The NHL : Bossy and Potvin Take Aim at Hockey Violence With a Few Suggestions

Although everyone in the National Hockey League seems to have an opinion on every act of violence on the ice and every suspension handed down by Executive Vice President Brian O’Neill, some of the most reasonable commentary has come, recently, from a couple of retired players, Mike Bossy and Denis Potvin.

Their comments were published by Newsday and picked up by the Sporting News, and now are offered here.

Potvin said: “I look at some of the things that are happening, and I cringe.”

He suggested that suspensions should be cumulative, as are driving violations; that a point system be established, leading to a loss of playing privileges.

“Mark Messier just got his third suspension. It would be a shame to lose him, but if Mark can’t understand that what got him to the NHL is his skill, that’s too bad,” Potvin said.

Bossy said: “Brian O’Neill is employed by the owners, and he’s handing out suspensions to the owners’ employees. That’s why you have limited suspensions. They should have an independent body or person--someone or somebody that has nothing to do with the NHL--to handle the suspensions.”

Both Bossy and Potvin suggested that the players should realize that they’re hurting themselves and should take it upon themselves to cut it out.

General Manager Gord Stellick of the Toronto Maple Leafs was making the point that hockey is a Canadian game, and he kept rolling. The Chicago Tribune quoted him as saying: “I can agree at times with (Harold Ballard, the team owner). ‘Just leave our game alone.’

“The league’s advertising people are based in a company in Virginia. What do they know about hockey in Virginia?

“The King Clancy award, for instance, is one of the traditional awards, going to that individual who exemplified leadership in his community on and off the ice.

“Now an American beer company gets in the act with the award, and all that history is pushed into the background. We can’t ever forget the roots of this game were on frozen ponds in the north with players shoving papers into their pants for pads.”

He added: “I think it’s great Wayne Gretzky went to Los Angeles, but if that doesn’t sell hockey out there, they should give it up and move on somewhere else.

“When the Flames left Atlanta and went to Calgary, they were an instant success. Let’s not forget this is a Canadian game and we don’t need Madison Avenue to sell it.”

After 8 years, Wayne Gretzky is abandoning his annual tennis tournament in favor of softball.

Although the tennis tournament, held each summer in his hometown of Brantford, Canada, raised more than $100,000 for research and equipment for the blind, Gretzky thinks he should be able to double or triple that. Some celebrities have avoided the tournament because they don’t play tennis, and a softball tournament may draw more.

Toronto Coach John Brophy was standing behind the bench at the start of the third period at the Forum last Thursday, watching his team lose to the Kings and bleeding profusely from a gash on his head that he suffered when he didn’t duck long enough coming out of the tunnel that leads to the ice. King announcer Bob Miller exclaimed to his TV and radio audience: “Coach! It’s 7-1! Get some stitches!”

Brophy insisted on waiting until after the game to be treated, and then he needed 30 stitches to close the cut.

No doubt he needed a new suit, too.

Hockey Notes

Toronto owner Harold Ballard, telling the stockholders of Maple Leaf Gardens that he would not be hanging banners: “I’ve got a lot of banners up in storage if you want them. I would fly them, but they collect too much dirt and dust. If it gets windy, the dust comes down on me. Maybe if we won 15 or 20 Stanley Cups, I would consider it. If you want to hang them, I’ll give you a good price on the building.”

Jimmy Carson of the Edmonton Oilers stretched his goal-scoring streak to 7 games Sunday night with a hat trick against the New York Rangers. He has 22 goals, 12 in his current streak. . . . The New Jersey Devils haven’t given up hope of getting defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov from the Soviet national team. But he’s still in the army. Devil General Manager Lou Lamoriello, who went to Moscow last August to meet with Fetisov, said: “It’s in the hands of the Soviet Army.”