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.

September 14, 1990

The Hockey News September 14, 1990

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012033/8439493-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="493" height="591"></div>Isn&rsquo;t it strange that&hellip;&hellip;Hall of Famer Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr made their indelible imprints with the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins, yet both are now front men for the Hartford Whalers?&hellip;The New York Rangers have not won the Stanley Cup for 50 years, yet it&rsquo;s tougher to buy a Blueshirt ticket today than in September, 1940 after they won their last championship?&hellip;Howard Baldwin helped save the North Stars for Minnesota in late spring, yet before the fall he&rsquo;s out on his keester, making movies in California while Norman (Come-lately) Green runs the team?&hellip;Wayne Gretzky is whining about fighting, this time in his autobiography, yet some of his best friends are Dave Semenko, Marty McSorley and Jay Miller&mdash;players who&rsquo;ve made a living in hockey with their fists?&hellip;The Golden Seals bled the NHL white during their ill-fated life in Oakland, yet when it came time for the latest round of expansion, the league couldn&rsquo;t wait to put a team in the Bay Area?&hellip; Just about everyone agrees hockey in the &rsquo;90s will be more demanding than ever on coaches and managers, yet Mike Keenan and Bryan Murray blithely decide to both manage and coach?&hellip;The NHL gives out more trophies than you have fingers on both hands, yet it has never seen fit to honor the most noble, unobtrusive aspect of the game, the defensive defenseman?&hellip;Jacques Demers was a wonderful coach for so many years and, suddenly, he is deemed nonwonderful when Bob Probert misses a whole season and the Red Wings can&rsquo;t find a No. I goalie?&hellip;The Bruins do better than ever playing clean &lsquo;hockey and boast to the world about it, yet they make a point of dealing for overage goon Chris Nilan?&hellip;The St. Louis Blues could have signed Brett Hull long-term for $250,000 per year last fall, yet now they are paying through the nose, throat and arteries for The Golden One?&hellip;Ottawa, Canada&rsquo;s capital and home to 10 Stanley Cup champions early in the century, is still a hockey hotbed, yet the city will be denied an NHL expansion franchise?&hellip;Hockey became a prominent money-maker because of blue-collar fans, yet now the game is so geared to the wealthier element teams consider it more important to have dozens of corporate boxes than fans in the cheap seats?&hellip;Advances in hockey science increase by the month and criticism of officiating mounts by the year, yet NHL refereeing&mdash;propaganda to the contrary&mdash;never improves beyond square one? &hellip;Some of the greatest hockey players of all time&mdash;such as Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Gordie Howe, Glenn Hall&mdash;were products of low income families, yet nowadays a poor kid can hardly afford to equip himself for the game? &hellip;Mike Keenan has been alternately portrayed as dictator, hobgoblin, worse-than-Stain, humorless and unfair, yet all he asks of his players is an honest day and night&rsquo;s work?Thirty seconds with Kevin Lowe of the Edmonton Oilers:Stan Fischler: &ldquo;How difficult will it be for the Oilers to repeat as Stanley Cup champs?&rdquo;Kevin Lowe: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re the one organization of the entire 21 that has to be optimistic because of the young players like Adam Graves, Joe Murphy and Martin Gelinas. Plus the fact that they played so well in the playoffs. Add to that the draft picks we got from L. A. in the Gretzky deal and you have to figure the sky is the limit.&rdquo;S.F.: &ldquo;You won a Cup in 1985 and lost it in 1986. What did you learn from that experience?&rdquo;K.L.: &ldquo;I learned that what you won the previous year doesn&rsquo;t matter one bit the next season. You have to go out and prove yourselves all over again.&rdquo;S.F.: &ldquo;Tell me how that will happen in 1990-91.&rdquo;K.L.: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time for the new, young players to become the leaders of the team while allowing the veterans to kind of continue on with the winning ways. We&rsquo;ll lend the experience to the young guys and help them along.&rdquo;S.F.: &ldquo;Twice Edmonton was in trouble during the playoffs; down three games to one to Winnipeg and down two to one to Chicago. What enabled your team to win?&rdquo;K.L.: &ldquo;We never looked farther ahead than the game we were playing. At the start, Winnipeg was just that much better than us so we said, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s take one game at a time&rsquo; and even though it&rsquo;s a cliche, it allowed us to win that series. That experience allowed us to grow incredibly and prepare for the Chicago round. In past years we didn&rsquo;t have the kind of maturity that would have allowed us to think the way we did last spring. We didn&rsquo;t panic when we were down to Chicago because we knew that if we played our best game nobody in the NHL could beat us.&rdquo; &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

ODD HOW RANGER FANS KEEP COMING OUT

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>Even though they ended last season with a disastrous first-round playoff loss, the Calgary Flames go into the 1990 training camp with a fairly set lineup.Two veterans, Brad McCrimmon and Joey Mullen, were moved to the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins respectively, but since the Flames finished the year with a 25-man roster anyway, the logjam has just barely started to break up.Still, expect to see one or two new kids on the block by the time the season begins. Two types of competition will evolve in training camp&mdash;&ldquo;the element of playing on the team and the element of playing in the team,&rdquo; said coach Doug Risebrough. &ldquo;First, there&rsquo;s a competitiveness to fill the open spots. Then, there&rsquo;s a competitiveness within the team to fill the time slots to see who plays the extra minutes on specialty teams. Even though this team has been successful in the past, we are looking to improve ourselves. That might come by looking at new people, even if it&rsquo;s just to experiment with them to see their potential. That might not necessarily mean a change now, but a change down the road.&rdquo;Goal: Incumbents: Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.Challengers: Steve Guenette, Trevor Kidd.Vernon goes into camp as the clear No. 1, even if he is coming off an injury-filled year. Bothered by back spasms off and on all of last season, Vernon stuck to a physiotherapy program and went into camp feeling reasonably healthy. Early in the summer, there was talk that the Flames might move Rick Wamsley to open up a spot for Steve Guenette, but that talk petered out, in part because of the uncertainty over Vernon&rsquo;s status.&ldquo;Performance,&rdquo; said Risebrough, &ldquo;will determine if Guenette can dislodge Wamsley. He&rsquo;s a young goalie who shows promise.&rdquo;Trevor Kidd, the team&rsquo;s No. 1 choice in the 1990 entry draft, figures to be the goalie of the future, but it would take a bizarre series of circumstances&mdash;say an injury to Vernon combined with a stellar camp&mdash;for him to make it this year. Traditionally, the Flames do not rush their young talent.Defense: Incumbents: Al Maclnnis, Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Dana Murzyn, Ric Nattress, Roger Johansson.Challengers: Brian Glynn, Ken Sabourin, Kevin Grant.McCrimmon&rsquo;s absence means Suter must play with a new partner for the first time in three years. There may be a temptation to play him with Maclnnis, if only because the two see so much ice time together on the power-play already. Johansson spent all of last season on the roster, but his place in the starting six is by no means secure. The Flames want to take a long look at Glynn, who played regularly for them as a 20-year-old, but spent the past two seasons in the minors. Glynn put together solid numbers (17-44-61) in Salt Lake City. Despite his size (6-4, 215) Glynn is more of a finesse player. If the Flames decide they want more beef in front of the net, then Sabourin and Grant, a pair of 6-3, 210-pounders will also get a look.Center: Incumbents: Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto, Theoren Fleury.Challengers: Robert Reichel, Marc Bureau.Fleury starts training camp in the middle, but if Reichel lives up to his advance billing, he will almost certainly finish up on the right side, replacing Joey Mullen.Nieuwendyk damaged the anterior cruciate ligament and miniscus cartilage in his left knee during last May&rsquo;s world championships, but in informal workouts before camp opened, pronounced himself fit and ready to go. The only discomfort, said Nieuwendyk, came from the brace he must wear and get used to. Gilmour is one of the better two-way centers in the league. Otto is coming off a year in which his totals slipped (13-20-33). For reasons not entirely clear to anybody, he fell out of favor with excoach Terry Crisp and saw his ice time and confidence dwindle considerably. Once rated in the top three of NHL faceoff men, Otto&rsquo;s production there fell off some as well. He needs to pick that up if he can.Risebrough acknowledged that somebody may need to move to the wing if Reichel wins a job.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re trying to put the best line-up together, you might have to move players out of position,&rdquo; said Risebrough.Left wing: Incumbents: Gary Roberts, Paul Ranheim, Brian MacLellan, Colin Patterson, Sergei Priakin.Challenger: Tim Sweeney.Once the team&rsquo;s weakest link, the left side now possesses two excellent young players in Roberts and Ranheim. In his fourth pro year. Roberts finally broke out as a scorer last season (39-33-72). His 34 even-strength goals trailed only his linemate Joe Nieuwendyk. Ranheim played solid two-way hockey all year, but broke out in the second half as a goalscorer with 18 goals in his final 40 games. MacLellan was almost as impressive, scoring 17 times in the 34 games he played in the second half. Injuries limited Patterson to only 32 games last season, but his strong defensive skills plus his versatility&mdash;he can play all three forward positions&mdash;means there should be a spot for him somewhere. Management promised Priakin, the first Soviet player to join an NHL team, a better shot this year. He only dressed for six regular-season games a year ago. Tim Sweeney, a Boston College grad compared by some to Joey Mullen, will also draw some interest.Right wing: Incumbents: Sergei Makarov, Mark Hunter, Tim Hunter, Jiri Hrdina.Challenger: Stephane Matteau.The right side doesn&rsquo;t look too deep on paper, but chances are good that somebody&mdash;Fleury, Patterson, Priakin, maybe even Ranheim&mdash;will be switched over to bolster the right side. Makarov&rsquo;s major complaint in his first NHL season was he wasn&rsquo;t getting enough ice time. It&rsquo;s not clear if he&rsquo;ll get more this year.The player attracting much of the attention heading into camp is Mark Hunter, who underwent successful surgery to reconstruct his knee last December and is looking to re-establish himself as one of the NHL&rsquo;s hardest shooters.The wild card on the right side is Stephane Matteau. He came up as a left winger but switched to the right side last year and could win a spot with a good training camp.<h2>CALGARY</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 24: Jim Korn, LW, released outright. Kerry Clark, RW, and Scott McCrady. D, signed as free agents Mark Osieki. D, signed to a contract.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011205/8440447-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="691" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Nieuwendyk must wear a brace after injuring his knee.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THE NHL

VERNON’S BACK TO NO. 1 STATUS

Those old metal side-by-side roller skates you had as a kid just won&rsquo;t do anymore. Nor, will those skates with the big fat tires that seemed only appropriate in a disco roller rink.No, the thing to have now is a pair of in-line roller skates&mdash;they look like ice skates with wheels and cost about the same. If they&rsquo;re neon-colored all the better.In-line roller skates have been slowly growing in popularity to the point the North American market is estimated to be more than $50 million dollars this year.The three major producers&mdash;Rollerblade Inc., First Team Sports and Canstar Sports Group&mdash;and several other minor producers could sell about 500,000 pairs of skates in 1990, a spokesman for First Team Sports says. Rollerblade Inc., based in Minneapolis, Minn., makes the Rollerblade skates. First Team Sports, also based in Minneapolis, make Ultra Wheels skates and Canstar, based in Mississauga, Ont., make Bauer in-line skates.The skates, some models which resemble hockey skates and others that are more similar to ski boots, have four polyurethane wheels aligned in a row in the middle of the boot. Skates for beginners retail for about $90 (U.S.) and the top-of-the-line models&mdash;some of which come with five wheels for racing&mdash;sell for more than $300 (US.).And considering that in-line skates have only been mass produced for about 10 years, the in terest has only been building for the last few years.In 1980, two brothers in Minneapolis, Scott and Brennan Olson, got the idea to market inline roller skates to hockey players for off-ice conditioning.Soon cross-country skiers were using them for training. Downhill skiers, cyclists and rowers also got into the act.The large bulk of the market now is the recreational skater. The marketing emphasis has also changed, says a spokesman for Rollerblade Inc.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re marketing it as a new sport, not as a fad,&rdquo; says Mary Haugen. &ldquo;And this year it&rsquo;s started to take off tremendously (in Canada). A lot of people there are used to that skating motion.&rdquo;The people using the in-line skates have also changed.Four or five years ago the vast majority of in-line skaters were men and they tended to be in their 20s and 30s. Now, more and more women and children are getting involved as well as older people.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an extremely fast-growing sport, not a fad, in the U.S. and Canada,&rdquo; says Kelly Adam, a spokesman for Canstar. &ldquo;It was developed as off-season training for hockey and skiing and now it is more a fitness and leisure activity.&rdquo;&ldquo;All kinds of people are becoming interested,&rdquo; says Adam. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s a good low-impact exercise.&rdquo;As a result of the increased interest in in-line skates the focus of the marketing has broadened as well. Los Angeles Kings Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille promote in-line roller skates as does figure skating champions Jill Trenary and Kurt Browning. As well, the U.S. and Canadian ski teams use in-line skates for off-season training as does the 7-11 cycling team.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t really concentrate all our efforts on one particular area,&rdquo; says Rollerblade&rsquo;s Haugen. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re trying to appeal to cyclists we will have an ad with the 7-11 cycling team.&rdquo;Five years ago, each company had one or two models and now each has several models and many different styles. The different styles and colors&mdash;fashionable neon shades as well as standard colors&mdash;are geared towards the fitness and recreational markets.&ldquo;The consumer has many choices,&rdquo; says First Team Sports vice president of marketing, John Egart. &ldquo;They are offered good, better and best models in a variety of colors.&rdquo;&ldquo;The majority of skates used to be sold in cold weather climates (such as Minnesota and New England)&mdash;because of the presence of hockey and skiing,&rdquo; Egart says. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s growing in California and other warm places.&rdquo;&ldquo;We (the in-line skate companies) are at the tip of the iceberg,&rdquo; Egart says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re probably in less than 10 per cent of the markets we could be in.&rdquo; &#9632;

IN-LINE ROLLER SKATES NO LONGER A FAD

Sept. 15, 1960: After 18 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, the legendary Maurice (Rocket) Richard retired. During his illustrious career Richard was named to either the first or second All-Star team 16 consecutive years, he set 17 scoring records and played on eight Stanley Cup winners.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021517/8439524-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="642" height="393"><figcaption class="caption-body">Maurice Richard</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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FLASHBACK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover46/8441091-1-eng-US/cover2.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Cover

WENDEL CLARK: CAN HE BOUNCE BACK?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011630/8439142-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="526" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr</figcaption></div>In next week&rsquo;s issue of The Hockey News, we will continue to follow up the Grant Fuhr story and the ramifications for the all-star netminder, his club, the Edmonton Oilers and the National Hockey League now that he has confessed to illegal substance abuse.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll present an in-depth interview with junior sensation Eric Lindros of the Oshawa Generals. Lindros is pegged as the No. 1 pick in the 1991 entry draft and a potential NHL impact player in the mold of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.Plus, we&rsquo;ll have our annual preview of the Canadian Hockey League, which includes an analytical report on the apparent boom in major junior, a look at the top players and teams in each of the Ontario, Quebec and Western Leagues and complete schedules for all three.And don&rsquo;t miss our annual buyer&rsquo;s guide to equipment, all in the Sept. 21 issue of The Hockey News.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021376/8439135-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="534" height="608"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Lindros</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

In THNs August issue, two columnists praised Chicago general manager Mike Keenan for trading Denis Savard to Montreal for Chris Chelios and a draft pick. Are Bob McKenzie and Steve Simmons trying to imitate Stan Fischler?McKenzie gave Chicago an edge because Chelios won a Stanley Cup. But the 1986 Montreal Canadiens won because of Patrick Roy&rsquo;s goaltending, not Chelios&rsquo; measly 11 points. Savard has 122 points in 99 career playoff games; he&rsquo;s proven himself in the post-season. Mario Lemieux hasn&rsquo;t won a Cup. Should he be traded for Petr Svoboda?Simmons, meanwhile, called Chelios one of the three best defensemen in the league. What about Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, Doug Wilson, Al Iafrate, Phil Housley, Scott Stevens, Gary Suter, Paul Reinhart and James Patrick? Simmons also said Savard would have trouble in the tight-checking Adams Division. If Hartford&rsquo;s Ron Francis can get 100 points in the Adams, so can Savard.I miss the good old days when Savard was in Chicago, Keenan wasn&rsquo;t GM, Greg Millen and Michel Goulet were floating on other teams. Jay Greenberg was a THN columnist and I was a Blackhawks&rsquo; fan.Wayne Luiken&nbsp;Manning, Alta.<h2>SOME COVERAGE</h2>Thanks for your in-depth coverage of the hockey tournament at the Goodwill Games. I suppose there was just too much hockey this summer for your staff to keep up with it all.A superlative international cast, and exciting final between the U.S. and the Soviets, and as usual The Hockey News was in the Caribbean or on the Riviera catching the &ldquo;big one.&rdquo;Would it have been too much to carry the box scores of all the American and Canadian games? Most of the players are future NHL prospects. A lead article should have been the bare minimum.Dave Sayen&nbsp;Princeton, N.J.<h2>OILER EMBARGO</h2>Nothing could have been worse for the NHL than the Edmonton Oilers winning the Stanley Cup yet again in 1990.Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, the Oilers are the greatest team in the world and they proved they&rsquo;re still head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league in all aspects of the game. But, outside Edmonton city limits and maybe northern Alberta, was there anyone who wanted to see them win. Or cared if they did?Imagine for a moment the attention the Stanley Cup playoffs would have gotten had Chicago or Los Angeles, or more realistically, Boston won it all. I don&rsquo;t believe for a moment that isn&rsquo;t what the tall foreheads in the league&rsquo;s front office weren&rsquo;t hoping for.So, sorry Edmonton, but I don&rsquo;t think too many people would care if you never made the NHL playoffs again.Brian McWhirter&nbsp;Bloomington. Minn.<h2>BRING BACK FRED</h2>I have a bit of a problem that quite likely requires medical attention, but I&rsquo;m writing The Hockey News instead.You see, 1 am one of the confused souls who yearns for the golden days when skates were white, the hockey was downright ugly and the California Seals were playing their very special brand of hockey.Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I too appreciate Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s skill, Mark Messier&rsquo;s strength and Scott Stevens&rsquo; bank account. But 1 fondly remember all the blown leads, bungled power plays and great uniforms.It&rsquo;s just a thought, but with a Bay Area team coming into the NHL next year, maybe we could start a &ldquo;Draft Fred Glover&rdquo; campaign. He could come back, swing a few trades and singlehandedly rebuild the Montreal dynasty. Think of the possibilities. (Ed. note: Glover was the Seals&rsquo; coach from 1968-71 and 1972-74.)Dave Jamieson&nbsp;Vancouver, B.C.<h2>ADAMS BOOSTER</h2>Greg Adams of the Vancouver Canucks is:a) Fifty per cent of the best trade in Canucks&rsquo; history. (The Canucks acquired Adams and Kirk McLean from New Jersey in 1987 for Patrik Sundstrom and a fourth-round draft pick).b) The Canucks&rsquo; only pure goal scorer. He was on a pace for 47 goals in 1989-90 before a fractured cheek bone sidelined him for three weeks in November.c) A nice guy and a hard-working player who simply gets no respect and is never written about in THN.Dave Armini&nbsp;Bedford, Mass.<h2>STOP WHINING</h2>I would like Stan Fischler, who told us Brett Hull doesn&rsquo;t like shadows (THN, Sept. 7), to ask Hull what he thinks about his own teammate Rick Meagher. I&rsquo;m sure Steve Yzerman could give us a mouthful about the Blues&rsquo; forward, yet you don&rsquo;t see Yzerman complaining to the press about the great job Meagher does.Whiners like Hull&mdash;his father Bobby was one, too&mdash;should accept shadowing as part of the game. Let&rsquo;s face it: If Hull was just a 20-25 goal scorer he wouldn&rsquo;t have a shadow, nor the millions of dollars he&rsquo;s getting.Jim Robelli&nbsp;Mt. Clemens, Mich.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

COLUMNISTS

CHICAGO LOST BIG IN SAVARD TRADE

<div class="byline">BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011972/8439197-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="517" height="598"></div>Some say it started with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Others say Steve Yzerman and Chris Chelios. Or Brett Hull and Scott Stevens.Fact is, it doesn&rsquo;t really matter whose multimillion dollar contract spawned an unprecedented salary explosion in the National Hockey League.What matters is the NHL money market is in chaos.Players going into their option years are looking for incredible increases. Players on existing contracts are looking to renegotiate.Suddenly, they&rsquo;re taking an active, and militant, role.&ldquo;Many of them are giving me specific instructions,&rdquo; says Toronto-based player agent Don Meehan. &ldquo;They tell me, &lsquo;I want to be involved&hellip;I&rsquo;ll tell you what to do.&rsquo;&rdquo;NHL general managers and owners, meanwhile, are taking a hard line. There is much fear and loathing.The result?More players will play out their option than ever before. They&rsquo;ll gamble on a career year in 1990-91 with a big payoff next summer. Their cause will only be aided by a new collective bargaining agreement (next fall) that is almost certain to loosen the constrictive reins of NHL free agency.In the short term, however, NHL GMs must put out brush fires that threaten to become an inferno. They must deal with disgruntled stars who signed long-term contracts only to discover their income pales beside the new standards set by Hull and Stevens ($1.7 million and $1.3 million, respectively). Or superstar players who refuse to head into an option year without striking a sweet, new deal.In the weeks leading up to the Sept. 7 camp opening, unconfirmed reports indicated some big-name players would not check in until they had new or revised deals.Among those mentioned were Hartford&rsquo;s Ronnie Francis, St. Louis&rsquo; Adam Oates, Washington&rsquo;s Kevin Hatcher, Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Roy and Stephane Richer and New York Islander Pat LaFontaine.&ldquo;Certainly, there have been many rumors,&rdquo; says NHL Players&rsquo; Association deputy executive director Bob Goodenow. &ldquo;And realistically, some of them may come to pass. But those are all situations that can change from moment to moment and a lot can happen very quickly.&rdquo;Make no mistake, this is a strategic financial battle.The Hull and Stevens contracts created a huge rush of momentum for the players, setting new salary standards.But NHL management countered with a move that may just stem the inflationary tide.The theory goes that NHL GMs, fraternizing now more than ever, designated Boston&rsquo;s Harry Sinden, as wily and frugal as they come, as their point man. Sinden had to appease unhappy allstars Cam Neely and Ray Bourque, the best right winger and defenseman, respectively, in the NHL. If Sinden could sign them to &ldquo;reasonable&rdquo; deals, they would render moot the Hull-Stevens numbers.Mission accomplished. Neely agreed to a four-year deal that reportedly pays him $700,000 in the first year. $800,000 in the second year and and a million in each of the third and fourth years. That&rsquo;s not even in the same stratosphere as Hull. Bourque is said to be close to a deal for about the same money as Stevens.Now, when Montreal GM Serge Savard negotiates with disgruntled Stephane Richer, he&rsquo;ll use the Neely deal, not Hull, as his new yardstick. And assuming Bourque settles for $1.3 million, Pittsburgh GM Craig Patriek will do the same in talks with Paul Coffey.Strategists on the players&rsquo; side say it would have been far wiser for Neely and Bourque to hang tough and let Richer or Coffey set the next standard. Then, Neely and Bourque could fairly demand more and continue to drive up the scale.Instead, management has set a new and lower salary ceiling.The next move belongs to the players. Stay tuned. &#9632;

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FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE NHL MARKETPLACE

&#9642; The opening of training camp. Is there any better feeling than stepping out of a warm late-summer or early-fall day and into a chilly arena resplendent with the sights and sounds we haven&rsquo;t heard for so many months? Yes, there probably is a better feeling. but the start of another season is still special.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021556/8439235-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="365" height="363"></div>&#9642; Frank Mathers. The 67-year-old has done it all in the American League. After an illustrious playermanagement career that has spanned more than 40 years, he&rsquo;s stepping down as general manager of the Hershey Bears, retaining the title of president. Mathers is a true hockey institution who has enjoyed the sweet smell of success in the world&rsquo;s chocolate capital.&#9642; Toronto Maple Leaf coach Doug Carpenter. How could a veteran NHL coach be foolish enough to get into that no-win game of chasing after media shadows? He should remember coaches are paid to win hockey games, not critique the fourth and fifth estate.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03984/8439228-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="360" height="364"></div>&#9642; USA Hockey&rsquo;s selection of Dave Peterson as the 1992 Olympic coach. In 1988 at the Calgary Winter Games, Peterson played the &rsquo;Ugly American&rsquo;, warring with the international media and-doing the U.S. program a disservice. Perhaps a second chance is the thing to do, but with applicants Herb Brooks, Tim Taylor and Jeff Sauer, USA Hockey could have seized the opportunity to try a fresh approach. &#9632;

