the stands&mdash;has already made a difference.&ldquo;It helps when we&rsquo;re on the ice,&rdquo; says left winger Todd Gillingham. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re pumped up. There&rsquo;s a lot of electricity because it&rsquo;s a small arena. You feel that.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t compare it to last season.&rdquo;The strange thing is, last year&rsquo;s Baby Habs were more talented than this year&rsquo;s Laser. High-scoring centers Andrew McKim (now with Hull) and the late Neil Carnes were two of the league&rsquo;s premier players.But rookie coach Norman Flynn has accomplished what those before him could not: He has the Laser players determined and confident. Left winger Pierre Sevigny led the team with five goals and seven assists in eight games and right winger Patrick Poulin, the first choice overall in last May&rsquo;s midget draft, was 5-5-10 in six games.Flynn also appears to have alleviated the language cliques by having French and English players billet together where possible. He also schedules monthly players-only parties.&ldquo;My first objective was to change the attitude because the kids had a losing attitude,&rdquo; says Flynn.And the fan support has helped.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun for the players to play before a big crowd,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Of course it&rsquo;s motivating. Last year there would be 500 people at Verdun, and not to cheer but to criticize. But in St-Hyacinthe it&rsquo;s important to have a team and they&rsquo;re proud of that.&rdquo;Gillingham sums it up best: &ldquo;We were fed up with losing and being laughed at.&rdquo;Nobody&rsquo;s laughing now. &#9632;

f0024-01

LASER THERAPY

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Herb Zurkowsky</div>Things may be looking up in St-Hyacinthe, but it&rsquo;s a different story in Longueuil, where College Francais is having trouble making the grade on and off the ice.An expansion team last season, College Francais finished 10th in the 11-team league with a 25-41-4 record, and averaged only 743 spectators per game&mdash;dead last in Canadian League attendance.There was no honeymoon between College Francais and its fans. And if things don&rsquo;t improve soon, the league may have no other choice but to grant a divorce.&ldquo;This year we&rsquo;re going to put on a good show,&rdquo; says Andre Gingras, new president of the College Francais team. &ldquo;To bring in the people you need a good show.&rdquo;Things haven&rsquo;t started out much better. College Francais was 3-5-0 in its first eight games and was averaging just 857 fans after four home games.Part of the problem, says Gingras, is that the team hasn&rsquo;t created its own identity in the community. Constant rumors last season that the team would transfer out of the Montreal suburb or move out of the Colisee Jean Beliveau, didn&rsquo;t help.&ldquo;We must prove to the people of Longueuil that the team belongs to them,&rdquo; Gingras says.Inexplicably, the team has dropped the Longueuil reference from is name this season. Instead of going by College Francais de Longueuil, it wants to be referred simply as College Francais, after the private school with campuses in Montreal and South Shore Longueuil.And the team doesn&rsquo;t have a nickname. It&rsquo;s not the College Francais Jets, or Canadiens, or anything. It&rsquo;s just College Francais.All players who play for the team must attend one of the two campuses, although overage right winger Paul Willett dropped out of the school last season and continues to play for the team.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to identify the team to the college because they&rsquo;re the ones paying for everything,&rdquo; Gingras explains. &ldquo;That might be a problem because we don&rsquo;t identify to the city. But if the hockey fans of Longueuil are mad, it shouldn&rsquo;t be for that.&rdquo;Like any struggling franchise eager to warm its seats. College Francais has resorted to giveaways in hopes of luring potential fans. For the team&rsquo;s home opener, a 6-3 toss to the Shawinigan Cataractes Sept. 29, about half of the 1,200 who attended were there on free passes.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say what&rsquo;s happening and why people aren&rsquo;t coming or what we should do,&rdquo; Gingras says.QMJHL president Gilles Courteau is caught in a dilemma. On the one hand. Col-lege Francais is a member of the league in good standing and meets all of its financial obligations. On the other hand, the league&rsquo;s image suffers because of the team&rsquo;s tow attendance figures.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m concerned,&rdquo; says Courteau, &ldquo;but let&rsquo;s give them a chance. It&rsquo;s very difficult to tell you what will happen if the crowds stay the same. It will be important to stay in touch with them and to see what is the reaction of the population.&rdquo; &#9632;

COLLEGE FRANCAIS GETS AN ‘F’ FOR FAN SUPPORT

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>Persistence has paid off for Oshawa Generals&rsquo; coach Rick Comacchia.Fired by the Kingston Canadians (now Frontenacs) midway through the 1984-85 season, Comacchia joined the Oshawa Generals the next season as an assistant coach. In August, he rejoined the head-coaching ranks when Generals&rsquo; coach Paul Theriault departed for Flint of the International League.&ldquo;Even after I was fired by Kingston, I prayed I&rsquo;d get another chance some day,&rdquo; said Comacchia, 38.This time he&rsquo;s making the most of his chance. After dropping their season-opening game to Peterborough, the Generals posted five wins and a tie and were atop the Leyden Division.Although this is his fifth year with the team, Comacchia is part of a new front-office regime that replaced one of the most stable management teams in Canadian junior hockey. After 12 years as general manager of the Generals, Sherry Bassin left the team and then joined the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds as director of operations. Bassin was replaced by Frank Jay. Theriault was with the Generals for nine seasons before taking the Flint job.And while many were predicting a rebuilding period for the Generals both on the ice and in the front office, Comacchia was confident he and the new management team could continue the trend of success.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011090/8498439-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="552" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Jones is among the &rsquo;87 Hound picks who didn&rsquo;t pan out.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;You&rsquo;d have to be stupid to be around people like Sherry and Paul and not learn a lot,&rdquo; he said.<h2>BAD DRAFT</h2>With seven picks in the first five rounds of the 1987 midget draft, the Soo Greyhounds should be reaping the benefits of that harvest this season.Not so. The Greyhounds, under former general manager Don Boyd, had a miserable day at the draft table and they&rsquo;re paying for it now. They were 3-5-0 and in fifth place in the Emms Division.Of the seven high draft picks in 1987, the only survivors are centers Don McConnell and Dale Turnbull (both third-rounders) and goalie Steve Udvari, a fourth-round pick.The latest of the &rsquo;87 draftees to go was fifth-rounder Colin Ford, who was released Oct. 5.Center Shane Sargant, the Soo&rsquo;s first pick that year, was traded to the Sudbury Wolves last year after scoring three goals in almost two seasons. Right winger Brad Jones, the Soo&rsquo;s second-rounder, was released last season. And defenseman Len Devuono, one of two Greyhound fourthrounders that year, was traded to Belleville for a sixth-round pick (Craig Wright), who couldn&rsquo;t make the team this season.The Soo has only rookie right winger Ken King to show for for Sargant, Jones, Devuono and Ford. King was taken with the pick acquired from Sudbury in the Sargant deal.<h2>NO CHARGE</h2>The struggling Windsor Spitfires have been looking for a power surge all season but, on Oct. 10, the need took on a new turn.The Spits&rsquo; game against the London Knights had to be postponed because of a power failure in downtown Windsor. The Spits, winless after seven games (0-5-2), were leading 10 five minutes into the second period when the power failure occurred. &#9632;

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OSHAWA COACH MAKES MOST OF SECOND CHANCE

