The NHL / Jerry Crowe : Is Vachon on Thin Ice? No Way, Says His Boss

Contrary to rumors circulating throughout the National Hockey League, King General Manager Rogie Vachon is not on “thin ice,” as one headline writer suggested.

At least, that’s the word from his boss, King owner Bruce McNall, who said: “I don’t know why people keep bringing this up. He’s not in trouble.”

But what if the Kings fail to make the playoffs?

“That won’t mean that much to me,” McNall said. “If it happens, it’s not going to devastate me.”

McNall said that, with his blessing, Vachon and Coach Robbie Ftorek will take a different approach in the way they evaluate personnel.

“The one thing I think Rogie and Robbie are looking for are character-type players, more than skill players,” McNall said.

“What happened is, I kept looking down the roster of teams that continually did well, and player by player by player, I’d say, ‘Wait a minute. This player of ours is better than that player, and this player is better than that player. Why are they winning and we’re not?’

“It might have to do with the fact that in the past, we’ve drafted and traded for pure skill and determined that areas of size and character were less important.

“Recently, I think we’ve reversed that a little bit.”

Since Ftorek replaced Mike Murphy in December, the Kings have acquired Mike Allison from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Craig Laughlin from the Washington Capitals and Ron Duguay from the New York Rangers.

All are strong, workmanlike, defensive-minded forwards.

“It’s only fair to give this new thing a good period of time to work,” McNall said. “I’m not going to change coaches every blink of the eye, and Robbie and Rogie get along well. Their philosophies are the same, from what I can tell from meetings.

“So, even if a disaster happened and we didn’t make the playoffs, I wouldn’t make any changes based upon that. I think the program’s going to take a little time to get going.”

Try another tack: As a way of easing their travel schedule, McNall said he will attempt to have the Kings moved to the Norris Division, ideally in a switch with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

As an incentive to the Maple Leafs, McNall pointed out that such a switch would give Toronto four home dates each season against Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers.

The problem is, the Maple Leafs don’t need attractive home dates.

They rarely draw fewer than 16,000 in an arena that holds 16,382.

Mike Keenan, coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, doesn’t put much stock in statistics.

“We use statistics the way a drunk uses a lamp post--for support, not illumination,” Keenan said.

After goaltender Bob Mason of the Chicago Blackhawks faced 39 shots in a 1-1 tie against the Winnipeg Jets, teammate Mike Stapleton told reporters: “He saw more rubber than a dead cat on the Trans-Canada Highway.”

Reporters counted 72 expletives in a four-minute address to the media by Coach John Brophy of the Maple Leafs last week after a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota North Stars.

Two nights later, the Maple Leafs beat the North Stars, 4-2.

Campaigning for rookie of the year honors, goaltender Darren Pang of the Chicago Blackhawks had a T-shirt printed that read: “Pang, easier to spell than Nieuwendyk.”

Lou Vairo, coach of the 1984 U.S. Olympic hockey team, told the Hockey News that the NHL should enlarge its rinks to international standards.

“You’re getting more injuries in the NHL because of the smaller rink and bigger players,” said Vairo, who has coached in Italy the last two years. “To compensate for lost seating, raise the prices of all seats.”

Dave Brown, more noted for his fighting than his production, has scored a career-high 11 goals this season for the Flyers.

“We always knew Brownie had quick hands,” Coach Mike Keenan said. “Now he’s scoring goals with them.”

As his 8-year-old daughter, Julie, finished saying her prayers one night, strength coach Larry Hendrickson of the Minnesota North Stars asked if she hadn’t forgotten something.

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Thank you for putting Toronto in the Norris Division.”