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CHEERS JEERS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>After a season marred by an assortment of injuries, 1990-91 was supposed to be Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s big comeback year.But as reports in the Edmonton Journal of Fuhr&rsquo;s admission to longtime substance abuse surfaced Aug. 31, the Oiler goalie&rsquo;s hockey future was placed in doubt.On the advice of his lawyer, Fuhr, 27, wouldn&rsquo;t use the word cocaine, but did admit to using a &ldquo;substance&rdquo; for about seven years. The Spruce Grove, Alta., native said he checked himself into a St. Petersburg, Fla., drug treatment center last August after failing a private drug test. He claimed he hasn&rsquo;t used an illegal substance since that time.NHL president John Ziegler, who has tentatively set a hearing date for Sept. 26, is allowing Fuhr to train with the Oilers while an investigation is conducted, but said the goalie can&rsquo;t play in any pre-season games. Under NHL rules, any player found guilty of using illegal drugs will be automatically suspended.The Oilers, meanwhile, decided not take Fuhr on their four-game exhibition tour of Germany and Austria, which began Sept. 1.For his part, Fuhr fully expected to be suspended.&ldquo;What can you do?&rdquo; hesaid. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to deal with it.&rdquo;Fuhr said he was introduced to the substance by friends in 1983 or &rsquo;84, and used it once every three or four week. He also admitted he lied to Glen Sather more than once when the Oilers&rsquo; general manager confronted him about possible drug abuse. Fuhr said owning up to drug use is &ldquo;not something you tell your boss.&rdquo;Though the boss did have his suspicions. As early as 1983, Sather said he had reason to believe his star goalie was abusing drugs and suggested Fuhr seek help. On one occasion Sather said Fuhr broke down in tears when he was confronted about his cocaine use by the RCMP in Sather&rsquo;s office a few years ago.Sather&rsquo;s statements contradict his categorical denial in May, 1986 of a Sports Illustrated story that accused five unnamed Oilers of having drug abuse problems.The league would not comment on whether Sather and the Oilers will face disciplinary action, but Ziegler did say teams are not obliged to supply the NHL with information on possible drug use by their players.Should Fuhr be suspended, he would become the fifth NHL player to be punished for substance abuse.Don Murdoch of the New York Rangers was the first. He received a one-year suspension (commuted to 40 games) for possession of cocaine in July, 1978. Ric Nattress of the Montreal Canadiens was suspended for a year (commuted to 30 games) for possession of marijuana in July, 1983. Borje Salnring of the Toronto Maple Leafs was suspended for a year (commuted to eight games) for admitting to cocaine use in May, 1986. And Bob Probert of the Detroit Red Wings was expelled from the NHL in March, 1989, then reinstated a year later.Corrine Fuhr, Grant&rsquo;s ex-wife, agreed to go public with her concerns because she said she&rsquo;d failed in her other attempts to help straighten out her ex-husband. The couple separated in September 1989.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really afraid he&rsquo;s going to die,&rdquo; she said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011926/8439266-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="686" height="795"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glen Sather suspected Grant Fuhr had a drug problem for some time.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;My sole purpose in talking about this is to have Grant take a step into recovery. My objectives would be to save his life and hopefully have a healthy parent for the kids.&rdquo;Corrine said she had absolutely no doubts her husband had a cocaine problem soon after they were married Sept. 23, 1983.She said while Fuhr, a three-time all-star and one-time Vezina Trophy winner, was helping his teammates to a Stanley Cup victory in 1984, drug dealers repeatedly called the family home threatening to &ldquo;kneecap&rdquo; him if he didn&rsquo;t come up with money he owed.A binge user, according to his ex-wife. Fuhr would sometimes use cocaine heavily for a few days in a row, staying at after-hours clubs until dawn. She said he would then stay off the drug for a few weeks before starting up again.Corrine doesn&rsquo;t believe Fuhr used cocaine on game days, but said his play was definitely affected.Corrine said the effects of the cocaine would show up two days after using the drug. That&rsquo;s when Fuhr would, &ldquo;have a brutal one.&rdquo;Perhaps the most serious incident was when Fuhr missed a team flight after a night of partying.On Oct. 14, 1988, Fuhr made it to his Edmonton home at 11 a.m., 90 minutes after his teammates had left for Calgary, Corrine said.She and Rich Winter, Fuhr&rsquo;s agent at the time, called Sather and then put Fuhr on a plane to Calgary. Fuhr was in the Oilers&rsquo; lineup, but did not see any action in the game against the Flames.Sather confirmed being contacted and said he challenged Fuhr upon his arrival in Calgary.&ldquo;I was so upset I wanted to kill him,&rdquo; Sather said.Fuhr declined to say whether he had used drugs on that occasion, adding his ex-wife is vindictive.&ldquo;Corrine has been sour on me since I left her,&rdquo; said Fuhr, who remarried in late August.Oiler left winger Esa Tikkanen also was a witness to Fuhr&rsquo;s alleged cocaine use. One night at the Forum Inn (a local bar), Fuhr, Tikkanen and a third Oiler were having a beer when someone tossed the goalie, what Tikkanen said, was a bag of cocaine.&ldquo;It happened so fast. You just think &lsquo;Oh, oh, why are we sitting here?&rsquo;&rdquo; said the Finnish native.&ldquo;Me (and the other player) thought about going away but everything cooled down, he put it in his pocket. Then we talked to Grant, and asked him &lsquo;What are you doing?&rsquo; He said he was using it.&ldquo;(The other player) was more surprised than me. I knew it before because I was a close friend with him all the time.&ldquo;I would like to see him get treatment and hopefully he&rsquo;ll come back and do well because he is too good a goaltender to waste away.&rdquo;Tikkanen had this advice for his teammate: &ldquo;Get better soon, before it is too late.&rdquo; &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

FUHR’S FUTURE IN DOUBT AS HE ADMITS TO LONGTIME SUBSTANCE ABUSE

In somewhat of a surprise move, USA Hockey announced Dave Peterson would be returning to coach the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.Peterson, who guided the 1988 team to a seventh-place finish at the Calgary Games while incurring the wrath of the media, becomes the first U.S. Olympic coach to lead consecutive teams since Murray Williamson in 1968 and &rsquo;72.Entering the USA Hockey Olympic Committee&rsquo;s final meeting in Chicago Aug. 24, most observers felt Peterson, 59, was the least likely of the four remaining candidates to get the nod. Also up for the job were Herb Brooks, Tim Taylor and Jeff Sauer.After the Calgary Olympics, Peterson came under fire for his disdain of the media and not being able to handle criticism. A source at USA Hockey, however, said Peterson has promised to take a different attitude into the &rsquo;92 Games in Albertville, France.Terms of Peterson&rsquo;s agreement were not announced, but USA Hockey Olympic Committee chairman Bob Fleming did confirm the contract was only for 1992.&ldquo;This appointment allows us to mirror the continuity that many other nations have with their programs,&rdquo; Fleming said. &ldquo;International hockey is different, and we put our people at a disadvantage when we have a new coach every (four years).&rdquo;A day before Peterson&rsquo;s hiring, USA Hockey announced Larry Johnson would be the general manager of the team. Johnson, 52, held the same job with the &rsquo;84 team.<h2>BALDWIN OUT</h2>Howard Baldwin, who kept NHL hockey in Minnesota, sold his interest in the North Stars to majority owner Norman Green Aug. 21 for an estimated $4.25 million.Green will own 75 per cent of the club and Morris Belzberg will hold the remaining 25 per cent.Baldwin and Belzberg bought the team when George and Gordon Gund threatened to take it to the Bay Area of northern California. They, in turn, sold 51 percent to Green, a minority owner of the Calgary Flames for 10 years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed to be out of hockey again, but I&rsquo;ve been fairly compensated,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;I have absolutely no complaints. How could I?&rdquo;Baldwin had been seeking an expansion franchise for San Jose, Calif., when the Gunds threatened to move their team there. In February, he began putting the deal together to buy the North Stars. He was the team&rsquo;s president until Green became the chief operating officer July 25.&ldquo;If it hadn&rsquo;t been for Howard, I honestly believe this team would be in California,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;Without a legitimate buyer, the Gunds were gone.&rdquo;<h2>POCK SHOTS</h2>Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington is the target of most of the criticism in Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s recently released book Gretzky: An Autobiography.Co-written with Sports Illustrated&nbsp;Rick Reilly, Gretzky portrays Pocklington as a cheapskate and says, &ldquo;Sometimes he could be a complete jerk.&rdquo;The former Oilers&rsquo; superstar who was traded to the Los Angeles Kings by Pocklington in 1988, says his old boss was particularly stingy with the Stanley Cup rings he gave team members after Edmonton&rsquo;s first championship in 1984. Gretzky says the size of the rings&rsquo; diamonds varied according to how Pocklington viewed their contribution to the club.&ldquo;That meant the trainers and the equipment guys got these tiny diamonds, and the guys who sat on the bench got a little bigger diamond, but not much, and so on until you-know-who got a huge one,&rdquo; Gretzky says in the book.Gretzky also says the assistant coaches and the training staff were given fake diamonds, something he found so embarrassing he &ldquo;took all the trainers&rsquo; rings and had them done properly.&rdquo;Toronto Maple Leaf right winger John Kordic, who had his share of on- and off-ice problems last season, was acquitted Aug. 29 of mischief charges arising from a fight in an Edmonton bar.The Leafs&rsquo; enforcer did, however, have to pay a $ 100 fine after pleading guilty to failing to show up for a court appearance.Kordic was arrested by Edmonton police June 2 outside Barry T&rsquo;s after a run-in with the bar&rsquo;s bouncers.Last season, Kordic was repeatedly reprimanded by the Leafs for disciplinary problems and was eventually suspended for a few weeks.Sources with the team said Kordic&rsquo;s status with the Leafs is unchanged and he&rsquo;ll be present for the start of training camp Sept. 7.For the second time in two months, outgoing NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson was on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed by player agent Rick Winter.Winter&rsquo;s second claim, filed Aug. 29 in Edmonton, also names Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; goalie Ron Hextall and team president Jay Snider as defendants. In the suit Winter contends Snider and Eagleson conspired to induce Hextall to break his contract with his former agent, and that Snider defamed Winter.On July 19, Winter filed a separate $23 million suit claiming Eagleson had repeatedly defamed him and had deliberately set out to destroy his business.Eagleson&rsquo;s reaction towards the second suit was one of disbelief.&ldquo;This is just as preposterous as all his other lawsuits,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In the next suit, I suppose he&rsquo;ll go ater the Flyers, Hextall and Hextali&rsquo;s new agent (Steve Mountain) for $50 million.&rdquo;<h2>NEW BULLDOG</h2>Bob Mancini, an assistant coach for the Ferris State Bulldogs from 1986 to 1989, was named the team&rsquo;s head coach Aug. 14.Mancini, 32, replaces John Perpich, who resigned this summer to take an assistant coaching job with the Washington Capitals after four seasons at FSU.&mdash;with a file from Gary Olson &#9632;

U.S. OLYMPIC HIRING RAISES SOME EYEBROWS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Despite some doctors&rsquo; reports suggesting that he might never play hockey again because of a serious eye injury suffered last November, New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Rich Pilon will be at training camp and management expects him back in the lineup. &ldquo;He practiced with us down the stretch and begged me to put him in the lineup for the playoffs,&rdquo; says coach Al Arbour. &ldquo;1 had to persuade him to wait.&rdquo; Pilon was struck in the eye by a shot off the stick of Detroit&rsquo;s Brent Fedyk. &ldquo;He was my best defenseman when it happened,&rdquo; Arbour recalls. Pilon has been doing eye exercises and believes he can compensate for any loss of vision sustained by the accident&hellip;The final word on Chris Nilan&rsquo;s acceptance by Bruins&rsquo; fans is offered by Boston Garden Gallery Gods guru Roger Naples, who&rsquo;s been a Gahden regular since 1936. &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t take us long to love this guy,&rdquo; says Naples. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s our type of player. Look at Dave Poulin; we didn&rsquo;t have any love for him&mdash;until he got to Boston. Same with Willi Plett and Jim Schoenfeld. But the best example was Brad Park. Everybody hated his guts when he played for the Rangers. The minute he skated out with a Bruins&rsquo; shirt on, he was one of us and everybody loved him.&rdquo;<h2>BANQUET BANTER</h2>Like Don Cherry before him, another minor leaguer is making it big on the hockey TV and banquet circuit. Ex-goalie Jim Ralph is winning fans with his humor usually poking fun at himself. &ldquo;I try to think of athletes who peaked when I did,&rdquo; he kids, &ldquo;and all I can think of is race horses-!&rdquo;&hellip;While George and Gordon Gund set up shop in San Francisco, pundits are still trying to determine why they pulled out of Minnesota since they reportedly earned more on the Met Center than the North Stars lost as a club. &ldquo;The Gunds gave up in Bloomington,&rdquo; explains one NHL source, &ldquo;because of the NBA Wolves&rsquo; new arena in downtown Minneapolis. That ended their arena monopoly there.&rdquo;<h2>FANNING FLAMES</h2>Norm Green, who now owns 51 per cent of the North Stars, disagreed with his former Flames&rsquo; partners who believe that Flames profits should be returned to the community at large. Green contended that hockey is a business and shouldn&rsquo;t be run on a non-profit basis. Flames&rsquo; owners haven&rsquo;t taken a dollar from the club. Criticism of Green in Minnesota is that he&rsquo;s another absentee owner&hellip;Canucks&rsquo; Director of Operations, Brian Burke reveals that his club entertained two serious offers before deciding to draft Petr Nedved second overall. &ldquo;The Flyers wanted to exchange picks (the fourth overall pick for the Canucks&rsquo; second pick). And the Rangers just wanted our pick,&rdquo; says Burke, &ldquo;but neither offer was enough. We think Nedved could win us a scoring title someday.&rdquo; Burke says the Canucks will have no problem with sending Nedved back to junior hockey if he doesn&rsquo;t show enough at training camp. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t expect anything like a (Wayne) Gretzky&mdash;although there are some similarities,&rdquo; Burke enthuses&hellip;Don Cherry on Doug Risebrough entering his rookie coaching season: &ldquo;Besides me, he was the best guy they could have chosen.&rdquo;<h2>$2 MILLION MAN</h2>NHL insiders report that had there been open bidding for Brett Hull, Detroit&rsquo;s Mike Hitch would have gone as high as $2 million for The Golden Brett&hellip; Viacheslav (Slava) Fetisov blames Canada&rsquo;s failure in the World Championsips on overconfidence. &ldquo;They were seeing gold medals in their hands,&rdquo; says the New Jersey Devils defenseman, &ldquo;even before the games began. This cost them. They lost to the Czechs and fell apart due to the unexpected. They underestimated everybody and did not have the right focus. The Soviet players (Gold Medal-winners) never allowed themselves to relax.&rdquo;<h2>MONEY TALKS</h2>When the NHL Players&rsquo; Association starts playing hardball in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations, union boss Bob Goodenow is expected to note that on a gross revenue basis, the NHL payroll-cost percentage is the lowest by far of the four major sports&hellip;Veteran Rangers&rsquo; broadcaster Marv Albert is tickled that son, Ken, is now play-by-play man for the Baltimore Skipjacks but The Old Man can&rsquo;t resist a dig. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s 21 and my advice to him,&rdquo; says Marv, &ldquo;is to stay there 15 or 20 years and then maybe come back to New York.&rdquo; Nonplussed, Ken comes back with a zinger. &ldquo;Keeping in my father&rsquo;s tradition, he gave out my wrong age; I&rsquo;m 22.&rdquo; Ken had auditioned for the Caps&rsquo; job but says, &ldquo;They never told me anything.&rdquo; Before leaving for Baltimore, Ken was given one bit of broadcasting advice from Marv: &ldquo;Make sure you tell them where the puck is.&rdquo;<h2>CRISP COPING</h2>Terry Crisp has remained diplomatically mum on his firing perhaps because he&rsquo;s still on the Calgary Flames&rsquo; payroll as pro scout and remaining close to the Saddledome. &ldquo;My wife and kids love Calgary,&rdquo; says Crisp. &ldquo;Eventually, I&rsquo;ll be back coaching. If something comes up Cliff (Fletcher, Flames GM) wouldn&rsquo;t hold me back.&rdquo;&hellip;While other NHL leaders believe Brett Hull&rsquo;s big contract has opened the vault for many players, the Flames think otherwise. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t let an isolated, external incident affect the way you do business,&rdquo; says GM Cliff Fletcher. &#9632;

PILON INTENT ON COMEBACK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011932/8439345-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

ELSTON

<h2>ZARLEY ZALAPSKI</h2>Born: April 22, 1968, Edmonton, Alta. Height: 6-foot-1. Weight: 204 pounds. Team: Pittsburgh Penguins. Position: Defense. Acquired: Drafted first round, fourth overall, in 1986.Career highlight: Winning the gold medal in the Izvestia Tournament with the Canadian Olympic team in 1988. &ldquo;Beating the Soviets right in their own backyard was a tremendous thrill for us. The way that team came together and played at such a high level was really rewarding.&rdquo;Career disappointment: &ldquo;Personally, it would be having such a tough time the last couple of years and not being able to play a full season because of injuries. For the team, it would have to be not making the playoffs last season.&rdquo;Boyhood heroes: Growing up in Edmonton, it was Wayne Gretzky and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers.&rdquo;Favorite visiting city: &ldquo;Montreal because of all of the history in the Forum and the fans. They get so excited there.&rdquo;Favorite movie:&nbsp;The Natural, starring Robert Redford.Favorite actor: John Candy.Favorite book:&nbsp;Out of Bounds by Jim Brown.If he was NHL president for a day: &ldquo;I would have different rules for free agency and more expansion. I would probably cut the expansion fee of $50 million (U.S.) in half because I think that&rsquo;s too much and it won&lsquo;t help the game grow.&rdquo;Toughest opponent: Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers. &ldquo;He has speed, strength and fortitude&mdash;all the facets of a great hockey player.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021380/8439376-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="518" height="1145"></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012142/8439407-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark has only played in 81 games the last three seasons due to injuries but still managed to collect 37 goals and 262 penalty minutes.</figcaption></div>Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&hellip; And the riveting question that remains in Toronto is whether that simple three-word statement&mdash;Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&mdash;will represent the indentification of an old, lingering problem for Clark and the Maple Leafs going into this season, or a long-awaited, happy solution.Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&hellip;It&rsquo;s perhaps best left now as a question, one with no definite answer. Yet.In a city that starved for a Maple Leaf to press to its heart, a player to lend hope for a turnaround, a star to adore, Wendel Clark burst upon the scene in 1985, the first player taken in the entry draft. He immediately made an impact as subtle and profound as the thundering body checks and the devastating right hand that quickly became his trademarks. It was love at first sight&hellip;and fight.Clark had a stellar rookie campaign in 198586. He led all rookies in goals with 34 and added 227 penalty minutes. What it all added up to was that Clark was the runner-up to Calgary&rsquo;s Gary Suter as rookie of the year and he earned a spot on the all-rookie team.The love affair only intensified the following season. Clark improved his goal output by three to 37, his points by 15 to 60, and his penalty minutes by 45 to 271. The star continued to rise and not since the former owner, now deceased, was jailed had their been such hope in Toronto.An addition to the 1986 All-Star Game, Clark appeared to have the qualities to not only lead the Maple Leafs, but to lead them out of the wilderness, back to respectability. He owned the affection of fans in the city, the admiration of his teammates, and the respect of his opponents. Wendelmania thrived in Toronto.But in his third NHL season, a lower back ailment was discovered and in the three seasons that have followed, the back (along with other more minor ailments) has limited him to playing in just 81 games. The problem, involving muscles in the lower back, has eluded medical definition. Moreover, it has forever cast doubts on his ability to return to prominence, never mind to endure a full career.Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&hellip;&ldquo;No one really knows what to expect,&rdquo; said Bob Stellick, the Maple Leafs&rsquo; director of operations, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s probably just two good hits and a good right hand away from being the old Wendel in the fans&rsquo; eyes. Wendelmania could come back very quickly.&rdquo;But if the back injury wasn&rsquo;t cause enough for intense concern and distress among Maple Leaf fans, then the events of the summer surely were. The one player the organization had deemed untouchable since draft day 1985, suddenly became very much available.In fact, during draft week in Vancouver, Clark very nearly became a Montreal Canadien, the key to a multi-player trade that was nixed by Canadiens&rsquo; general manager Serge Savard at the very last moment.&ldquo;We never shopped Wendel around,&rdquo; said Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager Floyd Smith. &ldquo;We received offers and we listened to them, but we weren&rsquo;t looking to move Wendel. We still believe if he can get back and play regularly that he can be an important part of our team.&rdquo;Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&hellip;Given the uncertainties the back injury has created, and the seriousness of the trade talks this past summer, one can&rsquo;t help but wonder whether Clark&rsquo;s days as a star are indeed over, at least in Toronto. Rumors persist, too, that the Leafs are trying to resurrect the trade talks with the Canadiens.Entering his option year, Clark is seeking about a $140,000 a year raise, which would mean a $400,000 salary. But negotiations were proceeding slowly.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t think his star has lost any lustre,&rdquo; said Clark&rsquo;s agent, Toronto-based lawyer Don Meehan. &ldquo;If he went through another year without playing then it might, but we&rsquo;re very optimistic that Wendel will be able to play a whole season.&ldquo;The trade rumors, he understood they&rsquo;re a part of the business and when you&rsquo;ve been hurt for a period of three years the club has the right to wonder if you can still contribute. But I think Wendel can come back and make an impact again,&rdquo; Meehan said.&ldquo;His presence means so much to that team. He commands so much respect. He might not be able to play the way he did when he was 19 or 20, butthen again you&rsquo;re never going to take the Wendel out of Wendel. And it&rsquo;s that character that made him so popular.&rdquo;Perhaps the most telling commentary as to the state of Wendelmania, or at least the health and welfare of Clark, is offered by Meehan, who is quick to point out that the notion of playing out his option, despite the back problems, is not overly troubling.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he would have wanted to do it two years ago because of the injury danger,&rdquo; said Meehan, &ldquo;but that&rsquo;s not a factor now. I think he&rsquo;s feeling very comfortable and confident about his situation.&rdquo;<h2>NO LONGER IS CLARK CAST IN ROLE OF SAVIOR.</h2>Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&hellip;Only one person, of course, can honestly and truly judge whether the back will allow him to first play, then star again, and whether that star has indeed fallen in the eyes of the fans, and maybe even management. That person is Clark. Approaching his 24th birthday, Clark has done considerable maturing in the three winters he has been hurt. He has learned the frailties of the body and of the business, and the realities of hockey life. But not even he has the definitive answers.&ldquo;The back has felt as good as it has ever felt since I was healthy,&rdquo; said Clark, who has continued his regimen of two hours of physiotherapy every morning, followed by an afternoon in the gym. &ldquo;This has been the best summer I&rsquo;ve had as far as the therapy goes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been on the ice four or five times a week skating and this will be the first time I&rsquo;ll be able to start training camp going full out in four years,&rdquo; Clark said.Whether he will return to top form, though, and whether it will happen in Toronto is anyone&rsquo;s guess. The past three seasons have been an agonizing time for Clark, physically and mentally. He knows what his status was in Toronto before the injury, and he also knows that the passing of time and his absence has allowed the likes of Gary Leeman, Ed Olczyk, Vincent Damphousse and Daniel Marois to become the premier Leafs, the public&rsquo;s choice. He knows their emergence has allowed management to consider trade offers. Then there is the fact that the team had its best season in 11 years last season with Clark either out of the lineup or generally relegated to fourth-line duty. No longer is he cast in the role of savior.&ldquo;It was only a matter of time before I started hearing some trade rumors, or before there was trade talk,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;But that sort of thing is out of my control. I&rsquo;m only a player. All I could worry about was getting as healthy as I possibly could.&ldquo;Everyone goes through up and down periods,&rdquo; Clark said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say how it&rsquo;s all going to work out, how well I&rsquo;ll be able to play, and if I&rsquo;ll be myoid self. But I&rsquo;m hopeful. I&rsquo;m really hopeful.&rdquo;Wendel Clark&rsquo;s back&hellip; Problem or solution? Only time will tell. &#9632;

f0006-01

BACK to the FUTURE

<div class="byline">BY JASON KAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011944/8439438-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dan Ratushny, left, and Dave Chyzowski celebrate Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal victory in Finland last year. This year&rsquo;s coach Dick Todd is hoping for a repeat performance.</figcaption></div>The way the powers behind the Canadian national junior team see it, no news will be good in the days leading up to the 1991 World Championships.Their thinking is the less attention paid to the players by the media, parents, agents and scouts, the more the team will be able to focus on its goal of repeating as-tournament champions.To that end, coach Dick Todd and his staff have decided against holding the team&rsquo;s training camp in Saskatoon, the site of the Dec. 26-Jan. 4 tourney. Instead, beginning Dec. 12, Todd, his assistants and 32 hopefuls will be holed-up in Kindersley, Sask., until just before the start of the WJC. During that time, the coaches will pare the team down to the required 20.A small farming community (population 5,000), Kindersley is located two hours west of Saskatoon on Hwy. 7, 40 kilometers east of the Alberta border. It&rsquo;s known affectionately&mdash;in a province with a combined head count of roughly one million&mdash;as &ldquo;Saskatchewan&rsquo;s smallest city.&rdquo; By all accounts, it&rsquo;s typically small town with little night life.That suits Todd just fine.&ldquo;They have a terminology they use,&rdquo; says Todd explaining why the pre-camp tryouts are being held in a relatively remote area. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s called the &lsquo;bubble concept&rsquo; where you try to keep the players inside the bubble so they won&rsquo;t be affected by outside problems that arise.&ldquo;It will be very important for us to do a lot of planning and scheduling so that we&rsquo;re not disturbed by outside influences that are of no basic value to the team winning.&rdquo;While Todd&rsquo;s Kindersley bubble may seem like overkill, the rationale behind it is sound and comes from painful experience.The last time the WJC was held on Canadian soil was 1986 in Hamilton. That year&rsquo;s team was favored to repeat but came up flat in the gold-medal game against the Soviets. Many believe the pressure of playing at home, combined with being in one place too long&mdash;they trained in Hamilton for two weeks before starting the tournament&mdash;simply created too many distractions and too much complacency.Terry Simpson, who was to coach this year&rsquo;s team before accepting an assistant&rsquo;s job with the Winnipeg Jets, was the man behind the bench for the &rsquo;86 team. After the disappointing second-place finish, he wrote a confidential report for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association recommending the bubble concept for future teams.&ldquo;I think we learned a lot from the experience in Hamilton,&rdquo; says Simpson. &ldquo;There was so much familiarity and boredom with being in one place for too long. And there were a lot of distractions.&ldquo;Being able to mold a team as quickly as possible is important. Going to a different center (to train) will help bring the team together.&rdquo;That the tournament is being held in Canada, serves only to increase the potential distractions.Media-types, family members and hockey people will have easier access to the players, and the locals will no doubt rally around the team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a focal point in Canada, and for the team, there&rsquo;s a tremendous following.&rdquo; says Todd.&ldquo;The media can become a drain&mdash;everyone wants an interview; instead of four or five sets of parents being there (as there would be if the tournament was in Europe), there will be 20 sets, and 20 agents, more scouts and so on.&ldquo;Everybody wants a piece of the action, nobody wants to feel left out. They want time with their people. Those things can be very tiring and detrimental to the team.&rdquo;Holding training camp in a different locale than where the actual games will be played has proven successful for past Canadian junior teams overseas. In each of 1985, &rsquo;88 and &rsquo;90 the juniors practised in Vierumaki, Finland, before going on to win the gold medal. (In &rsquo;85 and 90 they won in Finland, &rsquo;88 in the Soviet Union).<h2>MURPHY HAD A GREAT TIME IN HAMILTON.</h2>Like Kindersley, Vierumaki is a secluded small town. Canadian team officials strongly believe the solitude inherent in places like Kindersely and Vierumaki, brings the players closer together.That&rsquo;s not a point, however, all players readily accept.&ldquo;Personally, I thought the accommodations were great in Hamilton,&rdquo; says &rsquo;86 team member J&oelig; Murphy. &ldquo;I had a great time while 1 was there.&ldquo;And it was great to play at home, being pumped up by the fans. I can&rsquo;t use (being in Hamilton too iong) as a crutch for losing.&rdquo;&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t find it a distraction playing in Hamilton,&rdquo; agrees &rsquo;86 team captain Jim Sandlak. &ldquo;I think it was a bonus to be playing at home.&rdquo;Todd and his staff are certainly hoping to use home ice to their advantage in January. But, along with their fears of outside distractions, they&rsquo;ll have a bit of history to overcome. Not since the Soviets in 1983 and &rsquo;84 has a team been able to repeat as champions of the WJC, and the host country has struck gold just once&mdash;again the Soviets in &rsquo;83.Still, Todd is confident this year&rsquo;s edition will be strong enough to buck the odds.Saying nobody had made the team after the Saskatoon pre-camp in mid-August, Todd did single out center Eric Lindros and goaltender Trevor Kidd as players likely to emerge as team leaders. Several players from last year&rsquo;s team, such as Mike Ricci and Dave Chyzowski, are eligible but likely to be in the NHL. Todd believes his team will have plenty of firepower and solid goaltending, but says one area the players will have to work on is defense.Should the defense stand up to the challenge and all goes well for the Canadian team at the 1991 WJC, the only bubbles Todd will have to worry about are the ones coming out of the celebratory champagne bottles. &#9632;

f0007-01

BOYS IN THE BUBBLE

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Jason Kay</div>As this year&rsquo;s Canadian junior team is trying to correct past mistakes, so too is its counterpart south of the border. The American side, coached by Kevin Constantine, has altered its selection process to allow the top U.S. juniors at the time of the tournament every opportunity to make the team.In previous years, including the last two Constantine spent as the team&rsquo;s assistant coach, the American roster was etched in stone&mdash;at the request of U.S. colleges who supply most of the talent&mdash;after a tryout camp in mid-August. Last year&rsquo;s team finished seventh at the WJC in Finland, far below expectations.That, critics complained, was because the selection process was too rigid and took place too early. As a result, this year&rsquo;s squad won&rsquo;t be selected until mid-December.&ldquo;There are too many missing ingredients in a summer camp to make a final evaluation,&rdquo; says Constantine.&ldquo;First, there&rsquo;s a growth element in hockey. Players can change between August and December. Some players are going to improve and some players aren&rsquo;t, so you have to reserve judgment.&ldquo;Second, the game of hockey is generally played in front of a crowd and different players respond differently when you put that into a game. I think it&rsquo;s important to see the kids in their winter environment.&rdquo;As a result, Constantine has worked that factor into his formula for making Team USA.&ldquo;The first step towards being selected is everything the player has done in hockey up until the summer camp. The second step was their performance at the camp. And the third step will be their performance this winter.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve depth charted the 44 players who were at the camp, and they&rsquo;ll be able to move up or down by how they play at the beginning of the season. We&rsquo;ll make our selections one week before the start of the tournament.&rdquo;Of course, that won&rsquo;t please the college coaches, who would like to know well in advance which players they&rsquo;ll be losing. Constantine just hopes he doesn&rsquo;t step on too many toes.&ldquo;In the past we were trying to be cooperative with the colleges,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re going to be a little more patient and hope the college people will understand.&rdquo; &#9632;