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div>The Seattle Thunderbirds set a Western League attendance-I record Oct. 7 when 12,173 packed the Seattle Center Coliseum to see the home team edge the Portland Winter Hawks 4-3.The Thunderbirds, who regularly play out of the 4,141-seat Seattle Center Arena, had to turn away more than 2,000 fans, according to the T-Bird marketing and public relations director Seth Landau.&ldquo;Quite honestly, I think we could have sold between 14,500 and 15,000,&rdquo; said Landau. &ldquo;Seattle has always been an excellent hockey city.&rdquo;The Center Coliseum, home to the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Seattle Supersonics, will host four more Seattle games this season and the team is negotiating playing its playoff games there if it qualifies.In fact, the Thunderbirds are looking to make the Center Coliseum their permananent home. Landau, who started with the Thunderbirds in June, attributes the interest to a summer advertising blitz.&ldquo;We woke up the sleeping giant,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All people had to do was know about us.&rdquo;The previous attendance record belonged to Winter Hawks, who have attracted capacity crowds of 10,437 to the Memorial Coliseum in Portland on numerous occasions. The Quebec and Ontario Leagues do not keep singlegame attendance records.<h2>NO PATSIES</h2>The Regina Pats are too talented to finish last in the East Division again this season. And Pats&rsquo; coach Brad Tippett said hard work will be the difference.&ldquo;We have the skills on this team&mdash;especially offensively,&rdquo; said Tippett. &ldquo;But I think what this team lacked was the second effort. Now they&rsquo;re starting to realize how hard they can work.&rdquo;So far, hard work has earned the Pats a 1-4-2 record, but Tippett has seen a progressive improvement.And general manager Bill Hicke has done his part, trading for overage left winger Troy Mick and goalie Jason Glickman. The Pats acquired Glickman from the Seattle Thunderbirds for 19-year-old defenseman Cam Brauer Oct. 5, and dispatched 18-year-old goalie Willy MacDonald to the Victoria Cougars for future considerations the next day.Glickman, a Chicago native, was a member of the U.S. team at last year&rsquo;s World Junior Championships. Last season with the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques, Glickman had a 3.71 goals-against average in 40 games.The Pats have three 1989 NHL first-rounders in their lineup&mdash;defenseman Kevin Haller (Buffalo), center Mike Sillinger (Detroit) and right winger Jamie Heward (Pittsburgh)&mdash;so there is a considerable amount of pressure on them to make the playoffs. Being based in Regina doesn&rsquo;t help, either.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re the media center of the WHL and there are a lot of people hungry for a winner,&rdquo; said Tippett. &ldquo;We think that all we need is one good year to tum the franchise around and a big part of that is changing the attitude from negative to positive.&rdquo;<h2>&lsquo;D&rsquo; FOR DEFECTOR</h2>Czechoslovakian defector Petr Nedved of the Seattle Thunderbirds has made an impression on the scoresheet, but Thunderbirds&rsquo; GM Russ Farwell isn&rsquo;t impressed with his defensive play.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s played pretty well, but he doesn&rsquo;t backcheck,&rdquo; Farwell said. &ldquo;If he could just add a little defense, then he could play more and play in pressure times.&rdquo;Nedved, 18, led Seattle in scoring with six goals and four assists in five games, but seven of those points have come on the power play. &#9632;

RECORD CROWD TURNS OUT IN SEATTLE

For the period Oct. 9-15IHL: Guy Hebert, Peoria. Two games played, three goals against.OHL: Mike Ricci, Peterborough. Six goals, one assist in three games.QMJHL: Yanic Perreault, Trois-Rivieres. Four goals, four assists in three games.WHL: Len Barrie, Kamloops. Eight goals, four assists in three games.CCHA: Mike Bales, Ohio State. Two games played, four goals against.CWUAA: Adam Morrison, Alberta. Two goals, four assists in two games.OUAA: John Keller, Laurentian. Two goals, no assists in one game.Major junior players are eligible for the THN-Micron-Mega Junior Player of the Year award. U.S. college players are eligible for the THN-Bauer U.S. College Player of the Year award. Canadian university players are eligible for the THN-Bauer Canadian University Player of the Year award<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02747/8498494-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="558" height="888"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Ricci</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0025-02

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>Although the Drummondville Voltigeurs lost their first eight games and were on their way to establishing a Quebec League record for futility, coach Gervais Rioux&rsquo; job is safe for the time being.&ldquo;If you look at the lineup you can see he&rsquo;s missed some good players,&rdquo; said team president and governor Normand Brousseau. &ldquo;His job is secure.&rdquo;The Voltigeurs, who finished fifth in the league last season, needed two losses to tie the record for consecutive losses to begin the season. The Cornwall Royals established the mark by losing their first 10 games in 1970-71 and the Shawinigan Cataractes tied the record in 1977-78.But they started the season without three of their top four scorers from last season. Martin Bergeron (55-81136), Daniel Maurice (46-72-118) and Daniel Dore (33-58-91). There was some good news, however.Left winger Claude Boivin, a first-round choice of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1988 entry draft, was returned to the team and had a goal in his first game back, a 5-2 loss to St-Hyacinthe Oct. 6. The Volts also received 20-year-old center Steve Chartrand back from the American League&rsquo;s Newmarket Saints Oct. 6. Chartrand led the team with 74-83157 totals last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011225/8498525-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="562" height="733"><figcaption class="caption-body">Reginald Savage had three goals in his first game back.</figcaption></div><h2>SAVAGE BACK</h2>Reginald Savage did not want to end up this season was with the Victoriaville Tigres.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t play in Baltimore (the Washington Capitals&rsquo; American League farm team) and I don&rsquo;t want to go back to Quebec,&rdquo; Savage said during the Capitals&rsquo; training camp.But when the Capitals&rsquo; first-round choice in 1988 took to the ice for his first &rsquo;89-90 game with the Tigres, he didn&rsquo;t show his discouragement. Savage returned with a vengeance, scoring three goals and an assist in a 6-1 win over College Francais Oct. 6.<h2>SEVEN STRAIGHT</h2>The Trois-Rivieres Draveurs, who began the season with seven straight wins, were off to their best start in team history. But they were still far from the league record of 16, set in 1972-73 by the Quebec Remparts.The Draveurs received some bad news when center Steve Larouche suffered a shoulder injury in a 6-4 win over St. Hyacinthe Oct. 8. He was expected to be out 10 days.But Pascal Dufault, a 19-year-old defenseman who quit the Draveurs last February, returned to the team the same day.<h2>AUTHOR. AUTHOR</h2>College Francais coach and general manager Gerard Gagnon has written a book called C&rsquo;est hockey: Jeux d&rsquo;E-quipe (Hockey: A Tean Game).Gagnon said the book, published in French only, is designed for minor hockey coaches and includes explanations and diagrams on tactical exercises, controlling the puck, forechecking and backchecking, and other basic hockey disciplines.Gagnon&rsquo;s may decide to make the book required reading for his own club, which lost five of its first eight games. &#9632;

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RIOUX’ JOB SECURE DESPITE FUTILE START

