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Yearbook 1980

The Hockey News Yearbook 1980

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1978-79 STATISTICS

Pacific League Statistics

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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">DON BLACKBURN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0102-0179/10142640-1-eng-US/f0102-012.jpg" title="f0102-01" width="681" height="663"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0102-0235/10142633-1-eng-US/f0102-022.jpg" title="f0102-02" width="659" height="658"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>B</span>ill Dineen was hired to coach the &ldquo;New England&rdquo; Whalers on July 13, 1978, which just happened to be a Friday and would have told any superstitious person that the guy had two strikes against him before the team played a game.</p><p>As it turned out, the club went into a tailspin in February (we&rsquo;ll avoid saying the roof fell in, since the Whalers have had enough problems of that type) and Dineen found himself deposed on April Fool&rsquo;s Day, with just a few games remaining in the regular season.</p><p>It was left to Coach Don Blackburn to pick up the pieces, which is similar to what he&rsquo;ll be trying to do this season with what can only be termed a rebuilding franchise.</p><p>The Whalers have changed half their name, and now are known as Hartford&mdash;where the roof did fall in. But the rebuilding of the team may take as long as the construction of the Civic Center.</p><p>&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s not kid ourselves. Of the 16 players, the Whalers drafted (in June), seven were selected because they stand a chance of helping our team. The remainder were basically garbage&mdash;cannon fodder,&rdquo; team President Howard Baldwin was quoted as saying. &ldquo;We were drafting players with low salaries so as not to burden ourselves any further.&rdquo;</p><p>It will be left to those players drafted to determine which of them is the garbage to which Baldwin was said to have referred. They must decide for themselves whether it is worth coming to training camp at all.</p><p>Presumably, four of the fellows who will help the team are defenseman Al Sims, left wing Nick Fotiu, center Jean Savard and defenseman Alan Hangsleben, who was drafted back from Montreal after the Canadiens had reclaimed him.</p><p>Sims, who had a run-in with Bruins, General Manager Harry Sinden, will join a defense which includes Hangsleben, Mark and Marty Howe (the former converting from left wing on a full-time basis) and Rick Ley.</p><p>For the 26-year-old Sims, this season with Hartford marks something of a second chance.</p><p>&ldquo;The problem between me and Harry was probably my fault,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;I came right in and played two years with the Bruins, and then, in my third year, Harry decided to send me down to Rochester (of the American Hockey League).</p><p>&ldquo;Now, I&rsquo;m only 21 at the time and I&rsquo;m a little cocky and didn&rsquo;t handle the situation very well. I sound off&hellip; and the whole thing snowballed. I called Hany from Rochester and apologized and just decided to work my butt off in the minors. It turned out to be a very good experience for me, but I don&rsquo;t know if Harry ever forgot about it.&rdquo;</p><p>Now Sims and the rest of the Whalers will try to make the fans forget about last season&rsquo;s fourth-place finish, which tied the team&rsquo;s worst standing ever, in 1976-77.</p><p>Fotiu will be popular, since he began his professional career with the Whalers, lives in the New England area during the summer, and is ever ready to come to the aid of a teammate.</p><p>The colorful Fotiu will keep fans and opponents occupied with his hell-bent skating and occasional competence. He also will fill the void left when Jack Carlson went to Minnesota and took the team&rsquo;s aggressivness with him. The Whalers have a number of smaller, more gentlemanly players (Mike Antonovich, Dave Keon, Andre Lacroix, Mike Rogers) who need the protection Fotiu can provide.</p><p>And speaking of Keon and Lacroix, not to mention Gordie Howe, there is something of an age problem up front. It was Howe who kept an interested eye this summer on which team&mdash;if any&mdash;would lure 41-year-old Bobby Hull out of retirement. &ldquo;Who&rsquo;d want him?&rdquo; quipped Howe. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s too old.&rdquo;</p><p>So, it would seem, is Howe. But people who have tried to explain how a 51-year-old grandfather can still play pro hockey have failed miserably.</p><p>Keon, &ldquo;only&rdquo; 39. will be back as well.</p><p>&ldquo;When I started playing hockey, the average career was about 10 years, and I had hoped just to play a few years as a pro.&rdquo;</p><p>Now he starts his 20th campaign. &ldquo;I know one thing,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never play if I think I&rsquo;m starting to embarrass myself.&rdquo;</p><p>Lacroix, a toddler at 34, only seems older. But let&rsquo;s face it, folks, stints with the Philadelphia Blazers, Jersey Knights, San Diego Mariners and Houston Aeros would age anybody. He&rsquo;ll bolster the center complement which includes Howe (perhaps), Jordy Douglas, Savard (a part-timer with Chicago last year) and Keon.</p><p>That&rsquo;s not a bad crew, if everyone stays healthy, and John Garrett is an able goaltender. But there are some depth problems, and that is likely to hurt.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0103-0172/10142626-1-eng-US/f0103-012.jpg" title="f0103-01" width="1558" height="3204"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Andre Lacroix, who has at one time or another played for practically every team that existed in the WHA, returns to the NHL for the first time in seven years.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>HARTFORD WHALERS (6)</b></h3><p>1. Ray Allison, right wing, Brandon</p><p>2. *Stuart Smith, defenseman Peterborough</p><p>2. Don Nachbaur, Billings</p><p>4. Ray Neufeld, right wing, Edmonton</p><p>5. Mark Renaud, defenseman Niagara Falls</p><p>6. *Dave McDonald, left wing, Brandon</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0103-0234/10142619-1-eng-US/f0103-022.jpg" title="f0103-02" width="753" height="2316"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0104-0183/10142612-1-eng-US/f0104-012.jpg" title="f0104-01" width="1124" height="1332"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>What else can you say? The amazing Gordie Howe will be back for yet another season.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0104-0245/10142605-1-eng-US/f0104-022.jpg" title="f0104-02" width="1253" height="1493"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0104-0328/10142598-1-eng-US/f0104-032.jpg" title="f0104-03" width="2423" height="1588"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0105-0174/10142591-1-eng-US/f0105-012.jpg" title="f0105-01" width="2727" height="1754"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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NHL ROUNDUPS

Hartford Whalers

f0129-01

Ontario Major League Statistics

<div class="byline">By MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011667/10140727-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>At the conclusion of the 1978-79 season, Bob Gainey received the Frank Selke Trophy from Mr. Selke himself. The award goes to the NHL&rsquo;s outstanding defensive forward, and Gainey won It for the second consecutive year.</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b>he glittering cup, symbol of hockey supremacy in North America had not yet completed its first bumpy circuit of the Montreal Forum ice surface, borne largely in the hands of captain Serge Savard and veteran centerman Jacques Lemsire, when it glided to s stop amidst a jumble of players near the announcer&rsquo;s bench. Almost on cue the public address announcer began: <i>Madames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen &hellip; le gagnant de la trophee Connie Smythe &hellip; the Conn Smythe Trophy winner is &hellip;</i> Bob Gainey &hellip;and the rest of the sentence was drowned out as the Forum burst into a cacophony of appreciation.</p><p>As the roar, which had begun building early in the third period, peaked to reach levels which shook the foundations of the St. Catherine street structure, Gainey emerged from that tangle of rejoicing athletes, Stanley Cup in hand, on the shoulders of his teammates. A thin stream of blood trickled from a fresh row of sutures closing a wound near an eyebrow, but the summer would provide time to heal the injuries and the joy of a performer fulfilling his dreams dominated the scene.</p><p>Anyone watching the evolvement of the most recent Stanley Cup playoffs would have had little recourse but to agree with the selection of Gainey as the post-season&rsquo;s best and most valuable player. His skating, checking, hitting and clutch scoring was something to behold&mdash;a textbook example of a two-way hockey player.</p><p>It had been just a year before that Gainey first drew recognition on a national basis when he became the first winner of the Frank Selke award&mdash;an honor instituted to reward the National Hockey League&rsquo;s best defensive forward. But before that Gainey had existed as a player highly respected by his coach, his teammates and his opponents, perhaps even by the fans of Montreal, but an often-overlooked commodity throughout most of the league.</p><p>Although he was Montreal&rsquo;s first selection in the 1973 draft (eighth player taken overall) Gainey came to the Canadiens as an unproven junior with just one year of competition at that level under his belt. But the Canadiens chose himm ahead of players like Bob Dailey, Ian Turnbull and Rick Middleton, all outstanding performers who were selected in that same first round, because of two things&mdash;1) he had size and could skate, therefore he had great potential to fit into the Canadiens&rsquo; method of operation, and 2) he was disciplined, having received the instruction of Roger Neilson, then coach of the Peterborough Petes, who had put together several highly successful teams based on a tight-checking positional approach, instead of relying upon one or two great scorers to overwhelm the opposition.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012247/10140720-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="2415" height="3194"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The Canadiens won their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup last May&mdash;thanks In large part to the efforts of the man&mdash;Bob Gainey&mdash;In this picture.</b></figcaption></div><p>And Gainey was one of the players that Neilson relied upon the most, the quarterback of the checkers, to effectively muzzle their adversaries. The Canadiens went after him despite the fact that he had scored only 24 goals in his junior career.</p><p>One of the advantages of being selected by such a powerful team as the Montreal Canadiens is, of course, that not everyone on the team is being counted upon to supply offensive punch. That&rsquo;s why Gainey, who already had a head start over most junior players when it came to keeping opponents from scoring, played only six games in the minors (with Nova Scotia of the American League) before joining the parent team for good, and being affordded the opportunity to learn while taking a shift in the major leagues.</p><p>Right from the start Gainey displayed those long strides which make him one of the NHL&rsquo;s top skaters, but it was his desire to improve his capacity for work and his attitude which stood him in good stead with his employers.</p><p>And it was a coach like Scotty Bowman, a master manipulator and mixer of talents, who found a spot in the lineup for the six-foot-two, 195-pound Peterborough native.</p><p>In just his second season with the Habs, Gainey turned in a credit able 17-goal, 20-assist campaign while appearing in all 80 games, his best offensive record until this past season, but any scoring he does is rated as a plus, because his main job has been to defense the other teams.</p><p>Four seasons ago Gainey was joined on a line by center Doug Jarvis, another Peterborough protegee of Neilson and a former teammate of Gainey&rsquo;s, whose forte is winning faceoffs and stopping opponents from scoring. While Gainey grinds down opposing right wingers by outmuscling them or outskating them, Jarvis, just five-nine, 170 pounds, simply skitters between foes, using quick reflexes and agility as his principle tools of frsutration.</p><p>Together they for a striking combination, a Mutt and Jeff-like ensembe with an uncanny ability to limit the other team&rsquo;s scoring power.</p><p>Bob Gainey probably could have been content to remain as simply one of the best defensive players in the NHL, but as people around the league have been beginning to notice, he&rsquo;s blossomed into a big Bobby Clarke-type player&mdash;a guy who can do it all at both ends of the ice.</p><p>Listen to what those closest to him in Montreal have to say:</p><p>&bull; ex-Canadiens&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman (ironically he&rsquo;s now general manager/coach in Buffalo and has Roger Neilson as an associate coach) said during the playoffs: &ldquo;If Bob Gainey didn&rsquo;t have to kill penalties for us, and if he played on the power play, you&rsquo;d be looking at a 30 to 40 goal scorer each year &hellip; easily.&rdquo;</p><p>Doug RisebrOugh: &ldquo;Anyone who saw the series (referring to last year&rsquo;s playoffs) who saw how hard he works the key goals he scored and the checks he took and threw, knows he had to win the Conn Smythet award. He&rsquo;s led our team all season.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012310/10140713-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="1581" height="2203"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Bob Galney: &ldquo;A Bobby Clarke-type player-a guy who can do it all at both ends of the ice.&rdquo;</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012546/10140706-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="1520" height="1471"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>&ldquo;Bob Gainey,&rdquo; says Canadiens&rsquo; captain Serge Savard, &ldquo;is probably the best all-round player In the game today&hellip;1 wouldn&rsquo;t trade him for Mike Bossy. He&rsquo;s that Important to us.&rdquo;</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021744/10140699-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1522" height="1634"></div><p>&bull; Captain Serge Savard: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a 50-goal scorer, but he&rsquo;s probably the best all around player in the game today. If I was a GM or coach,&rdquo; Savard said just prior to the start of the &rsquo;79 training camp, &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t trade him for a Mike Bossy, Gainey&rsquo;s that important to us.&rdquo;</p><p>His value was never more apparent than during the 1979 playoffs&mdash;the zenith to this point in his career of his maturation as a two-way performer.</p><p>Those who have watched Bob Gainey during his half-dozen years in the NHL have come to expect certain attributes. His skating style and effectiveness immediately come to mind, and then there&rsquo;s his ability to hit, a weapon which has to command the respect of the right wingers around the league who are unfortunate enough to see Gainey standing in the way of the Canadien&rsquo;s goal.</p><p>Some of Gainey&rsquo;s hits are almost legendary&mdash;such as the collision which set the tone of the classic New Year&rsquo;s Eve 3-3 tie between the Canadiens and the Soviet Army and most recently Gainey&rsquo;s hit-and-run number with Ranger&rsquo;s captain Dave Maloney during the fourth game of the Stanley Cup finals last May. More about that in a moment.</p><p>What sets Gainey apart from your average garden-variety physical player is that every game he suits up for&mdash;no matter what time of the season, you can expect a number of jarring bone-crunching clashes throughout the contest. Even two separations have done little to dissuade Gainey from hitting&mdash;let alone keep him out of the lineup. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a rough sport and you have to hit and expect to be hit,&rdquo; is the way Gainey voices his approach to the game.</p><p>Captain Maloney&mdash;a pretty rugged customer himself&mdash;found out the hard way during last year&rsquo;s finals in one of the most influential situations of last year&rsquo;s finals in Game Four at Madison Square Garden.</p><p>The Rangers were nursing a one-goal lead in the third period and needed only to hang on for the win to even their series with the Canadiens. Maloney was trying to move the puck out of the Rangers&rsquo; zone when Gainey suddenly swooped in, flattened the Ranger rear-guard and took the puck away. Gainey then swung towards the net and beat Ranger goaltender John Davidson with a low shot which tied the game and the Canadiens proceeded to win it in overtime for an insurmountable 3-1 series lead. It may have been the turning point of the entire series.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012229/10140692-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="2340" height="3175"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Gainey in action against the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Jim Schoenfeld: An Incredible desire to improve himself as a hockey player.</b></figcaption></div><p>For the playoffs Gainey placed a creditable fifth in scoring with six goals and 10 assists, up near the sharpshooters like Guy Lafleur and Jacques Lemaire of the Canadiens and Phil Esposito and rookie hotshot Don Maloney of the Rangers&mdash;rather select company for a guy who&rsquo;s never had even a 25-goal season since his midget days.</p><p>Will Success spoil Bob Gainey? Not likely.</p><p>Life has gone on for him pretty much as usual this summer following his most successful professional season. He and his wife Cathy and their two young children returned to the Peterborough area as they usually do each summer for a little relaxation. Bob played a bit of fastball and then worked a bit towards the end of the summer at a nearby hockey school.</p><p>&ldquo;Bob really gets along well with the kids,&rdquo; said Roger Neilson, &ldquo;They really take to him. He&rsquo;s been coming out to help out at the camp ever since his junior days.&rdquo;</p><p>Commenting on Gainey&rsquo;s selection as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner last May, Neilson said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really nice to see a player like Bob get that award. You know how normally such accolades will go to the players with the great offensive stats.&rdquo;</p><p>Neilson said that watching Gainey as a junior you wouldn&rsquo;t have for seen him becoming a Conn Smythe winner, but added: &ldquo;He was a guy who who just got better and better every year, in junior as well as in the NHL. When he did get to the NHL, he really took off and of course he&rsquo;s always had his skating ability.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Bob&rsquo;s worked hard on his stickhandling and that&rsquo;s make him a better player, but he&rsquo;s always been the kind of guy to come up with a big check when it&rsquo;s most important. He&rsquo;s just what&rsquo;s needed on a winning team,&rdquo; said Neilson.</p><p>And as the NHL embarks on more and more numerous confrontations against the powerful Soviet teams, it&rsquo;s players like Bob Gainey who will be at the forefront in leading the NHL into an exciting and successful period of hockey.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012431/10140685-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="1481" height="2811"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Gainey was a unanimous choice for the Conn Smythe Trophy last season, despite the fact that his offensive stats during the playoffs weren&rsquo;t all that impressive.</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0002-01

