The NHL : When Penguins Can’t Get in Playoffs, Berry Is Left Out in the Cold

More upheaval in the tumultuous world of coaching in the National Hockey League.

As had been rumored for some time, Pittsburgh Coach Bob Berry and an assistant were fired Monday after the Penguins had failed to make the playoffs for the third straight season. Berry, a former King coach, and assistant Jim Roberts each had a year remaining on their contracts.

Oddly, though, Penguin General Manager Eddie Johnston was retained. “To maintain continuity in our front office,” Paul Martha, the team’s executive vice president, said.

It was Johnston who engineered the trades for players that Berry had to mold. Berry’s record the last three seasons is 88-127-25, but he has had little to work with.

Granted, he had Mario Lemieux, but the center missed 17 games this season. Still, Berry had made the team an exciting one--they missed the playoffs by four points--and brought people, and money, into the building. In his three years, the average home attendance more than doubled.

Berry was quoted after his dismissal as saying, “I feel like someone who has gone outside and chopped down a tree, cut the logs, built a fire and then been told to wait outside in the cold.”

Berry’s fate was similar to Lorne Henning’s in Minnesota. Henning had to deal with several injuries to key players, specifically to center Neal Broten.

In addition, the North Stars appeared to have simply given up at the end of the season. They finished 30-40-10 in a pushover division, the Norris. They went 2-13-1 in their last 16 games. If the team had earned one tie instead of a loss during that stretch, they would have been in the playoffs.

Herb Brooks, now coaching at St. Cloud State, is expected to replace interim coach Glen Sonmor as the North Stars’ seventh coach since 1978.

Brooks, the 1980 Olympic coach and a former coach at the University of Minnesota, would be an excellent choice from a public relations standpoint.

The turmoil in Minnesota has taken its toll. Lou Nanne, who lost 12 pounds in 10 days, was told by a doctor to slow his hectic pace. The 45-year-old general manager underwent two days of tests last week at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The Soviet national hockey team wore advertisements on its jerseys for the first time last week, during an exhibition game in Sweden. The uniforms carried the logo of a Swedish computer firm.

A Soviet sports official said the team may negotiate contracts with other Western companies.

The team was reportedly paid $15,000 to wear the logo.

The executive director of the NHL Players’ Assn. favors reducing a portion of the NHL pension payment for those players who refuse to represent their countries in international competition.

Alan Eagleson said he thinks it is unfair that some players bear the yearly burden while others don’t get involved.

“It doesn’t seem fair for people like Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky, who have hopped on a plane in a minute’s notice, when others decline for no legitimate reason,” Eagleson said.

Eagleson, who organizes nearly all of Canada’s international amateur hockey tournaments, was referring to three players who turned down Hockey Canada’s request to compete in the World Championships in Vienna.

Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins declined because he said he had suffered too many injuries during the season. Goaltender Richard Brodeur of the Vancouver Canucks said he had a sore shoulder and center Doug Lidster of the Canucks refused to play but didn’t give a reason. Defenseman Raymond Borque complained of a sore back and will not go.

Eagleson said that his concern is that with this precedent, players will beg off future events.

“If we don’t do something, everybody may say no,” Eagleson said. “Some day, everybody may decide to sit out.”

A player in the NHL has $4,000 yearly paid into his pension fund. The league pays $3,000 of that and the remaining $1,000 comes from money raised by international events. Eagleson suggests that if a player elects not to play in the World Championships, the $1,000 be withheld.

The first game in the tournament is set for Friday, when the U.S. team plays Canada.

NHL Notes Dale Hawerchuk, captain of the Winnipeg Jets, has been charged with six violations of Winnipeg city bylaws for allowing his two Labrador retrievers to run loose near his suburban home. Hawerchuk has been charged with two counts of allowing his dogs to chase horses, two counts of letting the dogs run at large and two counts of failing to license them. . . . Brett Hull is following in the scoring steps of his famous father, Bobby. The younger Hull, playing for the Moncton Golden Flames of the AHL, finished the regular season with 50 goals, in his first season as a professional. . . . Coach John Brophy of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his rowdiest player, Wendel Clark, and Clark’s potential as a professional boxer: “Picture him in those three-minute rounds. He wouldn’t stop throwing punches from the time the bell sounded until the round ended. I’d pity the poor slob who was on the receiving end of those two fists.” . . . Anders Carlsson had a disappointing season with the New Jersey Devils, and he thinks he knows whose fault it is. Carlsson, a winger, scored just twice in 48 games and said he will not play for Coach Doug Carpenter again. “I’m not certain where I’m going to play next season,” he said. “But one thing is for sure: I will not play for the Devils under the same coach.” . . . Former King Butch Goring, often rumored to be in line for the King assistant coach job, may find a job as an assistant for the Winnipeg Jets.