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Larry Mahoney</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011170/8498587-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="949" height="1380"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02799/8498580-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="1286" height="1378"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Merrimack Warriors will be counting on co-captains Andy Heinze, left, and Doug Greschuk. Heinze led the Warriors with 53 points last season; Greschuk, seen here battling a Clarkson opponent, anchors the defense. (Photos by Tim Morse)</figcaption></div>Merrimack College wanted to make sure its hockey program fit into its new high-class neighborhood.So. during the summer, workmen were busy renovating the 3,600-seat Volpe Center arena, the home of the Warriors, adding a new press box and a stage to accommodate the New England Sports Network which plans to air at least two Warriors&rsquo; home games.Ron Anderson, in his seventh season behind the Merrimack bench, said the Warriors&rsquo; acceptance as Hockey East&rsquo;s eighth team evolved gradually, beginning with an NCAA ruling six years ago. During the 1983-84 season the NCAA decided to combine the Division II and III year-end tournaments. That meant Merri-mack had to decide between Division I and III.&ldquo;If we had decided to go to Division III,&rdquo; explained Anderson, &ldquo;we would have lost our scholarships and that would have meant a deemphasis of our program. So we decided to go up to Division I.&rdquo;The Merrimack hockey program, now in its 34th year, really made a name for itself during the 1987-88 season. The Warriors were invited to play in the NCAA tournament that year. They pulled off a dramatic upset against Northeastern and nearly did the same to eventual champs. Lake Superior.When it became evident the five-year scheduling agreement between Hockey East and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association was going to end, adding an eighth team to Hockey East seemed like the logical move. And Merrimack was the logical choice.On the Merrimack campus, located in suburban North Andover, Mass., enthusiasm was running high for the hockey program, the only one of the 14 varsity sports in Division 1.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; said sports information director Paul McCarthy. &ldquo;Hopefully, this will also create a little more spirit among the students and that&rsquo;s going to help the school in the long run.&rdquo;In an interesting pre-season development, Maine coach Shawn Walsh has been using senior left winger Christian Lalonde on defense. Lalonde, who has scored 38 goals and 69 assists in 123 games as a winger for the Black Bears, was moved back primarily to get more ice time. Lalonde didn&rsquo;t have any complaints. I really like the idea,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played defense in peewee and I played it last summer, and I really feel comfortable there.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Three Hockey East teams were chosen among the nation&rsquo;s top nine teams in the WMEB-FM (Orono, Me.) College Hockey Statistics Bureau&rsquo;s preseason media poll. Boston College was picked third. Providence was tied for sixth with Lake Superior State, and Maine was placed ninth. &#9632;

f0027-01

MERRIMACK ON TRACK

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Matt Carlson</div>Small, short and quick players have prospered in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for decades, but the presence of &ldquo;monster&rdquo; skaters should be clearly visible this season.The pre-season rosters of the nine CCHA clubs included 41 players who stood 6-foot-2 or taller, and six of those were 6-foot-4 or bigger.The goliaths included Ferris State senior defenseman Tim Corkery (6-foot-4, 210 pounds), junior left winger Justin LaFayette (6-foot-6, 220) and junior defenseman Dan Rolfe (6-foot-5, 200); Western Michigan freshman left winger Gordie Frantti (6-foot-6, 220) Michigan State freshman left winger Rob Woodward (6-foot-4, 225) and Lake Superior freshman right winger Dean Hulett (6-foot-6, 205).Even with all the hulks there still is plenty of room for mighty mites in the league. The preseason rosters had a total of 16 players who were 5-foot-8 or shorter. The league&rsquo;s smallest listed player was Bowling Green goaltender Christian Albitz, a junior from Pittsburgh who checks in at 5-foot-5, 155 pounds. The league&rsquo;s shortest listed skaters were Michigan State junior center Shawn Heaphy (5-foot-7, 172 pounds); Illinois-Chicago sophomore center Brad Smiley (5-foot-7, 170 pounds); Ohio State sophomore left winger Paul Forfia (5-foot-7, 175 pounds).Michigan State was picked to finish first and Lake Superior was chosen for second place in the CCHA&rsquo;s coaches&rsquo; poll. (Teams receive nine points for a each first-place vote, eight for second, seven for third, etc.) The coaches&rsquo; projected order of finish was Michigan State (80 points), Lake Superior (65), Michigan (64), Bowling Green (60), Illinois-Chicago (44), Western Michigan (34), Ferris State (23), Miami (21) and Ohio State (14). &#9632;

CCHA

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Tom Boggie</div>The format for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division 1 hockey playoffs will change this season for the first time in 27 years.At its annual fall meetings at Cape Cod, the ECAC hockey committee voted to expand the playoffs to 10 teams from eight for the 1989-90 season.The new format won&rsquo;t affect the top six teams in the final regular-season standings. On the first Tuesday following the completion of the regular season (Feb. 26), the seventh-place team will host the lOth-place team, and the eighth-place team will host the ninth-place team, in a one-game elimination round. The two winners will then be seeded seventh and eighth for the quarterfinals, which will remain two-game series, with a deciding mini-game, if necessary.A lot of support for the change came from the Ivy League teams&mdash;Harvard, Cornell, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton and Brown. For years, with the exception of Harvard and Cornell, the Ivies have struggled to get into the playoffs.&ldquo;The bottom teams have never really had an opportunity to get in the playoffs,&rdquo; said Dartmouth coach Brian Mason. &ldquo;The coaches were sympathetic. They know our (Ivy League) athletes work just as hard as anybody and this will be a way to give them something to show for it.&rdquo;If St. Lawrence freshman defenseman Mike Terwilliger can&rsquo;t crack the lineup for coach Joe Marsh, he can always hang up his skates and take out his tennis racquet. Terwilliger, a native of Edina, Minn., was one of the top scholastic tennis players in the state of Minnesota last year, when he played for Edina High School. &#9632;

ECAC

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Andy Baggot</div>Doug Woog is taking it easy these days. The Minnesota Golden Gophers&rsquo; coach was in Lake Placid, N.Y., at the U.S. Select 17 developmental camp, when he experienced what he believed was a heart attack.Woog, 46, immediately checked into a local hospital. Subsequent tests conducted in Lake Placid, and a later series of examinations in Minneapolis, revealed Woog was suffering from an irregular fluttering of a heart valve.Since then Woog has given up smoking, is exercising more, and jogs almost every day. His assistants Bill Butters and Jack Blatherwick have been directing practice sessions and were in charge during the Hall of Fame exhibition game with Northern Michigan Oct. 7. Minnesota won 6-5.Woog plans to be behind the bench when the Gophers open WCHA play Oct. 20-21 with a home series against Minnesota-Duluth, but said he would be there only if he felt completely healthy.&ldquo;Health is more important than hockey,&rdquo; Woog said.Of the six underclassmen who elected to leave their WCHA teams early and turn pro over the summer, three made their respective National Hockey League team&rsquo;s roster for opening day. Defenseman Randy Skarda (St. Louis) and left wingers Dave Snuggerud (Buffalo) and Tom Chorske (Montreal) all moved from the Minnesota campus to the big time. All three would have been seniors this season. Stauber was sent to Los Angeles&rsquo; American League team in New Haven, Wisconsin goaltender Curtis Joseph was sent to Peoria of the International League by St. Louis, and Minnesota-Duluth center Chris Lindberg began the season playing for the Binghamton Whalers, Hartford&rsquo;s AHL farm team. Stauber would have been a senior, Lindberg a junior and Joseph a sophomore. &#9632;