FEATURES

BOB GAINEY: HOCKEY’S COMPLETE PLAYER

<div class="byline">By BARRY WILNER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012409/10140821-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The Cream of the rookle crop last year was Bobby Smith of the Minnesota North Stars. He was regarded by most observers as the mot impressive rookie since Denis Potvin.</b></figcaption></div><p><b>Y</b>ou hear it every year. The same complaints, the same moaning and groaning, the same warnings.</p><p>The words come from nearly every front office official of practically all the National Hockey League teams. These pessimistic soothsayers denounce the quality of players in amateur hockey, saying the particular draft they are about to take part in is a waste of time.</p><p>Then the annual selection of young hockey performers from the junior leagues of Canada, the American colleges and, recently, even from Europe, begins. Several hours later, those same predictors of doom strut out of the draft with big smiles on their faces and blue chip prospects in their possession.</p><p>Last season was no exception. The amateurs were supposed to be several notches below those of recent years. No superstars, few kids who could even step into the NHL right away. A less-than-average crop.</p><p>Instead, fans around the NHL saw a bevy of talented freshmen enter the league, most of them straight out of places like Brandon and Kingston in Canada or assorted colleges in the United States. Names like Bobby Smith, Wayne Babych, Don Maloney, Brad Marsh, Behn Wilson and Ryan Walter became familiar in hockey circles, as did those of Mario Lessard, Ken Linseman and Mario Marois.</p><p>Certainly the two best rookies in 1978-79 were Minnesota center Smith and St. Louis right wing Babych. Smith won the NHL rookie of the year award as he scored 30 goals and 44 assists for the North Stars. Had Babych not missed almost two months with a broken ankle, he might well have grabbed the Calder Trophy.</p><p>Smith was the top selection in the amateur draft out of Ottawa. Minnesota General Manager Lou Nanne made no secret of his intentions when he announced a month before the draft that Smith was his man.</p><p>Right from the start, all reports were positive on him,&rdquo; says Nanne, who went up to scout Smith and &ldquo;was immediately sold. He was a can&rsquo;t-miss item.</p><p>&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe that a kid his age [he&rsquo;s now 21] could have so much poise. He&rsquo;s controlled many of the games we&rsquo;ve played this season.</p><p>&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen a young player come into the league and do that for a long time, except for Denis Potvin. He&rsquo;s the best rookie since Potvin.&rdquo;</p><p>Glen Sonmor, the North Stars coach, agrees with Nanne, but is more specific about the strong points of the youngster&rsquo;s game.</p><p>&ldquo;We had every belief he&rsquo;d be an outstanding player,&rdquo; says Sonmor. &ldquo;We just had to let him sort things out. He had to be allowed to see what he could do and what he couldn&rsquo;t do or shouldn&rsquo;t even try to do.</p><p>&ldquo;Few kids know their limitations when they come into the pros,&rdquo; adds Sonmor, who has a reputation as a patient coach who works well with young players. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t say to a kid, &rsquo;You got away with such and such in juniors but you can&rsquo;t get away with it here.&rsquo; You let him learn.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012349/10140814-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="1539" height="2191"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Smith exults after scoring a goal against the New York Rangers. With 30 goals and 44 assists, Smith was the Stars&rsquo; leading scorer and the NHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year.</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;With Bobby, he likes to come around the net and stuff the puck. Some people call it a playground move, but Bobby is 6-4 and he has the tremendous reach and puck control to do it.</p><p>&ldquo;There are a lot of things he can&rsquo;t do but there are an awful lot of things he can do.&rdquo;</p><p>At the outset of his rookie campaign, Smith must have been wondering if he still could score. He had only four goals in the North Stars&rsquo; first 24 games.</p><p>&ldquo;The slow start was just a matter of getting adjusted to the NHL,&rdquo; says Smith. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t playing badly and I had been a scorer all my life, so I wasn&rsquo;t worried.</p><p>&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t shooting the puck fast enough then. I was holding onto it too long, trying to force a play or make a perfect one. In juniors, it helped me to hold onto the puck until things were set up.</p><p>&ldquo;What I was doing was finding out whether things I did in juniors worked in the NHL,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;Some did, some didn&rsquo;t. But I knew it would come, bit by bit.</p><p>&ldquo;I was disappointed at the start of the season. I didn&rsquo;t like to leave a rink somewhere and overhear somebody say, &rsquo;Isn&rsquo;t this the team that had the No. 1 draft? I didn&rsquo;t notice him out there.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>It wasn&rsquo;t long before people began noticing Smith as one of the best performers on the ice. He credits the north Star management for helping him through a tough period of adjustment.</p><p>&ldquo;Lots of teams draft a guy in June and say they&rsquo;ll be patient with him the first season,&rdquo; says Smith. &ldquo;When things go bad, they jump on him and he gets down. He does not have the chance to adjust and develop.</p><p>&ldquo;Management here was very good about things. They never put any pressure on me. The only pressure came from the press.</p><p>&ldquo;It really satisfied me that the club didn&rsquo;t try to take away my game. They&rsquo;ve let me have the freedom to do what I do best, carry the puck. They&rsquo;re not trying to fool around with my strengths.&rdquo;</p><p>Just a few years ago, Smith had no visions of winning the Calder Trophy&mdash;or even playing in the NHL.</p><p>&ldquo;I had planned to become a doctor,&rdquo; he notes. &ldquo;Then I had my best season in juniors, when I was 18, and began thinking about playing in the pros.</p><p>&ldquo;The funny thing is, I went from not expecting to play hockey after juniors to expecting to be the No. 1 pick in the draft,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had confidence in my ability and as I developed, I felt I&rsquo;d be No. 1.&rdquo;</p><p>If Smith is happy about his being selected atop the draft, Nanne is even more ecstatic to have the smooth center.</p><p>&ldquo;I made only one mistake with Smith,&rdquo; Nanne says. &ldquo;I signed him for four years but I should have made it 44.&rdquo;</p><p>Smith was not only good last season, he was lucky, which is what it takes to be named rookie of the year.</p><p>&ldquo;It was really tough luck for those guys,&rsquo; he says of Walter, Babych, Bill Derlago and Mike Gillis, all of whom missed action in their rookie season with injuries. &ldquo;But you know you&rsquo;re likely to get injured at some point in your career and there&rsquo;s not a whole lot you can do about it.&rdquo;</p><p>Players like Babych and Walter made up for lost time when they returned to the lineup. In fact, Babych was the leading candidate for the Calder before his January ankle injury.</p><p>&ldquo;It was really tough to lose Wayne because he was going super,&rdquo; said St. Louis Coach Barclay Plager during the rookie&rsquo;s enforced absence.</p><p>&ldquo;I know I haven&rsquo;t seen a more promising right winger come into the league. I think he&rsquo;s a very poised 20-year-old.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-012047/10140807-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="2340" height="1635"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The St. Louis Blues&rsquo; Wayne Babych (top and bottom) missed 11 games last season and still scored 27 goals and 63 points.</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;He gives us something to build around. This is a guy who backchecks all the time. How many rookies do that? He&rsquo;s built like granite.&rdquo;</p><p>Babych was the third player chosen in the 1978 draft. He played junior hockey for the Portland Winter Hawks, where he once scored three goals in 24 seconds. He scored a point a game for the Blues&rsquo; first 42 games last year, including 21 goals.</p><p>He came into a tough situation in St. Louis, where the Blues were the pits of the NHL. As their top draft pick, a lot was expected of him.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind pressure at all,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It brings out the best in me. I knew the Blues hadn&rsquo;t signed their No. 1 pick the year before. I also knew they hadn&rsquo;t been too lucky in the draft. I guess I expected the pressure but people under pressure do a better job.&rdquo;</p><p>Placed on a line with Bernie Federko and Brian Sutter, Babych did a terrific job, scoring 27 goals and 63 points. That &ldquo;Kid Line&rdquo; was so effective through much of the season that opponents actually began matching lines with the Blues so as to have their most defensive unit checking Babych and Co.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021425/10140800-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="1520" height="1596"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012327/10140793-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="2358" height="1766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Two of the NHL&rsquo;s outstanding rookies last season crossed paths In a game at Madison Square Garden. They are Ryan Walter, left, of the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers&rsquo; Mario Marois.</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I like to think that when we skate out against another team, the other guys are thinking, &rsquo;Watch that Wayne Babych.&rsquo; I hope they&rsquo;ve been thinking about me and trying to figure ways to stop me.</p><p>&ldquo;Sometimes if they just know who you are, that&rsquo;s respect for you. When I look at who&rsquo;s checking our line and I see a Bob Gainey lined up against me, I think that&rsquo;s a sign the other teams are serious, serious about stopping me and us. If they&rsquo;re serious enough to put a Gainey, the best defensive forward in the league, on the ice to guard me, I think that&rsquo;s respect.</p><p>&ldquo;At the start of the season, how many teams worried about Babych-Federko-Sutter? Now I see the Gaineys and the Cashmans and the top checking lines against us. That makes it harder for us to score but it also makes us work harder. I think we&rsquo;ve been accepted.&rdquo;</p><p>It wasn&rsquo;t hard to accept the performances of the many skillful rookies of last season. Ranked high among those star-quality showings were those of Washington&rsquo;s Ryan Walter, a 21-year-old center. Walter, the second player selected in the 1978 draft, scored 28 goals and 27 assists in 69 games, many of them while subpar physically.</p><p>&ldquo;I spent five years preparing myself to be ready for the pros,&rdquo; says Walter. &ldquo;And it took just a couple of weeks to get hurt.</p><p>&ldquo;I was at the draft, and it was a big thrill hearing my name called out second. I thought about all that hard work being worth something.</p><p>&ldquo;I also thought about the other guys sitting at the draft waiting and waiting to hear their names. You had to feel for them.&rdquo;</p><p>There&rsquo;s no need to feel sorry for Walter, who, despite being drafted by the often laughable Capitals, is happy with his current situation. Walter feels the Caps will grow into a good team and, if they do, he will be a key ingredient. &ldquo;</p><p>The Caps moved into the Patrick Division this season, where they&rsquo;ll battle with four of the classiest teams in the NHL. Each had topnotch rookies last year.</p><p>For the New York Islanders, defenseman Bob Lorimer, finally successful in his third try at making the title contender, was a solid contributor. The New York Rangers, surprise Stanley Cup finalists, were bolstered by forward Don Maloney and defenseman Mario Marois.</p><p>The Philadelphia Flyers snuck Ken Linseman away from the WHA Birmingham Bulls and the Atlanta Flames were helped by the defensive contributions of big Brad Marsh.</p><p>Lorimer seemed to be snakebitten in the early going, suffering a broken leg that cost him much of one season, then a ruptured spleen, which had to be removed and almost put a premature end to his career.</p><p>But he persisted and is now an integral part of an Islander defensive corps that includes such impressive names as Denis Potvin, Stefan Persson, and Dave Lewis. The team&rsquo;s management is so confident about Lorimer that they were willing to part with Pat Price and Gerry Hart in the expansion draft and allow Bert Marshall to retire.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-012009/10140786-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="2399" height="1479"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Mario Lessard, above, established himself as his team&rsquo;s No. 1 goalie last season, while the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Behn Wilson asserted himself as Philly&rsquo;s best defenseman.</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;You have to give Bob a lot of credit,&rdquo; says Lewis. &ldquo;He put up with a lot of tough things but he kept coming back. And he has been a better player each time.&rdquo;</p><p>Lorimer; often pairs with Potvin, which means his job is to remain back and allow Potvin to roam the ice, setting up plays and leading the attack. It is a job for which Lorimer is well-suited.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t pretend to be able to do the things guys like Denis, or some of the others can do,&rdquo; says the 26-year-old rearguard. &ldquo;My job is to stay back and stop other teams from getting good shots. I let Denis or Bryan [Trottier] or Mike [Bossy] worry about the scoring.&rdquo;</p><p>That attitude endears Lorimer to his coach, Al Arbour, a standout defensive backliner in his own right. The same can be said of Marsh and his new coach, Al McNeil.</p><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t have a team of all offensive defensemen,&rdquo; says the 6-2&rsquo;/2, 210-pounder who scored nary a goal in his first NHL campaign. Marsh did register 19 assists, however, and had 101 penalty minutes while clearing the crease of intruders.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021428/10140779-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="1565" height="1724"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-012094/10140772-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="1338" height="2043"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021593/10140765-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="1184" height="2053"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ken Linseman, also of the Flyers, may be on the small side, but he Is one of the swiftest, most elusive skaters in the game.</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;My style is not to get caught out of position. I&rsquo;m happy to check and clear the puck and let the forwards take care of the goals.</p><p>&ldquo;If I started talking about scoring, then trying to do something about it, I wouldn&rsquo;t last very long. I expect I&rsquo;ll score some goals &hellip; I like to score goals as much as the next guy &hellip; but I&rsquo;m not ever going to.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been defensive-oriented. I&rsquo;m the first to admit I&rsquo;m not the flashiest stickhandler or skater.&rdquo;</p><p>But he is an effective mover of men&mdash;away from and in front of his goaltenders. And he excels at trapping forwards in the corners or behind the net and taking away the puck.</p><p>&ldquo;He was our steadiest defenseman last season,&rdquo; says Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher. &ldquo;We wouldn&rsquo;t have traded away three young defensemen to Chicago if we didn&rsquo;t think Brad could do the job. He had to earn a spot on the team and did because, of all the junior defensemen I&rsquo;ve ever seen, he was the soundest.&rdquo;</p><p>Another fundamentally sound player was Rangers&rsquo; rearguard Mario Marois, although he didn&rsquo;t come up to the Rangers from New Haven of the AHL that way. He played eight games with New York in 1977-78, with the rest of the season spent making his marks in Connecticut with 147 PIMs in 52 games.</p><p>&ldquo;Marois was kind of raw at the beginning of the season but he really came on,&rdquo; says Rangers&rsquo; coach Fred Shero. &ldquo;He learned and worked hard and was dependable.&rdquo;</p><p>Marois says his on-the-job training with the Rangers was the key.</p><p>&ldquo;If I had sat on the bench here, I guess I might have been better off in New Haven,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I knew I had to relax, that if I forced things, I would make mistakes.</p><p>&ldquo;I was satisfied wth my first year. I have to improve my weight because guys can push you around the net here.</p><p>&ldquo;The other guys really helped me. I learned a lot from Vad [veteran defenseman Carol Vadnais] and the younger guys also helped me adjust.&rdquo;</p><p>Phil Esposito liked the addition of Don Maloney to the Rangers and, more importantly, to his line. Maloney, a tireless worker in the corners, helped revive Espo with some Wayne Cashman-type agressiveness in the corners and behind the net. The younger brother of defensive star Dave Maloney of the Rangers, Don came up in February and was one of the key forces behind New York&rsquo;s surge to the Stanley Cup finals.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the most impressive rookie I&rsquo;ve played with in a long time,&rdquo; says Espo. &ldquo;He comes at you and never stops. He forced mistakes out of guys who never make them, like Potvin or Clarke or Barber.</p><p>&ldquo;The Rangers brought him along slowly, sent him to the minors to adjust, then brought him up. It worked just right.&rdquo;</p><p>Behn Wilson was another draft pick who worked out just right, this time for the Philadephia Flyers. The menacing 6-3, 215-pound defenseman scored 49 points, a rookie record for Flyers&rsquo; rearguards, and had 197 PIMs while establishing himself as the Flyers&rsquo; enforcer. Several observers claim Wilson already is the best defenseman on the Flyers, and that includes Jimmy Watson and Andre Dupont, a pair of former All-Stars.</p><p>The best freshman goalie last year was Mario Lessard of Los Angeles. The Kings lost star goalie Rogie Vachon to Detroit as a free agent, then traded for Ron Grahame of Boston to fill the breach. Lessard wound up with a better year than both, a 23-15-10 record, four shutouts and a 3.10 goals-against.</p><p>Just this past summer, NHL general mangers, coaches, scouts and owners were bemoaning the quality of the August draft. The talent just wasn&rsquo;t there, they said. Weak, mediocre, nothing beyond the top few picks.</p><p>Which means there&rsquo;ll be plenty of high-flying, heavy-hitting, impressive rookies in hockey again this year. Count on it.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011789/10140758-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="1553" height="2697"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>After three attempts, the New York Islander&rsquo;s Bob Lorimer finally earned a regular defensive berth on the team.</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0010-01

SUPER SOPHS OF THE NHL

<div class="byline">By HERMAN PEDERGNANA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011968/10140852-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The team to beat this year is still the Russians, who celebrated after defeating the NHL All Star in last year&rsquo;s Challenge Cu Series.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>RUSSIA</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>n the land of Marx and Lenin, Central Planning is a concept that pertains not only to the output&rsquo; of wheat, tanks and toys, but also to hockey.</p><p>And uppermost in the thoughts of the hockey planners is winning the Olympic tournament this coming February at Lake Placid, N.Y.</p><p>As they were handed both the World Champion Trophy and the NHL Challenge Cup one evening last spring in Moscow, the Soviet hockey players had reason to celebrate.</p><p>&ldquo;We won every international tournament we entered, this is truly a great team", beamed Victor Tikhonov, the coach who took over in 1976 to guide his team through the Canada Cup.</p><p>At that time, Tikhonov appeared irritated by Canadian charges that he had not selected the best-possible team. He did not go for instant glory, his aim was long range. He wanted to expose a few untested players to the toughest international competition there was, even if the payoff would come later.</p><p>So the Czechs moved into the spotlight temporarily, making the finals of the Canada Cup and winning the title in the first open world tournament ever played a few months later, at Vienna. But starting with 1978, the Russians were Number One again, and last season they finished first at the Rude Pravo Tournament in Czechoslovkia, the Isvestiya Cup in Moscow, the Challenge Cup in New York&rsquo;s Madison Square Garden and at the World Championship in Moscow.</p><p>In Moscow, they clobbered their supposedly toughest rivals, the Czechs, by an aggregate score of 17 to 2 in two games. But even more impressive was the 6-0 crusher in the decisive third game against the NHL All Star team. Remember: Everything appeared to favor the NHL Superstars. They played in a rink of accustomed size: two of the games were handled by NHL referees, the crowd was pro-NHL, and Tikhonov, shurgging off the importance of the confrontation, even introduced a sub goalie for the all-decisive third game. And just everybody in hockey knew for sure that the Soviets never, never could ice a competent second-stringer in the nets. Yet out popped the Mighty Mouse, dimunitive, shaggy-haired Vladimir Myshkin, shutting out the Guy Lafleurs, Mike Bossys, Bobby Clarkes et al.</p><p>And Tihkonov appears to be a strong believer in the dictum that history repeats itself. Longstanding observers of international hockey such as former Swedish National Team coach Arne Stroemberg divine the following soviet Game Plan for the upcoming two seasons from the few signals the secretive Soviets emitted: &ldquo;First, they want to win the Olympics&rdquo;, Arne said. &ldquo;They will rebuild their team to compete in a late-spring international tourney in Sweden, and you can expect them to ice quite a few rookies in the Canada Cup in September 1980. Again, their main goal will be winning the World Championship of 1981, and whatever wins they pick up along the way, they will gladly accept.&rdquo;</p><p>In fact, some of the names of the future stars are already known. When Tikhonov opened training camp for the Sbornaya, as the National team is affectionately called, this past July, such relatively unknowns as goalkeeper Mylnikov, defensemen Sliptchenko and Payusov&mdash;both from Dynamo Moscow&mdash;, Voshakov and Presnjakov&mdash;from Torpedo Gorki&mdash;, Kasatanov, from the Red Army team, as well as forwards Romashin and Timenyev were included.</p><p>It is doubtful that more than two of them will make the national team before the Olympics, but they will be used to strengthen club teams touring Canada and the U.S. this coming winter.</p><p>In their search for international glory, the Soviets once again followed traditional practices: The weaker teams of the First Division almost fell over themselves to get rid of what stars they had left, and they were all sent to Moscow, notably to the perennial champion ZSKA, the Red Army team. This permits Tikhonov, who doubles as ZSKA coach, to use five-men-units from his club for the national squad.</p><p>Some eyebrows were raised, even in Moscow, when it was announced that an Estonian defenseman by name of Tiid Lenbin would make the ZSKA team. Reports have it that he never played higher than third division hockey and is already approaching the advanced age of 30. Another talent of high caliber, defenseman Victor Khatulev, on the other hand, ruined his career forever. First he was banned for life for punching a referee, but when it was discovered that he had aimed at an opponent instead, sports authorities were on the verge of forgiving him. But last summer, he was caught for drunken driving, and that was the end of any rehabilitation plans.</p><h2><b>CZECHOSLOVAKIA</b></h2><p>For the first time in six years, the Czech National Team will have to do without Dr. Jan Starsi, the professor of Physical Education at the University of Bratislava. In company with Karel Gut, Starsi had masterminded many an upset of the Soviets and, yes, once even of Canada when all the best, even Bobby Orr, were in the line-up.</p><p>Now, Starsi takes a two-year sabbatical, coaching the German team of Riessersee at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and working on his thesis. Karel Gut will carry on, with two assistants and more or less the same team that took second spot at last spring&rsquo;s world championship.</p><p>&ldquo;We will have a strong team for Lake Placid, what happened to us in spring was bad luck,&rdquo; the departing Starsi asserted. Maybe Frantisek Cernik, who was out of shape at the end of last season, will rejoin the Nationals, maybe junior star Dusan Pasek will also make the team. He is playing for Slovan Bratislava, was the best Czech forward at the world junior championships and is built like Peter Stastney&mdash;"big and strong,&rdquo; Starsi reported. &ldquo;And the Stastnys&mdash;that is the generation of the future..</p><p>Starsi was referring to the Czech top line of Marian, Peter and Bohuslav Stastny, all brothers who grew up and played together, they helped Slovan Bratislava to new prominence and spearheaded their club&rsquo;s successful bid for the league championship. Marian also won the scoring honors.</p><p>Usually, Czech club teams start the season abroad at a leisurely pace, but in the Olympic season stiff measures were taken to have everyone in top shape by September.</p><p>All clubs had to start ice training not later than August 11, or a month earlier than the NHL, and no club could play exhibition games outside Czechoslovakia before August 20. At the end of August, the National Team saw first action in Sweden with two games against a Swedish team formed by former, present and future Swedish professionals.</p><p>The Czech first division started play on September 24. The final whistle will be blown on April 15, 1980, but the schedule will be left with two huge gaps&mdash;two weeks in December when the Nationals will play in the Moscow Isvestiya Cup Tourney and a full month from January 19th to the end of the Olympics.</p><p>This well enable the Czechs to present a strong, well-coordinated team at the Olympics, and the betting in hockey circles is that they will be the only team able to put up almost-equal resistance to the Soviets. Although they earned a total of five world titles, the Czechs never captured Olympic gold, but were very close a number of times.</p><h2><b>SWEDEN, FINLAND</b></h2><p>When Tommy Sandlin watched Sweden&rsquo;s all-pro outfit perform against Czechoslovakia this past August, he did so with mixed feelings, as none of those players was available for the Olympics.</p><p>Sandlin has the difficult task of rebuilding his national team with young players. From the squad that took third spot at the World Championships, he will have to forget about his best forward line, the all-NHL trio of Dan Labraaten, Rolf Edberg and Inge Hammarstrom, as well about Washington Caps defenseman Leif Svensson. Meanwile, Mats Naeslund and Bengt-Oke Gustavsson, both outstanding young forwards, also defected to the pros.</p><p>&ldquo;If you consider the number of players and rinks, then you must conclude that Sweden has the most effective way of producing talented players,&rdquo; observed Hockey Canada director Derek Holmes, maybe the most knowledgeable Canadian on European hockey. &ldquo;How do you think the Russians or Czechs would fare internationally with the constant talent drain the Swedes have to overcome?&rdquo;</p><p>Year after year, the Swedish system churns out big, rangy skaters, only to see them depart for a while in the transatlantic chase for pucks and bucks. Once back, they are reinstated as amateurs but remain ineligible for the Olympics.</p><p>Thus, Sandlin has to forget about some 30 of the best players when he assembles his Olympic squad. With a weaker team Sweden will have problems holding off competitors such as Canada, the U.S., Finland or maybe even West Grmany from medal range.</p><p>The Finns are also affected by the talent drain, but to a lesser degree, as most Finnish players hate to go abroad, even for better living. Of the top five scorers in the Finnish league (Veli-Pekka Ketola, Matti Hagman, Kari Makkonen, Antero Lehtonen and Pekka Rautakallio), only Lehtonen is eligible for the Olympics. Ketola joined the Vancouver Canucks, Makkonen the Edmonton Oilers, Rautakallio the Atlanta Flames, and Hagman lost his pure-white amateur status while skating for the Boston Bruins and Quebec Nordiques.</p><p>Yet the Finns are capable of playing hockey with the same spirit as the Vikingers won battles, and on the smaller American ice surfaces they just might be capable of staging a couple of those upsets that endeared them to hockey audiences all over the world. They are expert in playing the counter game, launching quick two-men-rushes from their own defensive zone, but usually are at a loss for effective tactics once they hem their opponents in their own zone.</p><h2><b>SWITZERLAND, GERMANY</b></h2><p>While the best hockey in Europe is being played in the Soviet Union, in Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Finland, the Big Money is to be made in Switzerland and West Germany.</p><p>Wily Jacques Lemaire, the centerman who guided the Canadiens to their fourth successive Stanley Cup victory last spring, was not the first Canadian puck artist to have made this discovery&mdash;but he is the highest-paid ever, in terms of dollars, to make his dent in European hockey. HC Sierre, a Swiss second division team formerly coached by Winnipeg Jet Norm Beaudin, reportedly will dish out 75,000 taxfree dollars, plus a stately home, a maid and a car to sweeten Lemaire&rsquo;s efforts on ice.</p><p>Other former major leaguers such as defensemen Claire Alexander, Ab DeMarco, George Pesut, Real Lemieux, Kent Ruhnke and forwards Craig Sarner, Doug Palazzari, Bob Rant and a lot of minor leaguers also discovered that playing hockey in Europe has its advantages.</p><p>Swiss champion SC Bern, which boasts the European attendance record, averaging 13,000 fans per game&mdash;at higher ticket prices than in the NHL&mdash;features former Finnish WHA pro Lauri Mononen and former Quebec Nordique chattel Serge Martel in its line-up. Neil Nicholson of the Fort Worth Texans was last season&rsquo;s best defenseman in Switzerland, playing for Langnau. And former Fin Flon Bomber Richmond Gosselin dazzles the crowds with his stickhandling antics.</p><p>Most of them earn in 30,000 to 40,000 dollar range, often taxfree and with an apartment thrown in.</p><p>But they have to play a different style of hockey than they are used to from the pros. It is a fast-skating brand by well-conditioned teams, sometimes in open-air rinks, and tough guys are just not in demand. In fact, the European clubs mostly look for deft skaters and stickhandlers, with size of no importance.</p><p>&ldquo;It is plain silly what I had to go through as a junior in Canada. I would not trade that kind of hockey to the one I experience in Switzerland,&rdquo; Richmond Gosselin stated last season.</p><p>The Dutch and Germans discovered yet another way of hiring Canadians or Americans. As club teams are limited to one to three foreign players, depending on the country, they scour Canada and the U.S. for dual citizens. Almost any son of a post-war immigrant with ability to move around on skates can land a hockey job in Europe&mdash;provided he can reinstate his Dutch, German, Swiss French or Italian citizenship.</p><p>As a rule, the dual citizens will be hired away from junior teams and will not strike it as rich as seasoned pros. Heinz Weisenbach of Mannheim, a former German international player who coaches there, was the first to try this idea wholesale.</p><p>&ldquo;I flew to Toronto with no contacts at all, traveled all over the country and found suitable players with German parents,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was the only way to strengthen our team instantly and without paying transfer fees.&rdquo;</p><p>Mannheim keeps the best among its finds and sends the others to lesser clubs for tryouts. Some of the better ones even play for the German national team.</p><p>The Netherlands developed this system to new heights. Their national team is so loaded with repatriated immigrants that most players converse in English. And they surprised everybody, including themselves, by moving up into the A Pool of the World Championship, where they will face the Soviets, Czechs, Finns, Swedes, Canadians, Americans and Germans the next time around.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-01