U.S. LEARNS FROM PAST

<h2>BLUES</h2>Defenseman Paul Cavallini, the NHL&rsquo;s plus-minus leader last season with plus-38, signed a three-year contract Aug. 25. Terms were not disclosed, but Cavallini at least doubled his $135,000 salary of last season. &ldquo;Put it this way, we won&rsquo;t starve in St. Louis and we&rsquo;re not millionaires, either,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy. So were the Blues.&rdquo; Said Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very, very important part of our club. When you compare our defense to a year ago, the improvement of Paul and the addition of Jeff Brown and Scott Stevens for a full season, gives us high quality&rdquo;.. Peoria (IHL) head coach Wayne Thomas, a former NHL goalie, replaced assistant coach Joe Micheletti Aug. 23, after Micheletti resigned to go into private business. Micheletti, who said he made the decision for family reasons, conceded the Blues may be better for it. &ldquo;The Blues need a coach for their young goaltenders more than they need a coach for their more experienced defense,&rdquo; said Micheletti, a former NHL defenseman. &ldquo;This team is counting on two young goalies.&rdquo;<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Thanks to physical therapy sessions that he approaches with religious zeal, speedy right winger Sheldon Kennedy may be much closer to joining the lineup than anybody would have dreamed not long ago. He may be ready to participate in contact scrimmages when training camp opens Sept. 7. His career was in jeopardy when he seriously injured his arm in a freak auto accident in the parking lot of his apartment building. Surgeons used pins and screws to put the arm back together&hellip;New coach Bryan Murray is facing constant questioning about how his team will differ from those of Jacques Demers, his charismatic predecessor. &ldquo;Work ethic,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My style of coaching is to demand fairly hard work in practice, and that&rsquo;s where I might differ from Jacques. He was more of a game coach, letting the good players do what they do best.&rdquo; Goaltending is another area where the two coaches&rsquo; opinions may diverge. Before he was fired, Demers had annointed Tim Cheveldae the team&rsquo;s No. 1 goalie, saying the job was his to lose in training camp. &ldquo;I want to go to camp as open-minded as possible,&rdquo; Murray said.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Ken Hodge Jr., who scored 33 goals and 86 points for the Stars&rsquo; International League team in Kalamazoo, signed a free-agent contract with Boston Aug. 21. Because Hodge has played fewer than 50 games in the NHL, Bay Area general manager Jack Ferreira will get the compensation from the Bruins&mdash;probably a middle-round draft pick&mdash;for the signing&hellip;The North Stars signed free agent center Danny Gratton Aug. 22. The Kings&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick (10th overall) in 1985, Gratton scored 29 goals and 66 points in 69 games for the Canadian national team last season. His only NHL experience was seven games with Los Angeles in 1987-88. He scored one goal and had no assists.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Drake Berehowsky, the Leafs&rsquo; first-round pick and No. 10 overall in the June entry draft, suffered a slight ankle injury during tryouts for the Canadian national junior team. The highly regarded defenseman was able to return to action a few days later &hellip;Defenseman Brian Curran hopes he has more luck this coming season than he had during a trip to Reno during the summer. While playing the slots, Curran hit what he thought was a jackpot worth $5,000. Several minutes passed and the machine didn&rsquo;t pay, so Curran decided to play on. Moments later, his wife joined him and he explained what had happened. His wife went to a casino official who said Curran had indeed hit the jackpot. &ldquo;Sometimes, though, the machines don&rsquo;t always pay up,&rdquo; the casino employee said. If Curran had waited and showed his winning spin to a casino official, the $5,000 wouldhave been his&hellip;The Leafs have invited veteran Ron Duguay to training camp on a tryout basis. He will be given a chance to make the team as the third- or fourth-line right winger. He played last season with Mannheim in West Germany. Duguay has 620 points in 864 games with the New York Rangers, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Bob Murray officially hung up his skates for good Aug. 21, to accept the newly-created position of pro scout with the Blackhawks. Murray, 35, played 15 seasons for the Hawks and appeared in 1,008 games, the most ever by a Chicago defenseman. Only Stan Mikita (1,394), Bobby Hull (1,036) and Eric Nesterenko (1,013) played in more games for the Hawks. Murray said he received a few other offers from NHL clubs to continue as a player but he didn&rsquo;t want to leave the organization. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve offered me a good job here and after so many years in an organization, you become part of it,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not heartbroken or anything. It was a long career and I feel I contributed up until I did retire.&rdquo; Murray retires with 132 goals and 382 assists. His 514 points are second on the Hawks&rsquo; all-time scoring list for defensemen behind Doug Wilson (736)&hellip;Free agent right winger Wayne Presley remained without a contract as training camp approached. Presley said money was not the issue. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s playing time, that&rsquo;s what I want,&rdquo; Presley said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going through another year where I miss 31 games.&rdquo; Although healthy, Presley played in just 49 regular-season games last year and had only six goals and seven assists. &#9632;

CAVALLINI SIGNS NEW CONTRACT

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>Can Jeremy Roenick fill the scoring void left by DenisSavard&rsquo;s departure?Is goalie Jimmy Waite ready for the NHL?How good is Czechoslovak goaltender Dominik Hasek?What kind of impact will Chris Chelios make?These are just some of the questions the Chicago Blackhawks are hoping to find answers to when training camp begins Sept. 7 at Chicago Stadium.Naturally, much of the attention at camp will focus on the goaltending situation and the effects of last summer&rsquo;s blockbuster trade that sent Savard to Montreal for Chelios.Here&rsquo;s a position-by-position look at how training camp figures to shape up.Goal: Incumbents: Jacques Cloutier, Greg Millen. Challengers: Jimmy Waite, Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour, Darren Pang, Ray LeBlanc.The Hawks&rsquo; equipment people might have to find a separate room for the goalies to dress in since seven of them have been invited to camp.Most eyes will be on Waite and Hasek. It&rsquo;s expected the 21-year-old Waite will be given every gpportunity to win the No. 1 job, especially after his sensational season at Indianapolis last year when he went 34-14-4 with a 2.53 goals-against average and led the Ice to the Turner Cup championship.Hasek, 24, has been called the best goaltender in Europe. After trying to sign him for so long. Hawks management is anxious to see what he can do, although Keenan and senior vice president Bob Pulford both caution it may take some time for Hasek to adjust to the North American game.Defense: Incumbents: Doug Wilson, Keith Brown, Steve Konroyd, Trent Yawney, Dave Manson, Bob McGill.Challengers: Chelios, Rick Lanz, Cam Russell, Mike Peluso, Ryan McGill, Adam Bennett, Frantisek Kucera.The addition of Chelios and free agent Lanz gives Keenan and associate head coach Darryl Sutter eight defensemen with at least two years of NHL experience. With those players all battling for the top six spots, it isn&rsquo;t likely that the rookies will be with the big club when the season opens.Center: Incumbents: Jeremy Roenick, Adam Creighton, Troy Murray, Mike Hudson.Challengers: Bob Bassen, Brian Noonan, Sean Williams, Mike Eagles, Mike Stapleton.With Savard and his 1,013 career points gone, the pressure is on the 20-year-old Roenick, Creighton and Murray to pick up the scoring slack. Third-year man Hudson figues to be the fourth center, but he also should see plenty of.time at left wing. The challengers at center were all key contributors at Indianapolis last year and each can also play on the wings.Left wing: Steve Thomas, Michel Goulet, Greg Gilbert, Wayne Van Dorp.Challenger: Mike McNeill.After Thomas and his 40 goals, there&rsquo;s not a lot of scoring punch here which is why Keenan may be looking to deal for someone to fill the void. Maybe veteran Goulet can help. Then again, maybe his best goal-scoring days are behind him.Rookie McNeill, the IHL&rsquo;s playoff MVP last spring with Indianapolis, may have a chance at sticking here.Right wing: Incumbents: Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Jocelyn Lemieux, Wayne Presley.Challenger: Sean McKenna.The right side is solid led by Larmer. You can pencil in the leagues&rsquo; current iron-man night in and night out. And free agent McKenna can possibly help.<h2>CHICAGO</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 21: Bob Murray, D, retired to accept the position of pro s&infin;ut with the Hawks. Named Dave McDowall head coach at Indianapolis (IHL).Aug. 24: Signed free agent Sean McKenna. RWAug. 29: Al Secord, LW, announced his retirement. &#9632;

GOALTENDERS PLAYING WAITE AND SEE

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>The last time the Detroit Red Wings had a new coach, they went from worst to first. No one is suggesting it could happen this season, especially Bryan Murray.Then again, not many are denying it couldn&rsquo;t.After two straight playoff appearances under Jacques Demers, the Wings began a decline that ended with a last-place finish, which cost Demers and GM Jimmy Devellano their jobs. Murray replaced them both, and he begins a new era in franchise history with no illusions about his club or its chances in the upcoming standings. His goal is simply to make the playoffs.Goal: Incumbents: Tim Cheveldae, Glen &rsquo; Hanlon, Greg Stefan.Challengers: Alain Chevrier, Scott King, Dave Gagnon, Mark Reimer, Randy Hansch.The franchise is pinning its hopes on Cheveldae, who finished his first season on an up note. He lost five times in his last 21 decisions (9-5-7), including a 10-game unbeaten streak.But if Cheveldae falters, there&rsquo;s a long line of would-be successors behind him. Stefan, Hanlon and Chevrier all have experience as a No. 1 goalie in the NHL.Defense: Incumbents: Rick Zombo, Steve Chiasson, Lee Norwood, Yves Racine, Robert Picard, Doug Houda.Challengers: Brad McCrimmon, Rick Green, Bob Wilkie.The additions of McCrimmon and Green, two veterans with Stanley Cup credentials, give the Wings some much-needed stability at the blue line.Zombo and Norwood, the team&rsquo;s steadiest defensemen returning from last season, are safe. Racine, the most skilled defenseman Detroit has seen since Brad Park retired, could be the answer to Murray&rsquo;s prayer for a point man on the power play. Chiasson must rebound from a disappointing season.Center: Incumbents: Steve Yzerman, Jimmy Carson, John Chabot.Challengers: Sergei Fedorov, Marc Habs-cheid, Mike Sillinger.Some say if Yzerman played five or six minutes a game less and scored 25-30 fewer points per season the Red Wings would be a better team.Murray isn&rsquo;t so sure. He&rsquo;s never had an opportunity to coach a player of Yzerman&rsquo;s calibre and relishes the opportunity. Yzerman will get plenty of minutes, though Murray plans on spelling him in the second period of most games.Carson hopes to rebound to 50-goal status, but won&rsquo;t without the ice time. Murray said Carson will get all he&rsquo;ll need, including plenty of power-play time, to produce those points.Fedorov will anchor a third line, and likely play the wing with Yzerman or Carson when Detroit is pressing for a goal.Left wing: Incumbents: Gerard Gallant, Shawn Burr, Bob Probert.Challengers: Keith Primeau, Chris McRae, Johann Garpenlov, Pete Stauber.Gallant, who has averaged 37 goals and 238 penalty minutes over the past four years, returns as Yzerman&rsquo;s sidekick for the sixth season. Burr is back after posting career highs with 24 goals and 56 points.Probert is a left wing who had his best season playing on Yzerman&rsquo;s right flank, making the NHL all-star team two years ago. Murray plans on using him as Carson&rsquo;s left winger.Primeau, the team&rsquo;s No. 1 pick in June, is a gifted center on a team loaded down the middle. He&rsquo;ll get a look at left wing before the Wings decide whether to keep the 18-year-old.Right wing: Incumbents: Joe Kocur, Dave Barr, Daniel Shank, Kevin McClelland.Challengers: Sheldon Kennedy, Brent Fedyk, Randy McKay, Kory Kocur.Kocur leads a crowd here. The NHL&rsquo;s reigning heavyweight enjoyed career highs with 16 goals and 36 points patrolling Yzerman&rsquo;s right side. &#9632;

MURRAY HOPES HISTORY IS REPEATED

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>The Minnesota North Stars are a team desperate for change, but only on the ice. The recent turmoil&mdash;three sets of owners since spring, three different general managers and coaches in three seasons&mdash;have left scars and created excuses.Too many careers are nearing the end without the players getting a legitimate chance to win. The clock is running fast.Next spring, the Brothers Gund (George and Gordon) get 30 players from Minnesota&rsquo;s reserve list. It&rsquo;s part of the sale agreement and will be used to jump start the Gunds&rsquo; expansion team in the Bay Area. It will be another drain on a battery already running low.Goal: Incumbents: Jon Casey, Kari Takko.Challenger: Jarmo Myllys.Casey was a workhorse, playing in 61 games and winning as many games last season (22) as Patrick Roy and Daren Puppa. His workload put Takko in a Catch-22 situation: Not enough work to stay sharp and not sharp enough to get more work.Myllys has been terrible in NHL games the last two seasons but he&rsquo;s close to NHL quality. He&rsquo;s certain to be claimed by the Gunds&rsquo; team in next spring&rsquo;s dispersal draft.Defense: Incumbents: Curt Giles, Mark Tinordi, Larry Murphy, Frantisek Musil, Neil Wilkinson, Shawn Chambers.Challengers: Link Gaetz, Dan Keczmer, Rob Zettler, Jayson More.The Stars have an aging defense with replacements waiting. However, the Gunds will take most of the youngsters west next spring. Stars&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke and Bay Area GM Jack Ferreira know the situation will affect some players&rsquo; careers, but neither can admit it without triggering an avalanche of calls from player agents.The defensemen that will be with the Stars this season are a pretty solid group defensively with few offensive skills. The veteran Murphy, who quarterbacks the power play, is the exception.Center: Incumbents: Neal Broten, DaveGagner, Mike Modano, Perry Berezan. Challengers: Bobby Smith, Dan Gratton, Mario Thyer.This is the strength of the North Stars. Smith&rsquo;s return won&rsquo;t make up for the trade that sent him to Montreal in 1983, but his presence should help Modano leant the role as the team&rsquo;s next big center.Smith is almost certain to log ice time against other team&rsquo;s big centers. That will probably put Berezan back on the wing, but it also cuts into the ice time for Broten, Gagner and Modano.Left wing: Incumbents: Brian Bellows, Basil McRae, Gaetan Duchesne, Aaron Broten.Challenger: Brian Propp.Bellows had a career season in &rsquo;89-90 with 55 goals and 99 points and there&rsquo;s no reason to expect anything less this season. McRae led the NHL in penalty minutes (351) and is the team&rsquo;s top cop whose talk keeps as many players beyond arm&rsquo;s reach as his fists.Propp, a teammate of Sinisalo and an employee of Clarke&rsquo;s in Philadelphia before being peddled to Boston last season, adds offensive insurance.Right wing: Incumbents: Ulf Dahlen, Stewart Gavin, Don Barber, Shane Churla.Challenger: Ilkka Sinisalo.Sinisalo, 32, was signed because there&rsquo;s so little offense offered from the right side. Barber has potential, a tag he&rsquo;s carried for a couple seasons; Dahlen is ultimately the player the Stars got for Dino Ciccarelli. He, too, carries the pressure to perform.Gavin is the defensive specialist, who&rsquo;s specialty is shadowing the Blues&rsquo; Brett Hull.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 22: Dan Gratton, C, signed as free agent. &#9632;

AGE OLD PROBLEM WITH A TWIST

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>For the first time in 11 years the Toronto Maple Leafs head to training camp buoyed by having come off a .500 season, something nearly as rare in Toronto as a Vezina Trophy winner.That upbeat feeling, combined with the arrival of some new faces, is expected to produce a lively Leaf camp.Coach Doug Carpenter, with a year&rsquo;s experience behind the bench, knows the club that much better than he did a year ago and knows where improvement is needed. New assistant coach Tom Watt will likely give the special teams much needed direction, particularly the power play, and second-year assistant Mike Kitchen will have a watchful eye on the defensive corps.General manager Floyd Smith is optimistic a competitive club can be amassed from the 57 players invited to camp, but doesn&rsquo;t rule out the possibility of making a deal during the latter stages of camp.Goal: Incumbents: Allan Bester, Jeff Reese. Challengers: Peter Ing, Damian Rhodes.The Maple Leaf goal area was no place to be last season if you were either allergic to rubber or thin-skinned. Leaf backstops were shelled every other night, pulled by Carpenter almost as regularly and heavily criticized by the media. By mid-season, none of the incumbents, including now-departed Mark Laforest, had a shred of confidence with which to hang on.Despite the prospects of facing similar circumstances this year, Reese and Bester have lined up to fight it out once again for the No. 1 job and will be joined by the rookie Ing. Given Ing&rsquo;s reputed status as the Leafs&rsquo; netminder of the future, it&rsquo;s safe to assume he&rsquo;ll be accorded every opportunity to show his stuff. Rhodes will also be in the hunt, but is ultimately destined for Newmarket.Defense: Incumbents: Al Iafrate, Brad Marsh, Rob Ramage, Tom Kurvers, Luke Richardson, Brian Curran, Todd Gill.Challengers: Daryl Shannon, Drake Bere-howsky, Steve Bancroft.The arrival last season of Ramage from Calgary and Kurvers from New Jersey helped tremendously in bringing stability and experience to Toronto&rsquo;s defensive corps. The big question this season is whether the younger members of the squad, such as Richardson and Gill, can bring their respective games up a notch to join the rest of this crew.Another small matter is the rehabilitation of Iafrate from major reconstructive knee surgery. The six-year veteran says he feels great, but he has yet to test the knee in a game.Center: Incumbents: Ed Olczyk, Tom Fergus, Dave Hannan, John McIntyre, Gilles Thibaudeau.Challenger: Scott Thornton.This is an area where the Leafs suffered last season mainly through injuries and inconsistency. Olczyk. who enjoyed a team record-tying 18-game point streak, slumped slightly in the goal-scoring department to 32 from 38 the previous season, but still managed 88 points. Nonetheless, his six goals on the power play were disappointing. Fergus labored much of the season with strained abdominal muscles, playing in 54 games. Hannan was another injury victim, seeing action in only 39 contests.The hope this year is that Thibaudeau, obtained in a mid-season deal from the Islanders, can add some offensive punch and sophomore McIntyre can produce substantially more than the five goals he contributed last year. Thornton, coming off a medicocre season in Belleville, is expected to seriously challenge Thibaudeau and Hannan.Left wing: Incumbents: Mark Osborne, Vincent Damphousse, Scott Pearson, Wendel Clark, Dave Reid.Challengers: Bobby Reynolds, Mike Stevens.Traditionally a weak spot for the Leafs, the emergence of Damphousse as one of the top five left wingers in the league and some steady performances from Osborne and Pearson made this position look a lot more respectable than it&rsquo;s been in quite some time.Unfortunately for the Leafs, Clark was bitten by the injury bug once again and only participated in 38 games. Reid was a solid defensive forward but his play tailed off in the second half.Right wing: Incumbents: Gary Leeman, Daniel Marois, Lou Franceschetti, John Kordic.Challengers: Greg Johnston, Kevin Maguire, Rob Pearson, Ron Duguay.This is likely where the fiercest of the training camp battles will take place, with the possible exception of netminding. Although Leeman and Marois have their No. 1- and No. 2-line spots signed, sealed and delivered, off-season acquisitions Greg Johnston and Kevin Maguire will give the other incumbents all they can handle. Johnston will be trying to dislodge Franceschetti from the third-line post, while Maguire is pitted against Kordic for the fourth-line job. &#9632;

GOALTENDING STILL BIGGEST AREA OF CONCERN

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>In Brian Sutter&rsquo;s first two training camps as head coach, the St. Louis Blues had many jobs up for grabs. Sutter put veterans on notice that they had to prove their worth, and he gave rookies and free agents a legitimate chance to shine.Sutter maintains he&rsquo;s keeping an open mind about his third training camp, but truth be told, there are fewer job openings than before. The Blues have risen to Stanley Cup contenders under Sutter, and there are fewer holes to fill.What few openings the Blues do have will be addressed, intensely, before the official start of training camp. The Blues left Sept. 2 for West Germany, for a week of practice and games with the Edmonton Oilers and Dusseldorf, the German league champs.The Blues took only 25 players, with the front-runners for each opening getting priority seating with the travelling party. But they&rsquo;ll return in time to join those left behind for the regular start of camp Sept. 11 at Brentwood Ice Rink in St. Louis.Goal: Incumbents: Vincent Riendeau, Curtis Joseph.Challengers: Guy Hebert, Pat Jablonski.Joseph is coming off surgery on his right shoulder, performed after last season, but the Blues doctors say he&rsquo;ll be ready by the start of camp. Riendeau and Joseph are firmly entrenched as the Blues&rsquo; top two goalies. Only a major injury or trade would open a spot for Hebert or Jablonski, who are locked in an interesting struggle for the No. 3 goalie in the Blues&rsquo; organization. Jablonski&rsquo;s been with the organization three years, but Hebert, an eighth-round pick in 1987 and a big surprise in camp last season, will be the third goalie on the trip to Europe.Defense: Incumbents: Paul Cavallini, Jeff Brown, Glen Featherstone, Robert Dirk, Harold Snepsts, Gordie Roberts.Challengers: Scott Stevens, Tom Tilley, Dominic Lavoie, Tony Twist, Randy Skarda.If you add Stevens and remove Roberts from the incumbents list, the Blues&rsquo; top seven defensemen are set. Roberts, 32, is entering his 16th professional season, but he&rsquo;s on a termination contract and coming off a rough season after a solid 1988-89 campaign. Unless he has an exceptional training camp, he may be passed by Tilley, his former defensive partner who suffered a back injury early last season and never regained the form of his rookie season.Center: Incumbents: Adam Oates, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Ron Wilson, Rick Meagher.Challengers: Cliff Ronning, Mjchel Mongeau.With Selke Trophy winner Meagher out until at least December after undergoing knee surgery at the end of last season, the only battle will be for the fourth-line job between clones Mongeau and Ronning. The Blues signed Mongeau last summer after Ronning went to Italy, and Mongeau played well in his brief stints with the Blues, but the odds are against him making the team this season. Ronning returned this summer with a three-year, one-way contract, and he&rsquo;s going to Europe. Mongeau isn&rsquo;t.Left wing: Incumbents: Sergio Momesso, Dave Lowry, Gino Cavallini.Challengers: Geoff Courtnall, Dave Thom-linson.Cavallini is the only one of the incumbents whose position is tenuous, but as a seven-year veteran, the job is his to lose. Unless the Blues trade him or move a right winger to left wing, Cavallini will be the Blues&rsquo; fourth left winger when the season commences. Courtnall, obtained in a summer trade with Washington, is first on the depth chart.Right wing: Incumbents: Brett Hull, Paul MacLean, Rich Sutter, Steve Tuttle, Herb Raglan, Kelly Chase.Challenger: Jim Vesey.Vesey, a solid performer for two seasons at Peoria (IHL), has little chance of making the team because the Blues are so stocked at right wing, their deepest position. Sutter will have a difficult time deciding which incumbents stay or go. Tuttle does essentially the same thing as Rich Sutter, but he&rsquo;s not as physical. Raglan and Chase are similar players players, physical grinders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011770/8439682-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="672" height="825"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gordie Roberts&rsquo; postion is in jeopardy after a rough 1989-90.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021268/8439675-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="676" height="850"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gino Cavallini&rsquo;s regular left wing job is his to lose.</figcaption></div><h2>ST. LOUIS</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 20: Kelly Chase, RW, and Tony Twist, D, signed multi-year contracts.Aug. 23: Wayne Thomas, head coach at Peoria (IHL), named assistant coach. Bob Plager, director of player development, named head coach at Peoria. Joe Micheletti, assistant coach, resigned.Aug. 25: Paul Cavallini, D, signed three-year contract. &#9632;