WCHA

f0028-01

ROSTERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011212/8498742-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011117/8498735-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3092" height="3252"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011188/8498728-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3089" height="3585"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>NOTE</h2>In an effort to supply the most complete summaries possible, The Hockey News is presenting a revised format with additional information this season.Both teams&rsquo; lineups are listed with the number of shots taken by each player, followed by that player&rsquo;s plusminus rating for the game, in parentheses. For example, (2/-3), indicates the player had two shots on net and was minus-3. A zero in plus-minus represents an even rating. We are also including a more detailed goaltenders&rsquo; breakdown, including minutes played (Time), saves (SA), goals against (GA), empty-net goals (ENG) and to whom the decision (W or L) goes.<h2>Mon., Oct. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011072/8498913-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="583" height="2230"></div><h2>Tues., Oct 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02728/8498906-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="580" height="464"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03569/8498899-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="580" height="1726"></div><h2>Wed., Oct. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04450/8498892-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="584" height="1715"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05374/8498885-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="584" height="3484"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06327/8498878-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="590" height="2167"></div><h2>Thur., Oct. 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07288/8498871-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="589" height="1247"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08234/8498864-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="599" height="3413"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011207/8498857-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="586" height="364"></div><h2>Fri., Oct. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02817/8498850-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="590" height="3067"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03646/8498843-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="594" height="3141"></div><h2>Sat., Oct. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04509/8498836-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="590" height="336"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05412/8498829-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="592" height="3507"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06368/8498822-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="594" height="3507"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07331/8498815-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="606" height="1870"></div><h2>Sun., Oct. 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08294/8498808-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="594" height="1554"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011124/8498801-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="598" height="946"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02784/8498794-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="594" height="990"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03645/8498787-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="598" height="994"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04520/8498780-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="604" height="1000"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05437/8498773-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="610" height="998"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011097/8498975-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="468" height="633"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MOLINARI</figcaption></div>If you have some leisure time&mdash;and the fact that you&rsquo;re reading this indicates you&rsquo;ve got entirely too much of it&mdash;you might have noticed the predictions The Hockey News ran last week.What an inspired idea.Take writers from the 21 NHL cities (and, of course, Bob McKenzie) and allow them to make a public display of their vast ignorance. That was our mandate and, come spring, the world will realize just how much we overachieved in response to that challenge.Sure, those gray chunks of type made for some great reading, but the most important thing is the valuable information that feature imparted.Why, if it weren&rsquo;t for those insights from the media, you probably never would have guessed that, say, Calgary could be a contender for the Stanley Cup. Or, that Mario Lemieux is a leading candidate to win the scoring title.Do we know how to offer insights, or what?Ah, but you don&rsquo;t have to express your gratitude by sending us money (not while the boss is looking, anyway). Just knowing that we have enhanced your enjoyment of the game is compensation enough.The question now is how the Quebec provincial government will find a way to tax professional satisfaction.Personally, I enjoy these annual predictions so much that I would like to see them expanded. Maybe including the opinions of a Norris Division insider or an Adams Division scout&mdash;we have people here who actually know guys like that&mdash;would be a good start.Failing that, we could do more than just tell you (incorrectly, in most cases) where teams are going to finish. We could pass along our thoughts on when (my hunch is April 1), and even why.We could even give the kind of information you won&rsquo;t see most places, except perhaps on SCTV reruns or the occasional drug flashback. Stuff that most publications don&rsquo;t have the guts to print, unless they happen to be the kind sold in supermarket checkout lines. Like how:&#9632; New York Ranger defenseman Brian Leetch will have another brilliant season, but will get virtually no support in the Calder Trophy voting. He thus will join the long list of rookies of the year who failed to win the honor in consecutive years. Talk about a sophomore jinx.&#9632; The countless projections of more hard times for Toronto are being made by people with a poor perspective. I, for one, am absolutely convinced the Maple Leafs have as good a chance to win the Norris Division as supposed powerhouses like Calgary, Los Angeles and Montreal. Probably even a better one. And I defy anyone to dispute that point.&#9632; Sixty-one-year-old Gordie Howe, after much soul-searching, will decide against coming out of retirement for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play on the same team as his grandchildren. Kids in minor hockey programs across the continent breathe a sigh of relief and count their blessings&mdash;along with the teeth they won&rsquo;t be losing to an elbow. Of course, if Howe gets his wish to play one game alongside Wayne Gretzky later this season, some guys in the NHL might wish their parents had decided to do things a little differently. Like putting off having children for another 20 years or so.&#9632; Vladimir Krutov will begin to enjoy the fruits of capitalism even more when he receives a lucrative offer to endorse hockey helmets. A one-size-fits-most model. Tank you very much.&#9632; Referee Mark Faucette, who waved off two Winnipeg goals and ignored another in the season opener, will be invited to the Jets&rsquo; Christmas party. Faucette will be ready to celebrate, but the invitation will be ruled invalid at the last minute. Three times. For no apparent reason.&#9632; The New Jersey Devils, whose roster includes at least one player from every country except Australia&mdash;although their scouts reportedly have turned up a promising left winger in Sydney&mdash;will change their crest to the United Nations emblem and abandon their current fight song in favor of &ldquo;We Are The World.&rdquo;&#9632; Quebec Nordique coach Michel Bergeron will finally be able to get some sleep, even though his team will be no better than ever. One evening, faced with the choice of ALF or Major Dad for his evening&rsquo;s entertainment, Bergeron will pop a Nordique game tape in his VCR and be snoozing within minutes.&#9632; If you think tickets for a regular-season game between Montreal and Quebec are hard to come by, just try finding one for a Winnipeg-Islanders&rsquo; Stanley Cup final next spring. Instant collector&rsquo;s items. Impossible to put a value on.Kind of like what you squandered the last few minutes wading through. &#9632;

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PREDICTIONS YOU CAN TAKE TO THE BANK

