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Yearbook 1987
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
Detroit Red Wings
Paging Dr. Devellano. Dr. Jimmy Devellano. Report to ‘Oh-are’. Emergency. For the second straight summer, Devellano answered the call during the off-season. Several malpractice suits are still pending over the results of his first summer’s work. None, as yet, have been filed over the summer of 1986. It was well before the 1985-86 season began that the Detroit general manager chose a medical metaphor to describe the facelift given his Red Wings. “When you’re unhappy with your team,” said Devellano, “there are three things you can do. You can sit on your rear end and do nothing…Make a few little moves…Or take the bull by the horns and do major surgery.” Thus came the firing of coach Nick Pola-no and subsequent hiring of Harry Neale, signing of big-money free agents Ray Staszak, Adam…
HOCKEY EAST
After a couple of years in the ‘burbs. Hockey East is coming home—slimmed down, less pro-ne to wanderlust, and back where it be-longs, in the Boston Garden. The seven-team league, which in 198687 will pit Boston University against the hoi polloi, is moving its semi-final and championship games to the Garden on March 15-16, the nights after the ECAC Division One semis and finals in the same building. The Providence Civic Center crowds simply weren’t big enough. The Hockey East quarter-final games will become single elimination affairs, after several years of trying to avoid quarter-final round upsets by playing two-game sets. Hockey East’s pennant winner and regular season runnerup will receive byes into the semi-final round while No. 6 plays at No. 3 and No. 5 plays at No. 4 in the…
Montreal Canadiens
Ironic isn’t it? The Montreal Canadiens have more to prove this year than last when they won the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens winning their 23rd championship—a professional sports record—is regarded as a fluke, an aberration in the absence of the mighty Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals. All three finished at least 20 points ahead of the Habs during the regular season. Indeed, Montreal benefited from the strangest year in recent playoff memory. The Canadiens only had to beat one team that earned more points than them during the regular season and that was the Calgary Flames in the Cup final. Calgary, beaten 4-1 in the showdown, was only two points better than Montreal over 80 games. The champions’toughest challenge came from the Hartford Whalers who took Montreal to overtime in…
Washington Capitals
Reports of the Washington Capitals’death have been greatly ex-aggerated. Even though the Capitals were coming off their best season in club history, early summer forecasts called for Washington to regress this season after four years of progress. Those close to the team argued that the absence of Bengt Gustafsson and unlikelihood of certain players matching career seasons of last year would lead to bad news for the Capitals. Two circumstances, one foreseeable and the other unforeseeable, were not taken into account—the likely re-emergence of Bobby Carpenter and the surprising defection of Czechoslovakian national team center Michal Pivonka. First, the cons. Gustafsson, a nifty center long anxious for a return to Sweden, decided to join a Second Division team there rather than rejoin the Capitals for whom he played seven seasons. Always productive, Gustafsson exploded for a…
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