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October 4, 2005
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.
Philly hungry for winner
Thirty years. The big 3-0. But who’s counting? Just everyone in Philadelphia who knows a puck is round. The semi-serious fan can tell you it’s been 11,170 days, give or take a leap year date, since a gap-toothed kid named Clarke last lifted Lord Stanley’s silverware heavenward. The guy who paints his face orange-and-black and has held season tickets since Lou Angotti roamed the Spectrum has a clock with 15,940,800 minutes running in his head. You get the idea. Flyers fans are starved for a championship. Many of them think this could be their year. Of course, they had that same feeling late in May, 1980, going into the infamous Leon Stickle Game on Long Island, and, likewise, seven years later when perhaps the greatest of the five Oiler championship teams needed…
Bruins loaded up front
They didn’t always get the man they pursued, but the Bruins still brought in a lot of new faces in the dizzying days of early August. Certainly, they had to, after making sure they had less than a handful of players under contract in anticipation of a salary-capped NHL. But the fretting over free agents lost (Sergei Gonchar, Mike Knuble, Martin Lapointe, Dan McGillis, Michael Nylander, Sean O’Donnell, Brian Rolston) was outweighed by the additions of Brian Leetch, Alexei Zhamnov, Dave Scatchard, Brad Isbister and Shawn McEachern. Re-signing top dogs Joe Thornton and Glen Murray to big-bucks, multi-year deals also impressed fans and players alike. With Sergei Samsonov and Patrice Bergeron also in the mix at forward, the Bruins appear better stacked offensively than they have been in a generation. However, there’s a…
HOCKEY WORLD IN BRIEF
LADIES FIRST Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson announced the creation of a trophy in her name for Canadian women’s hockey supremacy. During the NHL lockout, Clarkson suggested the Stanley Cup be handed out to a women’s team for 2004-05. When the idea wasn’t well received by the female hockey community, the idea of a separate, independent women’s trophy was born. Clarkson made it her duty to establish the trophy before her term ended Sept. 27. MCMULLEN DIES Former New Jersey Devils owner Dr. John J. McMullen died Sept. 16 at 87. McMullen brought NHL hockey to New Jersey after acquiring the Colorado Rockies in 1982. He won two Stanley Cups as owner before selling the team in 2000 for $175 million. McMullen also owned the Houston Astros from 1979 to 1992. BURKE WINS RULING Anaheim GM Brian…
Bad drafts haunt Buds
If the Maple Leafs fall into the pack of mediocrity this season – and it says here they will – it won’t be because of Ed Belfour’s back, Eric Lindros’s head or Aki Berg being among their top six defensemen. It will be because during a crucial period late in the last century, the Maple Leafs’ scouting staff did less with more at the draft than almost any team in the league. In the four entry drafts between 1996 and 1999, only four teams had more draft picks than the 41 the Maple Leafs had. But because they traded their first round pick twice and hit into a triple play in 1999, they have just four NHL players – Tomas Kaberle, Adam Mair (traded), Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky – to…
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