f0011-01

EUROPEAN VACATION WON’T DETERMINE MUCH

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011951/8439713-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="511" height="590"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</figcaption></div>The summer of 1990 was one of the hottest on record and not because the weather outside was frightful. Unlike past years and past off-seasons. National Hockey League teams didn&rsquo;t just slumber through July and August, waiting for the memories of spring failures to melt in the summer heat.Perhaps motivated by the onset of parity, half-a-dozen teams stayed as aggressive in the off-season as they hope to be come October, and as training camps open, there were no signs of a let-up.Three rumors that didn&rsquo;t go away: 1 Ron Hextall and Ron Sutter to the Chicago Blackhawks for Jimmy Waite, Dave Manson and Troy Murray. 2. Wendel Clark to the Montreal Canadiens for Shayne Corson and Claude Lemieux. 3. John Kordic to anybody for anything.Three reasons why the Blackhawks would consider dealing for Hextall: 1. Mike Keenan loves him. 2. Goaltending let them down in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. 3. None of the six candidates for the two jobs inspires much confidence in the coaching staff.One reason why the Blackhawks won&rsquo;t add Hextall: Because they traded for Chris Chelios. Hextall served a 12-game suspension last season for attacking Chelios in the previous year&rsquo;s playoffs. Do you think those two could ever kiss and make up?Three reasons why the Detroit Red Wings will be better: 1. Bryan Murray&rsquo;s coaching. 2. Brad McCrimmon&rsquo;s leadership. 3. Rick Green&rsquo;s steadiness. Despite his poor luck in the playoffs, Murray represents one of the most accomplished coaches of his generation. The fact is, in today&rsquo;s NHL, no matter how good the coaches are, they need to be rotated every few years like a set of radial tires. Players just tune out the message after a while. Green proved to Murray during the World Championships there&rsquo;s still some hockey left in his 35-year-old body. Ditto for McCrimmon and his 31-year-old body.One reason why Detroit won&rsquo;t go anywhere without another deal: Goaltending. Pity poor Bryan Murray. For7&frac12; years, the best Washington GM David Poile could come up with between the pipes was Pete Peeters. Murray gets fired and suddenly the Capitals add Mike Liut. Detroit possesses the second-weakest goaltending in the league.Three reasons why the Toronto Maple Leafs won&rsquo;t get better: 1. GM (Sleepy) Floyd Smith&rsquo;s inactivity. 2. The years are catching up to Rob Ramage and Brad Marsh. 3. The weakest goaltending in the league.Three reasons why the NHL would consider adding six expansion teams for the 1992-93 season: 1. Owner greed. 2. Player jobs. 3. So that John Ziegler could justify the league&rsquo;s new Florida-based office.Three reasons why a quicky six-team expansion won&rsquo;t happen: 1. The product would become too diluted. 2. The NHL doesn&rsquo;t want another team in Canada. 3. Howard Baldwin might get another job.Three reasons why there will be a strike in the NHL next September: 1. Players want a bigger piece of the pie. 2. Owners want a bigger piece of the pie. 3. Ken Hitchcock wants a bigger piece of the pie.Two myths exposed: 1. The St. Louis Blues became one of the NHL&rsquo;s better paying teams overnight. Check more closely. After the $1 million-plus contracts awarded Brett Hull and Scott Stevens, the next-highest-paid Blues&rsquo; player is Paul MacLean at $250,000 per year, a salary St. Louis inherited from Detroit. Caron quietly traded Nos. 4 and 6 on last year&rsquo;s salary list (Peter Zezel, Mike Lalor), released No. 3 (Gordie Roberts) and No. 5 (Rick Meagher) may never play again because of reconstructive ^ knee surgery.2. That Edmonton will slide again now that Jari Kurri&rsquo;s in Italy. Didn&rsquo;t the departures of Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey prove that hockey is, above all, a team game?One good off-season move by the Minnesota North Stars: Trading for Bobby Smith. Smith could provide the same qualities to Minnesota that Lanny McDonald brought to Calgary i&#8898; 1982&mdash;solid play, outstanding leadership and heightened community awareness.Three Stan Fischler predictions I can&rsquo;t agree with: 1. That the Quebec Nordiques made a big mistake in hiring Dave Chambers. Chambers is a bright, able guy who will learn passable French by the end of the season. 2. That Edmonton can&rsquo;t be considered a dynasty because they only won five of the last seven Stanley Cups. Since 1984, no franchise in major pro sport comes close to matching the Oilers&rsquo; glittery record even if it took them a year to come to terms with the Wayne Gretzky deal. 3. That moving Keenan permanently to the front office would be a good thing. Say what you will about his methods, you cannot argue with Iron Mikes results. &#9632;

f0012-01

COULD HEXTALL AND CHELIOS CO-EXIST?

A right winger for the New York Rangers. Minnesota North Stars and St. Louis Blues between 1968-69 and &rsquo;78-79, Bill Fairbairn, 43, owns a hockey equipment store in Brandon, Man. He got involved in hockey again about six years ago because &ldquo;Brandon is a hockey community and I knew best about hockey so I decided that this would be the ideal thing for me. he says.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021533/8439744-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="556" height="397"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Fairbairn</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-02

THEN & NOW

<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Center Mario Lemieux, who I underwent back surgery in July, got back on skates for the first time Aug. 27 and reported no problems after a 15-minute workout&hellip;The Penguins were trying to sign Edmonton defenseman Randy Gregg, a 34-year-old free agent without compensation. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just a smart defenseman,&rdquo; general manager Craig Patrick said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very, very effective.&rdquo;&hellip;The Penguins will begin their regular-season play by visiting Washington Oct. 5, which is Lemieux&rsquo;s 25th birthday. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s home-opener will be against New Jersey two nights later&hellip;Patrick continued negotiating I contracts for several key players as I training camp approached. Players about to enter their option years in-elude defenseman Paul Coffey and forwards Kevin Stevens, John Cullen and Mark Recchi.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>The Capitals joined the flourishing import trade from Czechoslovakia by signing right winger Peter Bondra and defenseman Jiri Vykoukal Aug. 27. Vykoukal, 19, was a ninth-round selection in 1989, and played last season for Sparta Praha. The 5-foot-11, 176-pound Vykoukal was a second-team all-star in the 1989 world junior tournament and played on the Czechoslovak team in the Goodwill Games. Bondra is under contract to his team in Kosice until 1999. But he and the Capitals said those contracts were signed under the duress of living under the former government. The NHL office will have to approve the signing. Bondra, 6-foot and 180 pounds, is 22. He didn&rsquo;t play on Czech national teams because he is still a Russian citizen, even though his family moved to Czechoslovakia when he was three&hellip;Defenseman Bill Houlder, who played 41 games last season, played out his option and was still a I free-agent, though he was working I out with other Capitals in town.<h2>RANGERS</h2>The Rangers had worked out an agreement for Swedish Elite League scoring leader Robert Burakovski (11th round pick, 1985) to attend training camp and play two pre-season games, but he suffered a knee injury in the Goodwill Games and subsequent arthroscopic surgery I made him an early scratch from the training camp roster&hellip;GM Neil Smith said he has had some &ldquo;good talks&rdquo; with Colin Campbell, the former Detroit Red Wing assistant who was rumored to be joining Roger Neilson&rsquo;s coaching staff&hellip;The Rangers still hadn&rsquo;t re-signed free-agent left winger John Ogrodnick&hellip;The Rangers finally were able to confirm 1990 draft choice (99th overall) Lubos Rob of Czechoslovakia has recovered from injuries sustained when he was hit by a car while he was changing a flat tire. Smith said Rob&rsquo;s injuries were not nearly as serious as first feared.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The Islanders&rsquo; brass hopes its plan to rebuild a championship contender goes more smoothly than the construction of the team&rsquo;s new practice facility. Work on the twin rinks in Hauppauge, N.Y., came to a virtual standstill over the summer because contractors said the developer owed them approximately $1.5 million. The Islanders do not own the facility, but have a contract to practise there. Until it is ready, the team will continue to work out at its customary site at Hicksville, Long Island&hellip;Pat LaFontaine, Ken Baumgartner and Derek King are among the active players who joined Bobby Nystrom, Wayne Merrick and other alumni in the Islanders&rsquo; recent fantasy camp&hellip;Before Butch Goring was named coach of the team&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Troy, Islander assistant coaches Lorne Henning and Darcy Regier were considered the leading candidates for the job.<h2>DEVILS</h2>As expected, goalie Craig Billington&rsquo;s stay in New Jersey is over. The Devils assigned him to the Canadian national team Aug. 28. &ldquo;You could see the writing on the wall with what they&rsquo;ve got,&rdquo; Billington said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not prepared to sit here, be buried and be happy.&rdquo;&hellip;On the same day the Devils announced center Janne Ojanen will return to his native Finland for the season. Ojanen, 17-13-30 in 64 games last season as a rookie, will play with Tampere&hellip;Also on Aug. 28, the Devils announced the signing of free-agent center Paul Yse-baert. Ysebaert, the AHL&rsquo;s most valuable player last season, was 1-2-3 with New Jersey in five games. With Utica, he was 53-52-105 in 74 games as he won the scoring title.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Former Flyer great Bill Barber will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame Sept. 24. Barber is the Flyers&rsquo; all-time leading goal scorer with 420. Joining Barber is former Buffalo star Gil Perreault&hellip;Coach Paul Holmgren said his No. 1 priority this season will be to get the Flyers to play with more intensity at the Spectrum. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to get juiced up on the road. You&rsquo;re in a hostile environment and sometimes the leaders on the team get the guys wound up. I&rsquo;d like to see us do that in our own building.&rdquo; The Flyers were 17-19-4 at the Spectrum last year&hellip;Hershey (AHL) president and GM Frank Mathers has turned his managerial duties over to Jay Feaster. Mathers will step down as team president after the 1990-91 season&hellip;The Flyers signed center Martin Hostak. a third-round draft pick in 1987 (62nd overall), Aug. 28. Hostak, 22. had 31-34-65 totals in 55 games for Sparta Praha (Czechoslovakia) last season. &#9632;

LEMIEUX BACK ON THE ICE

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Two years ago the New Jersey Devils wondered where they could find a rushing defenseman capable of pumping up the team&rsquo;s offense and playing the point on the power play.When John Cunniff opened training camp this year, his first camp as head coach, he may have wondered if there were any defensemen left on the Devils&rsquo; roster who play defense. After losing Craig Wolanin and Randy Velischek to Quebec, the Devils now boast an offensive-minded defense corps.&ldquo;Maybe we don&rsquo;t have the banging type of defense but we certainly have a defense that can move the puck,&rdquo; Cunniff said. &ldquo;If we can use their assets, maybe we can open up a little more.&rdquo;Goal: Incumbents: Sean Burke, Chris Terreri.Challengers: Martin Brodeur, Rollie Melanson.Barring injuries, the team&rsquo;s goaltending is set in cement with Burke and Terreri. &ldquo;What I&rsquo;m going to be telling them right off the bat is we&rsquo;ll go with the hot guy and let him play,&rdquo; said Cunniff. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s something that they wanted from me last year and I didn&rsquo;t give them.&rdquo;Brodeur, the team&rsquo;s top pick (20th overall) in June, will be in camp, but he is part of the future. Veteran Melanson is destined for another season at Utica (AHL).Defense: Incumbents: Ken Daneyko, Bruce Driver, Alexei Kasatonov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Eric Weinrich, Tommy Albelin.Challengers: Sergei Starikov, Jeff Sharpies.Daneyko is the lone returnee who plays a strictly defensive game, although Driver may be asked to stay back more often. Kasatonov. Fetisov, Weinrich and Albelin are all offensive-minded players.Kasatonov, the most talented of the six, could become a dominant player in his first full NHL season. Unless fellow Soviet Starikov or another minor leaguer are the surprise of camp, the Devils may soon be shopping for a defenseman.Center: Incumbents: Patrik Sund-strom, Peter Stastny, Bob Brooke.Challengers: Jon Morris, David Maley, Jason Miller, Jarrod Skalde, Paul Ysebaert.Sundstrom will center the Devils&rsquo; No. 1 line with Brendan Shanahan and John MacLean. Stastny will begin his first full season with the club and Cunniff may continue to use Kirk Muller on Stastny&rsquo;s right side instead of center.The emergence of the speedy Morris would allow Muller to remain on the wing while Maley has his fingers crossed that he can play more center than left wing. Brooke is versatile enough to use anywhere.Miller, a 43-goal scorer at Medicine Hat (WHL) last season, and Skalde, who scored 40 goals for Oshawa (OHL) in &rsquo;89-90, are two rookies who may mount a challenge.Left wing: Incumbents: Brendan Shanahan, Sylvain Turgeon, Walt Poddubny.Challengers: Pat Conacher, Zdeno Ciger.Shanahan is reaching his stride and Turgeon is a goal-scorer if he remains healthy. Which brings to mind Poddubny. If he bounces back from an injury-plagued 1989-90 season, the Devils will feel more secure on the left side.As for challengers, there are veterans such as Conacher and Maley, but all eyes in camp will be on Ciger, the 21-year-old rookie.Right wing: Incumbents: John MacLean, Kirk Muller, Doug Brown, Jamie Huscroft.Challenger: Claude Vilgrain.MacLean, who scored 41 times in 1989-90, is looking to take the next step to a 50-goal season. In a league short on great right wingers, he is among the best.Brown and Huscroft return, but the Devils must find another capable winger.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 20: Warren Strelow named goaltending coach. Bob Bellemore, goaltending coach, named scout.Aug. 29: Doug Sulliman named assistant coach. &#9632;

DEFENSE CORPS HAS BECOME VERY OFFENSIVE

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>The Philadelphia Flyer players had the date Sept. 6, 1990, circled on their calendars as far back as April 1.That&rsquo;s how long they would have to wait for 1990-91 training camp to begin; the date they could commence reparations for a lost season, their poorest in nearly 20 years.To that end the Flyers made sweeping changes at the administrative and coaching levels during the off-season. After missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 18 years, the team hired a new general manager, assistant general manager, two assistant coaches, a goaltending instructor and a minor-league coach.But, according to rookie GM Russ Farwell, there won&rsquo;t likely be wholesale changes on the ice.Goal: Incumbents: Ron Hextall, Ken Wregget, Pete Peeters.Challenger: Bruce Hoffort.Inconsistent goaltending heads a long list of problems the Flyers&rsquo; experienced last season. With a little luck, however, it may be their strong point this year.Hextall, who started 60 or more games in his first three seasons, was limited to just eight appearances due to a mixture of injuries and a suspension in 1989-90. Team officials claimed he was l00 per cent entering camp, but he still had a contract dispute to settle.Wregget, meanwhile, may be the top back-up in the league this season. When healthy last year, he did an adequate job as Hextali&rsquo;s replacement. Peeters, a 12-year veteran, provides some insurance, while Hoffort, who looks to be the team&rsquo;s goalie of the future, appears ticketed for another campaign of seasoning at Hershey (AHL).Defense: Incumbents: Mark Howe, Kjell Samuelsson, Gord Murphy, Jeff Chychrun, Terry Carkner, Jiri Latal, Kerry Huffman.Challengers: Murray Baron, Dave Fenyves.The Flyers major defensive acquisition during the off-season was the signing of assistant coach Craig Hartsburg. An assistant with the Minnesota North Stars the past two seasons, Hartsburg will work extensively with the team&rsquo;s young detense corps, six of whom are 24 or younger.But the key to the team&rsquo;s defense will be the status of its two elder statesmen&mdash;Howe and Samuelsson. Howe, 35, missed the second half of last year with a back problem but team officials said he was ready to play. Samuelsson, 33, had a troublesome shoulder but did not require surgery as originally diagnosed. Should either of the pair miss an extended portion of the season, the Flyers will need one of the kids to take charge.Center: Incumbents: Ron Sutter, Pelle Eklund, Keith Acton.Challengers: Mike Ricci, Craig Fisher, Len Barrie, Mark Freer, Martin Hostak.With only three returnees, center will be the most wide-open position in camp, and it&rsquo;s almost a certainty one or more new faces will make the big club.Of the challengers, Ricci, the fourth pick overall in the June draft, looks to have the inside track. One of the reasons the Flyers selected him was because they felt he could step in and help right away.Left wing: Incumbents: Murray Craven, Craig Berube, Derrick Smith.Challenger: Tony Horacek.When Brian Propp was dealt to Boston last year, the scoring burden on the left side fell to Murray Craven. While Craven did an admirable job, he had little support from the supporting cast.Unfortunately, there doesn&rsquo;t appear to be any immediate help on the way, though the Flyers are hoping Michigan State star, Pat Murray, can help pick up the slack if he decides to turn pro.Right wing: Incumbents: Rick Tocchet, Tim Kerr, Scott Mellanby.Challengers: Norman Lacombe, Jeff Harding, Brian Dobbin, Steve Scheifele.The Flyers have a potentially devastating right side, but, again, injuries could create problems.Tocchet, who enjoyed a career-high 96-point season last year is a given, but both Kerr and Mellanby are question marks. Kerr underwent minor off-season surgery to have a cyst removed from his collarbone. He missed half of last year due to chronic shoulder problems.Mellanby faces a crucial season. He suffered nerve damage in his left wrist in a bar fight last August and managed to score just six goals in 57 games.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug, 28: Martin Hostak, C, signed contract. &#9632;

EXPECT NEW FACES, BUT NOT SWEEPING CHANGES

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Bob Johnson, who was named coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in June, has a reputation as one of the most upbeat men in hockey. The training camp that begins Sept. 7 at the Civic Arena could prove to be the greatest test his eternal optimism ever has faced.Johnson inherits a team renowned for underachievement, a group whose total always seems less than the sum of its parts. A team that has lacked discipline and dedication and whose attitude toward defense traditionally has been, at best, benign neglect.Goal: Incumbents: Tom Barrasso, Wendell Young, Frank Pietrangelo.Challenger: Bruce Racine.Barrasso, who played last season with the burden of knowing his baby daughter had life-threatening cancer, is coming off a year he would like to forget. Nonetheless, he enters the preseason as the unquestioned No. 1 goalie, and it&rsquo;s almost impossible to imagine any developments that could change that.Pietrangelo and Young both have proven to be solid backups, capable of an occasional spectacular game.Both of them, like Barrasso, will have to be protected in the waiver draft. Because teams can only protect two goalies, it seems likely Pietrangelo or Young will be traded during the pre-season, so Pittsburgh can get something beside a waiver fee in exchange.Defense: Incumbents: Paul Coffey, Zarley Zalapski, Jim Johnson, Randy Hillier, Chris Dahlquist, Gilbert Delorme, Gord Dineen, Jim Kyte, Rod Buskas.Challengers: Paul Stanton, Paul Laus.Pittsburgh has no lack of quantity on defense, but there are some qualities missing. Someone who consistently will clear the front of the net, for example. If opposing forwards were allowed to spend any more time near the Pittsburgh crease, they might qualify for landed immigrant status.Center: Incumbents: Mario Lemieux, John Cullen, Barry Pederson, Randy Gilhen.Challenger: Bryan Trottier.This could be one of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s strongest positions, but there are almost as many questions as there are job candidates.Will Lemieux suffer after-effects of his off-season back surgery, or is he headed for his most productive season in the NHL? Can Cullen duplicate&mdash;or even improve upon&mdash;his 92-point effort of last season? Is Trottier, at age 34, still capable of making a consistent contribution, particularly in the defensive zone? Does Pederson have any hope of returning to the form that once made him one of the NHL&rsquo;s best two-way centers?Left wing: Incumbents: Kevin Stevens, Bob Errey, Phil Bourque, Troy Loney.Challengers: Daniel Gauthier, Mark Kachowski, Brad Aitken, Jeff Daniels.Stevens appears ready to blossom into an all-star, Errey is the defensive linchpin of the No. 1 line and Bourque has developed into a solid two-way player, but this looks to be the weakest of the three forward positions.Right wing: Incumbents: Rob Brown, Tony Tanti, Mark Recchi, Jay Caufield.Challengers: Joey Mullen, Jaromir Jagr, Jamie Leach, Jamie Heward, Jock Callander.Right wing is, by far, the Penguins&rsquo; strongest and deepest position. Indeed, there are too many quality players here for them all to be on the right side&mdash;or maybe even in Pittsburgh&mdash;when the regular season arrives.One or more likely will be moved to the left side, and a trade seems a very real possibility. Brown, coming off a disappointing 33-goal year, looked like a prime candidate to be dealt during the summer, but reported to Pittsburgh more than a month before camp determined to fight for a job. &#9632;

THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST MAY HAVE REASON FOR DESPAIR

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>Scanning the New York Rangers&rsquo; stats from last season, it would be easy to form the impression the team possesses a powerful offense. But don&rsquo;t be deceived by the fact the Rangers had two 40-goal scorers and one 39-goal man.True, Bernie Nicholls scored 39 times last season, but he notched only twelve in 32 games as a Ranger after being acquired from Los Angeles. True, Mike Gartner scored 45 goals last season but 34 came in 64 games as a member of the Minnesota North Stars. John Ogrodnick&rsquo;s 43-goal contribution was a welcome surprise, but is he likely to repeat that this season?Good goaltending and an experienced, mobile defense corps, on the other hand, appear to assure coach Roger Neilson&rsquo;s team of another season of efficient play without the puck.And, while only three or four spots on the Rangers&rsquo; opening night roster appeared to be open as training camp began, Neilson was not exactly starting out with a set team because nine of the players listed as &ldquo;incumbents&rdquo; played in 60 or fewer games for New York.Goalies: Incumbents: John Vanbiesbrouck. Mike Richter.Challengers: Bob Froese, Mark Laforest, Sam St. Laurent.General manager Neil Smith keeps insisting he has no plans to trade Vanbiesbrouck but the off-season additions of Laforest and St. Laurent provide the organizational depth to do so if he chooses. Vanbiesbrouck and Richter will probably begin the season sharing the goaltending duties.Defense: Incumbents: Brian Leetch, James Patrick, David Shaw, Randy Moller, Normand Rochefort, Mark Hardy.Challengers: Miloslav Horava, Lindy Ruff, Jeff Bloemberg, Dennis Vial.Without Leetch (fractured ankle), Shaw (shoulder surgery) and Hardy (sprained ankle) in the playoffs, this strength area turned into a serious weakness which the Washington Capitals exposed repeatedly in the Patrick Division finals.Center: Incumbents: Bernie Nicholls, Kelly Kisio, Darren Turcotte, Mark Janssens.Challengers: Brian McReynolds, Rob Zamuner.For the first time in a decade, the Rangers contend center is an area of strength rather than weakness. A year ago, Carey Wilson (traded to Hartford for Hull) was the No. 1 center, while both Turcotte and Janssens were unproven rookies.This time around, Turcotte is coming off a dazzling, 32-goal season and Janssens, at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, proved to be the big, hard-working, defensive-style center the team had been lacking for so many years. Janssens managed only five goals in 80 games, was a minus-26 and had was limited by a shoulder injury, but Neilson loves his work ethic.Left wing: Incumbents: John Ogrodnick, Jan Erixon, Troy Mallette, Kris King.Challengers: Ric Bennett. Tie Domi, Louie Debrusk.Ogrodnick enjoyed a solid, 43-goal season but was still an unhappy free-agent holdout a week before camp began. Since no other Ranger left winger scored as may as 15 goals last season, this is a potential problem area. If potential standout Mallette picks up where he left off during the second half a year ago, however, Neilson will be smiling.Right wing: Incumbents: Mike Gartner, Brian Mullen.Challengers: Paul Broten, Jody Hull, Steven Rice, Ray Sheppard, Kevin Miller, Rudy Poeschek.Right wing is unquestionably the most wide open spot on the roster. Broten was impressive as a checker who could also contribute offensively last season, Hull has potential and Rice is so solid that he will get a long look, despite the fact that he has a year of junior hockey eligibility remaining.<h2>N.Y.RANGERS</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 23: Mike Gartner, RW, signed two-year contract.Aug. 30: Dave Archibald, C, retired. Colin Campbell named assistant coach. &#9632;

BEWARE OF MISLEADING OFFENSIVE STATISTICS

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>The Washington Capitals are set to open another training camp away from home&mdash;Lake Placid this year after Sweden and the Soviet Union in 1989&mdash;and they are hoping to find several items during their stay in the pristine forests of the Adirondacks.While the goaltending and center positions are experienced and talented, the left wing has as many question marks as the rest of the positions put together.There is lots of quantity but questions about the quality&mdash;especially when it comes to offense&mdash;about the defense. The right side will be strong, but only if John Druce&rsquo;s playoff heroics were for real.Goal: Incumbents: Mike Liut. Don Beaupre.Challengers: Jim Hrivnak, Olaf Kolzig, Byron Dafoe.It&rsquo;s not inconceivable Yvon Corriveau will turn into a star in Hartford,, but getting Liut last March looks like a good deal. Liut will be 35 by midseason, but is coming off a great year.Beaupre, who played well last season, is a free agent so he and general manager David Poile will have to strike a deal before Beaupre stops a puck.Defense: Incumbents: Rod Lang-way, Kevin Hatcher, Bob Rouse, Calle Johansson, Neil Sheehy.Challengers: Mike Lalor, Bill Houlder, Jim Mathieson, Mark Ferner, Kent Paynter, Jiri Vykoukal.With Scott Stevens leaving for St. Louis, there is a big hole to fill. Lalor, who came from St. Louis with Peter Zezel in the deal for Geoff Courtnall, will help defensively-Langway turned 33 in May and had injuries to both knees last season, but Poile praised his play and he is still the captain. Hatcher and Johansson will have bigger roles both defensively and on the power play with Stevens gone.Center: Incumbents: Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter, Rob Murray.Challengers: Peter Zezel. Tyler Larter, Tim Taylor, Reggie Savage.This spot has depth with three established centers. Ridley&rsquo;s points dropped last season, but he plays so many roles on this team he remains an integral piece in the puzzle.Hunter may have been the team&rsquo;s most valuable player last season.Zezel brings tenacity and 72 points from St. Louis. Murray&rsquo;s spot on the fourth line is much-less secure thanLeft wing: Incumbents: Kelly Miller, Michal Pivonka, Bob Joyce, Nick Kypreos.Challengers: Steve Maltais, Jeff Greenlaw, Steve Seftel.This is the spot with the most flux. Despite his team-high plus-27, Courtnall will not be missed for his defensive abilities. He scoring ability will be missed.Miller is one of the leaders in this outfit. He had a great first-half of the season last year, but hitting the cross bar on a penalty shot in the Wales Conference finals typified the second half.With Zezel on hand, Pivonka moves to the left side. Poile and Terry Murray are expecting more consistent production from Pivonka. who had his best season as a Capital last year.Right wing: Incumbents: Dino Ciccarelli, John Druce, Steve Leach, Alan May, Tim Bergland.Challengers: John Purves, Peter Bondra.Ciccarelli got at least 40 goals for the sixth time in his career last season and will have to do it again. The 14 playoff goals make Druce an incumbent, even if his reign has been short.Leach had his best season as a Cap but more is expected. May is most of the muscle and much of the hustle on this team.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 27: Peter Bondra, RW, and Jiri Vykoukal, D, signed contracts. &#9632;