Washington Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Neil Sheehy is a nephew of pro football Hall-of-Famer Bronco Nagurski. Nagurski played in the 1930s with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. Sheehy is in his sixth full NHL season, his second with Washington.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02716/8499006-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="985" height="530"><figcaption class="caption-body">Neil Sheehy</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Delays in bringing Vladimir Krutov&rsquo;s family to Canada may force the left winger to return home to facilitate the move. Igor Larionov, who speaks for Krutov, said his comrade is &ldquo;very nervous&rdquo; about the situation and the concern is affecting his play. Canuck president Pat Quinn described Krutov as &ldquo;a very distraught young man.&rdquo; It appears likely Krutov may have to go to the Soviet Union for up to one week&hellip;After six games, Paul Reinhart was the NHL&rsquo;s leading scorer among defensemen and was only a point behind Wayne Gretzky for the NHL scoring lead. Reinhart had five goals and nine assists and was named runner-up to Gretzky as the NHL&rsquo;s player of the week. &ldquo;Gretz will be calling me. He&rsquo;ll want me to start sitting you out,&rdquo; quipped Canuck coach Bob McCammon to Reinhart&hellip;Reinhart has benefited offensively since the arrival of Krutov and Larionov because of their creative, playmaking approach, but McCammon is worried that the Soviets have been a negative influence on the rest of his team. Over a span of three games at Pacific Coliseum, the Canucks surrendered 17 goals against the Bruins, Kings and Islanders, a most uncharacteristic display for a team which allowed the third-fewest goals in 1988-89.<h2>FLAMES</h2>The Flames were carrying a 25-man roster on the chance that injuries, a perennial headache for the club, would strike. They did&mdash;twice. Right winger Mark Hunter reinjured the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, the same knee he had operated on while he was with the Canadiens. Originally, the Flames feared the ligaments were tom, which would have meant major reconstructive surgery and the end of the season for Hunter. But when doctors scoped his knee, they found the damage wasn&rsquo;t that extensive. The Flames expect Hunter to miss four weeks&hellip;Left winger Colin Patterson pulled a groin muscle in his left leg in a 3-2 win over Philadelphia Oct. 15. The team doesn&rsquo;t know when he&rsquo;ll be able to return Sergei Priakin made his first NHL goal count in a 5-2 win over New Jersey Oct. 10. Priakin, who joined the Flames last March but only played one of the first six games this season, scored the game-winner against the Devils.<h2>KINGS</h2>Defenseman Barry Beck played his first regular-season game since March 12, 1986 in the Kings&rsquo; 6-5 win in Vancouver Oct. 13, and picked up an assist two nights later when Wayne Gretzky led the way in a 5-4 overtime win in Edmonton. &ldquo;It feels unusual just to be walking out of here without something hurting,&rdquo; Beck said following the Canucks&rsquo; game. His oft-injured left shoulder has been fine, but a groin pull suffered in training camp had been a problem. &ldquo;Everything feels fine,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Larry Robin-son was off to a fast start in the first six games. The 38-year-old defenseman had nine assists, with at least one in each game, and he was a plus-5&hellip;Despite wearing a cast on his wrist to protect a hairline fracture that was expected to keep him out of the lineup for at least another week, left winger Mike Krushelnyski joined the team in Edmonton Oct. 15 so he wouldn&rsquo;t miss out when Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe&rsquo;s point-scoring record of 1,850&hellip;Mario Gosselin, recovered from the flu, made his Kings&rsquo; debut that night, stopping 21 shots.<h2>OILERS</h2>In a trade of minor leaguers Oct. 11, the Oilers sent defenseman Jim Ennis to the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; for blueliner Norm Maciver. Already minus Steve Smith (hairline fracture on his right instep) and Randy Gregg (chronic pulled leg muscle), the Oilers also lost defenseman Craig Muni with a bruised shoulder. Maciver was called up on an emergency recall basis, but because he was in the process of moving from Binghamton, N. Y., to Sydney, N. S., Chris Joseph was summoned instead. Muni returned after missing one game&hellip;Smith, who suffered his injury opening night in Vancouver, was initially scheduled to miss only one game. But the big defenseman had a cast placed on his foot and hadn&rsquo;t played since. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an area where three small bones are close together,&rdquo; said Smith, who missed 45 games last season with a shoulder problem. &ldquo;They couldn&rsquo;t tell if it was a fracture or an underlying bone. The bone scan finally revealed a fracture.&rdquo; Smith expects the cast to be removed Oct. 18.<h2>JETS</h2>Goaltender Daniel Berthiaume recorded his first NHL victory in 1&frac12; years when the Jets defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 Oct. 14. Last season, he had an 0-8-0 record before being sent to the minors. He was 0-2-0 this season. &ldquo;I was putting a little bit too much pressure on me,&rdquo; said Berthiaume. &ldquo;I wanted to win so badly it was an obsession.&rdquo; Berthiaume&rsquo;s last win in the NHL came April 3, 1988 against St. Louis&hellip;The Jets assigned center Brian McReynolds and left winger Brad Jones to Moncton of the American League Oct. 15, just five games into the season. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re both young players, they&rsquo;re both in their development stages, they&rsquo;re considered the 13th and 14th forwards. They weren&rsquo;t playing very much,&rdquo; said Winnipeg coach Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;I felt they were losing confidence so we felt that both of them would benefit from playing in the minors and playing a lot of hockey.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Veteran center Laurie Boschman was scratched from the Jets&rsquo; lineup for a 5-4 loss to Detroit Oct. 12, adding to speculation his days may be numbered in Winnipeg. &#9632;

SOVIET MAY HAVE TO RETURN HOME

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s brilliance is rivalled only by his flair for the dramatic.As Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; teammate Bernie Nicholls put it, &ldquo;He finished it, and he finished it with style.&rdquo;Gretzky surpassed Gordie Howe as the NHL&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer on Oct. 15 in Edmonton&rsquo;s Northlands Coliseum&mdash;his home for 10 professional seasons before the Aug. 9, 1988, trade to the Kings. But just passing Howe&rsquo;s total of 1,850 points wasn&rsquo;t good enough for The Great One. He did it by scoring a goal with 53 seconds remaining to tie a game that appeared to be lost to the Oilers.Then, for good measure, his goal 3:24 into overtime gave the Kings a 5-4 victory.No. 99 became No. 1 when he flipped a backhand shot high over goaltender Bill Ranford&rsquo;s left shoulder, evening the score at 4-4.&ldquo;My initial reaction was that we had tied the game. But Larry (Robinson) was right there and he was all over me. Boy, I don&rsquo;t think I can describe how I felt right then,&rdquo; Gretzky said.The Kings on the ice (goalie Mario Gosselin had been pulled for an extra skater) were soon joined in celebration by those on the bench. Gretzky was mobbed as &ldquo;1,851&rdquo; flashed on the scoreboard.While the sellout crowd of 17,503 howled, the game was stopped and a red carpet was rolled out to center ice for the record-breaking ceremony.Gretzky hugged his father, Walter, then was presented with gifts by Mark Messier (the two hugged and shared some persona] thoughts) on behalf of the Oilers; by Robinson and Taylor on behalf of the Kings; and by NHL President John Ziegler.Following a speech by Howe, who called Gretzky a &ldquo;super hockey player and a super young man,&rdquo; Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall (who was expected to present his gift Oct. 17 when the Kings met the Bruins at the Forum) escorted Walter and the Great One&rsquo;s wife, Janet, to center ice. Gretzky took the microphone.&ldquo;This is the greatest feeling in the world. It will be the highlight of my life,&rdquo; he said, before praising the Oilers&rsquo; fans, coaches and players from both teams and McNall. Then he added: &ldquo;I want to say a special hello to Joey.&rdquo;Joey is Oilers&rsquo; dressing-room attendant Joey Moss, a special friend of Gretzky&rsquo;s.He thanked his family, kissed Janet, and then the game resumed.Of course, Gretzky made sure to add an exclamation point, along with career point No. 1,852, by slipping the puck by Ranford in overtime.A first-period assist at the 4:32 mark had tied the record. Gretzky, while along the right-wing boards, passed the puck to Tom Laidlaw between the circles. Laidlaw hit Nicholls just outside the crease for a shot that beat Ranford to the stick side.The record-breaker came eight seconds after the Oilers had iced the puck, setting up a faceoff in the right circle. With Gosselin out, Messier won the faceoff from Nicholls, drawing the puck back to Kevin Lowe. But Lowe&rsquo;s clearing attempt was kept in by Steve Duchesne.Duchesne drove the puck in deep. It hopped over Lowe&rsquo;s stick, then bounced off Dave Taylor&rsquo;s knee to Gretzky in front.&ldquo;I moved in front and the puck came right to me. I didn&rsquo;t do much, just hit the top comer,&rdquo; Gretzky said.Gretzky took 28 shifts, including 10 in the first period, but he nearly missed the third because of dizzy spells. He had &ldquo;gotten my bell rung a few times,&rdquo; and was still woozy following a check by Jeff Beukeboom early in the second period.&ldquo;I was going to send him back (to the dressing room before the third period began). I came very, very close to doing that,&rdquo; coach Tom Webster said. &ldquo;I checked with him many times on the bench to see how he was feeling. I gave him some rest halfway through the period and that helped. He seemed to get a little jump back.&rdquo;And Howe.Gretzky thought the record was his when he got the puck to Luc Robitaille, who fed Nicholls bolting down the right side with 3:29 to go in regulation. Nicholls wristed it by Ranford, but the puck glanced off the post.Howe, as he had been throughout his eight-day Gretzky Watch, was extremely gracious.&ldquo;I am so proud of the fact that we have gotten along over the years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He calls me his friend, and that&rsquo;s one of the greatest things in my life.&ldquo;I fee) more gain than loss. I lost a record, but I have gained a lot of friends.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Carl Repp, G, assigned to New Haven (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Bernie Nicholls, Steve Kasper, Huble McDonough.LW&mdash;John Tonelli, Luc Robitaille, Mikael Lindholm, Jay Miller, Craig Dun-canson.RW&mdash;Bob Kudelski. Dave Taylor, Keith Crowder, Jim Fox, Mike Allison.LD&mdash;Tom Laidlaw, Tim Watters, Barry Beck, Petr Prajsler, Ken Baumgartner.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Larry Robinson, Marty McSorley.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Mario Gosselin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Krushelnyskl, LW, hairline fracture of the left wrist, Nov. 1.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gretzky, Kudelski, 5 A&mdash;Gretzky, 10. P&mdash;Gretzky, 15. PIM&mdash;Miller, 18. &#9632;

