Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 76

U4C THE HARTFORD COURANT: Sunday, September 2, 1979 Realistic Goal For Whalers I Blackburn Sous Plauoft going to come into his own and Fotiu is going to give us some muscle and respect we've been lacking. It should be heated competition there but we don't have anyone whose a proven goal scorer in the NHL. If we had gotten Bobby Hull it would have solved a lot of problems for us. RIGHT WING: Allison and Neufeld have the potential not only to be NHL players but very good NHL players. Hopefully, they will step right in and contribute but they might be a year down the road.

Bob Stephenson has improved every year with Birmingham but he's got to prove he can play in the NHL. Blaine Stoughton had 23 goals his rookie year with Toronto so we're hoping he can do the job for us. CENTER: I'm not worried here. (Dave) Keon, (Mike) Rogers, Gordie Howe and (Andre) Lacroix give us four capable players. We've got age here but we've also got four young guys (Savard, Don Nachbaur, May-nard Schurman, Dave Stewart) right behind them I don't know if Gordie is going to play.

Right now. you've got to count on him. Any closing comments, Don? Blackburn: Our strong point will, be behind our blue line. That's where you have to start. We hope to get off to a good start and win a share of games to develop the kids.

field Indians and three other minor league affiliates? Blackburn: We will try and incorporate the same things at Springfield that we do with the big club. We will try and make it uniform right through the system. By having our top kids living right here in the area they will be able to come to our games and see for themselves what they have to work for. We will also be able to see them developing and be able to bring them in to practice, Springfield is going to have a very competitive team in the American Hockey League and we won't have to worry about players we send there getting ice time. Last year Jim Warner went there and didn't play for almost a month.

Jeff Brubaker virtually wasted. a year last year. Now we have control. What areas of the team need the most improvement? Blackburn: We must improve team play most of all, especially from our own blue line back to the net. To be successful you have to make a minimum of mistakes in your own end.

We must get everyone to know what the other guy will most likely do in a given situation. This I will really stress.We got to running around in our own end too much last year. In the NHL, the great players'are going to beat you. than we wanted to beat them. The NHL fans in general are going to be in for a bit of a surprise.

Are the playoffs a realistic goal? Blackburn: Yes, definitely. We have a tough row to hoe right off the bat with 27 of our first 40 games on the road. It's probably tougher than anybody in the league. But maybe it will bring our younger players along right off the bat. They will be fresh and looking to to some traveling rather than later in the year when you start to drag a little.

Talk a little about each area of the team. Blackburn: Goaltending: We have two good ones in John Garrett and Al Smith' and a third good one in Terry Richardson. Richardson should make a stiong challenge for one of the two jobs. I have all the confidence Smitty and John can do the job. The job they did with us last year couldn't have been much tougher- DEFENSE: We're in pretty good shape there.

We will carry only five defensemen. We have pretty good depth there and picking five is going to be my toughest decision. I want to play Mark Howe back all season. Each NHL team has a player like him who can control the game. LEFT WING: We have question marks everywhere you look on our forward lines.

Jordy Douglas is develop a team attitude I'll require everyone to wear jackets and ties on the road. How did the Whalers do in the NHL entry draft? Blackburn: Better, than I thought we would. Losing Jack Carlson we lost a lot of respect. We had to get a similar type player and in Nick Fotiu we did. Nick was a priority for our particular situation.

Of course, we were also fortunate to get (Rick) Ley, (Alan) Hangsleben and (Gor-die) Roberts back through the deals we made. We also feel we got a good hockey player in Al Sims and Jean Savard hasn't reached his potential yet. How did the Whalers do in the recent amateur draft? Blackburn: We were pleasantly surprised by how we did. We never expected to get Ray Allison: The last three years he was the top-scoring right wing in junior hockey. He comes to play every night- and he plays a position we needed some help at.

In Stuart Smith we got a defensive-minded defenseman. Ray Neufeld has all the tools. The only rap on him has been his attitude. But he has good size and he's a great skater. He has the potential to be better than all of them.

How much of a difference will it make now that the Whalers have their own farm team in the Spring-. But you can't beat yourself with mistakes. How will the Whalers have to play to be successful in the NHL? Blackburn: We have to play more physically, play the body more. The guy with the puck has got to have somebody in his way all the time. We're going to have enthusiasm.