DEPARTURES OF STEVENS, COURTNALL LEAVE BIG HOLES

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>In a sense, the New York Islanders&rsquo; training camp began last May.That&rsquo;s when the franchise&rsquo;s prospects were auditioning, impressing management by driving to the American League championship.Those performances seemed even more dramatic in light of the way the Islanders had finished a month earlier. Their almost immediate exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs suggested there would be roles to fill this fall.Now that the challengers and incumbents are preparing to share the same stage, the expected result is one of the team&rsquo;s most competitive camps in recent memory.Goal: Incumbents: Mark Fitzpatrick, Glenn Healy.Challenger: Jeff Hackett.&ldquo;This is one area where, on a long- and short-term basis, I like where we&rsquo;re at,&rdquo; Toney said.Fitzpatrick, a potential star, figures to improve as he matures. Healy provides experience, something his two competitors lack. Hackett, the most valuable player in the Calder Cup playoffs, believes he has proven himself worthy of making the next step.Defense: Incumbents: Doug Crossman, Gary Nylund, Jeff Norton, Ken Baumgartner, Joe Reekie, Gerald Diduck, Jari Gronstrand.Challengers: Jeff Finley, Wayne McBean, Marc Bergevin, Dean Chynoweth, Rich Pilon.&ldquo;We have 12 defensemen, in my opinion, with major-league skills,&rdquo; Torrey said. But he acknowledged only a handful of that dozen have proven they can apply those skills successfull in the NHL.Crossman, Nylund, Norton and Baumgartner all fill distinct and important roles. The rest probably will be scrambling for the final three spots.Pilon is intent on coming back from a career-threatening eye injury, McBean excelled in the AHL playoffs.Center: Incumbents: Pat LaFontaine, Brent Sutter, Hubie McDonough.Challengers: Rob DiMaio, Travis Green, Iain Fraser, Phil Huber.The only battle here will be the one for fourth place. The trio of LaFontaine, Sutter and McDonough had an aggregate 209 points last season for a team that totalled only 281 goals.Left wing: Incumbents: David Volek, Don Maloney, Brad Lauer, Derek King.Challengers: Dave Chyzowski, Bill Berg.Volek salvaged something from an uninspiring season by playing well in the playoffs&mdash;which made the front office hopeful about a turnaround this year. On the other hand, Torrey said this will be a decisive year for Lauer and King, who must finally prove they can flourish in the NHL.Right wing: Incumbents: Randy Wood, Patrick Flatley, Mick Vukota, Alan Kerr.Challengers: Derek Laxdal, Tom Fitzgerald, Brad Dalgamo.Depth is so questionable here Wood has been switched from the left side. Still, Fitzgerald also will try out at center, his usual position. Either Laxdal or Dalgamo, who is returning from a one-year retirement at age 23, could be the rugged forward the team desperately needs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011719/8439919-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="537" height="679"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Wood has been switched from left to right wing.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLENTY OF JOBS OPEN HERE

The list of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s fastest skaters includes some of hockey&rsquo;s biggest superstars&mdash;Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman, Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier and New York Islander Pai LaFontaine. It also includes a bowlegged asthmatic who was a virtual unknown before the beginning of last season.Hartford Whaler left winger Todd Krygier came out of nowhere (actually the Division III hockey program at the University of Connecticut) to post 14-15-29 totals in 71 games during his rookie season. The 24-year-old Northville, Mich., native gained a reputation as one of the league&rsquo;s fastest skaters. Hartford Courant hockey writer Jeff Jacobs describes Krygier as &ldquo;a bolt of lightning.&rdquo;Krygier is the speediest Whaler on a fast-skating team. Other speed merchants on the club include left winger Mikael Andersson and defenseman Sylvain Cote.&ldquo;This past year I had a really tough time with my asthma,&rdquo; says Krygier. &ldquo;It had a big affect on my skating and endurance. I&rsquo;ve got it under control this summer with some different medication. I&rsquo;d definitely like to have an oxygen tank on the bench.&rdquo;Krygier&rsquo;s other obstacle he&rsquo;s had to overcome is being bowlegged. While his teammates sometimes rib him&mdash;they call him &ldquo;cowboy&rdquo;&mdash;he says the condition doesn&rsquo;t really bother him.However, he can&rsquo;t do much running because it puts too much pressure on his back and his legs.Krygier, who prefers using a light, snug skate says the secret of his success is hard work and a special sharpening technique he has done on his skates.&ldquo;I like having my blade sharpened from plastic to plastic,&rdquo; says Krygier. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like having the toe of the blade wearing down, it just happens to be a pet peeve, so I get the whole thing sharpened.&ldquo;It gives me a full stride and helps me get that extra push.&rdquo;Krygier was drafted 16th overall in the 1988 supplemental draft of college players. He spent the 1988-89 season with the Whalers&rsquo; American League farm team in Binghamton before becoming a full-time member of the Whalers last season.A poll of THN writers chose the fastest skaters on each team. There were few surprises. The following 21 players are known throughout the league for their breakaway speed:John Carter, Boston; Alexander Mogilny, Buffalo; Paul Ranheim, Calgary; Doug Wilson, Chicago; Yzerman; Messier; Krygier; Tony Granato, Los Angeles; Neal Broten, Minnesota; Russ Courtnail, Montreal; Brendan Shanahan, New Jersey; LaFontaine; Mike Gartner, Rangers; Murray Craven, Philadelphia; Paul Coffey, Pittsburgh; Jeff Jackson, Quebec; Cliff Ronning, St. Louis; Al Iafrate, Toronto; Petri Skriko, Vancouver; Dino Ciccarelli, Washington; and Phil Housley, Winnipeg.So who is the swiftest of the swift?Gartner won the skating competition at the All-Star Game last season in Pittsburgh but only those players in the game were eligible to participate in the competition. At 31 this October, Gartner has little trouble keeping up with players 10 years younger than him.The general consensus is Courtnail is the fastest from one end of the rink to another. His new teammate, Denis Savard, might have the quickest start of any player. Ronning and Broten are fast despite not having a long stride while Iafrate is like a runaway freight train with his speed and size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds).Coffey, considered the league&rsquo;s fastest defenseman, likes his skates two sizes too small. He says the tight fit gives him a better feel and an extra step on the competition.Like Krygier, Coffey also prefers a special sharpening technique. Coffey gets his blades sharpened with a very shallow hollow, so his skate barely digs into the ice. This reduces the friction between blade and ice. No wonder it looks like Coffey is floating on the ice when he skates.Ten of the 21 players chosen this year were also listed among the fastest skaters in the 1990 THN Yearbook. Two of the players&mdash;Granato, who was with the Rangers, and Gartner, who was with Minnesota&mdash;were with different teams. &#9632;

‘COWBOY’ KRYGIER A REAL LIGHTNING BOLT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011537/8439974-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY SKATE ANALYSIS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011599/8440005-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal trainer Eddy Palchak and former Hab Mats Naslund are two of the promoters of the Cag One skate-sharpening machine.</figcaption></div>Improved quality control from the manufacturer in Sweden and a new speed cartridge are now available on the 1990 Cag One skate tuning and sharpening machine.The quality control consists of a new chip that provides a smoother, more consistant finish on the blades. The grinding stones have also been improved.The most important new feature is the speed cartridge. When inserted, the device immediately changes the machine from a tuner/pro-fiter to a skate sharpener. In simple terms, if your blades have already been rockered and only need sharpening, Cag One will follow the existing shape of your blade&hellip;and sharpen only.This process will significantly reduce waiting time.Top players should still profile their skates at the beginning of the season before regular sharpening and have their blade profile checked or touched up occasionally. It is very important to take care of your most important tool&hellip;your blades.The Cag One machine also does figure and goaltender skates with amazing results. Cag One has done some skates for the Ice Capades as well as many professional and Olympic team goaltenders&rsquo; skates.Goaltenders especially appreciate how their flat surface is done so precisely on Cag One. It takes many years of skate sharpening experience to do a long, flat surface by hand, but Cag One offers this feature at the touch of a button.Other features include a built-in dust bin, a slot for vacuum hookup, an owners cartridge (that keeps count of sharpening&hellip;.and money!), a self-diagnostic keyboard and travel box.This 55-pound, 28-inch high machine travels easily and works from a regular electrical outlet. It is easy to understand and operate and comes with a one year parts and labor guarantee with extended warranty and leasing plans available.It is used by many college, junior and NHLteams. Eddy Palchak and Pierre Gervais of the Montreal Canadiens are two of many equipment managers who use Cag One. &#9632;

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CAG ONE INTRODUCES SPEED CARTRIDGE

It&rsquo;s a fact. No other skate in the history of hockey is as advanced or progressive as Mega.And that&rsquo;s because no other skate manufacturer has invested more time and money toward studying the bio-mechanics of skating than the Canstar Sports Group. Utilizing modern computer technology and the science of bio-mechanics, Canstar&rsquo;s Research and Development staff teamed up with McGill University to create the world&rsquo;s most technologically advanced hockey skate. Today, top pros like Raymond Bourque, Mario Lemieux, and Bernie Nicholls are skating and scoring with the results of that famous collaboration&mdash;the Mega hockey skate.There are six high-performance components that make the Mega devastating. For starters, every Mega skate is equipped with Mega&rsquo;s exclusive Medial Power Clip. The name says it all. It improves foot control and actually transfers your own natural energy directly to the ice so you can achieve a more powerful skating stride.Also, each Mega model properly aligns your foot because they all use a Microthodic footbed that features a three-dimensional contour which cradles your heel and supports the mid-foot for superior control.What&rsquo;s more devastating is that 1990 has seen an even more advanced Mega hockey skate&mdash;the Mega 10-90 V2. A new anatomical ankle support has been designed exclusively for the 10-90 models, providing the perfect ankle fit and eliminating the need for break-in of the rear foot and ankle area. And now, not only is the 10-90 V2 the most advanced skate, it&rsquo;s now faster and more manoeuvreable. The senior models of the 10-90 V2 will be supported with the new Tuuk Plus V2 Stainless Blade featuring a thin design that increases speed by reducing drag by 20 per cent.Hockey is going to become faster, swifter and more powerful. And that&rsquo;s why today, players are skating with Mega. Because, if you&rsquo;re going to win, you can&rsquo;t afford to follow trends. You have to set them. Just like Canstar has done with Mega skates.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011469/8440043-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="578" height="917"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruin defenseman Ray Bourque scores with Mega skates.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021116/8440036-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="583" height="1124"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Nicholls also uses the world&rsquo;s most advanced skates.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THESE SKATES ARE MEGA DEVASTATING

At the end of the 1988-89 season, then-Toronto Maple Leaf coach George Armstrong was running the team&rsquo;s practices wearing the same pair of skates with which he finished his illustrious 20-year career.At the same time, Edmonton Oiler superstar Mark Messier was going through his 14th pair of custom-made skates of the campaign.A sign of the times? Perhaps, but Canstar&rsquo;s director of pro services, Jim Geary, feels there&rsquo;s more to it than overpaid players making unreasonable demands.&ldquo;The requests the players have are legitimate,&rdquo; says Geary, whose company produces Bauer, Micron and Mega skates. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re pros and they know what makes them perform better.&ldquo;Some players, for example, can tell a two-centimeter difference in the length of the blade. (Chicago&rsquo;s) Bob McGill specifically requests 270 centimeter blades on skates that normally take 260 centimeter blades.&rdquo;McGill is one of many NHL players who seek changes in design from the original skate. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Paul Coffey, for example, has the manufacturers put 11 pairs of eyelets&mdash;the wholes the laces pass through&mdash;on his skates as compared to the typical 13. And former Blackhawk Al Secord had the top three pairs of eyelets replaced with Velcro straps.The most common customization in today&rsquo;s pro skates, says Geary, is making different sizes for the left and right feet.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll get one player who wears a Size 9 on one foot and a Size 8 on the other,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Very often we&rsquo;ll have to widen the skate in the ball-of-the-foot area, or hollow out the heel to accommodate for a bone spur.&rdquo;But why are players like Messier going through so many pairs?&ldquo;He just ioves new skates,&rdquo; says CCM pro representative Brad Janson. &ldquo;Years ago players liked their skates to fit like leather shoes. Now they want them stiff.&rdquo;Janson says Messier is at one end of the spectrum, that the average player goes through three or four pairs a year. At the other end of the spectrum is Toronto&rsquo;s Tom Kurvers, who uses only one pair per season.Then, there&rsquo;s the oddity of Chicago&rsquo;s Chris Chelios.&ldquo;Chelios has had the same pair the last four years. He just has the blades changed,&rdquo; says Janson. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t even make his brand anymore (Ultra Tack).&rdquo;But perhaps the most unique situation is that of Coffey. According to Janson, the Penguins&rsquo; defenseman wears a Size 10 shoe, and a Size 6&frac34; skate.&ldquo;He jams his foot in, and his toes are curled up,&rdquo; Janson says. &ldquo;He claims it doesn&rsquo;t hurt his feet.&ldquo;Players generally like their skates small. We find that when we go to a player in junior he&rsquo;ll ask for, say, an 8&frac12; because that&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s been wearing all his life. By the time he gets to the pros, that can change almost by a full size (smaller).&ldquo;Players at the NHL level are looking for every edge they can get. There&rsquo;s a lot of fine tuning that takes place.&rdquo;As well as asking for changes in the eyelets and blade lengths, Janson says some players ask for a different size skate tongue, lacing pattern and inner lining. And because each portion of the skate&mdash;the heel, the ball of the foot and the toe cap&mdash;are measured separately, each skate has to be made individually.That, claims Janson, can create logistical problems.&ldquo;It takes about six or seven days to make a pair of custom-made skates, but you&rsquo;ll have a player wanting them in two or three days. So we&rsquo;ve learned to make more than one pair at a time.&ldquo;Still, it&rsquo;s an expensive proposition. We&rsquo;ve had to build a factory that makes just pro skates. In a way, by coming up with so many new advances, we&rsquo;ve created our own monster.&rdquo; &#9632;

UNUSUAL PRO DEMANDS THE ORDER OF THE DAY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011105/8440168-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div><h2>EASTON</h2><h2>GRAF</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02714/8440161-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="1395" height="590"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03464/8440154-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="1386" height="372"></div><h2>MEGA</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04351/8440147-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="1400" height="806"></div><h2>MICRON</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011219/8440140-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="1394" height="919"></div><h2>RIEDELL</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02869/8440133-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="1404" height="929"></div><h2>IN-LINE ROLLER SKATE ANALYSIS</h2><h3>BAUER PRECISION IN-LINE SKATES</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03706/8440126-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="1402" height="512"></div><h3>ROLLERBLADE&reg;</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04516/8440119-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="1394" height="296"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05385/8440112-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="1368" height="207"></div><h3>ULTRAWHEELS&trade;</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06317/8440105-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="1396" height="413"></div><h3>SWITCHIT</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-07272/8440098-1-eng-US/f0026-072.jpg" title="f0026-07" width="1209" height="222"></div> &#9632;

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The 651 VAKU TACK has been a runaway success for CCM. This revolutionary skate has become the skate of choice at the NHL level in only 1&frac12; seasons. An example of this was the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins Stanley Cup final. Edmonton had most of their players wearing 651&rsquo;s and the Bruins had a large percentage of their players wearing them. Both Mark Messier and Cam Neely had career years and both wear 651 VAKU TACKS.The skates have an inner lining called Vaku Form. This material is heated and then has vacuum pressure applied while on the player&rsquo;s foot and is then heat molded to the exact shape of the foot. All of this is done in the local hockey dealer stores. The whole process takes about 20 minutes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011246/8440213-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="541" height="1013"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cam Neely and Mark Messier took CCM 651 &rsquo;s to new heights.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02921/8440206-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="534" height="996"></div>The result is a great fit and a very limited break-in period. The skate also has the exclusive Heel Lace System. This system provides excellent heel lock. You can use one set of laces or two sets of laces, thus controlling the feel of the skates on your feet.The 651 VAKU TACK from CCM. See them at your local hockey retailer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03700/8440199-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="527" height="532"></div> &#9632;

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CCM TURNS ON THE POWER

A new decade is upon us, bringing with it a style of hockey that&rsquo;s faster, more aggressive and ultimately more competitive. But despite the changes hockey is undergoing, one fact remains consistant; only one skate has remained at the forefront of the game for the past 10 years, and will continue to prevail as hockey&rsquo;s number one performer: Bauer. The only skate that can claim an NHL following three times that of its closest competitor.The reasons are simple: Bauer skates are, and always will be, crafted with meticulous dedication to superior quality and high performance features. Because today&rsquo;s game demands it.With that in mind, Bauer enters the &rsquo;90s with the new Bauer Supreme Custom 2000 V2. This skate offers numerous high performance attributes, featuring the Tuuk Plus V2 Thin Blade; hockey&rsquo;s fastest, most advanced blade. The unique thin design reduces drag by 20 per cent, thereby increasing speed and manouevreability for unprecedented performance.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011126/8440251-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="379" height="266"></div>Other advanced features include Bauer&rsquo;s exclusive Flolite ankle pads which provide a custom fit for complete support and control. The pressure sensitive Flolite flows around the ankle bone to conform to the anatomical gaps around the achilles tendon, providing a perfect custom fit.Top Bauer models also feature the patented three-dimensional Superfeet foot bed. To further ensure performance of the Bauer design, Superfeet utilizes a deforming slot system that enhances alignment by properly distributing your body weight along the axis of the blade. So you always receive the ultimate in comfort and support.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02791/8440244-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="542" height="440"></div>To further enhance Bauer&rsquo;s mandate of quality, a revolutionary three-part tongue was developed called Formfit Plus Tongue. Anatomically designed to fit the right foot and left foot individually, the contoured design guarantees that the Formfit tongue remains on your foot for improved circulation, protection and comfort. The lower tongue cradles your forefoot and firmly holds your foot in the boot for a snug fit. The middle tongue consists of a flex point that allows you full freedom of movement. And the upper tongue features an insert that reduces lace bite while providing increased protection against impact.Regardless of the numerous high-quality attributes that have made Bauer famous, Canstar&rsquo;s research team is constantly developing new improvements and features to not only meet the game&rsquo;s ever increasing demands&mdash;but to exceed them. And that&rsquo;s why Bauer&rsquo;s hockey skates will always be respected as a skate of supreme distinction and outstanding quality.After all, Bauer set the standards; and only Bauer can surpass them. &#9632;

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Bauer THE ONLY ONE

First Team Sports, Inc., manufacturers of Ultra-Wheels and related accessories has just received another major endorsement from reigning women&rsquo;s world figure skating champion Jill Trenary of the U.S. A. and reigning men&rsquo;s world figure skating champion Kurt Browning of Canada. In February, the company received similar endorsements from hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky and his wife Janet Jones Gretzky.Trenary and Browning have signed multi-year agreements with First Team Sports, Inc. to serve as spokespersons to promote and endorse the company&rsquo;s line of Ultra-Wheels roller skate products and accessories. Through arrangements with their respective figure skating associations, they will be featured in advertising and product packaging.&ldquo;The signing of Trenary and Browning makes a statement that we are taking an aggressive approach to marketing our products,&rdquo; said John Egart, vice president of marketing for First Team Sports. &ldquo;By bringing Kurt and Jill on board, we are making a serious committment to the growing figure skating market and adding a new dimension to marketing our skates and accessories.&rdquo;&ldquo;We now have three of the most visible and talented athletes in the world representing Ultra-Wheels,&rdquo; said David Soderguist, president of First Team Sports. &ldquo;We are thrilled that Jill and Kurt are joining our roster of superstars. These endorsements come from skaters with worldwide champion reputations. The signing of these two superstars will enable us to develop specific skates aimed at the important and growing figure skating market of which there are over 300,000 families participating in the U.S.A, alone.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011085/8440306-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="549" height="1189"><figcaption class="caption-body">Janet Jones Gretzky and Wayne promote the Ultra-Wheels skate.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I spend at least 50 per cent of my total off-ice practice time on Ultra-Wheels,&rdquo; said Browning, winner of the men&rsquo;s gold medal at the recent Goodwill Games in Seattle. &ldquo;Ultra-Wheels are a great training device especially for those aspiring athletes who depend on expensive private ice time for training.&ldquo;Ultra-Wheels will open the door to a lot of skaters who want to get involved. They allow anyone to train in any conditions and get an excellent workout. Plus, Ultra-Wheels are a lot of fun&mdash;and putting fun into a workout is the very best situation.&rdquo;Trenary, the 1990 world champion and U.S. national champion, is excited about promoting the many uses of Ultra-Wheels. &ldquo;While they are an excellent training skate, they are also a super way to get into shape,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;With Ultra-Wheels, I don&rsquo;t have to spend all my training time by myself. I can skate with my friends and get a great aerobic workout.&rdquo; First Team Sports, Inc. manufactures and distributes high-quality in-line roller skates under the trademark Ultra-Wheels and Skate Attack and related accessories. The company&rsquo;s products are manufactured and assembled to its specifications in the United States and Taiwan. Its products are marketed by independent sales representatives and marketing organizations in North America and parts of Europe and Japan. &#9632;

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FIGURE SKATERS PROMOTE ULTRA-WHEELS

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Last spring the Edmonton Oilers grabbed a Stanley Cup they weren&rsquo;t supposed to win.Now the trick is to successfully defend the unexpected.&ldquo;We have great depth,&rdquo; said coach John Muckier as the Oilers took a 25-man contingent to Europe to commence training camp. &ldquo;Whether we have what we need or want is another story, but we do have several people capable of playing in the NHL. And, that&rsquo;s what training camp is all about&mdash;to find out what our strengths, weaknesses and needs are.&rdquo;Goal: Incumbents: Bill Ranford, Grant Fuhr.Challengers: Pokey Reddick, Mike Greenlav, Alexander Tyzhnvch.The battle for No. 1 was expected to be a close one as Ranford is coming off a Conn Smythe Trophy season, and Fuhr was deemed 100 per cent after numerous injuries in 1989-90.But after reports surfaced about Fuhr&rsquo;s alleged admission to illegal drug use, his situation with the team was placed in limbo. Pending an investigation and subsequent ruling by NHL president John Ziegler, Fuhr may or may not be with the team to start the season.Should Fuhr escape disciplinary action, the Oilers could have the best goaltending tandem in the league.Defense: Incumbents: Kevin Lowe, Craig Muni, Charlie Huddy, Steve Smith, Randy Gregg, Geoff Smith.Challengers: Jeff Beukeboom, Chris Joseph, Corey Foster, Norm Maclver, Bruce Bell, Francois Leroux, Jason Soules.With Reijo Ruotsalainen headed back to Europe, there&rsquo;s a spot open on the blueline, possibly two if Gregg&mdash;who didn&rsquo;t accompany the team to Europe&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t sign. Geoff Smith, who was selected to the NHL&rsquo;s all-rookie team, appeared in 74 regular-season games, but only suited up for three playoff contests. Beukeboom saw duty in 46 NHL matches, but his playoff activity was restricted to two outings.Joseph is tabbed as a possible replacement for the offensive-minded Ruotsalainen.Lowe and Muni were the Oilers&rsquo; top blueline pair throughout the season, while Steve Smith, Huddy and Gregg turned in their finest performances during the Stanley Cup march.Center: Incumbents: Mark Messier, Mark Lamb, Craig MacTavish, Adam Graves.Challengers: Ken Linseman, Vladimir Ruzicka, Anatoli Semenov.Messier, who won the Hart Trophy, is coming off his finest of 11 NHL campaigns (45 goals, 84 assists for 129 points&mdash;second only to former teammate Wayne Gretzky). The 29-year-old is the Oilers&rsquo; undisputed leader and anchors the NHL&rsquo;s sixth most potent offense (315 goals in 1989-90).Left wing: Incumbents: Craig Simpson, Esa Tikkanen, Martin Gelinas, Petr Klima.Challengers: Dan Currie, Sergei Yashin, Peter Soberlak, David Haas.Simpsons output dipped to 29 goals during the season, but he was a standout during the post-season. The 23-year-old led all playoff snipers with 16 goals and his 31 points equalled Messier (9-22) for the Stanley Cup lead.Right wing: Incumbents: Glenn Anderson, Joe Murphy, Kelly Buch-berger, Dave Brown.Challengers: Thomas Kapusta, Kim Issel, Trevor Sim.OK, so who takes Kurri&rsquo;s spot with Lamb and Tikkanen?&ldquo;I guess we could move Gelinas there, but he played so well in the playoffs with Graves and Murphy,&rdquo; replied Muckier.&ldquo;I guess we&rsquo;ll just go through a lot of different lines to finally see what we&rsquo;re going to do.&rdquo; &#9632;

