NHL Notes : Here’s a Look at the Real Jim Schoenfeld

It is too bad that the public impression of New Jersey Coach Jim Schoenfeld must be equated with his postgame denunciation of referee Don Koharski at Brendan Byrne Arena May 8.

Schoenfeld actually is a bright young man. When the flames died, Schoenfeld had a most perceptive comment about the officials: “It takes a special person to do that job. Most people work to please others. But (the officials) know from the time they step on the ice that at least one team, its fans and its coach will be unhappy when the game is over.”

Schoenfeld offered no hypocritical statements about never permitting a repeat of his harangue against Koharski. Instead, he expressed regret for having made comments that reduced their confrontation to a personal level, while promising that he would continue to stick up for his players if he felt they had been wronged by the officials.

The National Hockey League and the Detroit Red Wings were embarrassed by the revelation that six Detroit players had spent a long night boosting their blood-alcohol levels at an Edmonton strip joint before the fifth and, as it turned out, concluding game of their semifinal series against the Oilers.

Nobody was more devastated, however, than one of the participants, center John Chabot. During the offseason, Chabot visits Indian reservations in Canada as part of the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse program. His message: “I’m native and I made it to the top of my profession. Stay away from drugs and alcohol and you can do well, too.”

When Philadelphia Coach Mike Keenan held a news conference the day after he was fired, he was accompanied by his agent, Alan Eagleson.

Eagleson, a man of many hats and subsequent conflicts of interest, is especially close to Bob Clarke, the Philadelphia general manager who fired Keenan. So much of Eagleson’s contribution to the conference consisted of eulogizing Keenan, Clarke and Jay Snider, the Flyers’ president, which became confusing at best.

Eagleson did let slip one nugget of information, however. Barring a Stanley Cup, the Flyers were convinced that Keenan had to go. They delayed the inevitable in the hope of persuading another club to part with a first-round draft pick in exchange for the services of Keenan, who had another year to go on his contract.

A logical candidate to succeed Keenan is John Paddock, the onetime Washington winger who guided the Flyers’ Hershey farm club to the Calder Cup without a single playoff defeat. Hershey swept Binghamton, Adirondack and Fredericton. ...

Sitting side by side in Boston Garden the other night were Max McNab, executive vice president of the Devils, and Tom McVie, general manager and coach of New Jersey’s top farm club in Utica, N.Y.

McNab and McVie became general manager and coach, respectively, of the Washington Capitals on Dec. 30, 1975, and worked hard to make the franchise respectable. Neither stayed long enough to see it happen, with McVie feeling Abe Pollin’s ax on Oct. 9, 1978, and McNab cleaning his desk on Nov. 10, 1981.

Of the Capitals’ inability to achieve more postseason success, McNab commented: “It’s almost as if a black cloud is hanging over that franchise.”

Also present at the Boston-New Jersey series was another former Washington coach, Danny Belisle, scouting the two teams for Detroit in case the Red Wings reached the final.

Notes

Another former coach of the Capitals, Gary Green, made a prediction Feb. 3 that bears repeating. He said the Devils not only would make the playoffs but would be the team to advance from the Patrick Division ... Philadelphia’s Rick Tocchet and Pittsburgh’s Paul Coffey enjoyed a golf vacation together in Florida in late April. A year ago, when Coffey played for Edmonton, the two were rivals in the Stanley Cup final. ... New Jersey General Manager Lou Lamoriello is headed to Moscow this week to try to negotiate contracts for next season with Soviet defensemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov. Lamoriello was encouraged that Soviet Coach Viktor Tikhonov had withdrawn his opposition to such a move, but he added, “It’s an unknown. You don’t know how they are going to react. There’s no precedent, so I can’t get a read on it.” ... The Devils’ entry into the playoffs left Guy Charron, the one-time Washington captain, firmly in command of a dubious record. Charron appeared in 734 NHL games without playoff participation, more than any other player. Until the Devils made it on the final day, Aaron Broten had played in 519, making him a reasonable challenger. ... With only one of the division champions -- Detroit -- reaching the playoff final four, the NHL once again is in a tough position trying to justify an 80-game regular season to eliminate five teams.