All of the guys are going to want to they can play in the NHL. hey are also going to have some hungry, young kids behind them that want their jobs. We should also get a big lift when we move into our new rink in Hartford. So getting up shouldn't be much of a problem. How will the Whalers do in the NHL? Blackburn: With Montreal in our division we know we're shooting for second.

We're realistic. But we should be on a par with L.A., Pittsburgh and Detroit. Our defense is as -good as any of them. As far as the rest of the league is concerned, I think we'll be competitive overall. I can't see anyone rolling over us.

The only thing we have to judge this on is how we did in exhibition play. In two years we lost only, two games one to Boston and one to Detroit, who we also beat. People can slough it off all they want but it's the only yardstick at this point. They can say their players didn't care but I don't think they wanted to lose to us any more By TERRY PRICE On Oct. 11 at approximately 9 EST at the Met in Minneapolis, a puck will be dropped and the Hartford Whalers will embark upon a new era as members of the National Hockey League, How will the Whalers do in their first season in the NHL? What will it take to be successful? Are the playoffs a realistic goal? What areas of the team need improvement? As the Whalers prepare to take the step up to the NHL from the dead and buried World Hockey Association these questions and more are on the minds and lips of the fans who will fork over their hard-earned cash to see them play.

To help gain some insight and a few answers I went to Don Blackburn, the man who has been chosen to chart Hartford's path through the unknown waters of the NHL, For three hours we sat and talked hockey in relation to the Whalers. The following is the result of that exclusive interview. What will be your number one priority in coaching the Whalers? Blackburn: The number one priority will be to develop a total team concept. It's nice when a guy has a goal and maybe an assist when you win, but if you can play every game where everyone makes a contribution it's a better situation. To help Blacky To Get Chance To Coach From Day One Top Seeds Register Victories In U.S.

Open Tennis Tourney to the extra ball he was carrying as he ran to the net to acknowledge Van Dillen. "I've been practicing a lot with Connors and McEnroe," he said later. "It was very difficult to get used to his (Van Dillen's) pace. I didn't know what to do with the ball for a while. But at the end I began to learn." 5-1, answering Van Dillen's first volley with a passing shot.

"OK!" the Argentine yelled. He had triple match point next game. He hit a backhand long next point, and his shot down the line was ruled wide for 40-30. But next time his backhand cross-court was perfect. He blew a kiss E.

Michigan Wins, 21-7 In Opener them make their mistakes and learn by them. We've got a rough schedule. We're in a position where we may have to take our lumps and not panic." Not panic. That's what Blackburn hopes the Whalers' brass doesn't do. But he's not looking over his shoulder worrying "about who his replacement might be or at least he says he isn't.

"The pressure on me is to bring these kids along and let them develop," he said. "Naturally, you want to win-and maybe make the playoffs. But not at all costs. This is a building year for the future." Blackburn brings with him several long suits to the job of guiding the Great Whale. As he points out, he knows the organization as well as anyone having served as a player, head coach, assistance coach, head scout and interim coach all the last four years.

Don Blackburn's time has come. He is ready to be a coach in the NHL. not only enters NHL as an expansion team with the deck against it in terms talent, but it does with the prospect of 27 of its first 40 on the road and perhaps many as 29 home in Springfield while Hartford Coliseum is rebuilt. not exactly the type a rookie NHL relishes but now that chance, Blackburn that people will be bear with him if don't go so hot at the going into a new said Blackburn. we were rated as the potential to win it not the same now.

got to grow as an We've got a lot players and we are nave to grow with go out and coach at all costs and use veterans. Or I could use players and let Continued from Page 1C and John McEnroe, appeared to be in big trouble against Van Dillen's serve-and-volley assault. After dropping the first set, he was 2-5 down in the next before winning five games in a row. In the Uth game, he broke at love by passing Van Dillen four times. Van Dillen toughed it out in the third set He took the tiebreaker 7-4, winning the last four points.

But Vilas, known for his heavy topspin game and love of the baseline a style more suited to clay than the hard, fast courts here, became unusually aggressive. He took a 3-0 lead in the fourth set before Van Dillen came alive again, and held serve. Each broke at love in the sixth and seventh games, but Vilas took the next game and set, breaking at 30 with a forehand volley down the line. The final set started the same way, with Vilas reaching 3-0. He broke again for MARQUETTE, Mich.