FUHR REPORTS CAST SHADOW OVER TRIP

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011164/8440361-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="449" height="602"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MOLINARI</figcaption></div>They played 840 games in the National Hockey League during the 1983-84 regular season, but the one contested Nov. 25 at Joe Louis Arena was unlike any other. There are a lot of reasons we should be grateful for that.Of all the matchups that season, that was one of the least promising. It thrust the Pittsburgh Penguins, which were in the midst of a 38-point year that is one of the worst in recent NHL history, against the Detroit Red Wings, a relative powerhouse en route to a 69-point season.Two teams that, had their point totals been combined at the end of the season, would have finished 12 behind the Edmonton Oilers in the overall standings.At the time, the most intriguing aspect of that evening appeared to be that it offered a chance to watch the Penguins lose a hockey game, something they did a mere 57 other times that cruel winter. What a novelty.Of course, Pittsburgh was beaten by only three goals, 7-4, that night, and any loss by a field goal or less that season was proof that the program really was being turned around, dammit.Detroit and Pittsburgh now boast a couple of centers who could inject excitement into a dryland practice session, but back then Steve Yzerman was little more than a month into his NHL career and simply showing flashes of the brilliance we have come to expect.Mario Lemieux, meanwhile, was still laboring for the greater glory of the Laval Voisins, waiting to see whether Pittsburgh or the New Jersey Devils would out-stink the other for the right to make him an extremely wealthy young man.What the fans at Joe Louis saw that night were a lot of guys who were only a few shifts away from getting on with their life&rsquo;s work, which in most cases probably had something to do with selling used motor vehicles.Oh yeah, the crowd. Kind of tough to forget those fans, for a couple of reasons. One is that a member of the paying public reached into the press box after the game and lifted my scorebook. Then, no doubt, disposed of it in the parking lot when he realized what a pathetic waste of paper he had stolen.But more significant is that 21,018 citizens who didn&rsquo;t make off with my scorebook also turned up at Joe Louis that night, making it the largest crowd in NHL history. Why more people showed up to watch two wretched teams play that inconsequential game than turned out for any other game in league annals remains one of the great mysteries of this or any other era.But now, some folks in Florida are bent on making us forget about that throng at Joe Louis, or at least intent on putting a large asterisk next to the single-game NHL attendance record.And they want to do it with&mdash;try to look surprised&mdash;a game that means nothing, or maybe a little less than that. Well, not exactly. It will result in a nice payday for Pittsburgh and the Los Angeles Kings, the scheduled combatants at the Florida Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg Sept. 19.And the two groups trying to land an expansion team for the Tampa-St. Petersburg area are hoping a record crowd will impress the folks who will be handing out the next set of franchises.Reports out of Florida spoke of first-day ticket sales of about 13,000 and before August expired, there was talk of 22,000 tickets having been purchased. The goal of 25,000 seemed well within reach, even though it was far from certain Lemieux would be healthy enough to be in Pittsburgh&rsquo;s lineup that night.Of course, the Suncoast Dome crowd won&rsquo;t be anything but a footnote in NHL history, even if 250,000 folks show up. Exhibition games don&rsquo;t count in the record book anymore than they do in the standings.And pulling in an unprecedented crowd won&rsquo;t necessarily prove Tampa-St. Petersburg will support a full-time franchise. Fans who buy a ticket to see Wayne Gretzky and Lemieux share a slab of ice one night a year might have reservations about coughing up the cash to watch an expansion team be humbled for most of a 40-game home schedule.Then again, maybe the Suncoast Dome will be filled with incurable optimists who couldn&rsquo;t care less about Lemieux and Gretzky, but are scouting borderline players their future team could pick up in an expansion draft. Or maybe there are a lot of Tim Watters fans in Florida. Hey, satellite dishes make anything possible.If nothing else, let&rsquo;s think of the turnout in St. Petersburg as proof of just what a great sport hockey is, even when the game doesn&rsquo;t mean a thing. It&rsquo;s been done before. &#9632;

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HO-HUM GAME SETS STAGE FOR ST. PETE

Of Craig MacTavish&rsquo;s 43 points last season, 10 came while Edmonton was shorthanded. His penalty-killing point total translates into 23.3 per cent of his entire 1989-90 output, the highest percentage in the NHL of players with eight or more shorthanded points. Winnipeg right winger Dave McLlwain was second, getting eight of 51 points (15.7 per cent) while the Jets were shorthanded.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02795/8440392-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="668" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig MacTavish</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-02

NUMBERS

<h2>OILERS</h2>Oilers&rsquo; left winger Petr Klima spent Aug. 23 in a suburban Detroit jail and was ordered to pay $3,610 in fines, court costs and fees. He&rsquo;ll also spend the next three years on probation&mdash;with the possibility of the third year in jail&mdash;as a result of four alcohol-related offences on the 1989 U.S. Memorial Day long weekend. The sentence, which also has seen Klima&rsquo;s driver&rsquo;s licence revoked internationally for a year, was handed down after Klima spent a 45-minute stint in front of Oakland County Circuit Judge Alice Gilbert, Klima had initially feared he could spend upwards to two years behind bars. &ldquo;I got three years probation, so I still can (go to jail),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I hope not and I&rsquo;ll just take it one day at a time. I want to get this day over with and get on with the rest of my life.&rdquo;&hellip;The Oilers&rsquo; European safari has finally received the official stamp of approval. As expected, the Oilers will play two additional exhibition games in Europe following a three-team Epson Cup Tournament in Dusseldorf, West Germany. Added on Aug. 23 were games Sept. 9 in Munich (vs. German team E.C. Hedos) and Sept. 14 in Graz, Austria (vs. E.C. Graz). The Oilers previously had agreed to participate in a three-team Epson Cup Tournament Sept. 7 and 8 in Dusseldorf with Dusseldorf EG (the defending German champs) and the St. Louis Blues.<h2>FLAMES</h2>Former team captain Jim Peplinski was toying with the idea of a comeback in June, but by late August had pretty much ruled it out. Peplinski, who played more games than anybody else in a Flames&rsquo; uniform, unexpectedly retired last October, in part because of a rift with then coach Terry Crisp. Since then, he purchased a car leasing company and tried his hand at television color commentary for the CBC during last year&rsquo;s Los Angeles Kings-Flames&rsquo; playoff series. Coach Doug Risebrough said he and Peplinski spoke and came to the conclusion that a comeback wasn&rsquo;t possible&mdash;for now anyway. Peplinski had been participating in the players&rsquo; informal summer workouts&hellip;The Flames have been without a captain since dealing Brad McCrimmon to Detroit last June and probably won&rsquo;t name a replacement until just before the regular season. The consensus is the choice will come down to either Joe Nieuwendyk or Doug Gilmour.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>The Canucks have agreed to insure Czech defector Petr Nedved against injury so he can participate in training camp, which opens Sept. 7 in Victoria, B.C. Nedved, acenter, was picked second overall in the June draft but had yet to sign a contract with Vancouver. Owen Nolan, drafted first overall by the Quebec Nordiques, reportedly signed a five-year deal for $1.3 million. Nedved and his agent, Don Meehan, are seeking a three-year contract. &ldquo;Our main concern about going to training camp without a contract was what would happen if Petr got hurt,&rdquo; said Tony Kondal, Nedved&rsquo;s legal guardian. &ldquo;As a result of the insurance policy, Petr will be there.&rdquo; Two years ago, the Canucks took out a similar insurance policy that enabled Trevor Linden to go to camp. Linden subsequently signed on the eve of the regular season&hellip;Vladimir Krutov returned to Vancouver from Moscow Aug. 22 to prepare for his second NHL season, looking thinner but acting thicker than when he left in April. A scaled-down Krutov refused to discuss his off-season activities to a reporter when questioned upon his arrival in Vancouver.<h2>JETS</h2>Daryl Stanley has been tom for some time between a love of the outdoor life on his 40-acre spread near Winnipeg and his career in professional hockey which made it possible.&rsquo; Now he&rsquo;s come to the best compromise, a two-year contract with the Winnipeg Jets that will allow him the luxury of both his passions. &ldquo;I spoke to (GM) Mike Smith a few times and we worked something out,&rdquo; Stanley said after signing as a free agent without compensation Aug. 21. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty happy to get the chance to play in Winnipeg.&rdquo; Stanley, a6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman-left winger, comes to the Jets from Vancouver where he&rsquo;s played portions of the last three seasons&hellip;Laurie Boschman&rsquo;s days as a member of the Jets are numbered. With the signing of 19-year-old center Kris Draper from the Canadian national team, the club made its intentions clear. &ldquo;Yes, he&rsquo;s asked to be traded,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Yes, we&rsquo;ve tried to move him. No, there haven&rsquo;t been a lot of offers. In fairness, some teams have expressed an interest but nobody has made a serious offer.&rdquo;<h2>KINGS</h2>The Kings announced Aug. 23 they will retire Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s No. 16 sweater in ceremonies before their Nov. 8 game with Detroit at the Forum. Dionne is the club&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer with 1,307 points. He was traded to the New York Rangers March 10, 1987, and is out of hockey. The only other Kings&rsquo; jersey to be retired was Rogie Vachon&rsquo;s No. 30&hellip;The Kings will report to training&rsquo; camp in Hull, Que., Sept. 6 without defensemen Tom Laidlaw and Bob Halkidis, Laidlaw has a disc problem in his back and could miss part or all of the 1990-91 season. The protective coating which surrounds the disc is believed to be tom. Halkidis underwent surgery May 11 to correct a dislocated left shoulder&mdash;a 1 &frac12;-inch screw was inserted to keep it in place&mdash;and he won&rsquo;t be ready until after the Oct. 4 season-opener with the New York Islanders. &#9632;

KLIMA SPENDS DAY IN JAIL

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Throw 30 names in a hat and grab the first 20.That might have been a logical way for prognosticators to pick the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; lineup prior to training camp one year ago. After all, with new management, new coaches and a horrific track record, how else could the team be selected?This time around, with an 85-point season and a whole lot of credibility in the bag, the changes could be minimal.The departure of Dale Hawerchuk may have altered the face of the team forever&mdash;Scott Arniel, Phil Housley I and Jeff Parker will add much-needed depth&mdash;but from top to bottom few changes are anticipated.The uniforms may be new but expect almost all familiar faces inside I them.Goal: Incumbents: Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.Challengers: Rick Tabaracci, Tom Draper.If any one position has become more certain than a year ago in Winnipeg, it is between the pipes. Essensa emerged as a solid NHLer last season with a record of 18-9-5 and a goals-against average of 3.15. Beauregard; arrived mid-season and proved his worth, too.Last year, any one of six or seven goalies could have earned employment in training camp. This time around, Tabaracci and Draper must do handstands to even get a sniff.Defense: Incumbents: Dave Ellett, Fredrik Olausson, Teppo Numminen, Randy Carlyle, Peter Taglianetti, Moe Mantha, Shawn Cronin.Challengers: Phil Housley, Gord Donnelly and Bryan Marchment.Housley isn&rsquo;t exactly a challenger. Rather, he is the new star attraction on the blue line, seizing that role from Ellett who, in recent years, had taken it over from Carlyle. Donnelly played I three regular-season games and the playoffs on defense after coming back from right wing and earned himself a I permanent switch.Center: Incumbents: Thomas Steen, Brent Ashton, Dave I McLlwain, Laurie Boschman.Challengers: Jeff Parker, Kris Draper, Stu Barnes, Jason Cirone.With the departure of Hawerchuk, everyone else automatically moves up a notch. Steen is now the No. 1 offensive man with Ashton the top defensive specialist. McLlwain&rsquo;s play last winter virtually assured him of a job while a fourth spot is open.The imposing Parker can play center or wing. Draper is a defensive specialist from the Canadian national team but is just 19 years old. Barnes, Winnipeg&rsquo;s top pick in 1989, is probably headed for a year&rsquo;s worth of seasoning in the minors.Left wing: Incumbents: Doug Smail, Paul Fenton, Phil Sykes, Doug Evans.Challengers: Scott Arniel Danton Cole, Daryl Stanley.Wheelchairs aren&rsquo;t required just yet, but the Jets&rsquo; left side is aging fast. Smail, Fenton and Sykes are all past 30 but Smail&rsquo;s speed leaves him entrenched while Fenton&rsquo;s work ethic tied him with Pat Elynuik for the team lead in goals (32) last season. The addition of Arniel from Buffalo will be a tremendous boost. Cole was the Jets&rsquo; best player on the farm last season and could challenge with terrific speed and hockey smarts. Stanley&rsquo;s toughness will be valuable.Right wing: Incumbents: Pat Elynuik, Paul MacDermid. Greg Paslawski, Mark Kumpel.Challengers: Sergei Kharin, Pekka Peltola.This is the Jets&rsquo; weakest position and could remain so barring a trade. A broken leg will keep 1988 first-round pick Teemu Selanne in Finland for another year and unless Soviet Kharin or Finn Peltola impress, (both are unsigned but will attend camp), expect natural left wingers to make the switch.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2>TRANSACTIONAug. 21: Daryl Stanley, D-LW. signed I as tree agent.Aug. 22: Randy Carlyle, D, and Mark Kumpel, RW, signed multi-year contracts.Aug. 25: Jason Cirone, C, signed multiyear contract.Aug. 27: Kris Draper, C, signed multiyear contract. &#9632;

FAMILIAR MUGS WILL FILL TEAM’S NEW DUDS

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Owner Bruce McNall is convinced his Los Angeles Kings can compete for the Stanley Cup in 1990-91.&ldquo;I think this is going to be the year,&rdquo; he said.Of course, McNall said the same thing at this time a year ago, and the Kings stumbled badly, salvaging some respect with a first-round playoff win over the Calgary Flames.Now, if they could only beat Calgary and Edmonton in the same playoff season.Goal: Incumbents: Kelly Hrudey, Mario Gosselin, Ron Scott.Challenger: Robb Stauber.Hrudey needs only to prove he has fully recovered from the debilitating virus that plagued him all last season.Gosselin and Scott will compete for the back-up job as Tom Webster does not plan to carry three goalies, while Stauber is ticketed to start the season in the minors.Defense: Incumbents: Brian Benning, Rob Blake, Steve Duchesne, Bob Halkidis, Tom Laidlaw, Marty McSorley, Petr Prajsler, Larry Robinson, Tim Watters.Challengers: Paul Holden, Stephane J.G. Richer, Dennis Smith, Darryl Sydor, Brent Thompson, Scott Young.The Kings will start the season without Benning (three-game suspension). Halkidis (shoulder surgery) and Laidlaw (back injury). Laidlaw could be out for months, perhaps all year. This is not good news for a team that allowed 337 goals in 1989-90, the fourth-worst figure in the NHL.Much is expected of Blake, 21, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder who played in four regular-season games after he was signed off the Bowling Green University campus.Center: Incumbents: Mike Allison, Todd Elik, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Kasper, Mike Krushelnyski.Challengers: Micah Aivazoff, Sylvain Couturier, Mikael Lindholm, Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer.This is perhaps the club&rsquo;s deepest position. Gretzky&rsquo;s 142 points were his lowest totals since 1979-80, his first year in the NHL, but he missed seven games and still won the league scoring title. He believes that skating between Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom could result in a &iquest;DU-point season, a plateau he hasn&rsquo;t reached since 1985-86.The emergence of Elik, 24, made the loss of Bernie Nicholls much easier to take. Krushelnyski has to be more consistent.Left wing: Incumbents: Tony Granato, Mikko Makela, Jay Miller, Luc Robitaille, John Tonelli.Challengers: Craig Duncanson, Chris Kontos, Brian Lawton.This could be a solid position if Robitaille maintains his 49-goal-a-year average; if the speedy Granato, who. missed 12 games with a groin pull, can stay healthy; if Makela can regain the scoring touch that has eluded him for two seasons; and, if Tonelli, 32, can reach the 31-goal mark for the third straight year.Right wing: Incumbents: Keith Crowder, Bob Kudelski, Tomas Sandstrom, Dave Taylor.Challengers: Scott Bjugstad, Francois Breault, Kyosti Karjalainen.Sandstrom could give the Kings another 50-goal scorer if he plays with Gretzky for a full season. The ages of Taylor, 34, and Crowder, 31, and their ability to stay healthy, are causes for concern.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 23: Todd Elik, C, signed two-year contract. John Tonelli, LW, signed one-year contract. Bob Owen, amateur scout, named director of scouting and player development.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011204/8440502-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="553" height="538"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky thinks he can reach the 200-point plateau.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

PLAYOFF SUCCESS WILL BE THE ULTIMATE TEST

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>The Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; 1989-90 season promised much but delivered little, other than heartache for head coach Bob McCammon.After raising expectations with a near-upset of the Calgary Flames in the playoffs a year before, the Canucks went into the tank, finishing in 20th place and looking like the usual collection of suspects Vancouver has known for most of the team&rsquo;s 20 years in the NHL.Speaking of the Tank, Vladimir Krutov rolled into town in late August, slimmed-down and reworked along the lines of an armored car and promising to turn over a new tread.Goal: Incumbents: Kirk McLean, Steve Weeks.Challengers: Troy Gamble, Gus Morschauser.McLean, one of the league&rsquo;s best young goaltenders, is a lock. Gamble, a student from the Richard Brodeur School of Physical Culture, could push Weeks off the roster if he shows he&rsquo;s serious about keeping his weight down. Weeks, on a termination contract, is coming off a dreadful season and looks vulnerable.Defense: Incumbents: Garth Butcher, Paul Reinhart, Doug Lidster, Jyrki Lumme, Robert Nordmark, Larry Melnyk, Jim Benning.Challengers: Jiri Slegr, Adrien Plavsic, Kevan Guy, Jim Agnew, Don Gibson, Jack Capuano.The Canuck brass did cartwheels over Slegr&rsquo;s gritty performance in the Goodwill Games for Czechoslovakia. The son of former Canuck Jiri Bubla, Slegr was the Canucks&rsquo; third pick (23rd overall) in the June draft. Plavsic, another promising youngster, took a regular turn after his trade from St. Louis at the March trading deadline but could require more seasoning in the minors. Nordmark, Melnyk and Benning are in the management&rsquo;s doghouse and didn&rsquo;t dress over the final month of last season.Center: Incumbents: Dan Quinn, Igor Larionov, Brian Bradley, Dave Capuano.Challengers: Petr Nedved, Rob Murphy, Craig Coxe, Peter DeBoer, Robert Kron.Nedved, a Czech defector and future star, might not be physically ready to play but he will be the most closely watched player in camp. If he can stick, suddenly the attack could develop some punch. Murphy, the Canucks&rsquo; top pick in &rsquo;87, is a rarity on this team: A center with size.Left wing: Incumbents: Greg Adams, Petri Skriko, Vladimir Krutov, Jim Sandlak.Challengers: Shawn Antoski, Steve Bozek.Antoski, the Canucks&rsquo; second pick in the June draft (18th overall) is built like a linebacker. Unless he fails miserably, he looks too imposing not to stick. Wingers with size are as rare as playoff berths with this team. Skriko sulked last year after losing some ice time to the Russians and could double his subpar 15-goal season if he gets his head together.Right wing: Incumbents: Trevor Linden, Ronnie Stern, Andrew McBain, Stan Smyl.Challengers: Jay Mazur, Todd Hawkins, Peter Bakovic.With Rich Sutter and Tony Tanti gone in trades, the starboard side is looking a little threadbare once you get past Linden. No wonder Smyl-(one goal in 47 games) still feels as if he can be useful. McBain could quadruple last year&rsquo;s paltry nine-goal total if he gets quality linemates and power-play duty. &#9632;

SEASON OF PROMISE STARTS AGAIN

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011110/8440557-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fredericks assistant captain Luc Gauthier was one one tour veterans re-signed by the Canadiens. All four played in Sherbrooke last season.</figcaption></div><h2>AHL</h2>Butch Goring is hoping the third time is the charm.When Goring was named coach of the Capital District Islanders, the new affiliate of the New York islanders in Troy. N.Y., on Aug. 17, it was Goring&rsquo;s third head coaching position in five years. The other two ended in firings, first with the Boston Bruins and then with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western League.&ldquo;The big thing in Spokane was being with the kids,&rdquo; Goring said, &ldquo;and it improved my skills as a communicator.&ldquo;1 learned a lot about what these people are thinking about because they have changed since 1 was that age. I&rsquo;m no different than anyone else. You learn more the longer you are on the job.&rdquo;Goring also felt very comfortable and thrilled about returning to the Islanders&rsquo; organization. The last time the two teamed up was memorable.Islanders&rsquo; general manager Bill Torrey acquired Goring from the Los Angeles Kings in a trade-deadline deal in March 1980 and Goring helped the Islanders to the first of four straight Stanley Cups.&ldquo;I remember very clearly the day we acquired Butch from Los Angeles,&rdquo; Torrey said at the press conference. &ldquo;He walked through the doors of our dressing room and somehow his personality, his positiveness and his general sense of wanting to get the job done was there. The impact was immediate.&rdquo;Goring played the next four and a half seasons with the Islanders and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1981 before being claimed on waivers by the Bruins in January 1985. Four months later he was named the team&rsquo;s coach.&ldquo;Butch has a confidence about him,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;One thing he did well in Boston was run games. He did a heck of a job.&ldquo;That the team wasn&rsquo;t as successful as Harry (Sinden) wanted it&hellip; that&rsquo;s another matter. The GM has to take some responsibility for that, too.&rdquo;Goring was replaced in November 1986 and coached Spokane the following season. He was fired from that job during the &rsquo;88-89 season and spent last season in Spokane playing in charity hockey games.&ldquo;The key to me was what he did in Spowho played in three kane,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;The response I got from a lot of the people in junior hockey and the fact that he spent time with the kids is why we hired him.&rdquo;Goring filled the league&rsquo;s final coaching vacancy. He is the Southern Division&rsquo;s fifth new coach. The division&rsquo;s other new coaches are John Paddock in Binghamton, Don Lever in Rochester, Frank Anzalone in Newmarket and Robbie Laird in Baltimore. The league&rsquo;s other new coach is Halifax&rsquo;s Clem Jodoin.<h2>COACH NAMED</h2>Dean Hopkins, captain of the Halifax Citadels the past two seasons, was named the team&rsquo;s assistant coach. Hopkins has played parts of the last five seasons in Halifax, first with the Nova Scotia Oilers and then with the Citadels&hellip;Brian Lawton, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 1983 who played in three organizations (Hartford, Quebec and Boston) last season, has been given yet another chance. He was signed to a minor-league contract by the Los Angeles Kings and will probably play with the New Haven Nighthawks&hellip;The Fredericton Canadiens signed forwards Normand Desjardins and Mario Roberge and defensemen Luc Gauthier and Guy Darveau.<h2>MAINE BOUND</h2>Bob Gould&rsquo;s contract with the Bruirns expired after last season, but he&rsquo;ll remain in the organization. Gould will be a player/assistant coach for the Maine Mariners.How much will Gould, an I 1-year pro, play for coach Rick Bowness?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s up in the air,&rdquo; said Gould, who joined the Boston organization last October when Washington traded him for defenseman Alain Cote. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;ve got right wings here who are young and playing well they&rsquo;re going to play. With call-ups and injuries there will be times I&rsquo;ll play. I&rsquo;ve still got the itch to play.&rdquo;Bowness was thrilled at Gould&rsquo;s decision. Gould&rsquo;s contract is for one season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an old-time hockey player,&rdquo; Bowness said of Gould, who turned 33 in early September. &ldquo;He has old-time values. He knows the game and knows how it should be played. Not what the textbook says. He&rsquo;s got guts and desire.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0031-01

TROY COACHING JOB REUNITES GORING, ISLES

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div><h2>IHL</h2>The defending Turner Cup champion Indianapolis Ice were the last team to name a coach for the upcoming season, but Peoria made news a couple of days later by changing theirs.Dave McDowall, the hockey coach and director of athletics at the University of Leth-bridge (Alta.) the last six years, was picked Aug. 21 by Chicago to fill the vacancy created in Indianapolis by the departure of Darryl Sutter. Sutter, who was the IHL&rsquo;s coach of the year last season, was moved up to be an associate coach with general manager Mike Keenan for the Blackhawks.McDowall, 40, also has been technical director of the Hockey Ontario Development Committee. In 1981, he coached Winnipeg&rsquo;s affiliate in the now-defunct Central League&mdash;the Tulsa Oilers.In announcing the signing, Keenan stressed McDowal1&rsquo;s reputation as a teacher. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a fine communicator, an excellent teacher and a strong leader,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the kind of man we&rsquo;ve been looking for to fill the job.&rdquo;McDowall said he had no apprehensions about following Sutter in Indianapolis. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather be coming here with things on a winning note than coming to a last-place team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll certainly have some fun this year.In Peoria, meanwhile, the Rivermen lost coach Wayne Thomas when he was named an assistant coach with the parent St. Louis Blues Aug. 23. Thomas will be replaced in Peoria by Bob Plager.The moves were in response to St. Louis assistant Joe Micheletti resigning to pursue a partnership in a brokerage firm. Thomas, who was an NHL goalie with Toronto, Montreal and the New York Rangers, joined St. Louis in 1988 after serving as an assistant to Bob Murdoch with the Blackhawks. In two seasons with the Rivermen, he had a 62-80-22 record. He&rsquo;s expected to help with the development of the Blues&rsquo; young goaltenders, according to GM Ron Caron.Plager has been the director of player development for St. Louis and is considered the logical choice to coach the Rivermen. &ldquo;No one knows our young players any better than Bob,&rsquo; said a Peoria spokesman. &ldquo;He scouted and signed most of them.&rdquo;Those coaching changes, along with Ralph Backstrom signing with Phoenix, completed the coaching staffs around the IHL.Backstrom comes to Phoenix from Denver University, with ties to the Los Angeles Kings. He was an assistant to Bob Berry with the Kings in 1980-81. And Kings GM Rogie Vachon and Roadrunner GM Adam Keller made the joint announcement which highlighted the Kings affiliation with the Phoenix team.Garry Unger, who coached Phoenix last season, will stay with the club as an assistant to Backstrom, Keller said. &ldquo;He performed under some pretty difficult circumstances last year. He&rsquo;ll be a big help to Ralph and the team.&rdquo;<h2>SIGN OF TIMES</h2>San Diego has wasted little time signing players.GM Don Waddell has provided coach Mike O&rsquo;Connell with half a dozen proven players, including left wingers Carl Mokosak, who played at Fort Wayne and Phoenix last year, and Taylor Hall from the New Haven Nighthawks.The Gulls got defensemen Al Tuer from the Binghamton Whalers and Peter Dineen, a free agent who played with the Adirondack Red Wings. Two more former Roadrunner players joined the Gulls&mdash;right wingers Jim McGeough and Rob Nichols. Former NHL scoring star Charlie Simmer was signed earlier as a player and assistant coach.<h2>BLADE RUNNERS</h2>The Hartford Whalers announced Aug. 28 that they have signed a working agreement with the expansion Kansas City Blades. The Blades will be the secondary affiliation while the Springfield Indians of the AHL will have first choice on players assigned from Hartford.The first player signed by the Blades was center Rick Barkovich, formerly property of the Calgary Flames, who spent the last few seasons at Indianapolis and Salt Lake City. Next to sign, for a reported two years, was high-scoring center Ron Handy, who played with Fort Wayne last season. Handy, who was 36-3975 in 82 games with the Komets, has had three 100 point seasons in the IHL with his best being 135 points with Indianapolis in 1986-87.Then the Blades signed left winger Darin Smith from Peoria and goalie Randy Exelby from Phoenix.Albany, the former Fort Wayne franchise, signed center Byron Lomow, who was with the Komets last season, and left winger Nicolas Beaulieu, who was with Phoenix.Fort Wayne, where the former Flint franchise was permitted to move, signed veteran center Bruce Boudreau as a player-assistant coach. Boudreau, who was second in the league in scoring last season, had 41-68-109 totals in 82 games with Phoenix.Other Komets&rsquo; signings include Komets veteran center Colin Chin, right winger Lonnie Loach, and defensemen Cary Lucyk, Stephane Brochu, Mike Butters and Brian McKee.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02739/8440588-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="675" height="916"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darryl Sutter will be an associate coach in Chicago.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-02

