Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Flames news and stats for Jan 26/93
From: caldwell8102@mtroyal.ab.ca
Date: 26 Jan 93 13:36:51 MST
Organization: Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta

News:
=====
The Flames are now winless in their last ten games heading into Tuesday night's
tilt with Detroit. The franchise record for consecutive games without a win is
eleven, set in December-January of 1985-86 when they suffered eleven straight
LOSSES. At least this year's edition has two ties in their winless streak. Not
that that's much consolation for a team that was 2nd in the league just three
weeks ago....

The big news this week is obviously goaltender Mike Vernon's new contract. 
Vernon inked his name Monday on a new deal that will pay him $1 million US in
the first year (this year), $1.1 million in the 2nd year, and $1.2 million in
the third year, making the 3-year contract worth a total of $3.3 million US. 
That ties Vernon with Tom Barrasso as the 4th-highest paid goaltenders in the 
league right now, behind Roy, Fuhr, and McLean. This represents a raise of 
about $700,000 Cdn from his old contract of $500,000 Cdn per year, so Vernon
was understandably happy. Vernon's comments? "I suppose a lot of them (fans)
will say 'He's not worth it!'. All I can say is that I'm selling a product,
my goaltending, and I want to get the market value for it. I think anybody in
any business wants to get what the next guy is getting. That said, I realize
I get to do what I love and am paid very well for doing it. In that regard, I've
been a very fortunate person throughout my career."

Vernon is now the highest paid Flame, ahead of fellow millionaire teammates 
Theo Fleury, Al MacInnis, and Joe Nieuwendyk. Speculation is that the next
member of the club will be Gary Roberts, likely next season.

Some good news for the Flames anemic powerplay. Defenceman Al MacInnis is poised
to make his comeback from a dislocated hip, and it could happen as soon as 
Thursday in Los Angeles. MacInnis will likely dress as the 7th defenceman and 
see spot duty, mainly on the powerplay. The Flames powerplay is awful this year
(18th in the league) and the return of "Chopper" and his booming slapshot will
certainly be a welcome addition.

A note for all you folks on the Gary Leeman trade watch. Leeman has dressed 
for two straight games now (oooh...aaah) and in those two games has two goals 
and an assist. And been a plus-3 to boot. He's hot, folks. :-)

Still on the subject of trades, the Flames demoted defenceman Greg Smyth to 
Salt Lake City of the IHL for conditioning, likely in the event that they want
to move him to another team. With the return of MacInnis, the Flames now have
nine healthy NHL-calibre defencemen, and Kevin Dahl's return in a few weeks will
bring the number to ten. Expect one or two of the defencemen to be traded in
return for forwards. Besides Smyth, another good possibility for a trade is
Michel Petit. Petit gave an interview to a local TV station in which he said he
has never felt comfortable in Calgary and bemoaned the fact that he is no higher
than the #3 defenceman in Calgary, whereas he has been #1 or #2 everywhere else
he has played. If that isn't suggesting that he wants out, I don't know what is.
Petit has never really performed well in Calgary and as far as I'm concerned
he can just f*ck right off. 
 
Upcoming games:
===============
Tuesday Jan 26, home to Detroit
Thursday Jan 28, at Los Angeles
Saturday Jan 30, at San Jose

Injuries:
========
D  Al MacInnis, day-to-day with dislocated left hip (Nov 11)
D  Kevin Dahl, indefinite with damaged left knee ligaments (Dec 13) 
C  Carey Wilson, indefinite with recurring knee injuries (Dec 10)

C  Joel Otto returned Jan 22 from torn rib cartilage.

#   Pos.  Name                  GP     G      A     Pts     +/-    PIM
===============================================================================
10  LW    Gary Roberts          48     27     36     63     +23    148
14  RW    Theoren Fleury        49     19     38     57     +10     40
42  RW    Sergei Makarov        48     15     32     47      0      24
25  C     Joe Nieuwendyk        48     22     22     44     +7      32
26  C     Robert Reichel        48     19     25     44     +13     32
20  D     Gary Suter            49     10     28     38     -9      64
29  C     Joel Otto             41     10     17     27     +6      60
28  LW    Paul Ranheim          49     13     14     27     +5      24
 2  D     Al MacInnis           18      4     13     17     +9      22
32  LW    Chris Lindberg        44      6     10     16     -4      18
11  RW    Gary Leeman           29      9      5     14     +6       8
18  D     Trent Yawney          28      0     13     13     +4      33
33  C     Carey Wilson          22      4      7     11     +10      8
34  D     Roger Johansson       44      2      9     11     +6      46
22  RW    Ron Stern             36      3      8     11     +1      87
 4  D     Kevin Dahl            29      2      8     10     +3      28
 5  D     Chris Dahlquist       44      3      5      8     -2      46
 3  D     Frank Musil           46      5      3      8     +23     66
16  LW    Craig Berube          48      3      3      6     -1     118
21  D     Alexander Godynyuk    20      2      3      5     +8      17
 7  D     Michel Petit          16      3      2      5     -4      13
23  RW    C.J. Young            25      3      2      5     -8      10
19  RW    Todd Harkins          14      2      3      5     -3      22
12  LW    Paul Kruse            12      1      1      2     -3      17
 6  D     Greg Smyth            21      0      1      1     +1      37
??  C     Shawn Heaphy           1      0      0      0      0       2
??  LW    Patrick Lebeau         1      0      0      0      0       0

#   Name             GP   Min.   GAA   W   L  T  EN  SO   GA   SA    Save% 
============================================================================
30  Mike Vernon      40   2369   3.09  20 16  4   3   2  122  1127   .892
35  Jeff Reese       11    549   3.39   5  2  1   0   1   31   273   .886
 1  Andrei Trefilov   1     65   4.62   0  0  1   0   0    5    39   .872
===========================================================================
                     49   2988   3.23  25 18  6   3   3  161  1442   .888