(AP) Senior fullback Doug Crisan ran for two touchdowns and quarterback Jeff Dackin passed for another to lead Eastern gan to a 21-7 victory Satur- day. over, fumble-plagued Northern Michigan in the college football opener for both schools. Northern quarterback Todd Krueger connected on 27 of 41 passes for 304 yards and one touchdown, but gave up an interception on the goal line, ending a fourth-quarter threat. Tailback Jeff Preston of Eastern led all rushing with 103 yards, including a 72-yard gallop that set up one of Crisan'j touchdowns. Eastern led all the way, after turning around a blocked punt by Northern that gave the host team a first-and-goal at the Eastern 6-yard line.

But Northern fumbled away the ball on the first play from scrimmage. Four plays later, Preston broke his 72-yard run to the Northern 4-yard line. Two plays later, Crisan went over from the3. Northern fumbled the ball To Play and Win Makes Drugs an Easy Ron Bouchard Hits It Big At Stafford STAFFORD SPRINGS Ron Bouchard of Fitchburg, won everything at the Stafford Motor Speedway, Friday night. He took first place in the 30-lap NASCAR modified feature, captured the 1979 track point championship and was voted 1979's most popular driver at the half-mile Stafford oval.

Bouchard went into the night's competition with a slim point lead over Richie Evans of Rome, N.Y., and it was Evans who pushed Bouchard for the checkered flag in the feature. Both Bouchard and Evans were fortunate enough to escape a third lap accident that eliminated six of the starting field. Evans grabbed the lead on the sixth lap but was overtaken by Bouchard on the 13th lap and he held off Evans for a close win. Third place went to Bobby Vee, fourth Dave Monaco and fifth to Carl "Bugs" Stevens, Mike Stefanik was chosen 'Most Popular' in the sportsman class and he won his Uth straight feature. who sought $1.6 million in damages.

He charged the Bears and team doctors with injecting him with "high- powered drugs and high-powered ain killers lor ms injured Knees so could continue playing. He also alleged that Dr. Theodore Fox "ov-erprescribed and overadministered various drugs and medications solely to enable Butkus to play football The suit was settled out of court for $600,000 on Sept. 13, 1976. Siani injured the second and third toes of his left foot Nov.

20, 1977 in a game against San Diego. They were diagnosed as "bruised," and Siani played the rest of that season with painkillers. His discomfort continued through the offseason, and a later examination revealed the toes actually were "dislocated." In June, he underwent the first of three operations, and in July he was traded to Baltimore. But after seven games of the '78 season, his problems had not disappeared. In addition to pain, he also was having difficulty with his balance.

Cindy In June he underwent surgery, again because so much of the metatarsal bones had been chipped away in the first operation, perfect balance would be impossible. This time two hinges were Implanted in the toes to extend them. But his body rejected the artificial hinge and a third operation was necessary to remove it. LoCasale said, "It's a case that has absolutely no merit and has been turned over iomt attorneys." Trainer George Anderson has refused to comment. Dr.

Donald Fink, a Raider team physician since 1976, said, "We feel we contributed in no way to any dif- ficulty Mike has had or is now having." Dr. Robert Roscnfeld, a Raider team physician since 1969, would not discuss the case. But when Siani first made his allegations, after his trade to Baltimore last September, Roscnfeld told The San Francisco Examiner, "As far as getting shots is concerned, Mike knew at all times what we were giving him and what it would do. A couple of times he Continued from Page 1C a Monday," said Blackburn, a 41-year-old native of Kirk-land Lake, Ontario. "It's true I didn't finish the season.

We went on to have a good playoff under Harry but after I saw what virtually the same team did the next year, I think maybe I did a lot better than I thought. "Last year when I became coach," Blackburn went on, "I wondered what I was doing here. But once I got back to ice level back in the thick of it I found it thrilling. By the time we got by Cincinnati in the playoffs, I thought I'd take the job if it was offered. "It is," he said, "a chance to start from day one.

It's a chance to do what I want to As eager as he is to accept the challenge of coaching, Blackburn knows the Whalers' first year in the NHL promises to be one of trial and perhaps more than a little tribulation. He knows the team could be buried before the season is half over. Pressure Continued From Page 1C. wouldn't have told me I needed ah operation until after the Super Bowl." With that tad experience behind him, why would he have chosen painkillers over rest and rehabilitation for his ankle? He didn't have much choice. "I'm still ashamed at myself for asking for as many shots as I did," he said, "but you wouldn't believe the pressure you're under to play." Pressure to play.