ICE AND RIVERMEN CHANGE COACHES

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><h2>OHL</h2>It won&rsquo;t be May Day in Niagara Falls until at least Dec. 1.That&rsquo;s the earliest the Thunder can expect the return of all-star left winger Brad May, who injured his left knee while at the Canadian national junior team evaluation camp in Saskatoon Aug. 21.The 19-year-old May, a first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres (14th overall) at the June NHL entry draft, suffered ligament damage when he collided with Martin Lapointe of the Laval Titan during a scrimmage.London Knights&rsquo; coach-rgeneral manager Gary Agnew, a national team assistant, said May &ldquo;locked knees with Lapointe. Martin skated away and Brad didn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s enough to make you sick. Brad&rsquo;s a great kid and a great competitor.&rdquo;Buffalo team doctors performed surgery on May&rsquo;s knee Aug. 27 and Thunder coach-GM George Burnett said he&rsquo;s been told not to expect his star left winger back until Dec. 1.&ldquo;Obviously it&rsquo;s a big loss,&rdquo; said Burnett.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to try and overcome it. But I don&rsquo;t feel as sorry for myself or the team as I do for Brad.&rdquo;Burnett is in a tough spot. He&rsquo;s also faced with losing center Keith Primeau to the Detroit Red Wings as an underage. Primeau led the Ontario League in scoring last season with 127 points in 65 games and was Detroit&rsquo;s first pick (third overall) at this year&rsquo;s draft.While his team is hurting on the ice, Burnett has received some help in the form of a new full-time assistant. He&rsquo;s 29-year-old Chris Johnstone who coached Thorold&rsquo;s (Ont.) Jr. B team the past three seasons.Johnstone replaces Randy Hall, the new coach of the Kingston Frontenacs.<h2>DRAFT MOVED</h2>For the first time since the OHL introduced the priority selections draft in 1967, the annual lottery won&rsquo;t be held in Toronto.The May, 1991 draft has been awarded to Kitchener and will be held at the Memorial Auditorium, the home of the Rangers.Commissioner Dave Branch said member teams will be allowed to bid every year to play host to the annual selections draft and summer meetings.<h2>REBEL, REBEL</h2>After two seasons as an assistant coach with the North Bay Centennials, Claude Noel has accepted a job as coach of the Roanoke Valley Rebels of the East Coast League&hellip;Kitchener obtained 19-year-old defenseman Len Devuono from the Belleville Bulls in mid-August for a sixth-round 1991 draft choice. Devuono had 4-8-12 totals in 30 games with the Bulls last season before being sent home in January for alleged off-ice misconduct&hellip;After two seasons with the Oshawa Generals, trainer Mike Shuman has resigned to join the Halifax Citadels of the American League. His place will be taken by Mike Burnstein. wo was with the Dukes of Hamilton last season&hellip;Goalie Steve Udvari, a playoff hero in Niagara Falls&rsquo; first-round upset of the London Knights last season, has turned down an offer from the Thunder to play as an overager and will attend the University of Waterloo this year&hellip;The Sudbury Wolves hired assistant coach Andy Paquette Aug. 8. He replaces Greg Dow, who left to take a non-hockey job in Ottawa.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011180/8440619-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="671" height="773"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad May could be out until December due to a knee injury.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

THUNDER MAY BE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div><h2>WHL</h2>The Kamloops Blazers got a little help from a former NHLer to sign a pair of Czechoslovakian players for the 1990-91 season.Jan Ludvig, a right winger for New Jersey and Buffalo in the mid-&rsquo;80s and now the owner of a sporting goods store in Kamloops, recruited defenseman Dan Blasko and right winger Jiri Kloboucek this summer from his native Czechoslovakia.Blasko, 18, and Kloboucek, 19, are the first Czechoslovakian junior players to receive permission from their hockey federation to play abroad. The announcement of their signing came Aug. 31.&ldquo;Jan thinks they can be (impact players),&rdquo; said Kamloops&rsquo; general manager Bob Brown. &ldquo;(Ludvig) thinks the junior league there is comparable to our junior league.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s not as physical or intense, but the skill level is definitely just as good or even a little better.&rdquo;Of the pair, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Blasko figures to have more NHL potential.Voted the top defenseman on his team for the past four years, Blasko collected 15 goals and 35 points in 56 games with Kladno last season.Kloboucek, who is small by WHL standards at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, netted 62 goals and 113 points in 56 games with Teplice in 1989-90.<h2>GOLDEN KIDD</h2>Last season, he was just a new Kidd on the block.But this season Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; goalie Trevor Kidd is considered a veteran in the eyes of Canada&rsquo;s junior national team coaches.Kidd, who participated only in exhibition games behind starter Stephane Fiset on the gold-medal winning team at the 1990 world junior championships, is expected to be the mainstay in nets this time around.&ldquo;I think just by being on last year&rsquo;s team, knowing what it&rsquo;s all about and knowing the situations will help,&rdquo; Kidd said at the Aug. 18-25 junior national evaluation camp in Saskatoon. &ldquo;Last year was my first time at international play and now I know what the shooters do and can adjust to the size of the rink and what international hockey is all about.&ldquo;(But) I still have to go out and prove myself. I still have to earn a spot and stop the puck.&rdquo;Kidd, who was a first-round draft pick (11th overall) by the Calgary Flames at the June NHL entry draft, was challenged at the junior evaluation camp by Mike Torchia of the Kitchener Rangers, Martin Brodeur of the St-Hyacinthe Laser and Felix Potvin of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.All four are expected to return for the main camp prior to the Dec. 26-Jan. 4 WJC in Saskatoon.&ldquo;What I want to do this year is go to camp here and to the (Calgary Flames&rsquo;) camp and see what happens,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;1&rsquo;11 probably go back to Brandon and try to play consistent and, come Christmas, hopefully play on the national junior team and get that second gold medal.&rdquo;<h2>FINE TUNING</h2>The Prince Albert Raiders completed their off-season overhaul Aug. 14 with the appointment of assistant coach Mark Odnokon.Odnokon, whose younger brother Pat plays right wing for the Raiders, filled the spot left vacant when former assistant Rob Daum assumed head coaching/GM duties July 26.A native of Prince Albert, Odnokon toiled for the Raiders when they were a Tier II club between 1979-82. During those four years, the Raiders captured the Centennial Cup three times, including their last year of Tier II competition in 1982.He played for the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs from 1983-86, before being named rookie of the year in 1986-87 for the Turner Cup champion Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the International League.The 27-year-old Odnokon had been head coach/director of hockey operations during the past two seasons for the Melfort Mustangs of the Saskatchewan Junior League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03574/8440664-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="669" height="698"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dwayne Newman, above, and Kelly Thiessen were dealt to Victoria.</figcaption></div><h2>TRADE WINDS</h2>The Victoria Cougars acquired a pair of veterans from the Brandon Wheat Kings Aug. 24 to try to help them escape the Western League basement.Defenseman Dwayne Newman and goaltender Kelly Thiessen, both 19, were acquired by the Cougars for their first-round draft choice in the 1991 bantam draft of 14-year-olds.Newman had no goals and 14 assists in 72 games last season while Thiessen was 4-6-0 with a 5.73 goals-against average in 18 games.In another deal, the Portland Winter Hawks sent goaltender Des Christopher, 17, to the Spokane Chiefs for left winger Chris Rowland, 20. Rowland had 13-14-27 totals in 69 games for the Chiefs.Portland also sent 20-year-old defenseman Rick Fry to the Kamloops Blazers for future considerations. He was 9-19-28 in 64 games last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02788/8440657-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="673" height="785"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trevor Kidd is expected to be the mainstay of Canada&rsquo;s junior team.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04413/8440650-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="2833" height="301"></div> &#9632;

f0032-03

BLAZERS SIGN PAIR OF CZECHS

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011064/8440695-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Paiement, left, and Denis Cloutier are two of the three overage players for the Beauport Harfangs. Maxime Gagne is the other.</figcaption></div>When Joe Canale stopped looking for a job as a Quebec League head coach, he finally got one.Canale, hired to coach the Chicoutimi Sagueneens Aug. 15, had made several unsuccessful attempts over the past couple of years to land a QMJHL job.In fact the 40-year-old Canale, who had been coaching LaSalle of the Quebec junior Tier II league the past two seasons, was considering becoming a scout when Rolland Salois, the Sags&rsquo; head scout, told Canale he was going to recommend him as Gaston Drapeau&rsquo;s replacement.Drapeau resigned in early August to become the coach-general manager of Trois-Rivieres.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re not looking, that&rsquo;s when you get it. I was surprised,&rdquo; said Canale, who signed a one-year contract with Chicoutimi after applying several years ago for a vacancy in Drummondville. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unbelievable hockey town here. They get the same coverage as the Nordiques and the Canadiens.&rdquo;While Canale is in Chicoutimi, located in northeastern Quebec, his wife, Manon, and 12-year-old daughter, Josee, will remain 425 kilometers away in Laval, located north of Montreal.Should Canale survive the season&mdash;a rebuilding one for the Sags&mdash;he&rsquo;ll consider signing a long-term contract and relocating his family.It was the instability of coaching that prompted Canale to consider leaving its ranks.&ldquo;Coaching has become a revolving door. If the standings and the score don&rsquo;t suit the owners, you&rsquo;re out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was getting a sour taste in my mouth. Hockey wasn&rsquo;t much fun anymore.&ldquo;Then this opportunity came along. I figured it was one way of seeing if it (coaching) is in my blood. This experience will dictate whether I keep at it or change direction and go into scouting.&rdquo;<h2>COOL CUSTOMER</h2>Jean-Maurice Cool hopes coaching will be sweeter the second time around.Cool, 26, signed a one-year contract to coach the two-time defending QMJHL champion Laval Titan Aug. 16. He replaced Pierre Creamer, who resigned one week earlier to return to a job he&rsquo;d held several years ago with the city of Laval. Cool was anssistant under Creamer last season.Cool, an assistant under Pat Burns for two seasons at Hull, had a shortlived head coaching experience in Verdun, replacing the fired Richard Liboiron midway through the 198788 season. By season&rsquo;s end Cool, too, was fired.&ldquo;No doubt about it, I&rsquo;m a better coach,&rdquo; said Cool. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a better communicator now. I&rsquo;ll be fair and open with the players. I&rsquo;ll give any-thing I have if they give me everything they have.&rdquo;Cool will be under the gun almost immediately. The Morrissette family, the Titan&rsquo;s owners, haven&rsquo;t hidden the fact they want to become the first team in QMJHL history to win three consecutive President Cups.The owners proved their winning desire last season when they fired coach Paulin Bordeleau in early December&mdash;with the Titan only one game below .500.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the situation in the Quebec League,&rdquo; said Cool. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the main problem. But you&rsquo;ve got to live with that. I can work with that pressure. It will be a good experience if I want to go further.&rdquo;<h2>EARLY CUT</h2>They might be an expansion team, but that didn&rsquo;t stop the Beauport Harfangs from releasing 20-year-old left winger David Chernis early into training camp.Chernis, acquired from Shawinigan in last May&rsquo;s waiver draft after scoring 16 goals and 15 assists in 47 games, fell victim to the numbers game.Allowed to use three overage players, the Harfangs will go with two on defense&mdash;Maxime Gagne, 20. and Denis Cloutier, 20&mdash;and the third&mdash; Steven Paiement, 20&mdash;at forward. Paiement, who can play center and left wing, is entering his fifth year in the league. He was acquired in the waiver draft after going 26-31-57 in 68 games with Victoriaville.Chernis could still wind up playing in the QMJHL. Although he remains on Beauport&rsquo;s protected list, he had started practising with Granby. Should he make the Bisons, a trade will be arranged between the teams. &#9632;

f0033-01

SAGS’ JOB COMES LOOKING FOR CANALE

f0034-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE TRAINING CAMP ROSTERS

<h2>SEPTEMBER</h2>Thursday 6St. Louis vs Dusseldorf &hellip;&hellip; Dusseldorf, Ger.Friday 7St. Louis vs Dusseldorf &hellip;&hellip; Dusseldorf, Ger.Saturday 8St. Louis vs Edmonton &hellip;&hellip; Dusseldorf, Ger.Monday 10Montreal vs AIK &hellip;&hellip; Stockholm, Swe.Wednesday 12Montreal vs Team Leningrad &hellip;&hellip; Leningrad, USSRThursday 13Minnesota vs Spartak &hellip;&hellip; Moscow, USSRFriday 14Winnipeg vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; SaddledomeMontreal vs Dynamo Riga &hellip;&hellip; Riga, USSRBoston vs NY Islanders &hellip;&hellip; Nassau ColiseumNY Rangers vs Washington &hellip;&hellip; Baltimore, MDPittsburgh vs Detroit &hellip;&hellip; Joe Louis ArenaNew Jersey vs Philadelphia &hellip;&hellip; SpectrumLos Angeles vs Quebec &hellip;&hellip; Le ColiseeSaturday 15Los Angeles vs Pittsburgh &hellip;&hellip; Cleveland, OHMinnesota vs Soviet Wings &hellip;&hellip; Moscow, USSRWashington vs NY Rangers &hellip;&hellip; Albany, NYCalgary vs Vancouver &hellip;&hellip; Pacific ColiseumPhiladelphia vs Boston &hellip;&hellip; Worcester, MASunday 16Buffalo vs Chicago &hellip;&hellip; Chicago StadiumDetroit vs Vancouver &hellip;&hellip; Seattle, WashPhiladelphia vs Boston &hellip;&hellip; Albany, NYMontreal vs Dynamo Moscow &hellip;&hellip; Moscow, USSRWinnipeg vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; Saskatoon, SaskNew Jersey vs NY Islanders &hellip;&hellip; Nassau ColiseaumHartford vs Washington &hellip;&hellip; Norfolk, VAMonday 17Toronto vs Edmonton &hellip;&hellip; North. ColiseumLos Angeles vs Pittsburgh &hellip;&hellip; Civic ArenaMinnesota vs Khimik &hellip;&hellip; Moscow, USSRTuesday 18Edmonton vs Winnipeg &hellip;&hellip; Saskatoon, Sask.Toronto vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; SaddledomeBuffalo vs Quebec &hellip;&hellip; Quebec City, QuePhiladelphia vs New Jersey &hellip;&hellip; MeadowlandsNY Rangers vs Hartford &hellip;&hellip; New Haven, CTMontreal vs Red Army &hellip;&hellip; Moscow, USSRWednesday 19Chicago vs Detroit &hellip;&hellip; Joe Louis ArenaWinnipeg vs Vancouver &hellip;&hellip; Pacific ColiseumWashington vs Hartford &hellip;&hellip; Civic CenterQuebec vs Toronto &hellip;&hellip; MLGMinnesota vs Sokol Kiev &hellip;&hellip; Kiev, USSRPittsburgh vs Los Angeles &hellip;&hellip; Tampa, Fla.Thursday 20Calgary vs Edmonton &hellip;&hellip; North. ColiseumBoston vs Quebec &hellip;&hellip; Halifax, N.S.New Jersey vs Hartford &hellip;&hellip; Civic CenterBuffalo vs Washington &hellip;&hellip; Orlando, Fla.Detroit vs Pittsburgh &hellip;&hellip; Civic ArenaFriday 21Los Angeles vs NY Rangers &hellip;&hellip; Miami, Fla.Vancouver vs Chicago &hellip;&hellip; Milwaukee, Wis.Cdn Natl Team vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; SaddledomePhiladelphia vs Hartford &hellip;&hellip; Civic CenterNY Islanders vs Boston &hellip;&hellip; Providence, RIToronto vs Detroit &hellip;&hellip; Joe Louis ArenaSaturday 22NY Rangers vs Philadelphia &hellip;&hellip; Orlando, Fla.Los Angeles vs Pittsburgh &hellip;&hellip; Dallas, Tex.St. Louis vs Chicago &hellip;&hellip; The ArenaEdmonton vs Montreal &hellip;&hellip; The ForumHartford vs Quebec &hellip;&hellip; Le ColiseeNY Islanders vs New Jersey &hellip;&hellip; MeadowlandsDetroit vs Toronto &hellip;&hellip; MLGVancouver vs Winnipeg &hellip;&hellip; Winnipeg ArenaBoston vs Washington &hellip;&hellip; Capital CenterSunday 23Buffalo vs Vancouver &hellip;&hellip; Phoenix, ArizBoston vs Montreal &hellip;&hellip; The ForumSt. Louis vs Chicago &hellip;&hellip; Chicago StadiumToronto vs Quebec &hellip;&hellip; Le ColiseeNY Islanders vs NY Rangers &hellip;&hellip; MSGMonday 24Edmonton vs Toronto &hellip;&hellip; Kitchener, Ont.NY Rangers vs NY Islanders &hellip;&hellip; Nassau ColiseumMinnesota vs Winnipeg &hellip;&hellip; St. Cloud, MNSt. Louis vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; SaddledomeLos Angeles vs Pittsburgh &hellip;&hellip; Houston, Tex.Tuesday 25Philadelphia vs NY Rangers &hellip;&hellip; MSGSt. Louis vs Detroit &hellip;&hellip; London, Ont.Chicago vs Buffalo &hellip;&hellip; Phoenix, Ariz.Edmonton vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; SaddledomeMinnesota vs Winnipeg &hellip;&hellip; Winnipeg ArenaWednesday 26Calgary vs Toronto &hellip;&hellip; MLGLos Angeles vs Vancouver &hellip;&hellip; Seattle, WashChicago vs Minnesota &hellip;&hellip; Met CenterPhiladelphia vs NY Islanders &hellip;&hellip; Nassau ColiseumQuebec vs Hartford &hellip;&hellip; Civic CenterWashington vs Buffalo &hellip;&hellip; Albany, NYSt. Louis vs Detroit &hellip;&hellip; Joe Louis ArenaThursday 27Los Angeles vs Vancouver &hellip;&hellip; Pacific ColiseumNY Rangers vs New Jersey &hellip;&hellip; MeadowlandsBoston vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; Atlanta, GAWashington vs Philadelphia &hellip;&hellip; SpectrumWinnipeg vs Edmonton &hellip;&hellip; North. ColiseumFriday 28St. Louis vs Winnipeg &hellip;&hellip; Regina, Sask.Washington vs New Jersey &hellip;&hellip; Richmond, VAQuebec vs Montreal &hellip;&hellip; The ForumToronto vs Buffalo &hellip;&hellip; Mem. AuditoriumDetroit vs Chicago &hellip;&hellip; Indianapolis, Ind.Pittsburgh vs Minnesota &hellip;&hellip; Oakland, CalSaturday 29Philadelphia vs Washington &hellip;&hellip; Baltimore, MDNY Rangers vs Hartford &hellip;&hellip; Civic CenterBuffalo vs Toronto &hellip;&hellip; MLGBoston vs Calgary &hellip;&hellip; Atlanta, GADetroit vs Montreal &hellip;&hellip; The ForumNY Islanders vs Los Angeles &hellip;&hellip; LA ForumSunday 30Vancouver vs Edmonton &hellip;&hellip; North. ColiseumHartford vs Philadelphia &hellip;&hellip; SpectrumNew Jersey vs NY Rangers &hellip;&hellip; MSGChicago vs Minnesota &hellip;&hellip; Chicago StadiumMontreal vs Quebec &hellip;&hellip; Le ColiseePittsburgh vs NY Islanders &hellip;&hellip; Oakland, CalSt. Louis vs Winnipeg &hellip;&hellip; Winnipeg Arena(End of exhibition schedule) &#9632;

NATIONAL LEAGUE PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011058/8440781-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="481" height="599"></div>Open letters to open a new season&hellip;Dear Mike Hitch and Bill Wirtz,It&rsquo;s a curious thing for the two of you to resurrect the position of coach-GM. 1 thought it had gone the way of Ned Harkness.Seems hard to believe one of the jobs won&rsquo;t suffer. And you can be sure it won&rsquo;t be the coaching. No matter how well Mike Keenan and Bryan Murray delegate authority, it seems inconceivable they will keep up with the shrewder GMs who work full-time at their jobs.Kindest regards. Steve Dryden, THN columnist and Inside HOCKEY managing editor&nbsp;Dear Craig Patrick,Signing free agent Bryan Trottier didn&rsquo;t cost you anything but money, but what do you think the former superstar can contribute at age 34?Sure, Pittsburgh needs somebody to fill a defensive role. But why get somebody who had the second-highest minus (11) on the Islanders? Games are won and lost on rinks, not reputations.Yours in hockey, Steve Dryden, defensive center, age 32Dear Doug Carpenter,Remember the time you had me out to your place on Island 17 just outside Long Sault, Ont?.That was the day you showed me around the waterfront house you built. Looked great. Boy, did I think you were some kind of smart that day.Well&hellip; was wondering what came over you in August at the Hall of Fame dinner in your hometown of Cornwall. Did you really need to scorch the media during your speech? Did you really think your remarks wouldn&rsquo;t reach Toronto? Did you really believe it was in your best interests to sabotage future relations with the media?Hey, Doug, 1 read the Toronto papers and they do a pretty responsible job. Sure, they make mistakes. Just like you did last year. Your handling of the goaltending was a little erratic.Nobody disputes your right to express an opinion, but if you think reporters represent the enemy, don&rsquo;t give them ammunition for return volleys.Yours truly, Steve Dryden, Toronto hockey writerDear Ron Caron,Just got off the phone with you. Yearbooks are in the mail. But I&rsquo;ve got to admit being dizzied by your explanation for the trade that sent Peter Zezel and Mike Lalor to Washington for Geoff Courtnail.I understand the part about wanting to make room for Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour to play his natural position&mdash;center&mdash;and thus the need to deal Zezel. And 1 understand the part about Courtnall alleviating regular-season pressure on Hull.But what about the playoffs? You need goals then, too. And Courtnall has just six goals in 49 career playoff games. Zezel may not be threatening Jari Kurri for the all-time lead, but he does have 17 in 88 games.Can I be honest with you, Ron? 1 wouldn&rsquo;t have traded Zezel for Courtnall even up.Are you sure you didn&rsquo;t make this deal to make sure the Scott Stevens signing went unchallenged? Come on, Ron, be honest.By the way, I agree that Stevens is something special but did you know the last guy to fetch the equivalent of five first-round draft picks (the likely compensation you&rsquo;re facing) was Wayne Gretzky?Sincerely yours, Steve Dryden, free-agent defensive centerDear USA Hockey,Of all the hockey happenings this summer, few were as surprising as your announcement that Dave Peterson will coach the 1992 Olympic team.That&rsquo;s the same Dave Peterson who coached Team USA to a seventh-place finish in 1988, right? The same Dave Peterson who contributed to a public relations disaster, right?Don&rsquo;t get me wrong; I don&rsquo;t doubt the man can coach. And a flair for public relations is hardly the No. 1 concern when choosing a national coach. But there is something of an image problem with Peterson. And that may well impact on recruiting. Sure, you didn&rsquo;t want to guarantee Herb Brooks command of both the 1992 and 1994 teams, but he is the man responsible for one of the most stunning upsets in U.S. sports history.Wouldn&rsquo;t you think players would be more anxious to play for Miracle-on-Ice coach Brooks than Mediocre-on-Ice coach Peterson?Yours truly, Steve Dryden, coach of Team Canada (Professional Hockey Writers &rsquo; Association) &#9632;

f0038-01

LEAF COACH BLEW IT IN KNOCKING THE MEDIA

&hellip;that Boston Bruin left winger Nevin Markwart was named after former Toronto Maple Leaf right winger Bob Nevin? Markwart&rsquo;s father. Gordon, decided that he would use the last name of a hockey player to name his son. Markwart picked Nevin, a name he thought would be suitable as a first name.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02713/8440812-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="925" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Nevin</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>BRUINS</h2>While on-going negotiations for an extension of Ray Bourque&rsquo;s contract stole the headlines in Boston, the club announced Aug. 24 it had worked a new four-year deal for right winger Cam Neely. Neely&rsquo;s contract calls for a base salary averaging $900,000, with incentive bonuses that would carry it into seven figures. The Bruins tore up Neely&rsquo;s remaining three-year pact, which was worth about $400,000 per year&hellip;After missing most of the past three seasons with an assortment of injuries, left winger Nevin Markwart has declared himself healthy. &ldquo;1&rsquo;m 100 per cent,&rdquo; said Markwart who has undergone one abdominal and two major left shoulder operations in the last three years, &ldquo;1&rsquo;m in as good shape as I can be in and I&rsquo;m as optimistic about playing hockey as I can be.&rdquo;&hellip;The Bruins acquired center Ken Hodge Jr., son of the team&rsquo;s former 50-goal scorer, from Minnesota for future considerations Aug. 21&hellip;Fifty-nine players are expected at camp, and have been divided into two squads: One comprised of players expected to make the NHL club, the other of guys who must play their way on.<h2>SABRES</h2>GM Gerry Meehan has come to terms with the club regarding a new contract according to a report in the Buffalo News. Neither Meehan nor anyone associated with the club would confirm the deal but the News reported Meehan will have a multiyear contract that could earn him $400,000 a year&hellip;First-round draft pick Brad May underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and will be lost to the team for about 12 weeks. May, the 14th player taken overall in the June entry draft, suffered the injury during an evaluation camp in Saskatoon for Canada&rsquo;s national junior team. The 18-year-old left winger was expected to vie for a lineup spot in training camp and had been projected as a possible winger for newly acquired center Dale Hawerchuk. Buffalo obtained May with Winnipeg&rsquo;s pick as a part of the deal that brought Hawerchuk to Buffalo and sent Phil Housley, Jeff Parker and Scott Arniel to the Jets&hellip;The injury to May is expected to heighten speculation regarding Quebec Nordiques winger Tony McKegney. A former Buffalo Sabre, McKegney has been reported as an acquisition target for the Sabres throughout the summer.<h2>WHALERS</h2>Action has been very slow on the Ron Francis contract situation. GM Ed Johnston, in fact, said Aug. 24 that he heard Francis would play out his option. Francis&rsquo; agent, Frank Caputo, however, said he intends to work out a solution. Francis made $350,000 last year. If he plays out his option, he will make $370,000. The Whalers&rsquo; only offer so far has been an opening one-year, plus option offer for $400,000 in 1990-91. Considering the Brett Hull and Cam Neely signings, Francis obviously wants to go far, far higher&hellip;Ray Ferraro, who had a base salary of $200,000 after scoring 41 goals in 1988-89, said he expects to play out his option. He doesn&rsquo;t see the ante going up much after scoring 25 goals last year and with the arrival of Carey Wilson and Bobby Holik.,.The Whalers&rsquo; full 40-game season ticket base is expected to drop from 9,600 to 9,100 this season. A ticket-price boost and the sale of 20-game and 10-game packages, however, should leave the club, which showed a $2.8 million profit last year, in decent financial shape.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>A handful of young Nords skated with Chuck Grillo at his Minnesota hockey camp this summer. Daniel Dore, Darin Kimble, Stephane Guerard, Trevor Stienburg, Max Middendorf and Bryan Fogarty all refined their skills at the urging of GM Pierre Page&hellip;Count Mats Sundin out for this season. The 19-year-old Swede, the top pick overall in the 1989 entry draft, has decided to spend another year in his native country to refine his skills&hellip;Goaltender Sergei Mylnikov, as expected, will not be back in Quebec for the remainder of his two-year contract.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Claude Lemieux, who was still expecting to be traded, did not travel with the team to Europe and seems certain to be on the way out&hellip;Lemieux said if he had to do it all over again, his timing would have been different. &ldquo;When we won the Stanley Cup in 1986 and I played in the Canada Cup the year after, I never thought that one day I would leave Montreal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Today, when I analyze the problems I&rsquo;ve been through here and the pressure that is on a francophone who wears the Canadiens&rsquo; sweater, I say to myself that if I had to do it all over again. I wouldn&rsquo;t have waited so long to ask for a trade.&rdquo;&hellip;The Scott Stevens signing is making Serge Savard&rsquo;s job tough. The Canadiens&rsquo; managing director was making slow progress in signing 17 regulars. &ldquo;The market is crazy right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re having a lot of trouble finalizing the contracts. Everybody&rsquo;s afraid the market&rsquo;s going to change.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03579/8440843-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="530" height="535"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mats Sundin will spend the 199091 season playing in Sweden.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-03