1979-80 EUROPEAN PREVIEW

<div class="byline">By FRANK BROWN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011601/10140883-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span> cement puck is offered anyone who can&mdash;without peeking&mdash;list the alignment of the teams in the four National Hockey League divisions, detail the management changes that have occurred this summer, enumerate (within two dozen) the number of player moves that have taken place and, finally, predict which club will employ Dale McCourt in 1979-80.</p><p>Indeed, the ability to recall any of the above is an achievement of some note. Don Cherry, new coach of the Colorado Rockies (there&rsquo;s one for you) was asked how his club could be expected to fare in the Smythe Division this fall.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d tell you,&rdquo; he replied sheepishly, &ldquo;but frankly, I don&rsquo;t even know who&rsquo;s in the Smythe Division to begin with.&rdquo;</p><p>Not many players do, to be truthful, but for those of us who don&rsquo;t sleep until the last second of every game has been played at night, such information is an absolute necessity.</p><p>Cherry&rsquo;s Rockies will share the league&rsquo;s weakest division with the Chicago Black Hawks, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers. The other Campbell Conference division, the Patrick, includes a newcomer&mdash;the Washington Capitals&mdash;and four incumbents: The New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Atlanta Flames.</p><p>The Prince of Wales Conference makeup has been affected as well by the NHL&rsquo;s admission of four teams who composed two thirds of the late and unlamented World Hockey Association. The Quebec Nordiques debut in the Adams division with the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota North Stars, while the Hartford Whalers replace Washington in the Norris Section with defending champion Montreal, the Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Detroit Red Wings.</p><p>What&rsquo;s that? You knew that stuff already? Okay; let&rsquo;s move on to the front office and some remarkable geographic hopscotch.</p><p>First, the new coaches: Cherry, as mentioned, has left the helm of the Boston Bruins for the Rockies, replacing Aldo Guidolin. Cherry&rsquo;s place in Boston was taken by Fred Creighton, who was fired from his position with the Atlanta Flames. Creighton&rsquo;s spot was filled by Al MacNeil, who was one of many major losses suffered by the Montreal organization in the offseason.</p><p>Another of those losses, perhaps the most serious, was that of Scotty Bowmah, who coached the Canadiens to their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup and then gave it all up to become the general manager-head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. Bowman, in one of his first official acts, hired Roger Neilson away from Toronto (it didn&rsquo;t take much prodding) to be his &ldquo;associate&rdquo; coach while Claude Ruel returned behind the Montreal bench.</p><p>The Maple Leafs, who courted Bowman, Cherry, Neilson, Rangers, assistant coach Mike Nykoluk and others ended up giving Floyd Smith their coaching job while bringing Punch Im-lach back as general manager.</p><p>But that&rsquo;s not all. Bob Pulford, preferring to direct his attentions strictly to the duties of GM, selected former goalie Ed Johnston to guide the Black Hawks. All told, that&rsquo;s seven clubs who will start this season with different coaches than the ones who finished last year.</p><p>What?! You knew that, too?. Bravo. If you can remember all the deals that were made while the rest of North America was on summer holiday then a deals were made in order.</p><p>The truth is, though, that dozens of deals were made just to keep players where they <i>were.</i> Before the June expansion draft helped fill out the rosters of the incoming clubs (Winnipeg, Quebec, Edmonton, and Hartford), club GMs spent countless hours making trades like this: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give you Player A and Player B if you&rsquo;ll take Player C in the expansion draft instead of somebody I can&rsquo;t protect but really want to keep.&rdquo;</p><p>For example: The Canadiens, who stood to lose a promising defenseman like Rod Langway or a proven goal scorer like Pierre Larouche, got away without losing either by making such deals. The answer is simple: Before the draft (in which Edmonton had first pick) they said, &ldquo;Look. You take (left wing) Cam Connor, and we&rsquo;ll give you (forwards) Dan Newman and Dave Lumley for nothing.&rdquo;</p><p>Edmonton said, &ldquo;Okay, we&rsquo;ll do that if you&rsquo;ll agree not to reclaim (left wing) Dave Hunter, who is one of our best defensive forwards.&rdquo; The Montreal people said, &ldquo;You got a deal,&rdquo; and everyone was rendered reasonably happy.</p><p>As it ended up, at least 100 players changed uniforms. But it&rsquo;s likely there isn&rsquo;t a soul in the hockey world who can say how many deals were made.</p><p>It&rsquo;s just as likely there isn&rsquo;t a person who can say for sure what the outcome will be of the Dale McCourt Case, which may take years to unravel and countless thousands of dollars in legal fees. McCourt, awarded to Los Angeles from Detroit so many months ago as compensation for the Red Wings&rsquo; signing of goalie Rogie Vachon, has fought successfully in the courts to remain in Detroit.</p><p>As soon as one judge issues a ruling which seems to decide the matter, the other (side) files suit again. A betting man might wager McCourt will play for the Red Wings this season; a wiser man would wait and see.</p><p>It would be laughable if the collective bargaining agreement&mdash;the crucial factor in labor peace where any professional sport is concerned&mdash;didn&rsquo;t hang in the balance. At stake is the validity of the NHL owners&rsquo; rights to bargain with its players, and that&rsquo;s serious business.</p><p>Equally serious is the player&rsquo;s justifiable claim that his rights in the free enterprise system are encumbered by such an agreement. And no clearer example can be provided that the case of center Garry Unger.</p><p>Unger, who has played 865 consecutive games going into this season, played out the option year of his contract with the St. Louis Blues and sought to peddle his wares on the free agent market. He could just as well have had leprosy, for every general manager knew compensation would be required if Unger signed with his club. And, as Edmonton GM Larry Gordon explained: &ldquo;What if an arbitrator tells me I&rsquo;ve got to give up Wayne Gretzky as compensation?&rdquo;</p><p>The far-ranging implications of the final McCourt ruling (whenever that happens) have been a subject of discussion throughout the summer. The situation may be no clearer when the season begins.</p><p>When the campaign does commence, we&rsquo;ll find the NHL abandoning its unbalanced scheduled for one which has each club playing two games in each of the other 20 league arenas. While critics have bellowed long and loud that such a setup dilutes the geographic and divisional rivalries and league so badly needs, supporters have responded that the Canadiens, for example, made just two visits to Boston Garden last season&mdash;exactly the same number they&rsquo;ll make this year.</p><p>They add the NHL is by no meads married to the balanced format and is virtually certain to return to the unbalanced for 1980-81. Until then, though, sit back and enjoy: With 16 of the 21 clubs in the playoffs and Montreal in some danger of toppling from its throne, this winter is sure to bring some surprises&mdash;perhaps as many as there were this summer.</p><h2><b>PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH IN 1980</b></h2><h3><b>CLARENCE CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</b></h3><h4><b>PATRICK DIVISION</b></h4><p>New York Islanders</p><p>New York Rangers</p><p>Philadelphia Flyers</p><p>Atlanta Flames</p><p>Washington Capitals</p><h4>SMYTHE DIVISION</h4><p>Chicago Black Hawks</p><p>Edmonton Oilers</p><p>Vancouver Canucks</p><p>Winnipeg Jets</p><p>Colorado Rockies</p><p>St. Louis Blues</p><h3><b>PRINCE OF WALES CONFERENCE</b></h3><h4><b>ADAMS DIVISION</b></h4><p>Buffalo Sabres</p><p>Boston Bruins</p><p>Toronto Maple Leafs</p><p>Minnesota North Stars</p><p>Quebec Nordiques</p><h4><b>NORRIS DIVISION</b></h4><p>Montreal Canadiens</p><p>Pittsburgh Penguins</p><p>Los Angeles Kings</p><p>Hartford Whalers</p><p>Detroit Red Wings<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0022-01

1979-1980 NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PREVIEW

<div class="byline">AL ARBOUR</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011542/10140977-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="672" height="624"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-021109/10140970-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="676" height="659"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he New York Islanders are in a nowin situation this season. They could very well right themselves after two extremely disappointing playoff performances and win the Stanley Cup, only to hear someone remind them that the Canadiens of 1979-80 were debilitited by the departures of Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire and Scotty Bowman.</p><p>If they win, and they might, people might claim the crown on the Islanders&rsquo; heads is a tainted one.</p><p>But if they don&rsquo;t win, and they might do that, too, the critics will make the last two agonizing summers seem like paid vacations on some tropical island. Such is the burden of near-success&mdash;the weight of unfulfilled expectations placed (fairly or unfairly) on their shoulders.</p><p>It becomes difficult, though, to determine which expectations are fairly held. In their defense, the Islanders are only seven seasons old, and each year has been marked by more improvement than some teams show in a decade.</p><p>In his defense, General Manager, Bill Torrey has done a superlative job in moulding his club through the draft, obtaining some of the finest talent on skates and giving coach Al Arboui; a dream team with which to work. Remember, some coaches have to earn their living with teams like St. Louis.</p><p>To their descredit, however, the Islanders have been unable or unwilling to learn from their mistakes. They spent the summer of 1978 talking about how much they had learned from their quarter-final debacle against Toronto, when they were ousted by a team with less talent but much, much more desire.</p><p>They said that wouldn&rsquo;t be repeated in 1978-79&mdash;how they would take every team seriously, never stop working, never stop driving for the Stanley Cup that sat within their reach.</p><p>Then their four best players forgot to show up for the semifinals against the Rangers last spring. And suddenly the Islanders&rsquo; stars were not Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Mike Bossy; they were Bob Lorimer, Mike Kaszycki, John Tonelli and Bob Nystrom.</p><p>This would be excusable, since everyone has lapses. But the Islanders have saved their best lapses for last and for two seasons in a row, buckling before teams that want to win more than they do.</p><p>And that is disturbing because it is much harder to solve problems in the dressing room than it is to solve them on the ice. It is difficult to convince a team it can win if the players start believing they can&rsquo;t.</p><p>It would be very nice to say, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s leave the Islanders alone for a season, not put any pressure on them, and see how they perform, because then we&rsquo;ll have an accurate barometer of what&rsquo;s wrong and what&rsquo;s right.&rdquo;</p><p>That, however, is unrealistic. For sometimes, even if pressure doesn&rsquo;t exist, a player will create it for himself.</p><p>We all know, very well, that Trottier is one of the best regular-season centers in the league; that Mike Bossy is one of the best regular-season goal scorers and that Al Arbour is one of the game&rsquo;s finest regular-season coaches.</p><p>But we can&rsquo;t say that about the playoffs and be honest. They have the talent; they wouldn&rsquo;t have won the overall points title without it. What they don&rsquo;t have is leadership&mdash;one player they can look to for the Catalytic Spark.</p><p>Gillies has been offered that role, but seems unwilling to accept it. Tonelli might have been the one, but he grew concerned about his lack of scoring while replacing the stricken Gillies on the Trottier fine late in the season.</p><p>Potvin might accept the challenge, but he still has some simply awful games, and he has enough responsibility with getting the puck out of the zone and helping the power play.</p><p>Such is the predicament, and one wonders what the solution might be. Trades seem a step sideways. A coaching change? What for? The coach hasn&rsquo;t been born yet who can guarantee success in the playofs and no one can argue Arbour&rsquo;s regular-season performance..</p><p>The only answer, it seems, is patience. And that is the posture Torrey seems to assume. Time tables for championships are a fool&rsquo;s chore; it doesn&rsquo;t work that way in sports, where variables change instant to instant. The Islanders will win the Stanley Cup when they win the Stanley Cup, and not one minute sooner. No words can change that.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03768/10140963-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="723" height="979"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Bob Lorimer</b></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011348/10140956-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="1538" height="3171"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Last season, Denis Potvin won the Norris Trophy&mdash;as the NHLs top defenseman&mdash;for the second consecutive year.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>NEW YORK ISLANDERS (7)</b></h3><p>1 *Duane Sutter, right wing, Lethbridge</p><p>2a. *Tomas Jonsson, defenseman Sweden</p><p>2b. Bill Carroll, center London</p><p>3. *Roland Melanson, goaltender Windsor</p><p>4. Tim Lockridge, defenseman Brandon</p><p>5. *Glen Duncan, left wing, Toronto</p><p>6. *John Gibb, defenseman Bowling Green U.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02953/10140949-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="737" height="2179"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011555/10140942-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="1109" height="1339"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Bobby Nystrom is one of the league&rsquo;s most consistent right wings.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-021117/10140935-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="1230" height="1481"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03870/10140928-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="2397" height="1597"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011426/10140921-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="2434" height="1224"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-021002/10140914-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="2452" height="1375"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0024-01

New York Islanders

<div class="byline">FRED SHERO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011531/10141064-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="664" height="625"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-021074/10141057-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="675" height="662"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he&rsquo;re are people who believe a team that made the Stanley Cup final one year must be considered a legitimate contender for the championship the next season as well.</p><p>In recent years, though, this theory has not held true. The Boston Bruins, try as they might, were not up to a successful challenge of the Montreal Canadiens in their second shot at them in the finals two years ago. And there is reason to doubt that the New York Rangers will threaten the now-shaky Stan ley Cup kingdome in Montreal this year.</p><p>That is not to say the Rangers aren&rsquo;t a very good teaa, because they are. They survived the loss of center Ulf Nilsson, overcame more than a month without defenseman Ron Greschner, and shrugged off the poor finish which lost second place in the Patrick Division to Philadelphia&rsquo;s late charge. They caught fire in the playoffs and fashioned their first consistent hockey since October while hustling past the Kings, Flyers and Islanders to a final matchup with Montreal.</p><p>But the troubling inconsistency and flippant, random attitude to team management by &ldquo;General Manger&rdquo; Fired Shero leaves the Rangers something of a question mark as the 1979-80 season comes nearer.</p><p>Perhaps the best indicator of front office carelessness pops up in the case of goalie John Davidson, who injured his 1 eft knee in the last game of the semifinal against the Islanders but did not undergo surgery until August 10.</p><p>Now some caution in this matter is understandable, since Davidson already had one surgical repair on the knee and another operation&mdash;even if it is on the other side of the kneecap&mdash;could weaken the knee as much as help it. Still, it was wondrous the decision was made so late. Either he needs an operation or he doesn&rsquo;t. And the timing (just five weeks before training camp is when most of the <i>healthy</i> players start getting ready) is certain to keep Davidson away fom at least the start of the pre-season.</p><p>That was puzzling, as was the apparent lack of preparation by the Rangers for the expansion draft. It was remarkable that defenseman Jocelyn Guevremont was made the first &ldquo;fill&rdquo; made by the Rangers after Dave Farrish wan claimed by Quebec in the first round. Guevremont, a slow healer, was injured goods when he arrived from Buffalo (cracked shin bone) and still hasn&rsquo;t played a game for New York.</p><p>Since he is at best the sixth wheel on a defense which boasts Greschner, Dave Maloney, Carol Vadnais, Mike McEwen and the quietly consistent Mario Marots, don&rsquo;t expect to see much&mdash;if any&mdash;of Guevremont this winter, either. In fact, why was he brought to New York in the first place?</p><p>This is a very good defensive corps, but one which can be served far better if the forwards; help out as they did in the playoffs. It is the difference, we might say, between a second-place finish and a third-place finish. The forechecking of Walt Tkaczuk, Ron Duguay, Anders Hedberg and the now-departed Pierre Plante was instrumental in allowing the defense to stand up at the blue line, clear the rebounds, and&mdash;above all&mdash;start the counterattack which produced so many breakaways and two-on-ones in the playoffs.</p><p>Hedberg and Nilsson, perhaps the team&rsquo;s finest forwards, still seek a left wing to complement their style. Perhaps Pat Hickey will be given another chance there, though he was uncomfortable in a stint with that line last season.</p><p>Steve Vickers had a fine second half after some benching unpleasantness earlier and was a far better offensive player than his 13-34&mdash;47 point total.</p><p>Other standout forwards include Phil Esposito, who endured a full year of trade rumors and finished with 4236&mdash;78, just one point behind Hedberg&rsquo;s 33-46.</p><p>Point totals under 80 by a team&rsquo;s top scorer would be unacceptable if not for the fact that the balanced Ranger attack included three scorers of 20 or more goals (Don Murdoch had 15 in 40 games after returning from suspension and Don Maloney had nine in just 28 games), two in the 30s and one in the 40s.</p><p>Thus, the scoring is proficient enough for another good season, as is the defense. The Rangers are also well off in goal, with Doug Soetaert and Wayne Thomas expected to battle for playing time behind Davidson once again.</p><p>The only noticeable deficiency is toughness, since Nick Fotiu departed for Hartford in the expansion draft. Marois may have to be enough, since Dave Maloney (whose 151 penalty minutes were third-high on the team) may be one of the world&rsquo;s worst fighters.</p><p>In short, a very good team; but don&rsquo;t expect the finals again.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011343/10141050-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="1579" height="3205"><figcaption class="caption-body">Right wing Anders Hedberg was the Rangers leading scorer last season, with 33 goals and 46 assists for 79 points.</figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>NEW YORK RANGERS (5)</b></h3><p>1. Doug Sulliman, right wing Kitchener</p><p>2. Ed Hospodar, defense man right wing Ottawa</p><p>3. Pat Conacher, center, Saskatoon</p><p>4. *Dan Majuch, right wing, Ottawa</p><p>5. *Stan Adams, center, Niagara Falls</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02922/10141043-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="778" height="2179"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011542/10141036-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="1103" height="1321"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Pat Hickey played most of last season on a line with Hedberg and Nilsson&mdash;and finished as the team&rsquo;s third-leading scorer</b>.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-021063/10141029-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="1226" height="1484"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03769/10141022-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="2379" height="1585"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011395/10141015-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="2388" height="1460"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02948/10141008-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="2383" height="1203"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0028-01

New York Rangers

<div class="byline">PAT QUINN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011517/10141151-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="584" height="402"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-021026/10141144-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="651" height="662"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>P</span>erhaps the most refreshing thing about the Philadelphia Flyers is the carefully cultivated atmosphere of class that pervades the atmosphere no matter where the team travels.</p><p>Granted, part of this is malarkey: It was like watching one of those old sports movies on the late whow when Flyers Board Chairman Ed Snider walked up to defenseman Andre Dupont in a Madison Square Garden hallway last April, placed his arm on Dupont&rsquo;s shoulder and said softly, &ldquo;This team has too much character to lose four straight in the playoffs to anybody!&rdquo;</p><p>Dupont must have fought the impulse to laugh at the melodrama. The Flyers had been bombed 6-0 by the Rangers, and no matter how much character they had, they got hammered 8-3 two nights later. That was it for the playoffs.</p><p>But even that one magnificently silly moment cannot erase the undeniable existance of the Flyer family and all that family means.</p><p>&bull; It means Joe Watson babbling into a telephone in the trainer&rsquo;s room the night of May 14, 1975 after Philadelphia had beaten the Islanders 4-1 in the seventh game of the playoff semifinals. Almost everybody else was celebrating with beer and handshakes in the main part of the clubhouse, but Joe Watson was off in that side room, talking to his mother back home in Smithers, British Columbia.</p><p>&ldquo;We won, mammy!&rdquo; he exhaulted. &ldquo;We won. The best team won, mammy!&rdquo;</p><p>&bull; It means Joe Watson lying in a St. Louis hospital bed 3&rsquo;/2 years later, his shattered right leg suspended from a tractionlike rigging, talking about how the Flyers already had called him and offered a job for next season; talking about how Ed Snider had offered the use of a private jet if it would be of any help&mdash;that even if Joe Watson had been traded to the Colorado Rockies before the season&rsquo;s start, even if he was now &ldquo;the opposition,&rdquo; he was still an original Philadelphia Flyer and a charter member of that family.</p><p>&bull; It means Joe Watson last August 10, accepting the positon Snider had promised nine months before. Watson will scout Philadelphia opponents and act as part-time assistant coach.</p><p>It means that, however much of a cliche it might appear, Coach Pat Quinn was right when he said that the addition of Watson and Bobby Clarke as assistant coaches &ldquo;represents what the Flyers&rsquo; organization is all about.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s very refreshing, because people who watch sports often know players don&rsquo;t often get that kind of treatment, and it is an intangible asset. We might, in the past, have heard the name Philadelphia Flyers and thought of Broad Street Bullies and hard hitting and intimidation, but we also can think of them on another level, the level of class that is <i>not</i> predominant in professional sport.</p><p>The thought of the Flyers this year is still one of a team searching for a return to form from the Stanley Cup seasons of 1973-74 and 1974-75. It will not be easy: There are too many question marks.</p><p>What does this winter hold for Clarke, who last season endured his worst campaign statistically (73 points) since 1970-1971? He was unable to provide the spark to carry the team as he had for so many spectacular seasons when people in every rink but Philadelphia&rsquo;s hated him (a) because he was so good and (b) because he was playing so well FOR THE OTHER TEAM.</p><p>How will the goaltending fare? Can we assume that Phil Myre and Pete Peeters will come up with the superlative performances this team may well need, considering the defense? There is no question about the ability of Behn Wilson and Jim Watson, but Bob Dailey seems to run hot and cold, Dupont is not coming off one of his better years, and there appears to be little help to be found elsewhere in the organization.</p><p>And what about toughness? Can you believe it? When the Flyers lost Dave Hoyda to Winnipeg in the expansion draft, there were murmurs Philadelphia wouldn&rsquo;t be as tough as they used to be. Well, don&rsquo;t count on that; if the Flyers have two trademarks, they are the class of the organization and the toughness of the athletes employed by that organization.</p><p>Remeber this, too. Last year was supposed to be a &ldquo;rebuilding&rdquo; (translation: writeoff) year for the Philadelphia Flyers. All the Flyers did was finish second in the league&rsquo;s toughest division and collect 95 points (the fourth-best total in the league). It&rsquo;s safe to assume they&rsquo;d settle for moderate improvement this year, and it&rsquo;s almost certain they&rsquo;ll get it, because the balanced schedule means a whopping 12 fewer games against the Rangers, Islanders and Flames, who gave the Flyers fits.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011343/10141137-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="1532" height="3177"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Bobby Clarke will drop the &ldquo;C&rdquo; from his jersey this season and assume a new! responsibility&mdash;as playing assistant to head coach Pat Quinn.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (7)</b></h3><p>1. Brian Propp, left wing, Brandon</p><p>2a. Blake Wesley, defenseman, Portland</p><p>2a. Pelle Lindbergh, goaltender, Sweden</p><p>3. *Lindsay Carson, left wing-center Billings</p><p>4. *Don Gillen, right wing, Brandon</p><p>5. *Thomas Ericksson, defenseman Sweden</p><p>6. *Gord Williams, center, Lethbridge</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02934/10141130-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="781" height="2327"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011542/10141123-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="1069" height="1312"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Center Ken Linseman is one of the NHL&rsquo;s fastest skaters.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-021079/10141116-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="1193" height="1478"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03849/10141109-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="2331" height="1587"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011420/10141102-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="2408" height="1355"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-021013/10141095-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="2412" height="1306"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0032-01