THE GREAT ONE IS NOW THE GREATEST

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>Just how good a playmaker is Sergei Makarov?&ldquo;Maybe he can turn me into a 40-goal scorer,&rdquo; Gary Roberts said about his new linemate. &ldquo;Hey, I was joking when I said that, but&hellip;&rdquo;Six games into the new season, you never know.Roberts was uncharacteristically tied with linemate Joe Nieuwendyk for the team lead in goals with five.The fact that Roberts was playing with the NHL&rsquo;s assist leader may have something to do with that. Before Makarov joined the Flames, people compared the Soviet to Wayne Gretzky, the NHL&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer and set-up king.Now, the comparison really comes into focus.&ldquo;He (Makarov) likes to make the play rather than shoot the puck,&rdquo; said Roberts, &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s great for me. If I&rsquo;m on my way to the net, I better be ready to bang those away and make sure I can capitalize on the great plays he&rsquo;s making.&rdquo;In their early-season partnership, Makarov is looking for Roberts as much as he looks for Nieuwendyk. Last season, on the Hakan Loob-Nieuwendyk-Roberts line, Nieuwendyk and Loob worked the offense while Roberts concentrated on defense.It&rsquo;s almost as if Makarov thinks Roberts, who scored a career-high 22 goals last season, is the new Vladimir Krutov.&ldquo;I agree he&rsquo;s looking for me more,&rdquo; said Roberts. &ldquo;I thought Hakan and I played well together too, but Sergei really looks to pass more. In situations where you&rsquo;re around the net, you always have to be ready. Where Hakan would use that fake pass and shoot it, Sergei&rsquo;s giving the puck to me. And all I&rsquo;m doing is putting it in the net.&rdquo;On a recent road trip Roberts scored two goals in an identical manner. Roberts dropped the puck in the offensive zone, Makarov took it to the net and then slid a pass across the crease, leaving Roberts with a tap-in putt.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really conscious of going to the net and keeping my stick on the ice. I figure, sooner or later, I&rsquo;m going to get the puck or he&rsquo;s going to put it in himself.&rdquo;Roberts hopes he&rsquo;s undergoing the same kind of metamorphosis Philadelphia Flyer winger Rick Tocchet experienced last season. Tocchet bumped and grinded through the early part of his career, then emerged as a goal-scorer.&ldquo;I would certainly like to be like a Rick Tocchet,&rdquo; said Roberts. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s an all-around great player. I&rsquo;d love to be able to do what he&rsquo;s done and to play the way he plays.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to say I&rsquo;ve scored five goals in six games, but there are still 74 games left. Even guys on the team are saying, &lsquo;Geez, you&rsquo;re going to score 50.&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s going to be the case. I don&rsquo;t play enough to score 50 goals. If I scored 50 5-on-5 goals, there&rsquo;s going to be something going wrong. I just don&rsquo;t see that happening. I don&rsquo;t play power play and I haven&rsquo;t been killing penalties.&rdquo;Not yet, anyway. The Flames used Roberts extensively while playing a man short last season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to score if you&rsquo;re not out there more than 12 minutes a game. I don&rsquo;t even know if I&rsquo;m playing that. I just have to keep capitalizing on my opportunities.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto, Theoren Fleury, Jiri Hrdina.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts, Paul Ranheim, Jim Peplinski, Brian MacLellan.RW&mdash;Sergei Makarov, Joey Mullen, Tim Hunter, Jonas Bergqvist, Sergei Priakin.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Dana Murzyn, Roger JohanssonRD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Ric Nattress, Al Maclnnis.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Hunter. RW, strained knee ligaments, Nov. 15.Colin Patterson, LW. pulled groin, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nieuwendyk, Roberts, 5. A&mdash; Makarov, 10. P&mdash;Makarov, 12. PIM&mdash; Murzvn, 19. &#9632;

