HELLO

THE BAD

THE NORTH STARS

First, they were going. Then, they were staying. Then only some of the younger ones would be going. They were sold (twice), got a new coach and general manager and disposed of many off-ice staff. It was a confusing situation, but the important thing was pro hockey was saved in Minnesota. Or was it? Did the change of ownership mean a new beginning for the North Stars or did it simply buy them more time? As 1990 dawned. North Star owners George and Gordon Gund had resolved to move their “expensive toy” to the California Bay Area. They gave the state and its hockey fans an ultimatum Jan. 30: Make $15 million in improvements to the Met Center and guarantee 10,000 season-ticket subscribers and they would stay. Soon after, the Gunds relented slightly, saying…

BOB CLARKE

Surreal was the word that came to mind when Philadelphia Flyers’ president Jay Snider stepped up to a lectern at a hastily-called press conference April 16 and announced general manager Bob Clarke had been fired. Snider, ashen-faced, “cited philosophical differences” regarding the task of rebuilding the team, which had just missed the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. To many people, Clarke was the Flyers. The franchise’s most enduring image is of Clarke holding the Stanley Cup aloft, his crooked, gap-toothed grin summing up the essence of the Broad Street Bullies. Nearly everyone around the team assumed that Clarke and the Flyers’ ownership were inextricably linked, that Clarke, the ultimate Flyer, would gracefully step aside and take another job in the organization if he thought that was what majority owner…