Pressure to win. And pain. They form a silent partnership with every player in the National Football League. Accepting the arrangement is an unwritten clause in every contract. Dealing with it is another matter.

D1ma Arm a Aom Kiit old A machine, and malfunctioning parts are quickly discarded. If one man can't play, another takes his place, and the games goes on. So most players go to extremes to avoid replacement. That's when trouble starts. Extremes force a player to walk a tightrope between playing hurt and playing it safe, be- 1 A MAMMA AM! Kllftt A W.

i IWccll wuiiiiiiuii ocuoc aim wimu am- 5, bition. The pressures are suffocating from coacnes, irom peers, irom fans, from within; it's never an easy choice. Rut manv nlavers find a wav out. With an artificial push, they escape tkmnnh ttinir lnnnhnloa with nam. 1 UUVU(U lUVM vuu.

una killing Injections. Doctors and coaches say injections won't be of- fered if further iniurv is possible. But it doesn't always work that way. -11 1 11. 1 i 1 ne use 04 painKiuers is uie ihum serious issue we face as a l'k nlt VA finrvoo arnMitiva HIrprtnr of the NFL Players Association.

"Management has always made the game the most Important factor, not the players. There will always be a willing supply of players, and that, in itself, helps create tension and Insecurity. Everything in football is wared to nressure the veteran into thinking somebody is going to take his job. coupled witn management constant stress of 'What else can you do for your $50,000 a you begin to see the tremendous pressure players are operating under. If you don't please Jack Pardee or Don Hartford the mighty stacked of player so faced playing games as games the being It is of situation.

coach he has his hopes able to things start. "We're situation," "Before, having all. It's Now we've organization. of young going to them. "I could to win the the younger Vilas, unlike many of the pros here, has not been critical of the court conditions, even though they do not suit his game.

"There are two possibilities," he explained. "One, I adapt to the conditions. Two, I go spearfishing in the Bahamas. This year I chose to play." away again to open the second quarter, setting up an 11-play, 71-yard march; by Eastern that ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass play from Davis to flanker Jeff Dacklin. Barrington, R.I.

Wins In Legion Tourney GREENVILLE, Missr (UPI) Ernest Pacheco hurled a two-hit shutout Saturday when Barrington, R.I., knocked Tulsa, out of the American Legion World Series baseball tournament, 5-0. Out Team doctors interviewed for this series denied conflict-of-interest charges, but some of them acknowledged the lurking presence of management. "It's general knowledge, at least in this area, that (management has) taken people I've turned down and placed them on the field," said Godfrey. "That's their decision. I've told owners, people like that, that-this man should not pass a physicaf and be put on the field.

I've also known coaches to put these people on; the field, and they just haven't held up." "Let's put it this way," said Dr. Robert Kerlan, the renowned orthopedic surgeon and team physician to the Los Angeles Rams, Dodgers and Lakers. "I've never had the slightest problem with an owner or management trying to have me make a decision against the best interest of a player. But I know they're there." 1 Whatever the doctor offers, the ultimate decision to take an injection belongs to the player. Only he risks further injury if he takes a shot, or credibility in the eyes of his teammates if he doesn't.

"Nothing so divides us as a said Garvey. "On the one hand, you have a group of players who feel anybody can take an injection, as long; as he knows what ne aoing. ui the other hand, there Is entirely; too much pressure put on a guy to recover from injuries, and if he doesn't take a painkiller, he's considered a malingerer, not a 'team' player. majority of players succumbs to this type of peer pressure and takes the injection." It is an unending one that confronts a player before every practice and every, game. I Dolphin running back Delvin Williams put it this way: "If I can take a shot and play, I'll do it.

I like the game, ana I don't want to sit on the sidelines. I knew the rules when I started playing; I knew you had to do some things that aren't pleasant. That's the unwritten law of football. The bottom line is that you've got to live. There's a price for everything, -an you've got tovbe willing to pay itr going to be the end of it.