ROBERTS DISCOVERS SCORING TOUCH

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; defenseman Paul Reinhart described the Soviets as &ldquo;a joy to play with.&rdquo;But for teammate Brian Bradley, the arrival of fellow center Igor Larionov and left winger Vladimir Krutov means frustration and hockey politics.While Larionov and Krutov have helped Reinhart get off to a Norris Trophy-like start, (5-9-14 in six games), the presence of the Soviets means more time in the press box for the 24-year-old Bradley.Bradley was the Canucks&rsquo; leading scorer in the playoffs last spring and in the 1989-90 preseason. Yet he was scratched for two of the team&rsquo;s first four games, against the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.Larionov, Trevor Linden, Barry Pederson and Craig Coxe, an enforcer with crude skills, dressed as the centers against the Oilers and Kings. McCammon explained he needed Coxe&rsquo;s muscle and that it was no reflection on Bradley&rsquo;s play.When Bradley was put back in the lineup at Coxe&rsquo;s expense, he responded with a spectacular goal and an assist against the Boston Bruins Oct. 15. He was the third star in a 7-6 win.&ldquo;I had seven points in five games during the pre-season, I played my rear off and now I&rsquo;m having trouble cracking the lineup,&rdquo; Bradley said.After playing out his option last season, Bradley signed a two-year contract with the Canucks just before training camp started. The negotiations dragged on over the summer as the Canucks played hardball with Bradley and his agent, Don Meehan. Bradley said he was seeking a three-year deal with a salary increase. He didn&rsquo;t get the security he wanted and suggested the signing of Larionov gave the club some extra leverage in the negotiations.When Bradley, Kevan Guy and Peter Bakovic were dealt to the Canucks from Calgary in March, 1988, for Coxe, the little center looked on the trade as a godsend.Calgary was deep at center so the weak-down-the-middle Canucks looked to be an ideal place to get lots of ice time. Yet now the Canucks are establishing some depth at center and Bradley can see the same thing happening again.&ldquo;I would hope it&rsquo;s not the Calgary thing all over again,&rdquo; Bradley said. &ldquo;I understood my role in Calgary. But here I know I can play. I don&rsquo;t want to be proving it every game because that&rsquo;s not the way to play. You&rsquo;ve got to play relaxed. You can&rsquo;t go out there and be thinking, &lsquo;If I have a bad shift, I&rsquo;m gone.&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Ron Stern, RW, David Bruce, RW, and Kevan Guy, D, assigned to Milwaukee (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Igor Larionov, Trevor Linden, Brian Bradley, Steve Bozek, Barry Pederson, Doug Smith, Craig Coxe.LW&mdash;Vladimir Krutov, Greg Adams. Petri Skriko, Daryl Stanley.RW&mdash;Tony Tanti, Jim Sandlak, Rich Sutter, Stan Smyl.LD&mdash;Paul Reinhart, Larry Melnyk, Jim Benning, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash;Garth Butcher, Doug Lidster, Robert Nord-mark.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Reinhart, 5. A&mdash;Reinhart, 9. P&mdash;Reinhart, 14. PIM&mdash;Melnyk. 18. &#9632;

SOVIETS KEEPING BRADLEY IN THE PRESS BOX

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Pat Elynuik has decided to roll the dice.The 21-year-old Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; right winger is gambling on himself. After scoring 26 goals in 56 games as an NHL rookie lasts eason, Elynuik figures he&rsquo;d rather place a wager on his own performance than sign the contract Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith has offered him.As a result, he&rsquo;ll play out his option this winter in search of bigger and better things next summer.&ldquo;I think this year we had good, constructive talks on the contract,&rdquo; said the native of Foam Lake, Sask. &ldquo;I think both sides agreed that I had to prove myself a little bit longer and we&rsquo;ll see what happens this year.&ldquo;I sat back and thought about it in the summer. No matter which way you look at it, for it to work out I have to have a good year and the team has to do well. It&rsquo;s a gamble but I&rsquo;m willing to take that gamble.&rdquo;Smith knows Elynuik could reap huge rewards from a big season. Elynuik knows he&rsquo;s capable of such play. And both sides agree he&rsquo;s taking a risk.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s in a situation where he&rsquo;s only played part of one year in the NHL,&rdquo; said Smith, who managed to get all his players who were entering their option years to sign new deals except Elynuik and Fredrik Olausson. &ldquo;We were talking about a contract that would move him to the next level.&ldquo;Now, by electing to play out his option, it could be much higher. The risk for a young player playing out his option is you could get hurt and you don&rsquo;t have much previous experience to fall back on. But he understands the risks completely.&rdquo;If the season&rsquo;s first five games are any indication, Elynuik&rsquo;s wager may pay off in a big way. The 6-foot, 195-pounder was leading the Jets in scoring.Through five starts, he had four goals and four assists and had a rating of plus-3. He recorded at least a point in every game.&ldquo;Offensively, he&rsquo;s been very good,&rdquo; said Winnipeg coach Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;He can improve in his intensity in getting loose pucks but offensively he&rsquo;s been good.&ldquo;I like him.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;m pretty happy with the first five games but I think I can play a little better,&rdquo; said Elynuik. &ldquo;There are some things I&rsquo;ve got to improve on as a winger but, hopefully, it&rsquo;ll come for the rest of the season. &ldquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Tony Joseph. RW, returned from Tappara (Finland). Assigned to Moncton (AHL).Oct. 15: Brian McReynolds, C, and Brad Jones, LW. assigned to Moncton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Dave McLIwain, Laurie Boschman.LW&mdash;Randy Cunneyworth. Doug Smail, Brent Ashton. Paul Fenton.RW&mdash;Greg Paslawski, Pat Elynuik, Mark Kumpel, Gord Donnelly.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Randy Carlyle. Shawn Cronin, Brad Berry.RD&mdash;Fredrik Olausson. Moe Mantha, Teppo Numminen.G&mdash;Daniel Berthiaume, Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>lain Duncan. LW, knee surgery, indefinite.Peter Tagllanetti. D, arthroscopic knee surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Elynuik, 4. A&mdash;Steen, Hawerchuk, Elynuik, 4. P&mdash;Elynuik, 8. PIM&mdash;Cronin, 19. &#9632;

GAMBLER ELYNUIK ROLLING SEVENS

<div class="byline">BY BILLY HARRIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01988/8499157-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="314" height="494"></div>On May 2, 1967, The Leafs won their 11th Stanley Cup.On May 3, 1967, The Leafs ceased to exist.The Leafs still play at Maple Leaf Gardens, and the Gardens is still at the comer of Church and Carlton Streets. Their sweaters are still blue and white, and they still defend the goal to &ldquo;Foster&rsquo;s right&rdquo; at the south end of the Gardens during the first period.But it&rsquo;s not the same any more.I suppose that there is no one significant incident that can be singled out as the precise moment when The Leafs expired. The transformation was made over a period of time. Or maybe not. Let&rsquo;s speculate.Perhaps what used to be, ceased to be when the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was removed, or:&#9632; maybe when Major Conn Smythe stepped aside in 1957.&#9632; possibly when the military bands were replaced by Don (Knuckles) Gordon at the organ.&#9632; perhaps when Stafford Smythe died in 1971.&#9632; conceivably when the Zamboni replaced the water barrels.&#9632; perhaps when Foster Hewitt&rsquo;s gondola was dismantled and trashed.&#9632; maybe when Frank Mahovlich was traded to Detroit.&#9632; possibly when Bobby Haggert retired in 1968.&#9632; perchance when Punch Imlach was fired in 1969.&#9632; perhaps when Hap Day&rsquo;s &ldquo;availability&rdquo; was questioned.&#9632; conceivably when the hardwood floor of the dressing room was covered with blue broadloom.&#9632; conceivably on Grey Cup weekend in 1963 when the Saturday night Detroit-Toronto game was the follow-up act to the &ldquo;Rodeo&rdquo; (anything for a buck).&#9632; maybe when the blue carpet was rolled out for conscientious objector Cassius Clay in 1966 (cash before class).&#9632; perhaps when, between 1961 and 1969, seating capacity was increased from 12,736 to 16,115 (cash before comfort).&#9632; perhaps when the NHLPA became a reality.&#9632; maybe when corporations replaced subscribers.&#9632; possibly when Leaf players stopped negotiating their own contracts and became puppets controlled by their agents and were told when to remove the &lsquo;C&rsquo; from their sweater and what to say at the press conference and when to demand to be traded for health reasons.&#9632; perchance when The Chief, George Armstrong, retired&mdash;he was the last of the Conn Smythe Leafs.&#9632; conceivably when the original Leaf crest was modernized, or when the plaques with the names of all the Leaf players were removed from the dressing room and trashed.&#9632; maybe when the motto, &ldquo;Defeat Does Not Rest Lightly on Their Shoulders&rdquo; was removed from the dressing-room wall.&#9632; possibly when the Leafs won the Cup in 1967, months before the league expanded to 12 teams.&#9632; perchance when the subscribers were unable to familiarize themselves with the Blues, Penguins, North Stars, Flyers, Seals and Kings.&#9632; conceivably in 1972 when a 68-year-old took over the hockey operation and ended the Smythe dynasty.&#9632; perhaps when the series of three stripes&mdash;narrow, thick, narrow&mdash;on the stockings were replaced by the wide band.&#9632; maybe when the hockey games were delayed for TV commercials.&#9632; possibly when the blues became reds, and the reds became golds.Whatever. It&rsquo;s just not the same any more.Billy Harris played 12 seasons in the NHL, 10 of them with the Toronto Maple Leafs in their glory years. He won three Stanley Cups as a Leaf, but he was more than just a key figure on the ice. He was the unofficial team photographer and observer. He has put his fond recollections, frank observations and candid photos together to create a book, The Glory Years, Memories of a Decade, 1955-1965 (Prentice-Hall Canada Inc., 192 pages, $29.95). The above excerpt was reprinted with permission by Prentice-Hall Canada Inc. Harris, 54, now lives in Etobicoke, Ont. &#9632;

f0039-01

WHATEVER BECAME OF THE LEAFS?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02643/8499188-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York Rangers&rsquo; goaltender Cesare Maniago seems to be willing the puck away from the net as defenseman Jim Neilson looks on. Maniago, who played just two seasons in the Big Apple (1965-66 and &rsquo;66-67), enjoyed his best years in Minnesota during the &rsquo;70s.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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WAY WE WERE

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div>The year 1951 was a vintage one for the NHL.That season, all five Stanley Cup final games between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens went into overtime. The Leafs won the Cup with a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven series.The year also produced some of the greatest and most enduring stars the game has seen. Larry Robinson, Borje Salming, Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne were all born that year and 38 years later, all are still in the NHL. Dionne, however, is not on the Rangers&rsquo; roster, though he is still on the payroll.All four are more than double the age of the youngest player on an NHL roster, 18-year-old Dave Chyzowski of the New York Islanders.The following is a list of the oldest and youngest players as of Oct. 5, the day the NHL opened its 1989-90 season.<h2>TIME LINE</h2><h3>OLDEST PLAYERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03497/8499233-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="892" height="712"></div><h3>YOUNGEST PLAYERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04410/8499226-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="890" height="590"></div><h2>THAT&rsquo;S LOYALTY</h2>One of the few New York Ranger players to escape the wheeling and dealing of (Trader) Phil Esposito was Ron Greschner. The Ranger defenseman is in his 16th season with the club.Greschner and Bryan Trottier, a 15-year New York Islander, top the list of active players with consecutive years of service to the same team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05345/8499219-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="868" height="562"></div> &#9632;

f0039-03

YOUNGSTERS AND GREYBEARDS

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Miscast and misclad in Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; blue, Jimmy Carson has played his last game for the Smythe Division club.Benched for the third period and overtime of a 3-3 tie with the Boston Bruins Oct. 13, Carson failed to show for practice the following day. Instead, he called coach John Muckler, informing him he was retiring from the NHL team.&ldquo;When he called me, he said the fact he was benched had nothing to do with the decision,&rdquo; explained Muckler. &ldquo;He said he couldn&rsquo;t get up mentally for the games, The way he&rsquo;s played the last two games, it&rsquo;s pretty obvious he&rsquo;s a person with a problem. There&rsquo;s not much you can do about that.&rdquo;General manager Glen Sather immediately suspended Carson, pending a trade he&rsquo;s been attempting to make since the end of last season.It was ironic that Carson quit on the eve of an historic game against the Los Angeles Kings. Wayne Gretzky, only two points away from surpassing NHL career leader Gordie Howe, picked up three points in the Oct. 15 match at Northlands Coliseum. Carson, of course, was the Oilers&rsquo; major acquisition in the blockbuster deal of Aug. 9, 1988, which sent Gretzky to LA.Sather wouldn&rsquo;t estimate when a trade will be made or if he&rsquo;ll accommodate the Detroit native&rsquo;s wishes of playing in the U.S.&ldquo;A trade to a U.S. city is not possible at this time,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to a lot of people about him and I can&rsquo;t say whether it&rsquo;ll be a day or a month. I guess from the team&rsquo;s point of view, we&rsquo;ll leave the player suspended.&rdquo;Carson&rsquo;s Toronto-based agent, Bill Watters, said he&rsquo;s advised his client not to discuss the situation with the media.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing horse&mdash;and he knows he hasn&rsquo;t been playing well,&rdquo; said Watters. &ldquo;He knows he doesn&rsquo;t want to be there and, in fairness to his teammates, he doesn&rsquo;t want to keep taking a paycheck.&ldquo;Glen and I have talked about a trade since February,&rdquo; said Watters. &ldquo;But in training camp Jimmy actually told me he was hoping he wouldn&rsquo;t be traded&mdash;that he would stay the year. All of a sudden&hellip;there wasn&rsquo;t any sense in prolonging the agony.&rdquo;Watters doesn&rsquo;t expect a trade to take place in the immediate future.Carson&rsquo;s also playing out his option&mdash;a factor in the player&rsquo;s favor, according to Watters.&ldquo;In the short term, anybody who&rsquo;s going to make a deal with Glen has to sign (Carson) first,&rdquo; said Watters. &ldquo;In that sense, we&rsquo;ve got control like a free-agent would have. If nothing happens soon, Jimmy will go to school in California and exercise his free agency next summer.&rdquo;At season&rsquo;s end, assuming no deal is made in the iterim, Carson will become a free agent with compensation. If in the summer he were to sign with a new club, the Oilers would have 72 hours to arrange suitable compensation&mdash;in effect, a trade. If not, the Oilers and the club that signed Carson would have to go to arbitration to determine compensation.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Jim Ennis, D, traded to Hartford for Norm Maciver, D. Maciver assigned to Cape Breton (AHL).Oct. 12: Chris Joseph, D. recalled from Cape Breton.Oct. 14: Jimmy Carson, C, announced retirement. Carson suspended by team.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Craig MacTavish, Kevin McClelland, Mark Lamb.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson. Esa Tikkanen, Martin Gelinas, Peter Eriksson.RW&mdash;Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson. Normand Lacombe, Mike Ware, Kelly Buchberger, Dave Brown. Trevor Sim.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Geoff Smith, Francois Leroux.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Jeff Beukeboom, Charlie Huddy, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Bill Ranford. Pokey Reddick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Grant Fuhr. G, appendectomy, indefinite.Randy Gregg. D, pulled leg muscle, indefinite.Steve Smith, D, hairline fracture on right instep, day-to-day<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Messier, 4. A&mdash;Kurri, 5. P&mdash;Messier, 7 PIM&mdash;Tikkanen, 19. &#9632;

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October 27, 1989

MUSTANGS WILL BE GETTING DEFENSIVE

SCOREBOARD

NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

WITTY WORDS FROM MEN OF HOCKEY’S AIRWAVES