Philadelphia Flyers

<div class="byline">AL MCNEIL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011443/10141238-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="669" height="575"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02984/10141231-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="672" height="664"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>et&rsquo;s do some simple mathematics. The average price of a ticket to a Flames game at the Omni is $7.88, according to a survey taken last year, and let&rsquo;s say the average goes up to $9 a shot during the playoffs.</p><p>Now let&rsquo;s see what the attendances were for Atlanta&rsquo;s annual home playoff game the last two seasons. The Flames drew 15,155 for the preliminary-round opener against Detroit on April 11,1977 and attracted 14,757 for their contest against Toronto last April 10.</p><p>So, using that hypothetical $9 price, we see Atlanta collected about $137,000 in ticket revenues for their 1978 playoff and about $133,000 for their game last spring.</p><p>Now in view of the fact that running a hockey team is a multi-million dollar proposition, that total of around $270,000 (less taxes paid the city and state and other expenses) isn&rsquo;t really all that much money. <i>BUT if</i> your team can win the preliminary round and make the quarter-finals, that means at least two more home dates and two more very nice-sized deposits in the bank account.</p><p>For four years now, the Flames have let their fans down emotionally and themselves down financially by winning exactly one game over four series. So it came to the point where no matter how successful coach Fred Creighton had been in guiding the team during the regular season, the failure to fill club coffers with some post-season loot went a long way toward costing Creighton his job.</p><p>&ldquo;We just felt that overall, for the sake of the franchise, it was in our best interests to make a change,&rdquo; said Flames General Manager Clif Fletcher.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had relatively good success since Day One of this franchise, but our playoff record for the last four years speaks for itself. We&rsquo;ve won exactly one game in four series, and that hurt the club substantially in the area of finance. So, in the interests of hockey in Atlanta, it was necessary to make a move.&rdquo;</p><p>That statement was an interesting one because just a few weeks before the playoffs began, Fletcher was asked if the Flames depend on playoff revenues to make or break the season financially, and his answer was, &ldquo;No more so than any other team.&rdquo;</p><p>Regardless, the Flames are still waging a war for the entertainment dollar in a Southern city&mdash;even if an unofficial survey revealed they outdrew their national Basketball Association counterparts, the Hawks, by 11,820 to 8,026 during the regular season.</p><p>So the numbers told the story. The 12-game unbeaten streak that started their season was long forgotten by the time the Flames were ousted by the Maple Leafs. The more serious memories were those of Atlanta&rsquo;s defense coming unglued and of Creighton, no matter how hard he tired, being powerless to stick it back together.</p><p>Thus the new look this season, with Al MacNeil behind the bench and some new players in Atlanta uniforms&mdash;notably Finnish defenseman Peeka Rautakallio and Swedish center Kent Nilsson.</p><p>That may stand as some sort of international record, by the way, since right wing Willi Plett was born in Paraguay, South America, defenseman Ed Kea was bom in Weesp, Holland and center Ivan Boldirev&mdash;acquired in the eight-man deal with Chicago last March&mdash;is a native of Zranjanin, Yugoslavia. Is this hockey or the United Nations?)</p><p>To be certain, Fletcher is looking for improvement from the defense, which has Rautakallio, Russell and Kea complementing Brad Marsh and veteran Bob Murdoch.</p><p>We&rsquo;ve got to tighten up defensively all over the ice,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;We gave up more goals (280) than we have since we came into the league.&rdquo;</p><p>Fletcher says he&rsquo;s hopeful that will change this year, but seeks improvement in another department as well.</p><p>&ldquo;We ended up sixth-best in a 17-team league last season, and this year, with 21 teams, we hope to move up to third or fourth and leapfrog some of the teams in our own division. See, we might have been sixth, but three of the five teams ahead of us were in our own division,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Well, if the defense stiffens and goalie Dan Bouchard can handle the workload (he played in more games, 64, and won more, 32, than any other netminder), the Flames are certain to have the scoring power to move up.</p><p>Bob MacMillan scored 108 points, linemate Guy Chouinard had 50 goals and 107 points, and Nilsson had 107 before being reclaimed from the Winnipeg Jets. Eric Vail, left wing on the line with Chouinard and MacMillan, added 35-48-83, Boldirev finished with 35-43-78 and Jean Pronovost chipped in 28-39-67.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011279/10141224-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="1554" height="3218"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Bob MacMillan scored 108 points for the Flames last season&mdash;and won thd Lady Byng Trophy for his gentlemanly play.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3>ALANTA FLAMES (7)</h3><p>1. *Paul Reinhart, defense mancenter, Kitchener</p><p>2a. Mike Perovich, defenseman, Brandon</p><p>2b. Pat Riggin, goaltender, Birmingham (WHA)</p><p>3. *Tim Hunter, defenseman, Seattle</p><p>4. Jim Peplinski, right wing, Toronto</p><p>5. Brad Kempthorne, center-right wing, Brandon</p><p>6. *Glenn Johnson, center, U. of Denver</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02906/10141217-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="791" height="2281"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011399/10141210-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="1104" height="1322"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Goalie Dan Bouchard played more games (64) and won more games (32) than any other goalie In the NHL last season.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02974/10141203-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1223" height="1479"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03786/10141196-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="2359" height="1576"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011279/10141189-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="2441" height="1449"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02872/10141182-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="2443" height="1217"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0036-01

Atlanta Flames

<div class="byline">DANNY BELISLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01996/10141325-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="682" height="374"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02656/10141318-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="670" height="670"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>V</span>ery slowly, the pieces are starting to fall into place for the Washington Capitals. There are little indicators, a few every season, that the worst is over for this team; that the future people have been talking about for so long is not too many more years away.</p><p>Perhaps last season was marked by the most progress. The arrival of goalie Gary Inness last December, after Indianapolis won its race to oblivion helped solidify one of Washington&rsquo;s more troublesome positions. He ended up with 14 victories, 14 defeats and eight ties, numbers which ordinarily wouldn&rsquo;t impress anyone&mdash;except that Inness gave the Capitals the first .500 goalie in their five NHL seasons, and that&rsquo;s one of the small steps forward.</p><p>Inness might even do better this year, since his defense (on paper, anyway) is the best Washington has brought into a season.</p><p>Start with Robert Picard, who at 22 will have a lot to say about this team&rsquo;s future and how quickly it arrives.</p><p>He nearly doubled his point production from the 10-27&mdash;37 of his rookie year to 21-44&mdash;65 in 1978-79. And defensively, he finished plus-two&mdash;not bad for the defenseman who had the most playing time on a team which gave up 338 goals (only St. Louis was worse).</p><p>Picard is complemented on the blue line by Rick Green, very smooth, very tough, a fine passer and perfectly built for defense at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds. Behind him are Swedish-bom Leif Svensson, who spent the better part of the season finding out you have to hit in North American hockey; Yvon Labre, the only original Capital left; plus Pierre Bouchard, who finally reported and played one game after ending his &ldquo;retirement.&rdquo;</p><p>Then there is Paul MacKinnon, who chose the Winnipeg Jets over the Capitals, who made him their fourth choice, 23rd overall, at Montreal last June. MacKinnon preferred to get in some professional playing time in a place other than Hershey, Pa., so he played 73 games with the Jets (2-15&mdash;17, 70 PIM). He is noteworthy in that he was reclaimed by Washington before the expansion draft and thus must stay with the Capitals for the next two seasons under the regulations of the expansion. That season of experience in Winnipeg for a 20-year-old who likes to hit in his defensive end, may pay dividends for Washington.</p><p>MacKinnon is known for his enthusiasm in clearing the crease&mdash;something the Capitals have lacked virtually since their inception. Needless to say, the goalies (Inness, Jim Bedard or Dave Parro, obtained from Quebec for left wing Nelson Burton) will appreciate any assistance he can offer.</p><p>This defense, if it gets enough help from the forwards, might cut 50 goals off last year&rsquo;s horrific total. But talk of forwards brings up another area of improvement for Washington.</p><p>Last season was the first one in which Guy Charron did not have to do ALL the offensive work himself. The acquisition of Dennis Maruk from Minnesota helped in at least two ways: He led the team in scoring with 90 points, easily a club record, and he centered for Tommy Rowe&mdash;improving the right wing&rsquo;s goal production from 13 to 31 and making the native of Lynn, Massachusetts, the NHL&rsquo;s first American-born 30-goal scorer.</p><p>That took a lot of the pressure off the steady Charron, who scored 28 goals of his own.</p><p>Another center (Washington is one of the NHL&rsquo;s stronger teams at this position) is Rolf Edberg, who distinguished himself while playing with lesser wings much of the time and finishing with 41 points, anyway. Then there&rsquo;s Dennis Hextali, who helps out on the important faceoffs because that is one area of deficiency in Edberg.</p><p>Beyond that lies the possibility that Ryan Walter, a center converted to left wing last season, might shift back to his original position to further strengthen the center corps.</p><p>The debut of Tim Coulis, which was to have taken place last September, is expected this time around. Coulis, second only to Walter among Capitals draft choices last summer, missed what would have been his rookie year with a fractured bone in a delicate area of his wrist. He&rsquo;ll help out on the left side, which already includes spunky Greg Polis (back from a broken leg), Bob Girard (fast but small) and Paul Mulvey (not yet a high quality player).</p><p>The weakness is on right wing. There isn&rsquo;t much backing up Rowe and Bob Sirois, who was one of five Washington scorers of 25 or more goals.</p><p>Until last season, though, the Capitals had never had more than two players with 25-plus goals. And that&rsquo;s another note of improvement. Washington finished last season with 273 goals, 49 more than their previous season high.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01871/10141311-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="1555" height="3197"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ryan Walter was one of the most impressive rookies in the league last season, scoring 28 goals, 27 assists and using his body like a 10-year veteran.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>WASHINGTON CAPITALS (5)</b></h3><p>1. Mike Gartner, right wing, Cincinnati (WHA)</p><p>2. Errol Rausse, left wing, Seattle</p><p>4. Harvie Pocza, left wing, Billings</p><p>5. *Tim Tookey, center, Portland</p><p>6. Greg Theberge, defenseman, Peterborough</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02581/10141304-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="770" height="2254"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01927/10141297-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="1096" height="1325"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Last year, for the first time In a long time, Guy Charron wasn&rsquo;t the only Washington forward who backchecked.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02609/10141290-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="1225" height="1495"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03481/10141283-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="2368" height="1588"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01898/10141276-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="2449" height="1575"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02631/10141269-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="2453" height="1307"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0040-01

Washington Capitals

<div class="byline">ED JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01807/10141412-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="643" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02531/10141405-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="679" height="660"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>H</span>ockey fans were well aware of the energy crisis in North America long before the matter reached emergency proportions during the summer. After all, these people have been watching the Smythe Division for five seasons now, and nothing can equal the lack of drive exhibited by each of that sector&rsquo;s members.</p><p>The Smythe has settled over the NHL like some sort of polluted cloud, numbing not only the players but the fans into a remarkable stupor of indifference&mdash;as evidenced by the fact that, not one of the teams in that division had a winning record last season.</p><p>That the Chicago Black Hawks took the sectional crown with 29 victories in 80 games is testament enough that these clubs always seem to play as though the puck were square and ma de of steel.</p><p>There is some hope that this sad circumstance will change this season with the addition of Winnipeg and Edmon-ton to the Smythe and a few changes in the Chicago lineup&mdash;notably the arrival of Coach Ed Johnston and forwards Terry Ruskowski and Rich Preston.</p><p>Johnston, if nothing else, has been known to smile on occasion&mdash;a characteristic NOT shared by Bob Pulford, his predecessor behind the bench. Johnston, who as a play er saw the woeful Smythe Division (and the Black Hawks) first-hand, knew the score. He knew what had to be said at his inaugural press conference.</p><p>He said, &ldquo;I think we will be more exciting,&rdquo; and it could only be I loped he was right. At stake was a step, however small, toward respectability&rsquo;s return to Chicago and the Smythe&mdash;a reason for the fans to come back to Chicago Stadium, which is one of the nicer arenas on the circuit but languishes largely ignored by the people who used Ito jam its every cranny.</p><p>&ldquo;We have added some players who can score 20 goals, and that&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s going to take,&rdquo; said Johnston.</p><p>Others feel it will take a lot more, or else goalie Tony Esposito would not have worked so hard trying to sign with another team after playing out the option year of his contract.</p><p>But Esposito wasn&rsquo;t able to make a deal, and as the summer moved on it appeared more and more likely he would end up back in Chicago.</p><p>Oh well, things could be worse. But the nagging fact remained that while the Black Hawks have won their division three times in the last four years, they have lost 15 consecutive playoff games dating back to April 17, 1975.</p><p>Last year&rsquo;s post-season performance was typical. Chicago earned a bye into the quarter-finals against the Islanders and bowed out in four straight, scoring exactly one goal in the last 215 minutes, 45 seconds of action.</p><p>That pointed up one of the more glaring deficiencies troubling the team: The lack of anything resembling scoring proficiency. The Black Hawks&rsquo; leading point-getter was Tom Lysiak, and that was only because he was one of the players acquired in the eight-man deal with the Flames on March 13.</p><p>Lysiak had 23 goals and 45 assists for 68 points, but didn&rsquo;t score a goal in 14 regular-season games with Chicago and contributed just 10 assists.</p><p>That is where Preston and Ruskowski come in. Preston, a right wing, was described by Winnipeg Coach Tom McVie as the most complete player on the Jets&rsquo; roster. He, like Ruskowski, was one of the players reclaimed by NHL clubs prior to the expansion draft.</p><p>Preston finished last season with 60 WHA points, 28 of them goals, while Ruskowski (whom Jets GM John Ferguson dearly hated to lose) had 86 points&mdash;66 of them assists.</p><p>Now these are more realistic numbers for a team if it expects to get anywhere in the chase for the Stanley Cup. But obviously, those two represent only a starting-off point for the rebuilding of an attack which mustered just 244 goals last season and had only two players with more than 20 tallies (Ted Bulley with 27 and John Marks with 21).</p><p>A great deal more is expected from people like Harold Phillipoff, the big left wing acquired from the Flames. Phillipoff went into the usual Smythe division trance when the deal was made after some energetic and promising seasons with the Flames.</p><p>The defense isn&rsquo;t all that bad. Bob Murray can play, Doug Wilson (injured much of the season) has potential, Greg Fox did well after coming over from Atlanta and Pat Ribble is likely to make the team. The Hawks probably will retain their tarnished Smythe Division crown, but we all know that isn&rsquo;t saying much.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01710/10141398-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="1542" height="3185"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Stan Mikita, a standout for the Black Hawks for the last 20 years, starts his thirc decade In the NHL this season.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS (6)</b></h3><p>1. *Keith Brown, defenseman, Portland</p><p>2. Tim Trimper, left wing, Peterborough</p><p>3. *Bill Gardner, center, Peterborough</p><p>4. *Louis Begin, left wing, Sherbrooke</p><p>5. Lowell Loveday, defenseman, Kingston</p><p>6. *Doug Crossman, defenseman, Ottawa</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02482/10141391-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="803" height="2265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01720/10141384-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="1098" height="1327"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Tony Esposito tried selling himself around the league as a free agent, but as the start of the season drew closer It became apparent that no one could meet his price.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02481/10141377-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="1222" height="1500"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-03331/10141370-1-eng-US/f0046-032.jpg" title="f0046-03" width="2380" height="1604"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01647/10141363-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="2429" height="1338"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02422/10141356-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="2427" height="1361"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0044-01

Chicago Black Hawks

<div class="byline">GLEN SATHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01510/10141492-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="692" height="662"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02328/10141485-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="659" height="630"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>O</span>f course, the proof lies in the outcome of the approaching season, but it appears the Edmonton Oilers may have lost their top five defencemen and actually improved as a result.</p><p>Through the reclamation process which confused the heck out of just about everybody before the expansion draft, the Oilers lost Paul Shmyr and Cal Sandbeck to the Minnesota North Stars, Dave Langevin to the New York Islanders, Risto Siltanen to the St. Louis Blues and John Hughes to the Vancouver Canucks.</p><p>That might have proven a major problem, because goalie Dave Dryden may have been the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s most valuable player last season, but he is also 38 years old. And, like his now-retired brother, Ken, Dave Dryden&rsquo;s strength is making the first stop while depending on the defense to clear the rebound.</p><p>General Manger Larry Gordon admitted concern going into the expansion draft, but it&rsquo;s safe to assume he was at least mildly pleased when he left with Lee Fogolin (from Buffalo), Pat Price (Islanders), Colin Campbell (Pittsburgh) and Larry Brown (Los Angeles).</p><p>&ldquo;We looked at the defense, and obviously that was our club&rsquo;s weakness,&rdquo; said Gordon. &ldquo;But out of the ratings we gave them, we got four of the five top defensemen available. The fellow we weren&rsquo;t able to get was Dave Farrish.&rdquo;</p><p>Farrish was selected by Quebec, and no one is kidding himself about Campbell and Brown being able to anchor the blue line for a contending NHL team; they are followers, not leaders. But Fogolin is an extremely promising, hard-hitting type, and Buffalo may very well be sorry they let him get away.</p><p>And, Price, if his talk about an improved attitude about the game is to be believed, may finally find himself after years of high expectation and disappointing performance.</p><p>Well, that&rsquo;s two defensemen who can be added to the few the Oilers didn&rsquo;t lose&mdash;the veteran Alan Hamilton (remember him, Ranger fans?) and Joe Micheletti, who is probably better off on left wing but capable of helping out on defense.</p><p>And that adds up to four, which is&mdash;in most cases&mdash;about the average number of decent defensemen on any big league roster. In fact, in many cases it is higher than the number of decent defensemen on many NHL rosters. Goal tenders used to be the scarcest commodity in the game, but these days there&rsquo;s no question that good defensemen are in short supply.</p><p>Also, let&rsquo;s not forget that the Oilers will be playing in the Smythe Division, which means that any kind of decent defense immediately puts a team in the thick of the first-place picture. Filling out the defense corps are Doug Hicks (Chicago) and Mike Forbes (Boston organization), so with a little luck, the Oilers might stand in good stead on the blue line.</p><p>Now up front, we have a center named Wayne Gretzky, who on January 26 will celebrate his 19th birthday while in the middle of his second full professional season. Wayne Gretzky will teach a lesson to all the people who laughed at the WHA as a bunch of flunkies. He is not good, he is excellent. Already. And he will get better.</p><p>The people who watched him game in and game out marvelled at his ability to change directions in confined areas, of which there will be many thia season. Defensemen often would have him lined up for a hit on the left side, only to find he had gone around them on the right before anyone could blink.</p><p>He averaged exactly two points per game in the 52 contests he played with Edmonton after the Indianapolis Racers gave up the ghost last December, and finished with 110 points. He took 270 shots and 46 of them went in. And he was plus 23&mdash;on the ice for 23 more even-strength goals scored by the Oilers than by the opposition&mdash;which is just fine.</p><p>But hs is not the only blue-chip forward on the roster, as the number of pre-expansion draft deals made by Gordon will attest. He worked out a deal with Los Angeles whereby he would take Larry Brown if the Kings passed on right wing Blair MacDonald (34-37-71), then got Montreal to say away from winger Dave Hunter (being touted as another Bob Gainey), and got Philadelphia to lay off center Ron Chipperfield, who had 69 points in just 55 games.</p><p>There were losses, though. The Colorado Rockies, aware that new Coach Don Cherry liked the style of Doug Berry, reclaimed him; the New York Rangers picked off right wing Jim Mayer, and the Kings took Steve Carlson in the hopes he&rsquo;d help keep them from getting run out of so many buildings this year. Dave Semenko, another enforcer, was taken by Minnesota, which may cut into Edmonton&rsquo;s aggressiveness, although Fogolin and Campbell don&rsquo;t back down.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01506/10141478-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="1558" height="3175"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky won&rsquo;t turn 19 until late January and already he is one of the premier players In the league.</figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>EDMONTON OILERS (6)</b></h3><p>1. Kevin Lowe, defenseman Quebec</p><p>3. *Mark Messier, left wing, Cincinnati (WHA)</p><p>4a. *Glenn Anderson, right wing, U. of Denver</p><p>4a. Max Kostovich, left wing, Portland</p><p>5. Mike Toal, Portland</p><p>6. *Blair Barnes, right wing, Windsor</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02388/10141471-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="787" height="2260"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01497/10141464-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="1128" height="1337"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>At age 38, Dave Dryden was regarded by many as the MVP of the WHA last year.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02375/10141457-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="1236" height="1487"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-03188/10141450-1-eng-US/f0050-032.jpg" title="f0050-03" width="2404" height="1595"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01374/10141443-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="2415" height="2128"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0048-01