But then a half-hour before kickoff (the coaches) approached me again to take a shot I told them, Shula's position is that once the team doctor tells him a player can be injected without further risk of injury, the player has an obligation to perform. The player can refuse the shot as Ginn and Jake Scott, among others, have done but he is still obligated to play. "We won't put anybody out there who the doctor thinks shouldn't play," said Shula. "But he's getting paid to play, and if the doctor tells me he can, even with a painkiller, that's what I base my decision on." "I think this has become a big Sroblem in the league," said Stan fhite, a Baltimore attorney and Colt linebacker. "I've heard a thousand cases of people getting shot with Xylocaine and other painkillers, and I think that's such a great risk.

"Doctors do it because they're under such pressure from the people they work for. The same thing with injuries and trying to find out what" the injuries are. I don't think the doctors always give the full story. Management wants the player to play. They have to win now! They're not thinking about three or four years from now.

I get this feeling from everybody I ever talk to." Team doctors find themselves in the same position as referees. The pressure to be accurate is enormous, and they're cited when something goes wrong. Complicating their dilemma is the feeling by many players that the team physician's role in football creates a blatant conflict of interest: Doctors are paid by team management to minister to players, with whom they can't possibly maintain the. classic doctor-patient relationship. Injuries, diagnoses and prognoses are relayed immediately to coaches, management, and ultimately fans by way of the press.

For that reason many players regard the team doctor as a tool of management, put there, in some cases, to expedite the 1 Shula, you're gone. End of story. End of career." To please their coaches, most players will do almost anything. And in many cases, they find help no further away than the nearest syringe. Long before Bill Walton's conflict in basketball brought the public inside the sacrosanct training room, football players were taking pain-killing injections to ease temporarily the pains that prevent them from playing.

Painkillers, unlike anti-inflammatory drugs that reduce swelling, do not heal. They only numb pain. They block the nerve impulses to the brin so a player can perform as if he had no injury. They have the same effect as a magician's wand: the lady has disappeared, but. you know she's around someplace.

Novocain, and Xylocaine, which is slightly stronger, are the two most common injectable painkillers used in the NFL. They're not addictive in the physical sense. Their attraction -is psychological. The longer a player can perform pain-free, the longer he wants to stay that. way.

In some instances their use has become a way of life. Pittsburgh defensive back Ray Oldham had a similar problem inl975 when he played for Balti- more. An injured knee in the ninth game of the season was diagnosed as bruised and deadened with painkil- lers to allow him to finish the season on the field. By the end of the season, he learned it was more than a -bruise. The day after the Colts' playoff loss to Pittsburgh, he entered the hospital for surgery to repair a damaged knee ligament.

"'It bothered me to learn I had to go into the hospital, after I had still been playing, thinking my knee was only bruised," Oldham said. Colzie and Oldham were satisfied just to change teams. Mike Siani wasn't He is suing his former employer, the Oakland Raiders, two team doctors, the team trainer and a drug manufacturer for $6 million, for failure to diagnose properly and treat two dislocated toes on his left foot. It is not unlike the landmark suit in 1974 against the Chicago Bears by linebacker Dick Butkus, didn't want a shot and he didn't get one. Nobody tied Mike down and demanded he do anything." Nobody tied down Raider defensive back George Atkinson, either.

Not that anyone would have noticed. In a game Dec. 4, 1977 in Los Ange- les, Atkinson hurt his ankle in the first quarter of what turned out to be his final game. On the sidelines, seven Raider players were instructed to encircle him to hide what would happen He was given an injection, so he could continue playing. "I should know," said Siani.

"I was one of the seven." Colzie remembered the incident, too. After the game, when the first X-rays were taken, doctors discovered a break. "It happened, but with my OK," said Atkinson, defending the action of Rosenfeld. "I asked if I could get a shot to numb the pain so I could keep playing. When it didn't relieve the pain, that's when they decided to take X-rays.

It was something that I agreed on." Although most players won't sue their club for obvious reasons, there is a growing concern about painkillers and the tacit pressures exerted by management that induce players to accept injections. Hubert Ginn, a former running back for Miami and Baltimore, recalled episodes with both clubs. In Baltimore he had a sore big toe, and X-rays revealed a slight bone chip. He was offered a painkilling injection to play. He refused.

"The doctors tole me it wasn't serious, just a minor thing" said Ginn, now a recreation supervisor for the city of Savannah, