The NHL : Coach Says Maple Leaf Fans Are Too Good

John Brophy, coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has an unusual complaint about the fans in Maple Leaf Gardens.

He says they’re too supportive.

“These guys lose, and the fans don’t even boo,” Brophy said. “We’ve got guys running around making commercials all day.

“It wouldn’t happen in any other city. They wouldn’t want a loser to make a commercial in any other city. This is the most protected team I’ve ever seen.”

Who poses the greatest threat to the Edmonton Oilers in their bid for a second straight Stanley Cup championship?

According to Wayne Gretzky, it’s the Montreal Canadiens.

“They’ve got the best-balanced team I’ve ever played against in this league,” Gretzky told the Edmonton Journal.

Wearing a “Bruise Brothers” T-shirt, Dave Brown of the Flyers appeared recently at Philadelphia’s Comedy Factory Outlet, where he told jokes about his high-sticking of the New York Rangers’ Tomas Sandstrom, which resulted in a 15-game suspension for Brown.

Among those who weren’t amused was Bobby Clarke, the Flyers’ general manager.

“Brownie used very poor judgment,” Clarke told the Philadelphia Daily News. “I wish he wouldn’t have done that.”

Said Brown: “People took it the wrong way. I hope people didn’t think I was making fun of the whole thing. I guess I should have used different material.”

Since the beginning of last season, the Winnipeg Jets have won 13 of 17 games against the Calgary Flames, including 4 of 6 during a Smythe Division semifinal series last April and 3 straight this season.

The Flames are tired of it.

“You can only run into a cement wall so many times before you realize you’re the only one bleeding,” Hakan Loob said.

Marc Laforge of the Sudbury Wolves, property of the Hartford Whalers, was banned from the Ontario Hockey League for his role in a postgame brawl between the Wolves and the Guelph Platers.

Laforge allegedly sucker-punched several players, breaking the noses of three of them.

Wrote Trent Frayne of the Toronto Globe and Mail, who viewed a video tape of the incident: “It reveals a brawl that occupies a full third of the ice, with players milling everywhere in that area, sticks and gloves and helmets strewn haphazardly.

“The composure of young Laforge, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman, is astonishing. He simply goes from fight to fight, waits his opportunity, then throws heavy overhand rights against a Guelph face, any Guelph face.

“He skates calmly about like a guy in a discount store strolling from counter to counter looking for bargains. He comes upon a fallen Guelph goaltender lying on his back. He reaches down, gets the goalie by the shoulders, and lifts him and drops him several times as his head keeps banging the ice.”

During a subsequent hearing, OHL Commissioner Dave Branch told Frayne, Laforge repeated over and over: “I lost it.”

On the rocks: Asked to rate the worst ice surface in the National Hockey League, the Hartford Whalers said it is the one at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Next worst is at the Forum in Inglewood.

Repeat after me: Jacques Demers, angered by a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night, gathered his players in a corner during practice Friday and read from a dictionary.

“Sometimes my English isn’t that good,” the Detroit Red Wings’ coach said, “and I wanted them to know the exact meaning of the words I was using--such as honesty and cheating.”

In the genes: Brett Hull of the Calgary Flames, son of Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, leads NHL rookies with 11 goals and 12 assists.

“Some people were born to be mathematicians,” he told the Calgary Sun. “I was born with an ability to shoot a puck.”

Amid reports of mutiny by his players, Coach Mike Keenan of the Philadelphia Flyers reportedly has mellowed, at least somewhat.

“He’s not the way he used to be,” defenseman Mark Howe told the Toronto Globe and Mail. “His nickname here his first year was Adolf.”

Back to life: Before his first game at the Montreal Forum since breaking his leg there last season, Torrie Robertson of the Hartford Whalers skated to the spot on the ice where he had been injured, dropped on his back, then jumped to his feet and skated away.

Marcel Dionne, who is the New York Rangers’ No. 2 scorer with 14 goals and 13 assists, on his fast start this season: “I took a bad rap when I went to New York last year. All the so-called critics said I didn’t have it, but (Ranger General Manager) Phil Esposito got me for one reason: to help the Rangers. The guy stuck with me and I’m not going to let him down.”

Goaltender Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-8-2 with a 3.95 goals-against average, is struggling because he makes too much money, according to goaltender Ken Wregget of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“All that hardware he won last year is slowing him down,” Wregget said.

Hextall, winner last season of the Vezina and Conn Smythe trophies as the league’s top goaltender and most valuable player of the playoffs, agreed last week to an eight-year contract that reportedly will pay him about $300,000 a season.

Radio host Pete Franklin of WFAN in New York, who took a call from a listener bemoaning the lack of good white boxers in the ring: “You want to see good white fighters? Go to a hockey game.”