Edmonton Oilers

<div class="byline">HARRY NEALE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01380/10141579-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="744" height="492"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-02246/10141572-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg" title="f0052-02" width="661" height="660"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Canucks have long been hockey&rsquo;s nomads. Marooned in their outpost of a home in Western Canada, staggering through road trip after road trip to loss after dreary loss, they have wandered through nine unfulfilled seasons seeking success.</p><p>Keep the faith. Help has arrived.</p><p>Expansion did Vancouver a favor: Edmonton&rsquo;s appearance on the NHL scene gives the Canucks a neighbor just IV2 or two hours away instead of the automatic minimum 3 1/2-hour jaunt required to reach just about any other NHL city.</p><p>Of course that doesn&rsquo;t mean much this season, since they&rsquo;ll only be going to Edmonton twice (and nobody&rsquo;s guaranteeing they&rsquo;ll win there, anyway). But in 1980-81, when the schedule is expected to go back to an unbalanced format, these Smythe Division rivals might play eight times, and that travel relief&mdash;albeit slight&mdash;will be well appreciated.</p><p>And there is this to consider: Teams making western swings now will likely be playing four or five games in eight or 10 nights, meaning Vancouver might be sitting home once in a while, waiting for a team to arrive when so often in the past the visiting club was better-rested than the Canucks.</p><p>Another assist is provided by the decision of Vancouver management to make far more extensive use of charter aircraft. Anytime the Canucks venture eaat, they will use a Toronto-based charter firm to take the team directly to the next city on the itinerary. In the past, Vancouver became more familiar with O&rsquo;Hare International Airport than most Chicagoans, since it always was the midway point in their Journeys and often they&rsquo;d have to wait hours there for connections home.</p><p>&ldquo;Now we&rsquo;ll be able to keep the plane with us and leave when we want,&rdquo; says General Manager Jake Milford. &ldquo;When we have a game the next night in another city, we&rsquo;ll leave right after the game and get in late instead of travelling the day of the game.&rdquo;</p><p>That means more practice time and probably fewer injuries, since the players probably will be less drained by the endless travel rigors. Often, fatigue led to the injuries which may have cost the Canucks second place last season.</p><p>Vancouver pulled within a point of first-place Chicago on January 30, then went into a tailspin (including a 10-game winless streak) after that.</p><p>&ldquo;The Black Hawks started playing better hockey,&rdquo; observed Canucks coach Harry Neale,&rdquo; and we had too many guys hurt to keep up with them.&rdquo;</p><p>Not one Vancouver player played the full 80 games last season. Ron Sedlbauer came the closest, appearing in 79 while Kurt Fraser, Dennis Kearns and Hilliard Graves (now property of Winnipeg) made it into 78. If this charter business keeps the team healthy, the Canucks&rsquo; challenge for the Smythe&rsquo;s tainted crown may be a more earnest one.</p><p>But goodness gracious are they short on offensel That, likely, is what prompted their decision to draft two right wings, a left wing and a center.</p><p>After Sedlbauar&rsquo;s 40 goals (combined with a remarkably low 16 assists for 56 points), the next-highest goal totals were those of Don Lever (23) and Thomas Gradin (20). Beyond that, it&rsquo;s see you later; no team is going to win anything when its leading scorer has 56 points.</p><p>Left wing Brent Ashton, Vancouver&rsquo;s second-round pick after right wing Rick Vaive (who played for Birmingham last year), might change that. Ashton led the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Canada Hockey League with 64-55-119/64-55-119 to rank eighth among WCHL scores last season. The totals of the Canucks&rsquo; top two scorers last season didn&rsquo;t add up to 119.</p><p>Right wing Dirk Graham (48-60&mdash;108 for the Regina Pats) probably was still around for the Canucks in the fifth round because the Pats wpre so terrible that only a handful of scouts bothered watching them. Graham is also a feisty chap, with 252 penalty minutes in 71 games, and Vancouver could certainly use more of that, too.</p><p>They could use more of just about everything. Things got so bad with the Canucks last June that they almost couldn&rsquo;t get rid of anyone at the expansion draft. And finally, when goalie Norm LaPointe (of the Vancouver system) was picked by the Hartford Whalers&mdash;the 59th of the 65 players chosen&mdash;a mock cheer and round of applause went up in the giant ballroom.</p><p>That&rsquo;s the way it <i>was,</i> now let&rsquo;s see if anything changes this year. With a few long overdue changes made to help ease their ceaseless meanderings, we&rsquo;ll know a lot more about the Canucks once the season ends.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01354/10141565-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="1566" height="3137"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ron Sedlbauer was the Canucks&rsquo; leading scorer last season, with 40 goals and 16 assists.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>VANCOUVER CANUCKS (8)</b></h3><p>1. Rick Valve, right wing, Birmingham (WHA)</p><p>2. *Brent Ashton, left wing, Saskatoon</p><p>3. Ken Ellacott, goaltender, Peterborough</p><p>4. *Art Rutland, center, Sault Ste. Marie</p><p>5. Dirk Graham, right wing, Regina</p><p>6. *Shane Swan, defenseman, Sudbury Wolves</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-02244/10141558-1-eng-US/f0053-022.jpg" title="f0053-02" width="777" height="2379"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01368/10141551-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="1096" height="1321"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Glen Hanlon&rsquo;s job may be In jeopardy this season.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-02222/10141544-1-eng-US/f0054-022.jpg" title="f0054-02" width="1233" height="1493"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-03149/10141537-1-eng-US/f0054-032.jpg" title="f0054-03" width="2393" height="1590"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01325/10141530-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="2425" height="1330"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-02211/10141523-1-eng-US/f0055-022.jpg" title="f0055-02" width="2428" height="1325"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0052-01

Vancouver Canucks

<div class="byline">TOM MCVIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-01299/10141659-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg" title="f0056-01" width="645" height="641"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-02196/10141652-1-eng-US/f0056-022.jpg" title="f0056-02" width="663" height="657"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Winnipeg Jets came away from the World Hockey Association with a modicum of respectability. No matter how harsh the derision of the competitive level of the WHA, there was a begrudging admission by those critics that the Winnipeg club that won the league title in 1977-78 probably would have been competitive in the NHL.</p><p>Part of the testimony for that statement comes from the number of players from that Winnipeg team who now are members of other NHL rosters: Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg (Rangers), Kim Clackson (Pittsburgh), Dan Labraaten (Detroit) and Gary Bromley (Vancouver).</p><p>The Jets, with three titles in their seven WHA seasons, carry that emblem of legitimacy into their first NHL campaign. But this club may well find itself living on that reputation this winter while enduring as a shell of its former self.</p><p>Losses through the reclamation project hit the Jets hard&mdash;five of Winnipeg&rsquo;s top players from last season are gone: Defenseman Barry Long was taken by Detroit, which earlier took Perry Miller and the coach of the Jets&rsquo; 1976 champion. Bobby Kromm. Center Kent Nilsson, the Jets&rsquo; leading scorer in 1977-78 with 39-68&mdash;107, was reclaimed by Atlanta. And center Terry Ruskowski and right wing Rich Preston ended up in Chicago when the behind-the-scenes dealing for Bobby Hull went up in smoke.</p><p>These were crushing blows to the lets, though they managed to retain goalie Markus Mattsson (coveted by the Islanders); left wing Morris Lukowich. a 65-goal scorer last season; and Scott Campbell, who managed just 18 points but amassed 248 minutes in penalties.</p><p>It became crucial that Winnipeg retain Campbell for the physical respectability they will use to cover for ineptitude in other areas. And to confirm this &ldquo;Nobody&rsquo;s gonna intimidate us&rdquo; line of thinking, the Jets annexed left wing Dave Hoyda (3 goals, 138 penalty minutes in 67 games) from Philadelphia and Bill Riley (2 goals, 64 penalty minutes in 24 games) from Washington.</p><p>&ldquo;I have two priorities in mind,&rdquo; said Winnipeg Coach Tommy McVie. &ldquo;Number one. I don&rsquo;t want to get intimidated. Number two. I want guys who will keep trying until we get the talent to become competitive.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing that will empty a building faster than a bad team which isn&rsquo;t trying,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>The Jets have invested too much time and energy into achieving NHL membership to not keep trying, but they still might have a bad team&mdash;in a bad (Smythe) division.</p><p>McVie. as his comments indicate, is aware of this. He asks a bit erf indulgence from those anxious to see the good times remain in Winnipeg.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come to the conclusion that the man who can trade for a championship has never been born.&rdquo; be says. &ldquo;Our talent has got to come from the amateur mow the entry) draft.</p><p>&ldquo;And that worries me. It seems not as many kids are playing hockey these days and it&rsquo;s quite possible that your first-round draft choice, if he&rsquo;s the 18th or 19th or 20th or 21st player chosen, may not be able to play hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>The Jets will find out soon enough about their picks, a strange collage of three players from United States colleges, another Swedish import, and two wings from the Quebec Major Junior League.</p><p>The college players are defensemen Bill Whelton of Boston University and Tim Watters of Michigan Tech, plus centers Dave Christian (U. of North Dakota) and Thomas Steen.</p><p>Those selections will help shore up two key positions where gaps exist in Winnipeg. The return of defenseman Lars-Erik Sjoberg from an Achilles tendon operation in August may be a matter of doubt, since Sjoberg missed 71 games with the Achilles injury last year and may take a long while to scrape the rust off his game. At 35, he&rsquo;s not getting any younger, either.</p><p>Behind him, the defense is unproven&mdash;even if General Manager John Ferguson says his quarter Sjoberg. Barry Melroee, the combattive Campbell and Al Cameron is &ldquo;a bona fide NHL defense.&rdquo;</p><p>Christian and Steen may help fill the gap at center slot, which is populated by Peter Sullivan (46-40&mdash;86), Steve West, Roland Eriksson and Gord Me Lavish. who was claimed from the St. Louis Blues in the expansion draft. That is enough bodies, but not much depth it appears.</p><p>The right wings are Peter Marsh, Willy Lindstrom, Bill Lesuk. Lyle Moffat and top Winnipeg draft choice Jimmie Mann of the Sherbrooke Beavers. Adequate, but unimposing unless Marst pays more attention to defense, and that isn&rsquo;t likely. Marsh, the first player the Jets chose in the expansion draft., scored 43 goals last season and can&rsquo;t be expected to pay much attention to his check.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01277/10141645-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="1533" height="3200"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Defenseman Lars-Erik Sjoberg missed 71 games last season and underwent a serious achilles tendon operation last August.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>WINNIPEG JETS (6)</b></h3><p>1. Jimmie Mann, right wing, Sherbrooke</p><p>2. Dave Christian, center, U. of North Dakota</p><p>3. Bill Whelton, defenseman, Boston U.</p><p>4. Pat Daley, left wing, Montreal</p><p>5. Thomas Steen, center, Sweden</p><p>6. Tim Watters, defenseman, Michigan Tech</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-02198/10141638-1-eng-US/f0057-022.jpg" title="f0057-02" width="778" height="2344"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-01301/10141631-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="1091" height="1149"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Morris Lukowich scored 65 goals for the Jets Last season.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-02203/10141624-1-eng-US/f0058-022.jpg" title="f0058-02" width="1220" height="1505"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-03120/10141617-1-eng-US/f0058-032.jpg" title="f0058-03" width="2365" height="1599"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-01240/10141610-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="2761" height="1878"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0056-01

Winnipeg Jets

<div class="byline">DON CHERRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-01249/10141746-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="494" height="657"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-02154/10141739-1-eng-US/f0060-022.jpg" title="f0060-02" width="655" height="661"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>N</span>ot one to hedge on matters pertaining to himself or his hockey teams, Don Cherry went to Denver during the summer and talked to the players and fans of the Colorado Rockies.</p><p>&ldquo;I went out there and laid the gauntlet down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I said there are too many guys on this club that can&rsquo;t hit, can&rsquo;t fight and can&rsquo;t score, and if they can&rsquo;t do better than that, they better take up piano playing.</p><p>&ldquo;I told the people out there that if they don&rsquo;t like rough play and fighting they should go and watch the basketball games.&rdquo;</p><p>Harsh words, those, but to a public and a team lulled into stuperfication by endless seasons of loss after pathetic loss, those words must be considered the first step out of the wilderness&mdash;not that Cherry is going to lead them out overnight.</p><p>&ldquo;It took the Rockies five years to get where they are,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to straighten them out in five weeks.&rdquo;</p><p>But during the summer, Cherry made a point of spending what time he could with the players he&rsquo;ll be coaching&mdash;learning the lay of the land where the Rockies are concerned.</p><p>&ldquo;I talked to Mike Christie and Mike Kitchen and John Van Boxmeer and Wilf Paiement,&rdquo; he recalled. &ldquo;And when we started out, everybody was quiet. Not saying much. But by the time an hour or so passed, I knew all the problems of this club.&rdquo;</p><p>Cherry, to his credit, wouldn&rsquo;t say what those were&mdash;not the problems of scoring and winning (especially on the road). Those are the obvious ones. He was talking about the problems in the dressing room, the ones that hinge on attitude and motivation; the things that eat at the players&rsquo; hearts when loss is piled upon loss.</p><p>&ldquo;I had an awful lot of people come up and tell me about Paiement and his &lsquo;attitude&rsquo; about the game,&rdquo; said Cherry. &ldquo;But then I sat down with him, had a few beers, and I learned about him.</p><p>&ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a guy that was a potential superstar and he&rsquo;s been in last place with Colorado and Kansas City for five years now. It&rsquo;s a wonder he hasn&rsquo;t gone nuts.</p><p>&ldquo;And I think Barry Beck, if we don&rsquo;t get it turned around in a couple of years, will be the same way,&rdquo; said Cherry.</p><p>All the indications are there in Beck&rsquo;s case. The star defenseman complained openly of the weakening effect the ceaseless losing has had on him. He spoke last February during the Challenge Cup of what a thrill it was to be in a dressing room with a bunch of players from winning teams and how envious he was of it, even if the NHL stars did get their heads handed to them in the series.</p><p>Thus it will be Cherry&rsquo;s role not only to help the team play better but to think better&mdash;even if for now the team can only imagine what it&rsquo;s like to be a winner. He thinks himself equal to the task.</p><p>&ldquo;One thing that&rsquo;s really helped me is my reputation for being a winner,&rdquo; he said, noting he helped the Bruins to four consecutive Adams Division crowns before the contract squabble in Boston led to his departure.</p><p>&ldquo;If Pulitzer walked up and told you something about writing, you&rsquo;d listen, wouldn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; he asked a journalist friend.</p><p>The Rockies may listen and believe his words, but there is no guarantee they&rsquo;ll be able to put his theories into practice. The ghastly record of nine victories in their last 80 road games over two seasons (two in 1977-78) will not go away, nor will the 331 goals against&mdash;even if the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; total of 348 was worse last year.</p><p>Cherry&rsquo;s aware of that, too. He knows that a large portion of crow sits near center ice at McNichols Arena and there are any number of people and teams who would love to watch him eat it.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an awful lot of people in the league just waiting for a chance to get back at me,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been pretty arrogant and boastful while I had it good, and I think you can go down the league and find a load of people who would enjoy knocking me down a peg.</p><p>&ldquo;If it happens, it happens. Like I told the people in Colorado: If we make the playoffs, I&rsquo;ll take all the credit. And if we don&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ll take all the credit. And if we don&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ll take all the blame.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to get my mind geared to the fact that these guys are not automatically going to go to the places they&rsquo;re supposed to be, like they did for me in Boston,&rdquo; he says.</p><p>That isn&rsquo;t the only thing that&rsquo;s going to change.</p><p>In Boston, it used to be, &rsquo;Let&rsquo;s win first place and go on from there. Now it&rsquo;s going to be, &rsquo;Let&rsquo;s just try and win as many games as we can, try to make the playoffs, and go on from there.&rsquo; &ldquo;But as it has been said, for the Rockies, there&rsquo;s only one way left to go&hellip;and that&rsquo;s up.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-01223/10141732-1-eng-US/f0061-012.jpg" title="f0061-01" width="1556" height="3175"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>One of Barry Beck&rsquo;s best hits last season was this one&mdash;against the Soviets during the Challenge Cup series.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>COLORADO ROCKIES (4)</b></h3><p>1. Rob Ramage, defenseman, Birmingham (WHA)</p><p>4. *Steve Peters, center, Oshawa</p><p>5. Gary Dillon, center, Toronto</p><p>6. Bob Attwell, right-wing, Peterborough</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-02154/10141725-1-eng-US/f0061-022.jpg" title="f0061-02" width="793" height="2259"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-01245/10141718-1-eng-US/f0062-012.jpg" title="f0062-01" width="1106" height="1331"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Gary Crouteau, &ldquo;Captain Crow&rdquo; of the Rockies, returns this season, hoping to win a few more games under new coach Don Cherry.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-02137/10141711-1-eng-US/f0062-022.jpg" title="f0062-02" width="1233" height="1485"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-0387/10141704-1-eng-US/f0062-032.jpg" title="f0062-03" width="2404" height="1607"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-01187/10141697-1-eng-US/f0063-012.jpg" title="f0063-01" width="2460" height="1462"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-02120/10141690-1-eng-US/f0063-022.jpg" title="f0063-02" width="2458" height="1464"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0060-01

Colorado Rockies

<div class="byline">BARCLAY PLAGER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-01201/10141833-1-eng-US/f0064-012.jpg" title="f0064-01" width="670" height="640"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-02120/10141826-1-eng-US/f0064-022.jpg" title="f0064-02" width="674" height="663"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t has been his trademark, in his years as a team executive, for Emile Francis to take a young goalie aside, tell him firmly &ldquo;You&rsquo;re my goalie&mdash;no matter what happens,&rdquo; then stand back and watch as the player blossoms into one of the better netminders of the game.</p><p>It happened with Ed Giacomin in the mid-1960s. Though the Rangers were having their problems and Giacomin was the target of the Madison Square Garden hecklers, Francis said the magic words and the youngster&rsquo;s fortunes changed almost overnight. Giacomin led the Rangers into the play-offs for nine consecutive seasons and helped carry them to the Stanley Cup finals in 1972.</p><p>Then came John Davidson, whom Francis obtained for the Rangers before the 1975-76 season. Davidson&rsquo;s stellar play was one of the keys to New Yorks appearance in the playoff final last spring.</p><p>And now, there is another Francis project in Ed Staniowski, a fact admitted by Francis and underscored by the Blues&rsquo; trade of veteran Phil Myre to Philadelphia before the expansion draft. Francis has told the 24-year-old Staniowski, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re my goalie&mdash;no matter what happens,&rdquo; and that, quite simply, is that.</p><p>The teams may be different now, as Francis begins his fourth season running the Blues, but that trademark is there: &ldquo;The Cat&rdquo; has made his choice, ordained the anchor of his defense, and based the team&rsquo;s meager hopes on Staniowski&rsquo;s performance.</p><p>Perhaps the Blues can build around him, as the Rangers did around Giacomin and Davidson&mdash;adding players here and there and building a contender from rubble. To be sure, though, it will take far longer for St. Louis.</p><p>There are similarities, though. The Blues&rsquo; trio of Wayne Babych, Brian Sutter and Bernie Federko can be likened to the promising players Francis had in New York while Giacomin rose to prominence&mdash;the guys like Walt Tkaczuk and Steve Vickers. In time, they proved themselves, as Federko, Babych and Sutter seem to have already.</p><p>In St. Louis (for now, anyway) patience is a must. Francis has set his sights on simple achievements for this season.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to cut down our goals against, no question about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get down to around 240 against, an average of three per game, and there&rsquo;s no reason why we can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p><p>Towards that end, he acquired Bryan Maxwell from the Minnesota North Stars and picked up Rick LaPointe from Philadelphia in the deal for Myre. Bob Stewart, picked up last summer in the Cleveland Barons-North Stars dispersal, is a steady if unspectacular defenseman. And in Jack Brownschidle Francis seems similarly steadfast in his insistence on sticking with a youngster.</p><p>There is little else he can do. He refuses to trade draft picks for players who might be of short-term help to the Blues (rightly so), and frankly other than his top line, he doesn&rsquo;t have much to trade, anyway.</p><p>Left wing Chuck Lefley is back from his sojourn to Germany and will help bolster the left side, even if Francis is still somewhat puzzled over why Lefley left in the first place. He signed a contract in 1977, then surfaced abruptly in the uniform of a German club, taking some firepower with him.</p><p>That matter is settled, but even a solid goal scorer like Lefley is hardly a replacement for Garry (883 consecutive games) Unger, who played out the option year of his contract and spent the summer trying to sign with a contending club. True, Unger wandered through last season as if in some sort of hockey wilderness, but players who have scored 30 or more goals eight consecutive seasons are rare indeed.</p><p>Scorers of any kind are rare in St. Louis, where Federko, Babych and Sutter combined for 99 of the Blues&rsquo; 249 goals. That&rsquo;s 40 percent of their scoring, if your calculator isn&rsquo;t nearby, and if you add Unger&rsquo;s 30, well, the next-highest scorer after that was Larry Patey with 15.</p><p>The sleeper for the Blues this season could well turn out to be center Blake Dunlop, the other player acquired from Philadelphia for Myre. Dunlop is a worker&mdash;in need of polish to be sure, but a 20-goal man in 66 games for Philadelphia and a player certain to win the fans over.</p><p>And anything that will get people in the Checkerdome will be appreciated. Unofficially, the Blues averaged 10,146 in the 17,967-seat arena, and it got awfully lonely there most of the winter</p><p>Francis knows that isn&rsquo;t going to change much until the Blues snap their string of losing seasons (four in a row, seven of the last eight). He has said simply, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind we&rsquo;ll be in the playoffs this year.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-01203/10141819-1-eng-US/f0065-012.jpg" title="f0065-01" width="1518" height="3187"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Wayne Babych missed 13 games for the Blues last season and still ended up as the team&rsquo;s third-leading scorer&mdash;with 63 points.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>ST. LOUIS BLUES (4)</b></h3><p>1. Perry Turnbull, left wing, Portland</p><p>4. Bob Crawford, rightwing, Cornwall</p><p>5. &rsquo;Mark Reeds, right wing, Peterborough</p><p>6. *Gilles Leduc, left wing, Verdun</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-02145/10141812-1-eng-US/f0065-022.jpg" title="f0065-02" width="762" height="2253"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-01203/10141805-1-eng-US/f0066-012.jpg" title="f0066-01" width="1104" height="1330"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Brian Sutter was No. 2 for the Blues In scoring&mdash;with 80 points.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-02123/10141798-1-eng-US/f0066-022.jpg" title="f0066-02" width="1233" height="1495"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0349/10141791-1-eng-US/f0066-032.jpg" title="f0066-03" width="2363" height="1581"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Reivew</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-01141/10141784-1-eng-US/f0067-012.jpg" title="f0067-01" width="2412" height="1435"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0281/10141777-1-eng-US/f0067-022.jpg" title="f0067-02" width="2416" height="1538"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0064-01

St. Louis Blues

<div class="byline">SCOTTY BOWMAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0068-01153/10141920-1-eng-US/f0068-012.jpg" title="f0068-01" width="608" height="592"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0068-0278/10141913-1-eng-US/f0068-022.jpg" title="f0068-02" width="673" height="652"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>P</span>erhaps more astonishing than any other sight during the Challenge Cup last February was that of Gilbert Perreault trying&mdash;yes, folks, actually trying&mdash;to backcheck against the Soviet Union stars. For so long the defensive aspect was a foreign to the flashy center&rsquo;s game as gutter balls are to a professional bowler.</p><p>With the benefit of hindsight, though, we are offered one of the reasons why the Buffalo Sabres are expected to be one of the league&rsquo;s best teams in 1979-80: Perreault&rsquo;s coach on the Challenge Cup squad was Scotty Bowman, who just happens to have taken over as director of operations and head coach of Perreault&rsquo;s Sabres.</p><p>And, it just so happens, Bowman said the following not long after coming to Buffalo: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to reach the point where Gilbert Perreault is one of the two best players in the league.&rdquo;</p><p>To the surprise of no one, the other half of that greatest pair will always be fellow named Lafleur, whom Bowman coached until last June. If Bowman is able to work his magic and snap Perreault (among many Sabres) out of the lethargy which seems to pervade the atmosphere in Buffalo, this team can really go places.</p><p>Which is exactly what Bowman has in mind.</p><p>&ldquo;We have to scratch a little more to get the players to play the way they&rsquo;re supposed to,&rdquo; he says, and part of that is getting people like Perreault and Rick Martin to pay a little more attention to defense.</p><p>Towards that end, Bowman hired Roger Neilson to be his &ldquo;associate coach&rdquo; in his multi-coach plan. Ed Chadwick, a former pro goalie and until June a scout for the Islanders, also will be involved.</p><p>&ldquo;Just changing a line during a game requires total concentration for one man and affords no time for that man to study the way the other team is playing, what special tactics they&rsquo;re using, and make adjustments to counteract it,&rdquo; said Bowman.</p><p>Realize that this is not a totally new concept for Bowman, or to hockey, for that matter. A number of clubs have assistant coaches or officials who watch the game from the press box and relay information to the coach and the team between periods.</p><p>Beyond that, Bowman used a phone hookup to his assistant, Claude Ruel, during the Challenge Cup series and always had a telephone to a club official in the press box secreted in the players&rsquo; benca at the Montreal Forum. Every once in a while, Canadiens trainer Pierre &ldquo;Boomer&rdquo; Meilleur could be seen reaching under the gray bench for the gray phone which rests in a small box at; the center of the ancient plankwork. He listens to whatever information was offered from high above the surface (usually from Ruel), then passed it to Bowman when the opportunity presented itself.</p><p>It was not certain how the practice would be put into operation in Buffalo, and it is an important move inasmuch as it brings a refreshing energy to the Sabres. It is Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s way of saying he will use every facility available to him to get his team an edge, and that kind of intagible can be of vital importance to player morale.</p><p>And morale certainly has taken a fall in Buffalo, where the Sabres have made a disappointingly quick exit from the playoffs four seasons in a row. They lost three consecutive quarterfinals and last spring were upended by the Pittsburgh Penguins in a best-of-three preliminary round.</p><p>Expect more from the Sabres this year. With Bowman, Neilson and Chadwick running the show, there is no forseeable reason why they shouldn&rsquo;t win the Adams Division and do far better in the playoffs (wouldn&rsquo;t a Canadiens-Sabres matchup be interesting?)</p><p>They certainly have the talent. The roster is an imposing one, from goalie Don Edwards to a defense which features Jim Schoenfeld and Jerry Korab plus a number of youngsters who fared well when pressed into duty last season.</p><p>Added to that are some of the league&rsquo;s better forwards, with Don Luce and Craig Ramsay for defense, sparkplug Danny Gare plus Martin and Perreault for firepower and others including Rene Robert, Ric Seiling, Derek Smith, Andre Savard and Rick Dudley.</p><p>&ldquo;I feel strongly that with the future at stake for all of us, we will accelerate our program,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;The people at Buffaao have given me the players necessary to the building of a nucleus of a winning club.</p><p>&ldquo;I hope I can provide the coaching staff of the Buffalo Sabres with the caliber of players the management of the Montreal Canadiens provided me as coach.&rdquo;</p><p>It will be interesting to see if he can. Bowman was openly miffed after being passed over the Montreal GM job when Sam Pollock retired; now he&rsquo;s getting his chance.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-01131/10141906-1-eng-US/f0069-012.jpg" title="f0069-01" width="1534" height="3187"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Tony McKegney was just one of several Sabres rookies who performed well when pressed into duty last season.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>BUFFALO SABRES (7)</b></h3><p>1. *Mike Ramsey, defenseman, U. of Minnesota</p><p>2. *Lindy Ruff, defenseman, Lethbridge</p><p>3a. *Mark Robinson, defenseman, Victoria</p><p>3b. *Jacques Cloutier, goaltender, Trois Rivieres</p><p>4. *Gilles Hamel, left wing, Laval</p><p>5. *Alan Haworth, center, Sherbrooke</p><p>6. *Rick Knickle, goaltender, Brandon</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0287/10141899-1-eng-US/f0069-022.jpg" title="f0069-02" width="769" height="2253"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-01134/10141892-1-eng-US/f0070-012.jpg" title="f0070-01" width="1094" height="1355"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Goalie Don Edwards and defenseman Jim Schoenfeld anchor a Sabre defense which must Improve In 1979-80.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-0274/10141885-1-eng-US/f0070-022.jpg" title="f0070-02" width="1217" height="1517"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-0343/10141878-1-eng-US/f0070-032.jpg" title="f0070-03" width="2341" height="1603"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0071-01130/10141871-1-eng-US/f0071-012.jpg" title="f0071-01" width="2423" height="1441"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0071-0271/10141864-1-eng-US/f0071-022.jpg" title="f0071-02" width="2421" height="1199"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0068-01

Buffalo Sabres

<div class="byline">FRED CREIGHTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0072-01129/10142007-1-eng-US/f0072-012.jpg" title="f0072-01" width="627" height="630"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0072-0265/10142000-1-eng-US/f0072-022.jpg" title="f0072-02" width="659" height="660"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>O</span>bservers have kept a watchful eye on the Boston Bruins in recent years, seeking to confirm the suspicion that this club is one of the NHL&rsquo;s stingiest entries.</p><p>There was the disturbing and awkward hassle with Bobby Orr before the all-time great defenseman was turned down in a bid for a hefty raise and packed his bags to head for Chicago.</p><p>There was a similarly unsettling situation with center Gregg Sheppard, who also ended up a free agent after a contract dispute and signed with Pittsburgh.</p><p>Then there were the latest additions to the list: Coach Don Cherry and goalie Gilles Gilbert.</p><p>The loquacious Cherry, one of the most popular sports figures in New England, parted bitter company with general manager Harry Sinden after the two haggled for months over questions of money and power.</p><p>Gilbert, who has had his ups and downs to be sure, found himself in a commanding position when he became a free agent last summer but held the Bruins in the palm of his hand while he listened to offers from other clubs.</p><p>Gilbert, who did not get along with Cherry, expressed a willingness to sign with Boston once the coach departed for Colorado and was replaced by Fred Creighton. But he was known to have spoken with the Montreal Canadiens (who suffered a serious blow when Ken Dryden retired) and the Quebec Nordiques, among others.</p><p>While they were waiting to hear back from Gilbert, the Nordiques signed little center Robbie Ftorek, a Needham, Mass, native whom the Bruins had courted but were unable to sign because of (you guessed it) what they considered to be unreasonable salary demands.</p><p>All this certainly would indicate some amount of penury on the Bruins&rsquo; part, but a club employee made a cogent point in his explanation of the matter:</p><p>&ldquo;This team sees no sense in upsetting the salary structure. How could they give a Ftorek what he wanted (reportedly better than $200,000 per season) when guys like Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and Don Marcotte have been knocking their brains out for years and aren&rsquo;t making anywhere near that kind of money?&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s a difficult sentiment to argue, but the feeling here is that the team&rsquo;s on-ice fortunes will suffer while this unwillingness to spend money contines.</p><p>We can use goaltending as an example: 38-year-old Gerry Cheevers underwent yet another knee operation during the summer and will have to be used judiciously in the approaching campaign. In the meanwhile, Gilbert and Jim Pettie became free agents and Dave Parro&mdash;just about the only other goaltending body left in the Boston system&mdash;was claimed by Quebec in the expansion draft.</p><p>So, ironically, Gibert becomes a key figure. For the past two seasons Cherry bemoaned the fact that none of his goalies could get enough work under the three-netminder format which included Cheevers, Gilbert and Ron Grahame in 1977-78 and Cheevers, Gilbert and Pettie in 1978-79; but as the season drew closer, Boston was in a lurch for goalies and penny-pinching could have a devastating effect on team performance this year.</p><p>Depth is also a problem on defense. Brad Park is one of the best but his balky knees are a worry. Mike Milbury, entering his fourth full season, is &ldquo;No. 1-A&rdquo; on the blue line, with hot-and-cold Dick Redmond close behind. Rick Smith is only 31, though he&rsquo;s been around for 11 good-but-not-great seasons; Gary Doak is injury prone and Dennis O&rsquo;Brien will have trouble making the team.</p><p>At least up front, Boston has some top quality. You won&rsquo;t find a harder-working right wing than O&rsquo;Reilly nor a more eager and persistent forward than Rick Middleton, who at 25 is only now approaching his peak.</p><p>Center Peter McNab and Jean Ratelie (back again at 38) are very good, as are left wing Stan Jonathan and still-at-it Wayne Cashman.</p><p>Add Bob Miller, Bobby Schmautz and Dwight Foster to that crew and you know that scoring (316 goals, third-best last season) is not one of the Bruins&rsquo; problems. Money, it seems, is.</p><p>Let&rsquo;s just make one more point here: We are not pointing an accusatory finger at Harry Sinden and team president Paul Mooney, saying, &ldquo;These are bad men because they won&rsquo;t give their players more money.&rdquo; Not by any means. Sinden and Mooney have decided the fiscal policy their club is going to take and are going to stand by it. And good for them; they&rsquo;ve taken plenty of heat about this and likely will face more.</p><p>However, that policy <i>could</i> end up hurting the hockey club. We&rsquo;ll have to wait and see.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0073-01122/10141993-1-eng-US/f0073-012.jpg" title="f0073-01" width="1535" height="3179"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Mike Millbury, entering his fourth full NHL season, is the only Bruins&rsquo; defenseman who has not reached his 30th birthday.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>BOSTON BRUINS (7)</b></h3><p>1a. &rsquo;Raymond Bourque, defenseman, Verdun</p><p>1b. Brad McCrimmon, defenseman, Brandon</p><p>2. *Doug Morrison, right wing, Lethbridge</p><p>3. Keith Crowder, right wing, Peterborough</p><p>4. *Larry Melnyk, defenseman, New Westminster</p><p>5. Marco Baron, goaltender, Montreal</p><p>6. Mike Krushelnyski, center, Montreal</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0073-0279/10141986-1-eng-US/f0073-022.jpg" title="f0073-02" width="762" height="2238"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0074-01124/10141979-1-eng-US/f0074-012.jpg" title="f0074-01" width="1089" height="1324"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Rick Middleton, just 25, Is one of the NHL&rsquo;s most dangerous scorers.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0074-0259/10141972-1-eng-US/f0074-022.jpg" title="f0074-02" width="1193" height="1472"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0074-0331/10141965-1-eng-US/f0074-032.jpg" title="f0074-03" width="2319" height="1567"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0075-01103/10141958-1-eng-US/f0075-012.jpg" title="f0075-01" width="2429" height="1171"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0075-0261/10141951-1-eng-US/f0075-022.jpg" title="f0075-02" width="2329" height="1067"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0072-01

Boston Bruins

<div class="byline">FLOYD SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0076-01115/10142094-1-eng-US/f0076-012.jpg" title="f0076-01" width="617" height="649"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0076-0258/10142087-1-eng-US/f0076-022.jpg" title="f0076-02" width="648" height="661"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>e must consider certain immutable facts about Punch Imlach: That he coached four Stanley Cup winners for the Toronto Maple Leafs, including three consecutively from 1961-62 through 1963-64 (when there were six teams, not 21) and helped win another with hockey&rsquo;s version of the &ldquo;Over the Hill Gang&rdquo; in 1966-67.</p><p>That was the team which featured goalies Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower, defensemen Marcel Pronovost, Tim Horton, Larry Hillman, Bob Baun and Alan Stanley, and forwards like George Armstrong, Red Kelly, Jim Pappin, Larry Jeffrey and Milan Marcetta.</p><p>They were <i>old,</i> but they got the job done, icing the puck about 100 times per game but winning in six games from the Montreal Canadiens, who won the Cup the next two seasons.</p><p>Then came the slide. The ancient Maple Leaf warriors simply couldn&rsquo;t keep up any more. Toronto was swept out of the 1968 semifinals by the Boston Bruins, and Leafs owner Stafford Smythe, enraged, ordered one of his underlings to &ldquo;Call the press. I am announcing the end of the Imlach era.&rdquo;</p><p>No other era has replaced it in Toronto, but now Imlach is back as general manager and eager to resume his mastery in his home town.</p><p>But there is another fact to face about Imlach, a fact revealed by a Buffalo player last December after Imlach was fired as GM and Pronovost, who followed him to the Sabres, was dismissed as coach.</p><p>&ldquo;A lot of guys were confused,&rdquo; said the player. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d do something Marcel would teach us in practice, and the next day&mdash;on a plane or at the rink&mdash;Punch would come up and say, &rsquo;No, no. This is what I want you to do..&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>And that could well have been one of the contributing factors to Buffalo&rsquo;s often-directionless play in recent seasons&mdash;notably in the playoffs. The coach would say one thing, Imlach would say another; the players didn&rsquo;t know who to please, the guy who coaches the team or the guy who signs them to contracts.</p><p>Now this is absolutely nothing new in Toronto, where owner Harold Ballard is always ready with a suggestion or two to &ldquo;improve&rdquo; on the theories of his coach&mdash;whoever it happens to be that week. People often have used the word meddlesome&rdquo; in the same sentence with Ballard&rsquo;s name.</p><p>And the problem is that they are likely to use it again this season, not only when they speak of Ballard but when they speak of Imlach as well. Now, this problem would be serious enough if the coach weren&rsquo;t Floyd Smith, who has some quirks of his own. Between the three of them, unless some understanding is reached in no uncertain terms as to who is running the hockey clubs, the Maple Leafs are going to be just as confused as the Sabres where when Imalach and Smith were running them.</p><p>This set of circumstances is saddening because the door is open for the Maple Leafs to move up on the Adams Division ladder. The Bruins, if they don&rsquo;t have a proven goaltender to call their own, will not win a fifth consecutive divisional title. The Sabres, who ultimately replaced Imlach and Pronovost with Scotty Bowman and former Maple Leafs Coach Roger Neilson, are favored by many to take over the top spot.</p><p>And Toronto, with goalie Mike Palmateer leading the way, would be in position to give the Bruins a run for second&mdash;if not for the totally unpredictable nature of management.</p><p>There are strengths: The flamboyant Palmateer, defensemen Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull, center Darryl Sittler and right wing Lanny McDonald&mdash;plus defenseman Dave Burrows and the two strong-arm left wings, Dan Maloney and Tiger Williams.</p><p>Then there are weaknesses, as Imlach pointed out the day of his official return.</p><p>&ldquo;The Leafs have five or six good players. That&rsquo;s not so good. It&rsquo;s not competitive enough to bring you the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; he said last June. &ldquo;Right now, with this announcement, things are as good as they are ever going to get. This is the high point. Tomorrow, the work starts and the problems begin.&rdquo;</p><p>The words still hung in the air when Palmateer&rsquo;s attorney, the famous and infamous Alan Eagleson, began rumbling about how he would seek a $200,000 salary for his goaltending client.</p><p>Then came the question of motivation, or lack of same&mdash;another matter discussed by Imlach and Sittler.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always said that there aren&rsquo;t more than 10 percent of people, hockey players or anybody else, who can motivate themselves. For these people to do their best, something has to come from someone else&mdash;and that&rsquo;s part, even a large part, of what a hockey coach is there for,&rdquo; said Imalach.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0077-01114/10142080-1-eng-US/f0077-012.jpg" title="f0077-01" width="1552" height="3189"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Lanny McDonald, who scored 43 goals and 42 assists for the Leafs last season, is one of what gm Punch Imlach calls &ldquo;five or six good players&rdquo; on the team.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (5)</b></h3><p>1. *Laurie Boschman, center Brandon</p><p>3. *Normand Aubin, center, Verdun</p><p>4. Vincent Tremblay, goaltender, Quebec</p><p>5. *Frank Nigro, center, London</p><p>6. Bill McCreary, leftwing, Colgate</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0077-0263/10142073-1-eng-US/f0077-022.jpg" title="f0077-02" width="769" height="2230"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0078-01110/10142066-1-eng-US/f0078-012.jpg" title="f0078-01" width="1040" height="1319"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Borje Salmlng Is one of the NHL&rsquo;s top defensemen.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0078-0249/10142059-1-eng-US/f0078-022.jpg" title="f0078-02" width="1182" height="1485"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0078-0328/10142052-1-eng-US/f0078-032.jpg" title="f0078-03" width="2286" height="1578"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0079-0197/10142045-1-eng-US/f0079-012.jpg" title="f0079-01" width="2441" height="1352"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0079-0250/10142038-1-eng-US/f0079-022.jpg" title="f0079-02" width="2434" height="1350"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0076-01

Toronto Maple Leafs

<div class="byline">GLEN SONMOR</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0080-0198/10142181-1-eng-US/f0080-012.jpg" title="f0080-01" width="698" height="624"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0080-0249/10142174-1-eng-US/f0080-022.jpg" title="f0080-02" width="647" height="653"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen the Minnesota franchise was merged with the Cleveland Barons to form the &ldquo;new&rdquo; Minnesota North Stars in the summer of 1978, people snickered that the price the North Stars had to pay for getting the best of two bad rosters was a stretch in that lion&rsquo;s den known as the Adams Division.</p><p>After all, people reasoned, if the personnel of the team had been upgraded so should the quality of the divisional competition. So let the North Stars scrape for survival in the second-toughest sector after four seasons in the pitifully poor Smythe.</p><p>But all the snickering had stopped by the first of March, when the North Stars had 57 points, were just two points behind the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs and a mere five points away from the Buffalo Sabres.</p><p>It was at that very time, you&rsquo;ll recall, that Toronto owner Harold Ballard went on his firing-hiring spree at the expense of Coach Roger Neilson. In fact, that date might be considered a turning point in the season for all three clubs involved. On March 3, the tempestuous Ballard reistated the befuddled Neilson and the Maple Leafs went on to win the next five games while the North Stars lost four of five and fell 10 points off Toronto&rsquo;s pace.</p><p>The Sabres, meanwhile, would lose just two of their next 15. So one by one, the chances slipped away. Buffalo became uttely uncatchable, then the Maale Leafs started widening the gap between third place and fourth Finally, as the North Stars won just five of their last 20 games, a wild card fell totally out of reach and all that was left was to look for improvement in 1979-80.</p><p>&ldquo;I think inexperience could have played a big part in the collapse,&rdquo; said center Bobby Smith, the first player selected in the amateur draft, the NHL Rookie of the Year and the North Stars&rsquo; leading scorer last season with 30-44-74. &ldquo;When it came down to the big game, we&rsquo;d go out and play our normal good game. But if you&rsquo;re going to win, you need that exceptional performance from somebody. At times, we got it from (goalie) Gillies Meloche, but time after time we&rsquo;d lose that game we just had to have.</p><p>&ldquo;We talked about it a bit, about our collapse at the end of the year&mdash;even to the point where it was mentioned in the literature we received from the club about our off-season conditioning program. It said we had a bad start and a bad finish and that training might have had something to do with it.&rdquo;</p><p>The bad start certainly was predictable. First, there was the task of shaping a roster from the best players of two bad teams. Then, just eight games into the season, Coach Harry Howell had to take a leave of absence for medical reasons.</p><p>Glen Sonmor stepped in and helped the North Stars sandwich victories over the Sabres and Rangers around losses to the Sabres and Islanders. Then Howell came back for three more games before Sonmor took over for good 15 games into the campaign.</p><p>Things began to settle down a bit after that, to the point where Meloche authored consecutive shutouts over the Kings and Rockies and extended his scoreless streak to 135 minutes, &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have a spectacular season, and we lost 12 more games than we won (28-40-12), but we saw signs,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;The strength of our team is in the ability of our guys to improve.&rdquo;</p><p>The offense would be a good place to start, and it&rsquo;s not implausible that it will. Smith is likely to approach the 100-point plateau, and sizeable increases in production may be expected from Tim Young (24-32-56), Glen Sharpley (29-34-53) and Steve Payne (23-17-40) to name a few.</p><p>The defense led by Gary Sargent, Brad Maxwell, Greg Smith, Fred Barrett and Paul Shmyr (reclaimed from Edmonton) would have been stronger if General Manager Lou Nanne had been able to consummate one of those pre-arranged deals that highlighted the pre-expansion draft activity.</p><p>The deal, according to reports, had been that the North Stars offered The Oilers the veteran Shmyr and the bellicose Dave Semenko (also reclaimed from Edmonton) if Edmonton would draft retired defenseman Bill Nyrop from Montreal and then deal his rights to Minnesota. Nyrop, who lives in the Twin Cities area, was thought to be considering coming out of retirement if he could play with the North Stars nearby.</p><p>Anyway, the Oilers said no deal, and that more than mildly annoyed Nanne, who got his revenge by protecting Shmyr from the draft and using Semeko as his first &ldquo;fill&rdquo; after Jim Roberts was selected by Winnipeg.</p><p>Nyrop would have helped, but there was still the amateur draft to look forward to&hellip;that, of course, and a year of improvement in 1978-79.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0081-01106/10142167-1-eng-US/f0081-012.jpg" title="f0081-01" width="1540" height="3163"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Bobby Smith finished last season as the North Stars&rsquo; leading scorer (74 points) and the NHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS (6)</b></h3><p>la. Craig Hartsburg, defenseman Birmingham (WHA)</p><p>lb. *Tom McCarthy, leftwing, Oshawa</p><p>2. *Neal Broten, U. of Minnesota</p><p>3. *Kevin Maxwell, U. of No. Dakota</p><p>5. *Jim Dobson, right wing, Portland</p><p>6. Brian Gualazzi, right wing, Sault Ste. Marie</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0081-0268/10142160-1-eng-US/f0081-022.jpg" title="f0081-02" width="752" height="2219"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0082-0195/10142153-1-eng-US/f0082-012.jpg" title="f0082-01" width="1093" height="1336"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Peter LoPresti, who spent the last few seasons with the North Stars, will be wearing an Edmonton uniform this season.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0082-0247/10142146-1-eng-US/f0082-022.jpg" title="f0082-02" width="1212" height="1491"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0082-0327/10142139-1-eng-US/f0082-032.jpg" title="f0082-03" width="2350" height="1579"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0083-0185/10142132-1-eng-US/f0083-012.jpg" title="f0083-01" width="2417" height="1473"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0083-0250/10142125-1-eng-US/f0083-022.jpg" title="f0083-02" width="2403" height="1450"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0080-01

Minnesota North Stars

<div class="byline">JACQUES DEMERS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0084-0188/10142261-1-eng-US/f0084-012.jpg" title="f0084-01" width="631" height="652"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0084-0241/10142254-1-eng-US/f0084-022.jpg" title="f0084-02" width="636" height="658"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t was a position in which every &ldquo;incoming&rdquo; NHL team was placed as the expansion draft approached and much of their talent stood vulnerable to reclamation by the incumbent clubs: The Quebec Nordiques could protect only four of their top players and make deals to keep as many of the others as they could.</p><p>So club management made its deals and its decisions and took the chance that everything would go off without a hitch&mdash;most notably that remarkable right wing Buddy Cloutier, author of 257 goals over the last four seasons (75 in 1978-79) would slide through the process without incident and remain with the Nordiques when the smoke cleared.</p><p>Of course this exacted no small price, for the Chicago Black Hawks, who owned the NHL rights to Cloutier&rsquo;s services, would have needed very little prodding to annex the contract of this 23-year-old wizard for their depressingly weak offense.</p><p>Thus it cost the Nordiques a first-round draft choice (next season) to keep Cloutier in Quebec blue, white and red; it cost them a $200,000 check, payable to the Los Angeles Kings, to keep center Serge Bernier. And for left wing Marc Tardif, who is 32 but shows no signs of it, the Nordiques promised they would not choose right wing Danny Geoffrion in the expansion draft (&ldquo;You scratch my back, I&rsquo;ll scratch yours&rdquo; was one of the favorite hallway exchanges whenever general managers would meet before the crazy expansion activity concluded).</p><p>Now we all know that three players do not make a hockey club, but once those three players are added to the three protected as &ldquo;priority picks&rdquo;&mdash;a term we could explain more fully were this magazine the size of a phone book&mdash;a nucleaus begins to take form.</p><p>For as priority picks the Nordiques named goalie Richard Brodeur, who has been with the club since its inception, along with rough-tough defenseman Paul Baxter and another defenseman, Gary Lariviere.</p><p>After all this (would that it were as simple as these six paragraphs made it out to be), the Nordiques found themselves ready for the draft.</p><p>They gave Brodeur some company by picking Ron Low from Detroit and Dave Parro from Boston before dealing Parro to the Washington Capitals for left wing Nelson Burton (surprise, surprise: He played junior for the Quebec Remparts and had 720 penalty minutes over two seasons there).</p><p>Parro&rsquo;s place, numerically speaking, was filled by Mike Liut, who had been obtained from Cincinnati in the cleanup draft which dispersed homeless players from defunct WHA clubs.</p><p>That left the Nordiques as set in goal as they could be, though there were some summer talks with free agent Gilles Gilbert of Boston.</p><p>The defense was bolstered with the acquisition of Barry Legge from Cincinnati in that same cleanup draft, plus the expansion draft selections of Dave Farrish, from the Rangers; a reluctant Gerry Hart, from the Islanders (he has made noises about not reporting), and Swedish-born Lars Zetterstrom from Vancouvar. Those four were added to a blue line corps which included Dale Hoganson, Wally (166 penalty minutes in 68 games) Weir, and Francois Lacombe.</p><p>Up front, the big addition was the signing of center Robbie Ftorek, who gave Quebec at least two options: The Nordiques could move him between Cloutier and Tardif to produce what would promise to be one of the league&rsquo;s fleetest and most potent lines, or they could leave Bernier on the big line and use Ftorek on one of the others to give the attack some depth.</p><p>And depth is what the Nordiques&rsquo; attack dearly needs, because behind their big three scorers of last season&mdash;Cloutier was good for 75-54&mdash;129, Tardif had 41-55&mdash;96 and Bernier had 36-46&mdash;82&mdash;there was far too little scoring. The Nordiques collected 288 goals last season and managed to finish second in the six-team WHA more on the basis of their 271 goals against (second only to the first-place Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; 266) than anything else.</p><p>Now, this kind of team might do very well in the Smythe Division, but the Nordiques happen to have landed in the bruising Adams section with three of the league&rsquo;s most established clubs (Boston, Buffalo and Toronto) plus the promising Minnesota North Stars.</p><p>Quebec&rsquo;s progress will be interesting to watch for another reason: The matter of the unquestionable French-Canadian accent in this team&rsquo;s demeanor makes one wonder how it will draw on the road. Of course, this has not been a problem for Montreal; but the uncompromisingly pro-French feeling in Quebec (where English speaking players are foreigners) may cause some resentment among U.S. based fans who will weigh the matter seriously before spending their money.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0085-0184/10142247-1-eng-US/f0085-012.jpg" title="f0085-01" width="1550" height="3163"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Marc Tardif was one of the big three scorers for the Nordiques last season, tallying 41 goals and 55 assists for 96 points.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>QUEBEC NORDIQUES (6)</b></h3><p>1. Michel Goulet, leftwing, Birmingham, (WHA)</p><p>2. *Dale Hunter, center Sudbury</p><p>3. *Lee Norwood, defenseman Oshawa</p><p>4. Anton Stastny, forward Czechoslovakia</p><p>5. Pierre Lacrois, defenseman, Trois Rivieres</p><p>6. *Scot McGeown, defenseman, Toronto</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0085-0247/10142240-1-eng-US/f0085-022.jpg" title="f0085-02" width="759" height="2238"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0086-0192/10142233-1-eng-US/f0086-012.jpg" title="f0086-01" width="1103" height="1316"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>It cost the Nordiques a first round draft choice to keep Real Cloutier in a Quebec uniform for 1979-80.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0086-0245/10142226-1-eng-US/f0086-022.jpg" title="f0086-02" width="1223" height="1473"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0086-0327/10142219-1-eng-US/f0086-032.jpg" title="f0086-03" width="2372" height="1578"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0087-0180/10142212-1-eng-US/f0087-012.jpg" title="f0087-01" width="2722" height="1840"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0084-01

Quebec Nordiques

<div class="byline">BERNIE GEOFFRION</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0088-0197/10142348-1-eng-US/f0088-012.jpg" title="f0088-01" width="572" height="567"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0088-0240/10142341-1-eng-US/f0088-022.jpg" title="f0088-02" width="639" height="642"></div><p>These were the sights and sounds of celebration one rainy May night in Montreal:</p><p>As he peeled his sweat-soaked equipment, goalie Ken Dryden heard the car horns honking on Ste. Catherine St. West and recalled a night during his honeymoon in 1970.</p><p>The Drydens were in Rome the night the Italian soccer team won the World Cup championship in overtime. &ldquo;It was about three in the morning when the game ended, and car horns were honking everywhere. It was remarkable,&rdquo; he mused.</p><p>This night, in and of itself, was remarkable as well. Dryden stood and surveyed the chaos around him: Then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was drenched with champagne. Center Jacques Lemaire, whose second-period goal snapped a tie and sent the Canadiens to their decisive 4-1 triumph over the Rangers, dressed quickly, quietly, and left.</p><p>At the back of the clubhouse, where the team gymnasium houses all kinds of exercise and weight equipment, Coach Scotty Bowman stood stonefaced and said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I will be back.&rdquo;</p><p>Not far away, defenseman Serge Savard stood in a hallway and explained why this NHL championship&mdash;Montreal&rsquo;s fourth in a row and the 22nd of team history&mdash;was so special.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s special because some of the guys won&rsquo;t be back next year,&rdquo; he said softly.</p><p>It was not many weeks later when the truth in those words struck home with devastating power. Lemaire, whose quiet efficiency showed most in the playoffs, began the exodus by accepting a position with the Sierre club in Switzerland. The veteran&mdash;catalyst of the line flanked by Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur&mdash;will be missed more than most people think.</p><p>But as well you know, the loss of Lemaire wasn&rsquo;t the only one suffered by the Canadiens. Bowman departed later in June, taking with him a remarkable record of achievement, and Dryden retired in July.</p><p>In bringing Montreal to within one title of tying the all-time mark the team set under Coach Toe Blake during the five seasons beginning in 195556, Bowman coached the Canadiens in 320 regular-season games. Of those contests, they lost just 46 times while collecting 503 of a possible 640 points for a percentage of .785.</p><p>Over that span, they scored an average of 4.43 goals per game while giving up just 2.29. and over those last four playoffs (58 games) there were just 10 losses four of them last spring, when Montreal came perilously close to elimination in the semifinal against the Boston Bruins.</p><p>It was that series, of course, which led to the celebration which has become an annual event. It was the championship which led to the sheer madness in the clubhouse. It was that triumph which displayed the athletes who will carry on for Montreal this fall <i>&mdash;a</i> formidable crew, despite some formidable losses.</p><p>There is the aewsome talent of Lafleur. The peerless one, beyond question.</p><p>There is the unharnessed power of Bob Gainey, a brute force on the ice and a quiet, gentle man off it.</p><p>There is the no-nonsense defense of Larry Robinson, Savard, Guy Lapointe, Rod Langway and Brian Engblom, all of whom helped Montreal to yet another Vezina Trophy.</p><p>The depth of defense, a matter of some question last season when the &ldquo;Big Three&rdquo; of Robinson, Savard and Lapointe was doing most of the work, does not seem a concern this year. Langway played well in the final and, with experience, should more than ably fill the hole created last season when Bill Nyrop retired. Engblom, with seasoning, also will blossom; and Gilles Lupien, who started his career as little more than an enforcer, seems to have settled down.</p><p>There is no question of the depth up front, where the workers like Lambert, Mario Tremblay, Doug Jarvis, Rejean Houle and Doug Risebrough are proven entities.</p><p>But there are questions. Will Bunny Larocque&mdash;finally accorded the No. 1 goalie spot&mdash;fare as well as he did as Dryden&rsquo;s super-sub? Or will he struggle under the workload while Montreal searches for an able backup?</p><p>And&mdash;perhaps most significant of all&mdash;can team management, which has lost in short order Sam Pollock, Bowman, and player development specialist Al MacNeil, be able to maintain the excellence of the minor league program which produced so many excellent competitors?</p><p>It will take years to answer that question. If the farm system begins to dry out, Montreal will fall on hard times. But right now, there is no bettor club in the NHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0089-0186/10142334-1-eng-US/f0089-012.jpg" title="f0089-01" width="1535" height="3299"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>In Bob Gainey, the Montreal Canadiens have perhaps the best all-around player| In hockey today.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>MONTREAL CANADIENS (8)</b></h3><p>2a. Gaston Gingras, defenseman Birmingham (WHA)</p><p>2b. Mats Naslund, forward, Sweden</p><p>3a.Craig Levie, defenseman, Edmonton</p><p>3b.&rsquo;Guy Carboneau, right wing, Chicoutimi</p><p>4a. Rick Wamsley, goaltender, Brantford</p><p>4b.Dave Orleski, leftwing. New Westminster</p><p>6. *Yvan Joly, right-wing, Ottawa</p><p>6. *Greg Moffett, goaltender U. of New Hampshire</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0089-0248/10142327-1-eng-US/f0089-022.jpg" title="f0089-02" width="774" height="2226"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0090-0191/10142320-1-eng-US/f0090-012.jpg" title="f0090-01" width="1071" height="1333"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Larry Robinson Is a perennial All Star on defense for Les Canadiens.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0090-0244/10142313-1-eng-US/f0090-022.jpg" title="f0090-02" width="1205" height="1487"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0090-0324/10142306-1-eng-US/f0090-032.jpg" title="f0090-03" width="2321" height="1584"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0091-0174/10142299-1-eng-US/f0091-012.jpg" title="f0091-01" width="2426" height="1319"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0091-0239/10142292-1-eng-US/f0091-022.jpg" title="f0091-02" width="2428" height="1371"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0088-01

Montreal Canadiens

<div class="byline">JOHNNY WILSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0092-0193/10142435-1-eng-US/f0092-012.jpg" title="f0092-01" width="693" height="618"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0092-0244/10142428-1-eng-US/f0092-022.jpg" title="f0092-02" width="657" height="650"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>O</span>f one thing we can be certain: the Pittsburgh Penguins put a lot of stock in &ldquo;honest&rdquo; hockey players&mdash;the guys that come to the rink, do the job consistently&mdash;often unnoticed while the crowds cheer the others&mdash;then fade back into the woodwork until the next opening faceoff.</p><p>These are people like Gregg Sheppard, Orest Kindrachuk, Ross Lonsberry, Ron Stackhouse, Tom Bladon, and now, most recently, Nick Libett. This bunch isn&rsquo;t much for the razzle-dazzle, which is fine with Coach Johnny Wilson, but it sure gets the job done.</p><p>Libett could have been doing it for the Penguins sooner, if not for the fact that an all-but-consummated deal with Detroit was quashed at the last second two seasons ago&mdash;robbing Pittsburgh of Libett and reportedly costing the Red Wings two second-round draft picks and one third-round selection.</p><p>Gone to the Red Wings is Peter Mahovlich, who deserves credit for his work with the younger players in his two seasons with the club.</p><p>Mahovlich kept the place loose, but two things went against him: First, his chronically sore knees. He&rsquo;d have hot pads on them two hours before the game, and ice packs on them long after most of his teammates had gone home. Then, when he missed the last. 16 games of the season and the Penguins lost only four of them to take second place in the Norris, people started to realize that Pittsburgh could survive without him.</p><p>So Mahovlich is back where he started his pro career in 1965-66, and Libett is starting anew after 11 seasons with the Red Wings&mdash;which brings us to an interesting quote on Libett&rsquo;s page in the Detroit press guide last season: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a solid NHL winger. I&rsquo;d be reluctant to deal him off.&rdquo; Thus sayeth Red Wings Coach Bobby Kromm, who somehow was made unreluctant.</p><p>Libett will be of some assistance on the left side, but he is 34, and the steady Lonsberry is 32. Meanwhile, Gary McAdam will not win many scoring trophies (11 goals in 68 games) and Rod Schutt is fast but still looking to prove himself.</p><p>That may be a reason why the Penguins made left wing Paul Marshall their first pick in the entry draft. Marshall was the highest scorer in the worst team in the Ontario Major Junior League, scoring 42-72&mdash;114 in 67 games for the last-place Brantford Alexanders. Brantford scored 281 goals and gave up 349 last season, which might indicate that Marshall will make the team for his scoring punch&mdash;not his defense.</p><p>Well, that&rsquo;s fine, in view of the fact that center Greg Malone led the Penguins with 35-30&mdash;65 last season.</p><p>Center is not by any means a trouble spot for Pittsburgh, which has Sheppard, Malone, Kindrachuk, and George Ferguson (if a fourth line is needed). Defense, if the draft is a barometer, seems more of a trouble spot.</p><p>And we do mean trouble!</p><p>Randy Carlyle, Stackhouse, Bladon and Russ Anderson may be challenged for spots by a bunch of toughs acquired through reclamation and the entry draft, evidenced by the arrival of the bellicose Kim Clackson (No goals, 210 penalty minutes) from Winnipeg&mdash;-not to mention three of the first five Pittsburgh amateur picks.</p><p>One of the defensemen coming is Bennett Wold of the Kitchener Rangers. Watch out folks, this guy&rsquo;s 6-foot-3, 205 pounds of anger and animosity, it looks like: 47 games, three goals and&hellip;279 penalty minutes. One scouting report sized him up this way: &ldquo;He is not a great skater. Also, he is not much of a puck handler. Might make a pro, although it will not be on ability.&rdquo;</p><p>Then there is Brian Cross of the hapless Brantfords, and he&rsquo;s no wallflower himself: 193 PIM in 57 games. His hard, accurate shot would seem to make him a natural candidate for the power play; he had 23 goals for the Alexanders last season, 14 of them during manpower advantages.</p><p>One would think Pittsburgh goalies will not be peering through many screens this season, if all the big boys stay with the parent club. Colin Campbell, picked off by Edmonton in the expansion draft, will not be missed.</p><p>And there&rsquo;s something else that the Penguins won&rsquo;t miss: Four extra games with the Montreal Canadiens. One of the pitfalls of the Norris Division (for teams other than Montreal) was those four contests against the perennial champions. To be certain, the Penguins&mdash;winless at Montreal since January 2, 1969&mdash;will gladly make up those games against the expansion clubs.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0093-0180/10142421-1-eng-US/f0093-012.jpg" title="f0093-01" width="1526" height="3147"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Pater Mahovlich a standout for the Penguins for the past several season, traded to the Detroit Red Wings&mdash;where he started his NHL career Just before we went to press.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (5)</b></h3><p>2. *Paul Marshall, left wing, Brantford</p><p>3. Bennett Wolf, defenseman, Kitchener</p><p>4. Brian Cross, defenseman. Brantford</p><p>5. Nick Ricci, goaltender, Niagara Falls</p><p>6. Marc Chorney, defenseman, U. of North Dakota</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0093-0243/10142414-1-eng-US/f0093-022.jpg" title="f0093-02" width="754" height="2246"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0094-0185/10142407-1-eng-US/f0094-012.jpg" title="f0094-01" width="1112" height="1327"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Captain Orest Kindrachuk is one of the main reasons for why center is not one of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s problem spots.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0094-0232/10142400-1-eng-US/f0094-022.jpg" title="f0094-02" width="1244" height="1493"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0094-0321/10142393-1-eng-US/f0094-032.jpg" title="f0094-03" width="2422" height="1592"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0095-0180/10142386-1-eng-US/f0095-012.jpg" title="f0095-01" width="2415" height="1372"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0095-0236/10142379-1-eng-US/f0095-022.jpg" title="f0095-02" width="2406" height="1280"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0092-01

Pittsburgh Penguins

<div class="byline">BOB BERRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0096-0197/10142529-1-eng-US/f0096-012.jpg" title="f0096-01" width="732" height="422"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0096-0244/10142522-1-eng-US/f0096-022.jpg" title="f0096-02" width="666" height="660"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t was an achievement of some note that the Los Angeles Kings managed a .500 record despite the NHL&rsquo;s third-highest total of manpower games lost to injuries. Vancouver Canucks players missed a total of 257 contests, the Washington Capitals were next at 242, and then came the Kings&rsquo; 233.</p><p>At the top of the injury list were defenseman Brian Glennie, who underwent back surgery in February and played in just 18 games; wing Murray Wilson, who still was recovering from back surgery and appeared in just 58 contests, and right wing Mike Murphy, who missed 16 games because of a pulled groin muscle and a bad shoulder but was sub-par for a number of others.</p><p>Perhaps the hardest-hit was the defense, for along with Glennie, defenseman Darryl Edestrand played in just 55 games; Doug Halward was troubled by a bad throat, lost a lot of weight and made it into just 27 games after being acquired from Boston; top defenseman Randy Manery missed 10 games with various ills, and Rick Hampton missed 30 games because of a bad knee.</p><p>So essentially, the Kings had little business holding second place in the Norris Division for most of the season before being supplanted by the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 13. Despite the calamitous loss to the defense (only Rob Palmer stayed healthy and played the entire season), the Kings lost &rsquo; only three one-goal games while winning seven of them.</p><p>Much of the credit for that is due goalie Mario Lessard, who came out of nowhere to record four shutouts and post a 3.10 goals-against average in his rookie season.</p><p>And then there was the line of Marcel Dionne between left wing Charlie Simmer and right wing Dave Taylor. &ldquo;Magic&rdquo; Johnson may be coming to basketball&rsquo;s Los Angeles Lakers this fall, but Kings fans saw some magic of their own once the trio was united upon Simmer&rsquo;s promotion from the American Hockey League on January 13.</p><p>In that game, against the Red Wings, Dionne scored four goals and Taylor&mdash;who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Clarkson before joining the Kings&mdash;had one of his own.</p><p>The addition of the 6-foot-3 Simmer gave the 5-foot-8 Dionne protectors on both flanks, since Taylor is a sturdy 6-footer. It also opened a number of options offensively, since Simmer (strong in the corners) could feed the slot for Dionne or Taylor, or camp in front while Dionne and Taylor made the plays.</p><p>Whatever it was, the chemistry worked. And by season&rsquo;s end, in just 38 games the threesome had amassed 159 points, including Simmer&rsquo;s 21 goals and 27 assists for 48 points. Taylor finished with 43-48-91 overall, third only to Montreal&rsquo;s Guy Lafleur and the Islanders&rsquo; Mike Bossy in point scoring and goal production among NHL right wings.</p><p>Dionne had a carrer-best 130 points (second only to the 134 by the Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Trottier) including 59 goals&mdash;the league&rsquo;s second-highest total behind Bossy&rsquo;s 69 tallies.</p><p>Dionne teams with Butch Goring and Syl Apps to form one of the league&rsquo;s finest trios of centers. They would be deeper still up the middle if Dale McCourt ever is ordered to play in Los Angeles. That matter, however, remains squarely in the hands of the courts and may well remain there for years to come.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Kings remain fairly well off up front and eager to improve on defense (isn&rsquo;t every team saying that these days?). They have another question mark in Richard Mulhern, the defenseman obtained from Atlanta in the Bob Murdoch deal, for he underwent back surgery in the off-season.</p><p>Still, Los Angeles managed to score more goals than it gave up (292-286), and this year&mdash;for only the third time in their 12-year history&mdash;the Kings had a first-round choice in the amateur draft.</p><p>Here&rsquo;s how it went: Their first-round pick in 1978 went to Montreal for Glenn Goldup; the 1977 pick went to the Rangers for Gene Carr, and the 1976 selection went to Montreal for Terry Harper.</p><p>The Kings used their first-round pick in 1975 on Tim Young, who now makes his living with the Minnesota North Stars. That pick snapped a string of six seasons without a first-round choice. The picks were sent to other clubs for Bob Murdoch and Randy Rota (1974), Eddie Shack (1973), Gerry Desjardins (1969 and 1972), Ross Lonsberry (1971) and Skip Krake (1970).</p><p>This year, if that No. 1 pick can force his way into the lineup and the Kings can do a better job of keeping more players healthy for more games, it&rsquo;s quite possible Los Angeles can keep its hold on the second spot that slipped from their grasp last spring.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0098-01110/10142515-1-eng-US/f0098-012.jpg" title="f0098-01" width="1524" height="3177"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Marcel Dionne scored 130 points for the Kings last season&mdash;the highest total of his career and second only to Bryan Trottier (134) of the Islanders.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>LOS ANGELES KINGS (7)</b></h3><p>1. Jay Wells, defenseman Kingston</p><p>2a. Dean Hopkins, rightwing, London</p><p>2b. Mark Hardy, defenseman Montreal</p><p>3. John Paul Kelly, left wing, New Westminster</p><p>4. John Gibson, defenseman Winnipeg (WHA)</p><p>5. *Jim Brown, defenseman Notre Dame</p><p>6. *Jay MacFarlane, defenseman U. of Wisconsin</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0098-0251/10142508-1-eng-US/f0098-022.jpg" title="f0098-02" width="750" height="2262"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0099-0173/10142501-1-eng-US/f0099-012.jpg" title="f0099-01" width="1091" height="1325"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Mario Lessard, just a rookie last season, has usurped Ron Grahame as the Kings&rsquo; No. 1 goalie.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0099-0233/10142494-1-eng-US/f0099-022.jpg" title="f0099-02" width="1214" height="1480"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0099-0326/10142487-1-eng-US/f0099-032.jpg" title="f0099-03" width="2363" height="1579"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0100-0183/10142480-1-eng-US/f0100-012.jpg" title="f0100-01" width="2331" height="1458"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0100-0239/10142473-1-eng-US/f0100-022.jpg" title="f0100-02" width="2326" height="1197"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0101-0176/10142466-1-eng-US/f0101-012.jpg" title="f0101-01" width="2383" height="3193"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Kings&rsquo; Coach Bob Berry In action behind the bench last season.</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0096-01

L.A. Kings

f0097-01

IN THIS ISSUE

BOBBYS BACK

<div class="byline">BOBBY KROMM</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0106-0178/10142727-1-eng-US/f0106-012.jpg" title="f0106-01" width="714" height="393"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0106-0235/10142720-1-eng-US/f0106-022.jpg" title="f0106-02" width="659" height="663"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>hose of us who cheer the underdog issued a long, loud ovation for goalie Jim Rutherford when the final second ticked off at the Olympia last April 8. Jim Rutherford had collected his first shutout of the season&mdash;even if it was in the final game&mdash;by blanking Montreal 1-0 to deprive the Canadiens of the overall points title.</p><p>It was a personal triumph for Rutherford, who had been unjustly snubbed after the arrival of Rogie Vachon and the ensuing court problems which made the signing of the free agent netminder almost more trouble than it was worth.</p><p>When General Manager Ted Lindsay signed Vachon, the NHL arbitrator made his infamous ruling that Dale McCourt should be the compensation paid the Los Angeles Kings for his loss. Lindsay, prior to that hearing, had offered utility forward Bill Lochead and James Earl Rutherford as the payment Los Angeles refused to accept.</p><p>And when the Kings turned down that deal, Rutherford ended up staying with the Red Wings, who&mdash;at least implicitly&mdash;had said they considered him expendable. So he sat on the bench and watched Vachon struggle through most of the first half (at one point watching Vachon start 11 consecutive games) before it became clear that Rutherford had just as important a place with the team as did his high-priced counterpart.</p><p>By season&rsquo;s end, it was Vachon who was watching. Rutherford played 13 consecutive games and 17 of the last 19 in Detroit&rsquo;s nightmare season. Late in the year. Vachon&rsquo;s name was on the waiver wire, and in April, in that last game against the Canadiens, Rutherford unquestionably earned his right to thumb his nose at management and say, &ldquo;Take that!.&rdquo;</p><p>Of course, he didn&rsquo;t, because Jim Rutherford has as much class as he has ability. He suffered the slights (in silence, for the most part) while remaining sepure and confident that when he was called upon, he would be ready.</p><p>And he did the job in a season of consummate irony for the Red Wings, who only the year before had been surprisingly tough in rising to second place in the Norris Division and making the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.</p><p>Consider this: Center Dale McCourt went before a judge to argue his right to stay with the Red Wings in defiance of the arbitrator&rsquo;s ruling. The court granted his wish, and McCourt stayed&mdash;while the Kings made the playoffs without him and Detroit finished last, passed even by the Washington Capitals.</p><p>The Kings, without McCourt&rsquo;s scoring power (61 goals over his first two pro seasons), scored 292 goals while the Red Wings managed just 252 (13th-best of the 17 teams) with him in the lineup.</p><p>Here&rsquo;s another one: McCourt sued to stay in Detroit while defenseman Reed Larson played out the option year of his contract and was open in expressing his desire to get away from the Red Wings if the right offer came along.</p><p>And here, perhaps, is the strangest bit of all: Despite a record of 15 victories in 40 home games (only two teams won fewer games at home), the Red Wings played to standing room only crowds virtually every night at the lame-duck Olympia. With that arena headed for oblivion (joining the team), the Red Wings shift to the Joe Louis Arena in midtown Detroit.</p><p>What kind of team the fans will see there is a matter of doubt, but at least one forecaster sees the Red Wings in the bottom third of the league without any great difficulty unless Rutherford is given the responsiblity he deserves and unless Vachon rebounds drastically from his abysmal showing under last year&rsquo;s pressure.</p><p>The defense obviously will have to improve, though Thommie Bergman and Perry Miller are quite competent. The Red Wings gave up 295 goals last season and if Larson followed through on his threat to move on (Detroit still awaited his decision in August), the numbers might be even worse. For Willie Huber was not a mind-bending success in his rookie year, Greg Joly has spent five seasons finding new ways of getting hurt, and Jean Hamel and Rick Vasko are, well Jean Hamel and Rick Vasko.</p><p>Detroit did manage to retain one of its few legitimate scorers when Vaclav Nedomansky (who has shown great improvement since he learned his way around the NHL) agreed to terms after leading Red Wings scorers with 38-3573.</p><p>But behind Big Ned, McCourt and Larson, the next-highest scorer was Errol Thompson at 23-31&mdash;54 and Andre St. Laurent (the Islanders miss him) was next at 18-31&mdash;49. That just isn&rsquo;t enough punch.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0107-0170/10142713-1-eng-US/f0107-012.jpg" title="f0107-01" width="1568" height="3185"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>When last seen, Dale McCourt was wearing a Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; uniform. But that could change If the L. A. Kings have their way in the endless court proceedings.</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DRAFT CHOICES</b></h2><h3><b>DETROIT RED WINGS (6)</b></h3><p>1. Mike Foligno, right wing, Sudbury</p><p>3a. Jody Gage, right wing, Kitchener</p><p>3b. *Boris Fistric, defenseman New Westminister</p><p>4. John Ogrodnick, right wing, New Westminister</p><p>5. *Joe Paterson, left wing, London</p><p>6. *Carmen Cirella, leftwing, Peterborough</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0107-0236/10142706-1-eng-US/f0107-022.jpg" title="f0107-02" width="769" height="2253"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0108-0185/10142699-1-eng-US/f0108-012.jpg" title="f0108-01" width="1102" height="1341"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Rogle Vachon was supposed to be the saviour of the Red Wings, but by the end of the season he was riding the bench.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0108-0241/10142692-1-eng-US/f0108-022.jpg" title="f0108-02" width="1220" height="1498"></div><h2><b>Roster</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0108-0325/10142685-1-eng-US/f0108-032.jpg" title="f0108-03" width="2370" height="1599"></div><h2><b>1978-79 Statistical Review</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0109-0177/10142678-1-eng-US/f0109-012.jpg" title="f0109-01" width="2458" height="1445"></div><h2><b>Plus-Minus Statistics</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0109-0246/10142671-1-eng-US/f0109-022.jpg" title="f0109-02" width="2475" height="1497"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0106-01

Detroit Red Wings

f0114-01

MONTREAL AGAIN TOOK SHORT ROUTE TO CUP

f0116-01

WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION

f0118-01

Jets Made History As Last WHA Champions

f0119-01

Central Hockey League Statistics

f0120-01

How Dallas Won The Adams Cup

f0121-02

International Hockey League Statistics

f0123-01

Western Hockey League Statistics

f0125-02

American Hockey League Statistics

f0126-02

Quebec Major League Statistics

f0131-01

1979-80 COLLEGE HOCKEY PREVIEW

<div class="byline">By BARRY WILNER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0139-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0139-0155/10143294-1-eng-US/f0139-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Why Is this man smiling? Because after seven years of haggling and millions of dollars In legal fees, Howard Baldwin, the WHA&rsquo;s last president, finally got what he wanted: A consolidation with the NHL.</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>N</span></b>ever have so many men entered a room, ravaged and plundered and had many of their prized possessions stripped from them, only to exit with smiles on their faces.</p><p>But then, in hockey nothing is predictable.</p><p>On March 30, 1979, representatives of the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Quebec Nordiques, New England Whalers, Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets, along with WHA President Howard Baldwin, joined National Hockey League President John Ziegler in announcing that those four teams would become NHL members this season. For that honor, the WHA clubs were willing to accept virtually every condition set forth by the NHL.</p><p>The ridiculousness of those conditions, designed to strengthen NHL rosters, make the WHA squads look like minor league arrays and, most significantly, bankrupt the new NHLers before they&rsquo;ve taken the ice in 1979-1980, wasn&rsquo;t lost on Bald win; and company. But their acceptance of the terms underscores how badly the WHA wanted a merger.</p><p>To gain entry into the NHL, the four WHA clubs agreed to pay $6 million each. Since none of them were solidly in the black during their seven-year existence, such a hefty indemnity could only further weaken on and off-ice prospects for Quebec, Winnipeg, Edmonton and New England.</p><p>Add to that $6.35 million the WHA quartet must ante up to cover costs of folding up the Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers. Neither of those teams had the financial resources to join their brethen in the merger and will play in the Central League this year.</p><p>The Stingers get $3.5 milion and the Bulls $2.85 million.</p><p>&ldquo;We know that it is for the best interests of hockey to have one league,&rdquo; says Baldwin, who also serves as president of the Whalers. &ldquo;The WHA was set to stand alone again and play a full season next year. We were ready to arrange for a schedule to be drawn up, a draft to be held.</p><p>&ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve also been working towards on league for three years. It&rsquo;s in the interest of survival for the sport that these actions were taken.</p><p>&ldquo;Hockey will be the better for it.&rdquo;</p><p>For their initial $6 million investments, the four WHA teams got to protect two goalies and two skaters each. Four men out of 20 or more on the pro roster and numerous minor-league chattel. Any players left unprotected whose rights were held by NHL clubs reverted to those clubs.</p><p>Perhaps the WHA team owners held their charges in little esteem to agree to let them slip away so easily&mdash;an inexpensively. Whatever their thinking, a good many talented players whose skills surfaced in the WHA are on the rosters of the NHL teams which drafted them.</p><p>For example, Rich Preston and Terry Ruskowski, two impressive forwards for the Jets, were not protected and became Chicago Black Hawks. The Hawks bad drafted both players with the idea of spiriting them away from the WHA at some time.</p><p>Instead, they were handed the budding stars.</p><p>In fact, the four WHA clubs virtually handed away their immediate futures for the honor of losing lots of games and lots of money in the NHL. Only Edmonton, which has a modern, 15,000-seat arena and some roster depth figures to prosper as an NHL entry.</p><p>Winnipeg, which won the last two WHA championships, lost a number of its talented players, aside from Preston and Ruskowski. Most notably, Kent Nilsson, a fine center from Sweden, signed with Atlanta. Defenseman Barry Long moved to Detroit and rearguard Kim Clackson was claimed by Pittsburgh.</p><p>The Jets also might not have enough money to pay Bobby Hull in his swan song season. Hull, who retired last year because of personal problems and a sticky divorce, has indicated he&rsquo;d like to make one last tour of the NHL. The Black Hawks claimed him off the Jets&rsquo; roster when he was left unprotected by Chicago neglected to protect the Golden Jet in the intraleague draft that stocked the WHA clubs. So Bobby was headed back to Winnipeg.</p><p>But the $6 million entry fee just about stripped the Jets of any working capital. It was doubtful they had anywhere near enough money to satisfy Hull&rsquo;s contract demands and a few other clubs expressed interest in doing just that.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0140-0164/10143287-1-eng-US/f0140-012.jpg" title="f0140-01" width="2323" height="1779"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Alan Eagleson, the director of the National Hockey League Player&rsquo;s Association, played a vital role In convincing the players to &ldquo;buy&rdquo; the amalgamation agreement with the WHA.</b></figcaption></div><p>When the expansion draft was held, NHL clubs were allowed to protect 15 skaters, two goalies and all first-year players. (The WHA clubs did not get an exemption for their first-season professionals and had to use up one of their allotted spots to retain the rookies and had to pay $125,000 for each priority player protected. In some cases, with Quebec getting a Gerry Hart, Edmonton a Pete LoPresti or Wayne Bianchin, the expansion draft may have been worthwhile. But to wind up with a Nick Fotiu or a Pat Price &frac12; No way.</p><p>Despite the NHL&rsquo;s insistence that this is an expansion, the inclusion of Quebec, Winnipeg, Edmonton and New England among its ranks constitutes a merger. That is the right word, a word hockey&rsquo;s hierarchy fears.</p><p>The NHL&rsquo;s collective bargaining agreement with its players association could have been negated by a merger, thus giving the league peacetime in the battle to procure players but war in its relations with the performers. The NHLPA did not terminate the agreement with the league, instead &ldquo;doing what is best for the sports&rdquo; by ratifying the expansion.</p><p>In exchange, the NHLPA received several key concessions from the league and the pact was extended for two more years. The players pension pension fund was increased from $750 per year of service to $1,000&mdash;a move that will cost the owners between nine and 10 million dollars&mdash;and disability insurance was doubled to $100,000 per player.</p><p>A new form of compensation for free agents will be negotiated as well. The players would like the free movement system in practice in baseball but fully realize the ensuing bidding wars could destroy the game. Since the owners agreed to discuss a new compensation system, however, it is not likely the NHLPA will terminate the collective bargaining agreement, which it has the right to do until Sept. 1980.</p><p>&ldquo;The owners knew what we wanted,&rdquo; says Alan Eagleson, director of the NHLPA. &ldquo;They knew if they wanted expansion badly enough, they had to come through with major concessions.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t please everybody but I think things worked out all right,&rdquo; said the Rangers Phil Esposito, who serves as a vice president of the players association. &ldquo;The majority thought the expansion and the agreements we got was the best way for everyone.</p><p>&ldquo;The expansion or merger or whatever they want to call it is good for hockey. It gives the good players from the WHA exposure they haven&rsquo;t gotten, it gives more jobs to players and it strengthens the game.&rdquo;</p><p>Few of the strengths&mdash;and most of the weaknesses&mdash;of the NHL leaders were on display in the past three years when the subject of assimilation of WHA teams was broached. They allowed the expansion issue to be kicked around like a defrosted puck before three times voting against accomodating the WHA.</p><p>When merger finally became a reality, it took nearly a month of haggling, meetings in three cities, rejection, reconsideration and, finally, acceptance.</p><p>On March 8, in Key Largo, Fla., the NHL Board of Governors met to once again consider expansion.</p><p>&ldquo;When we entered those meetings,&rdquo; says Ziegler, &ldquo;I knew there was opposition but I thought there was a good chance we&rsquo;d accept the four WHA teams. I think that everybody went about it on the basis of making a decison right then and there. It was a &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s get this behind us, one way or another&rsquo; thing.&rdquo;</p><p>Harold Ballard, cantankerous boss of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a staunch enemy of merger, had just enough allies&mdash;four, the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings&mdash;to defeat the expansion motion.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to climb in bed with someone whose been playing around with my wife,&rdquo; he reportedly said about accepting the WHA into the NHL community. &ldquo;They raided our rosters, took away all those good players and still couldn&rsquo;t make it. Now they come running with their hands up, pleading with us to be friends. I don&rsquo;t want those kind of friends.&rdquo;</p><p>The disappointment in the WHA camp&mdash;Baldwin called the inability of the Board to get approval by just one vote &ldquo;appalling"&mdash;was matched by Ziegler&rsquo;s chagrin.</p><p>&ldquo;The whole approach was that if we were going to do anything for the 197980 season, now was the time,&rdquo; he said grimly. &ldquo;No one has any desire to go through this exercise in the near future. From a practical standpoint, I&rsquo;d have to say the matter has expired.&rdquo;</p><p>But Ziegler was wrong. Several things happened in the ensuing days to make the NHL leader realize expansion wasn&rsquo;t a dead issue. Indeed, he started interrogating the members of the Board who voted against assimilation.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0141-0154/10143280-1-eng-US/f0141-012.jpg" title="f0141-01" width="2352" height="2266"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The New York Rangers&rsquo; Phil Esposito, receiving an award from hie team late last season, also serves as the vice president of the Player&rsquo;s Association. &ldquo;I think things worked out all right,&rdquo; he said.</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0142-0157/10143273-1-eng-US/f0142-012.jpg" title="f0142-01" width="2340" height="1808"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Harold Ballard smiled when posing with Bobby Orr for photographers at the NHL meetings last June but he wasn&rsquo;t so jovial whenever the subject of merger with the WHA was broached to him. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to climb Into bed,&rdquo; Ballard said, &ldquo;with someone who&rsquo;s been playing around with my wife.&rsquo;&rsquo;</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I spent an entire weekend talking with a lot of people,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Ziegler. &ldquo;Gordon Gund (vice chairman of the Minnesota North Stars) and I reviewed what had taken place and we though it still might be workable.</p><p>(&ldquo;I spoke to Frank Griffiths [chairman of the Vancouver Canucks] because his was one of the teams which voted against expansion. After that conversation, I felt there was a definite hope.</p><p>&ldquo;There was a lot of difference of opinion but there was enough positive indication that I felt another meeting was in order. We decided to come up with a resolution on the issue that would put a sufficient majority in support of it.&rdquo;</p><p>The Canucks were one of two clubs ready to swtich votes. They&mdash;along with the Canadiens and Maple Leafs&mdash;were getting loads of pressure from the Canadian press and public. Ballard wasn&rsquo;t about to relent to any outside forces but Montreal and Vancouver were.</p><p>A Winnipeg newspaper ran an ad inviting readers to fill out a coupon and send it to Ottawa, the nation&rsquo;s capital, to protest the defeat of the merger. And Molson&rsquo;s brewery, which owns the Canadiens, began feeling the heat from all corners.</p><p>People started to boycott the beer. The Winnipeg Arena told Molson&rsquo;s not to bother sponsoring a &ldquo;Three Stars of the Game&rdquo; award. Suddenly, the Canadiens, who carry more muscle in the NHL than Ziegler or anyone else, asked to reopen the expansion question.</p><p>The two leagues met well into the night in Chicago on March 22-23. The Canadiens and Canucks reversed their votes and the NHL handed an expansion proposal to the WHA.</p><p>&ldquo;The people I work for,&rdquo; noted Ziegler, &ldquo;were able to come together on some extremely complicated issues and make some real sacrifices. I&rsquo;m pleased for them that they were able to dedicate themselves toward reaching an agreement.&rdquo;</p><p>Now it was the WHA&rsquo;s turn to delay.</p><p>&ldquo;It took the NHL three months to prepare for this and we have had only a short time to digest the proposal,&rdquo; said Baldwin. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of give-and-take and a lot of no-give and no-take.&rdquo; But the WHA definitely was going to take the hand the NHL was dealing out, even if the older league was shuffling a stacked deck in its favor. A week late, in New York, Baldwin and Ziegler stood side-by-side and announced, with relief, the end of the debates, disappointments, building wars and hopefully, folding franchises.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to say that the effort both leagues have put into fighting each other now will be channeled into the development of our sport in North America;&rdquo; said Ziegler.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s hard to believe that after seven years and something like 35 ownerships in 23 cities that here we are today with four teams entering the NHL,&rdquo; added Baldwin.</p><p>It was, in many ways, almost too much to believe. Not only had the WHA appeared defeated in its attempt to get into the more established league just a few weeks earlier, but the NHL had turned down another merger proposal in 1977&hellip;even though the NHL Board of Governors entered those meetings convinced that expansion was at hand.</p><p>Six WHA members (the four who made the NHL this year, plus the Cincinnati Stingers and Houston Aeros) made proposals for admission in August &rsquo;77. As the NHL moguls met and pondered the proposals, speculation was rampant that the six clubs were shoo-ins.</p><p>A few days later came word the NHL had made a decision&mdash;no expansion. The board had found the proposals unsound financially.</p><p>Hockey fans should not expect the WHA survivors who joined the NHL this season to be any more financially sound because there is one league and they&rsquo;re a part of it. The NHL still has no network television contract and has too many empty seats in its arenas.</p><p>Now it has 17 teams from the NHL of old&mdash;or, at least, the NHL established in 1978 when the Cleveland Barons merged with the North Stars&mdash;and four from the not-so-dear, departed WHA. Every club will play the other 20 teams four times a season for a balanced schedule. Sixteen teams will make the playoffs, most of them losing money anyway. The Montreal Canadians will probably win the Stanley Cup.</p><p>And, somewhere, <i>a</i> man named Gary Davidson, who started the WHA in 1972, then took the money and ran, is chuckling. He&rsquo;s also probably looking for some silly saps willing to invest in yet another hockey league.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0144-0160/10143266-1-eng-US/f0144-012.jpg" title="f0144-01" width="1530" height="1748"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0144-0234/10143259-1-eng-US/f0144-022.jpg" title="f0144-02" width="1192" height="1191"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NHL President John Ziegier was relenties and ultimately successful In his efforts to convince a few reluctant owners that hockey would be healthier operating under Just one banner&mdash;that of the NHL.</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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ANATOMY OF A MERGER

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