NEELY SIGNS FOUR-YEAR DEAL

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>Outstanding defensive play made up for suspect offense last season as the Boston Bruins compiled the NHL&rsquo;s top regular-season record and came within three wins of the Stanley Cup.The good news for 1990-91: The defense and goaltending remain very strong.The bad news? Offense remains a potential problem area, though the Bruins figure to be younger, quicker and more dangerous up front.If rookies such as Wes Walz, Shayne Stevenson and John Byce perform as hoped, a better-balanced Bruins&rsquo; club could repeat in the tough Adams Division.Goal: Incumbents: Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog.Challengers: Norm Foster, Chris Harvey, Mike Parson.Barring a big surprise, Moog and Lemelin will carry the load, although Foster and Parson will both get a good look and could squeeze out the 35-year-old Lemelin.&ldquo;I think everybody in the league agrees we have very solid goaltending, a 1-2 tandem that can compete with any team&rsquo;s,&rdquo; said coach Mike Milbury. &ldquo;But you never stop looking, and we&rsquo;ve got some guys in the organization dying for a chance to P&gt;ay-&rdquo;Defense: Incumbents: Bob Beers, Ray Bourque, Garry Galley, Gord Kluzak, Al Pedersen, Stephane Quintal, Don Sweeney, Michael Thelven, Glen Wesley, Jim Wiemer.Challengers: John Blum, Ken Hammond, John Mokosak, Bruce Shoebottom.Assuming Bourque is signed and happy, this is the Bruins&rsquo; strongest suit. The mobile Thelven is expected back after two injury-plagued seasons. Beers, who broke a leg in the playoff semifinals, is due back in December.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re as mobile as any defense in the league,&rdquo; said Milbury. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not as big as most teams, but we make up for that with quickness. If Michael and Bob can come back okay, we&rsquo;re as deep and as sound on defense as any team.&rdquo;Center: John Byce, Bob Carpenter, Craig Janney, Dave Poulin.Challengers: Joel Gardner, Ken Hodge, Ron Hoover, Wes Walz.The key here is Walz. Indeed, a good showing by the rookie could affect all three forward positions. A Walz flop will do the same. The Bruins are hoping Janney, who is ready for stardom, stays healthy-&ldquo;In Janney, we&rsquo;ve got a top frontline center,&rdquo; said Milbury. &ldquo;We need a good second-line guy, and we&rsquo;re hoping Wes Walz is the man. Dave Poulin is a solid two-way centerman, and I wouldn&rsquo;t even want to hazard a guess on who the fourth guy will be.&rdquo;Left wing: Andy Brickley, Randy Burridge, John Carter, Rob Cimetta. Nevin Markwart.Challengers: Lou Crawford, Jarmo Kekalainen, Todd Lalonde.After Burridge and Carter, there are again more training-camp questions than answers. A healthy Markwart would add needed speed. The Bruins hope Cimetta blossoms after a dull freshman year.&ldquo;This is our weakness,&rdquo; said Milbury. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re still searching for the guy to complement (Cam) Neely and Janney.&rdquo;Right wing: Incumbents: Lyndon Byers, Dave Christian, Peter Douris, Cam Neely, Bob Sweeney.Challengers: Chris Nilan, Shayne Stevenson, Graeme Townshend.The veteran Christian may be tried at left wing on the top line with Janney and Neely. After 55-goal scorer Neely, there isn&rsquo;t a ton of firepower.Stevenson may be ready to join the Bruins after an outstanding postseason with Kitchener.<h2>BOSTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 21: Ken Hodge Jr., C, acquired from Minnesota for future considerations.Aug. 22: Ken Hammond, D, signed as free agent.Aug. 24: Cam Neely, RW, signed four-year contract. &#9632;

FIREPOWER EXPECTED FROM YOUNG GUNS

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01679/8440898-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">With Phil Housley in Winnipeg, the Sabres are counting on Doug Bodger to provide some offensive punch on the blue line.</figcaption></div>The Buffalo Sabres open training camp this season with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.The team is-a good one, with few spots to fill and with hopes for a run at first place in the Adams Division and perhaps a run to the Stanley Cup finals.The fear is the first round.Buffalo&rsquo;s playoff failures are well known and now hang over the team and the community like the fog that once covered the ice in the 1975 Stanley Cup finals.The team last season finished third overall in the regular season (98 points) and again went out in the first round, losing to Montreal 4-2. Buffalo hasn&rsquo;t been beyond the first round since 1983 and that team was out in the second round. Buffalo hasn&rsquo;t been a Stanley Cup contender since the fog shrouded 1975 series with Philadelphia.The failures are a concern for everyone involved.&ldquo;I want to dispell the pressure of the playoffs on the players and the organization,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; general manager Gerry Meehan in moving to address the No. 1 fan concern. &ldquo;This is a new team and a new season and as camp goes along we&rsquo;ll see what we&rsquo;ve got. We&rsquo;ve made changes to get where we are and if more changes are needed then we&rsquo;ll make them too.&rdquo;Goal: Incumbents: Daren Puppa, Clint Malarchuk.Challengers: Darcy Wakaluk, David Littman.Among the strongest positions in camp with Puppa (who tied for the league lead with 31 wins) and Malarchuk each posting a .903 save percentage last season.Veteran AHLer Wakaluk and second-year pro Littman will be relegated to Rochester for another season and will vie for the first callup spot.Defense: Incumbents: Mike Ramsey, Doug Bodger, Uwe Krupp, Dean Kennedy, Jay Wells, Grant Ledyard.Challengers: Greg Brown, Shawn Anderson, Ken Sutton. Brad Miller, Kevin Haller.The big changes come here with all-star Phil Housley leaving in exchange for center Dale Hawerchuk. Newcomers Miller (Rochester), Brown (Boston College). Haller (Regina) and Sutton (Rochester) are all looking to crack the lineup along with Anderson.Bodger will be looking to establish himself as the quarterback on the power play and to take up at least some of the offensive thrust that Housley provided.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s time for me to show what I can do,&rdquo; said Bodger. &ldquo;I came out (of junior) as an offensive defenseman, but in Pittsburgh they had Paul Coffey and here it was Ph i 1.1 had to change my game then, but now it&rsquo;s time I established it again.&rdquo;While Ramsey and Krupp are fixtures, Wells, Kennedy and Ledyard will will have to fend off the new kids to keep their spots.Center: Incumbents: Pierre Turgeon, Christian Ruuttu, Benoit Hogue.Challengers: Dale Hawerchuk, John Tucker, Francois Guay.Buffalo is strong up the middle with Turgeon (106 points last season) and the well-established Hawerchuk. Ruuttu is capable of an excellent twoway game and must project as a Guy Carbonneau-type for the club in camp.Tucker, recently reacquired from Washington, will have to contend as a fourth-line center with Hogue and Guay.The big question is whether or not Hawerchuk can accept a position as No. 2 center, but with the right wingers, the No. 2 line could well outscore No. 1, especially if Turgeon&rsquo;s line draws all the toughest defenders.Hawerchuk says the numbers don&rsquo;t matter. &ldquo;This is a new beginning for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy just to be here. I feel like a kid again.&rdquo;Left wing: Incumbents: Dave Andreychuk, Alexander Mogilny, Mike Hartman.Challengers: Darcy Loewen, Mike Donnelly, Darrin Shannon, Brad May.Andreychuk is coming off an out standing season (40 goals), but after that there is little in the way of offense. If Alexander Mogilny doesn&rsquo;t play right, he will surely play left with either Turgeon or Hawerchuk. If he plays right a second scorer is needed on the left side. The Sabres may try Hogue in that role.The rookie May was to get a long look as well, but those plans are on hold now that a knee injury will cause him to miss all of camp and the early weeks of the season.Players such as Loewen, Donnelly and Shannon are also vying for a spot here, but Buffalo may have to go outside the organization to find a scoring touch.Right wing: Incumbents: Rick Vaive, Mike Foligno, Dave Snuggerud.Challengers: Donald Audette, Bob Corkum, Joel Savage.Veterans Vaive and Foligno (both 31) will be working to hold their positions as scorers against the new kids Audette and Savage. Tucker is a candidate for a role here as well.Snuggerud comes off a fine rookie season as a defensive-minded winger, but will have to fend off the stronger Corkum. If Vaive or Foligno show they can no longer score, Mogilny will get even more ice time here. Mogilny is a candidate for the right or left side, but right is his preferred area. &#9632;

f0040-01

FIRST-ROUND FAILURES ON THE MIND AS CAMP OPENS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>If you&rsquo;re keeping a ledger of NHL team rosters, it would be wise to use a pencil with a good eraser for the Quebec Nordiques.Entering training camp Sept. 8, only Joe Sakic and fan favorite Guy Lafleur were assured of jobs with the Nords. Because general manager Pierre Page and his coaching staff&mdash;headed by Dave Chambers and Jacques Martin&mdash;are all new in town and aren&rsquo;t familiar with the talent, the rest of the spots are open.And even then, players who do get the nod aren&rsquo;t safe. Page has refused to trade anyone since being named GM because he wants to see the players in action first.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01576/8440929-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="536" height="703"><figcaption class="caption-body">Is Ron Tugnutt durable enough to be the No. 1 goalie?</figcaption></div>Goal: Incumbents: Ron Tugnutt, Scott Gordon.Challengers: Stephane Fiset, John Tanner, Dave DePinto, Mike Williams, Francois Gravel, Mike Bishop.Tugnutt is the logical No. I goalie, but the question remains: Is he strong enough to handle everyday chores? Gordon did an admirable job playing on a 21st place team last season, but Fiset, the Nordiques&rsquo; goalie of the future, is the favorite for the back-up role. Tanner will likely be returned to London of the Ontario League.Defense: Incumbents: Joe Cirella, Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Mario Marois, Michel Petit, Craig Wolanin.Challengers: Mario Doyon, Bryan Fogarty, Adam Foote, Stephane Guerard, Brent Severyn, Greg Smyth, Randy Velischek.Petit will be the cornerstone of the Nords&rsquo; defense. Marois and Velischek will be counted on to give guidance. The Nords have high hopes for Wolanin, but Cirella will have to get his act together if he wants to stay in Quebec.Center: Incumbents: Marc Fortier, Paul Gillis, Claude Loiselle, Ken McRae, Joe Sakic.Challengers: Tony Hrkac, Kevin Kaminski, Kip Miller, Stephane Morin, Darryl Noren.Hrkac and Morin are the most serious contenders to beat out veterans Gillis and Fortier. Miller, who has just completed his college stint at Michigan State by winning the Hobey Baker Award, appears ticketed for Halifax (AHL).Left wing: Incumbents: Mike Hough, Jeff Jackson, Tony McKegney, Everett Sanipass.Challengers: Phil Berger, Miroslav Ihnacak, David Latta, Jaroslav Sevcik, Dan Vincelette.The left side has enough quantity, but not much NHL quality. A lot is expected of Sanipass who will most likely be teamed with Sakic. McKegney is starting his last season in Quebec.Right wing: Lucien Deblois; Guy Lafleur, Darin Kimble, lire Jarvi.Challengers: Daniel Dore, Max Middendorf, Owen Nolan, Ken Quinney, Trevor Stienburg, Mark Vermette.Rookie Nolan, the first overall selection at the 1990 entry draft, will more than likely start the year in Quebec. Ditto for Dore, who has an awful lot to prove after a dismal 198990 season. Kimble, Middendorf and Stienburg are outside bets. Vermette has the potential, but he has trouble keeping things in focus. &#9632;

f0041-01

POSITIONS AVAILABLE: INQUIRE WITHIN

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>The magnetic clipboard hanging in Rick Ley&rsquo;s office at the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; practice facility was a source of frustration last fall.No matter how hard Ley cracked the whip as a rookie coach, he knew, with one glance, his club didn&rsquo;t have the depth it needed to win the Adams Division.&ldquo;Last year, particularly at the start, I used to move all those little magnetic names around under each position. But no matter what I did, there weren&rsquo;t enough quality names,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s changed. I feel good about this team.&ldquo;There weren&rsquo;t that many tough decisions at camp last year. This time 1 think it will be tough as hell.&rdquo;Goal: Incumbents: Peter Sidor-kiewicz, Kay Whitmore.Challenger: Daryl Reaugh.This is the first full year without Mike Liut. It will be fascinating to watch the development of Kay Whitmore. He has the tools. Can he overtake Sidorkiewicz and push both of them to new heights? Or will it be an average year by El Sid without Whitmore becoming a prime goalie?&ldquo;Peter proved what kind of a quality goalie he was without Liut last spring in the playoffs. There&rsquo;s no question in my mind,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;This, obviously, is a big year for Kay Whitmore.&rdquo;Defense: Incumbents: Ulf Samuelsson, Brad Shaw, Sylvain Cote, Dave Babych, Adam Burt, Randy Ladouceur, Grant Jennings, Joel Quenneville.Challengers: Jergus Baca, Brian Chapman, Scott Humeniuk.Samuelsson, 14 months removed from knee surgery, is ready to resume his No. 1 position on the Whaler defense after a strong playoff. The-Whalers are counting on Slovak defenseman Jergus Baca, 25, to become a regular part of their rotation.The club&rsquo;s major problem is a lack of a top-quality, mobile defenseman. Can Dave Babych rebound? Or will Babych, Ray Ferarro or a few others be moved in search of a quarterback?&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still looking for a quarterback to improve our power play and transition game,&rdquo; said general manager Ed Johnston. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve got quality and a lot of competition back there. Baca&rsquo;s a good one.&rdquo;Center: Incumbents: Ron Francis, Dean Evason, Ray Ferraro, Mike Tomlak.Challengers: Bobby Holik, Carey Wilson, James Black, Terry Yake, Chris Tancill, Geoff Sanderson.Beyond Francis coming off a career-best 101-point season, this also is the position the Whalers feel they have most improved. So much so that Ferraro, who has had 66 goals the past two seasons, might be out of a job. And Tomlak will be tried in the jumble for the last left wing spot.The media focus is on the big, strong Holik, the 19-year-old Czech, many consider one of the premier junior players in the world. This also is the second and probably the last go-around in Hartford for Wilson, both talented and inconsistent.&ldquo;Last tear we had three legit centers. Now we have five,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;Everybody is expecting big things from Holik, but everybody&rsquo;s got to remember he is a rookie kid. Let&rsquo;s let him fit in slowly and grow as a player. Carey Wilson? My coaches (Jay Leach and Brent Peterson) and myself are going to put our heads together and make Carey Wilson the best thing since the invention of bubble gum.&rdquo;Left wing: Incumbents: Mikael Andersson, Dave Tippett. Todd Krygier, Yvon Corriveau, Randy Cunney worth.Challengers: Chris Govedaris, Jim McKenzie, Joe Day, Tomlak.Lots of speed here with Andersson and Krygier. Throw in Tomlak and you&rsquo;ve got at least six names with NHL experience. But there are no allstar studs in the lot. The Whalers, who will continue to look for a sniper in a trade during the coming months, are looking for Cunneyworth to rebound from a bad season and Govedaris to prove his worth as a No. 1 draft pick.Right wing: Incumbents: Pat Verbeek, Kevin Dineen, Scott Young, Ed Kastelic.Challengers: Mark Greig, Blair Atcheynum, Raymond Saumier.The Whalers have traded away Paul MacDermid and Jody Hull in the past year and still have an extremely talented right side. If Dineen bounces back to form and Greig, the 1990 No. 1 pick, proves to be as offensively explosive as touted, this position should be a dandy.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m planning on keeping Verbeek (who played half of last year&rsquo;s 44-goal season on left wing) on the right side,&rdquo; said Ley. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen Greig play, but they say he can handle the puck very well at great speed&mdash;sort of like me in my prime.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01588/8440960-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="539" height="644"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Ferraro is trade bait for an offensive defenseman.</figcaption></div><h2>HARTFORD</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 15: Jergus Baca, D, signed multiyear contract.Aug. 17: Mark Greig, RW, signed multiyear contract.Aug. 23: Geoff Sanderson, C, and Chris Tancill, C-RW. signed multi-year contracts.Aug. 28: Jacques Caron named goalie coach. Announced secondary agreement with Kansas City (IHL). &#9632;

f0042-01

MAGNETIC LEY FACING TOUGH CAMP DECISIONS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01583/8440998-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="298" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body">JEFF JACOBS</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s a good thing Howard Baldwin appears to be defying the laws of nature, seemingly getting younger with each passing year.The way things have worked out for Baldwin, it looks as though he&rsquo;s going to need every precious day of every precious month he can muster in this lifetime to find a perfect hockey match.The man with the blond curls, boyish good looks and Hollywood charm has everything it takes to run an NHL franchise. Everything, that is, except the dough to be the majority owner.This is why Howard Baldwin has turned into the Brent Ashton of hockey ownership. Everytime we pick up the newspaper he is running a new team.Baldwin pauses for only a second when asked what he&rsquo;s learned during his hockey tribulations of the past few years.&ldquo;The golden rule,&rdquo; Baldwin says, &ldquo;is gold rules.&rdquo;Put that verse in the first chapter of the NHL bible, because few truer words ever have been spoken. The bottom line on Baldwins wees is the bottom line itself.A few rich, powerful and ambitious men have done plenty unto Baldwin. The payback, however, can only be equally nasty when you can afford it. He couldn&rsquo;t.The result?The transition from corporate to private ownership of the Hartford Whalers left Baldwin out on Trumbull Street an 1988.The Gund brothers (George and Gordon), rich and powerful men, strong-armed the NHL into allowing them to move from Minnesota to the Bay Area. This doused Baldwin&rsquo;s dream and all his work toward expansion in San Jose.After Baldwin and his financial backer, Morris Belzberg, stepped forward unselfishly (they solved the Gund mess) and selfishly (they guaranteed themselves an NHL franchise in Minnesota), the two found themselves short on cash. Norm Green, who owned 18 per cent of the Calgary Flames, had introduced Baldwin and Belzberg only 18 months earlier. When Baldwin introduced Green to 51 per cent of the North Stars in June, however, he soon found himself in charge of little. Not even the club stationary.Hailed as a &ldquo;savior&rdquo; for the NHL in May, Baldwin&rsquo;s out of active leadership in hockey in Minnesota only three months later.The complicated web he and the NHL weaved in the North Stars affair ended up strangling his dream. The godfather of hockey in Hartford is a hockey orphan. On Aug. 21 Baldwin agreed to sell his share of the North Stars for $4.25 million.Baldwin was upbeat when we found him in L.A. in early August. There was no bitterness in his voice as there was a few weeks earlier when he said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be surprised if I do anything with another NHL team.&rdquo;&ldquo;I never say &rsquo;never&rsquo;,&rdquo; Baldwin said, &ldquo;but my wife Karen and I are going to sit back, catch our breath and evaluate. It&rsquo;s been an incredible ride.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think Howard someday will find another chance at running a team,&rdquo; Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon said. &ldquo;Howard&rsquo;s like a cat. You can&rsquo;t kill him.&rdquo;Until he can find a rich man to put up the money and then step back, however, Howard appears to be in tough luck.In the meantime, Baldwin says he will run his small movie business and do some work for Ed Sniders Spectacor arena management. He says he is finally financed to make the hockey movie Red Line in January.With Green wielding a meat cleaver to the North Stars&rsquo; front office, there are horror stories emanating from the Twin Cities. But Gordon, a friend of Green and Baldwin, refuses to choose sides.&ldquo;Norm is not a passive person,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;He had the dough. He felt he had the expertise to be the best guy to run the team. I went through the same process here, but Norm had a lot more brains than me. He got 51 per-cent control going in.&rdquo;Among the finalists in the contest to name the Gunds&rsquo; new Bay Area team is &ldquo;the Sharks.&rdquo; Perhaps sharks are, indeed, the most fitting way to honor the owners who so ruthlessly rule the NHL waters and gobble up the little guys.Jeff Jacobs is a hockey columnist with the Hartford Courant.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02385/8440991-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="1704" height="1417"><figcaption class="caption-body">Los Angeles Kings Bob Murdoch, Mike Murphy and friends put their best foot forward to promote the Ice Capades when the show came to town in the mid-&rsquo;70s. Both are coaching in the pros&mdash;Murphy is with Vancouver&rsquo;s IHL affiliate in Milwaukee and Murdoch is head coach of the Winnipeg Jets.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

NHL’S SHARKS GOBBLE UP BALDWIN

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div>Brad Shaw of the Hartford Whalers is the king of the late bloomers.Shaw, a defenseman who was drafted in the fifth round by the Detroit Red Wings in 1982, scored 35 points last season. That was good for a tie for 11th place&mdash;with Montreal&rsquo;s Stephan Lebeau&mdash;in rookie scoring. Shaw is the only player in the last five years who finished in the top 15 rookie scorers seven years after he was drafted.Most of the other contenders for the Warren Young Trophy made their rookie splash within a few years of being drafted. Young scored 72 points with Pittsburgh in 1984-85, nine seasons after being drafted by the California Golden Seals.The following chart lists how many players were in the top 15 rookie scorers in their draft year, one year later, two years later, etc. Also listed is the percentage each category is of the total number of top 15 rookies.The second chart lists the top three 18-year-olds in their draft year for the last nine seasons.Things have come a long way since 1981 when Dale Hawerchuk, Doug Smith and Bobby Carpenter all played 80 games.<h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03322/8441036-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="855" height="422"></div><h2>THREE&rsquo;S COMPANY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04236/8441029-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="861" height="1427"></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

THE NUMBERS GAME MAKING A ROOKIE SPLASH

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>In the days leading up to the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; departure for the Soviet Union and their 1990 training camp, all eyes and ears are on the Savards&mdash;managing director Serge and exalted hockey god, Denis.How would Serge resolve the problems of 17 unsigned regulars? When would he finally deal disgruntled right winger Claude Lemieux? And, more importantly, what would he get for him?How would Denis&mdash;acquired for Norris Trophy winning defenseman Chris Chelios in a June 29 deal with the Chicago Blackhawks&mdash;handle the pressure of being the French-Canadian star in town?The answer to those questions will help determine whether the Canadiens can regain their Adams Division crown after last season&rsquo;s disappointing third-place finish.Goal: Incumbents: Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.Challengers: Jean-Claude Bergeron, Andre Racicot.Roy is the two-time winner of the Vezina Trophy so it&rsquo;s imperative Savard get him signed before the start of the season. &#342;oy, who will turn 25 on Oct. 5, has established himself as the league&rsquo;s best goalie.Given Roy&rsquo;s numbers, it&rsquo;s easy to see why Hayward, 30, is open to the idea of finishing his career elsewhere. Hayward may get his wish to be moved after Roy signs a new deal.Defense: Incumbents: Craig Ludwig, Petr Svoboda, Matt Schneider, Eric Desjardins, Sylvain Lefebvre, Donald Dufresne, J.J. Daigneault.Challengers: Todd Richards, Lyle Odelein.What was just a couple of years ago a veteran unit that made a mistake about as often as the Habs scored a power-play goal, is now young and mistake-prone.Schneider looks like the only real impact player among the new bunch. As a 20-year-old, he had 21 points in 44 games after being called up from Sherbrooke of the American League and he showed a mean streak.Richards, a stay-at-home type at Sherbrooke last season, had an impressive training camp last year. He could beat out Daigneault or Dufresne.Center: Incumbents: Guy Carbonneau, Brian Skrudland, Stephan Lebeau, Brent Gilchrist.Challengers: Denis Savard, Andrew Cassels.This is the position where the Habs have the best depth with one of the league&rsquo;s best offensive centers, the best defensive pivot and a couple of decent two-way players. Savard will likely play between Stephane Richer 1 and Shayne Corson.Cassels, the club&rsquo;s top pick in I 1987, played well during a six-game &rsquo; call up last season, scoring two goals a before hurting his shoulder.Left wing: Incumbents: Shayne Corson, Mike McPhee, Ryan Walter.Challengers: Mark Pederson, Benoit Brunet.Corson, once thought to be an touchable, has seen his name come up &#9633; in trade rumors, most notably involving Toronto and Wendel Clark. Walter, 32, was often criticized in the media for his loss of speed and effectiveness last season. But Savard said Walter remains an important part of the team.It&rsquo;s time for Pederson to make the jump from prospect to player. He led Sherbrooke in scoring last season with 53 goals and 95 points, but failed to impress in a couple of stints with the Habs.Right wing: Incumbents: Stephane Richer, Russ Courtnall, Claude Lemieux, Todd Ewen, Mike Keane.Challengers: Tom Chorske, Lindsay Vallis.Richer was making noises about not going to the Soviet Union if he didn&rsquo;t have a new deal before the departure date. He wants $1 million a season.Meanwhile, the Lemieux soap opera continued.&ldquo;Our intentions haven&rsquo;t changed,&rdquo; said Savard. &ldquo;Claude wants to leave and we&rsquo;re trying to trade him. But I&rsquo;m not going to let him go for nothing.&rdquo; &#9632;

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September 14, 1990

ODD HOW RANGER FANS KEEP COMING OUT

VERNON’S BACK TO NO. 1 STATUS

IN-LINE ROLLER SKATES NO LONGER A FAD

FLASHBACK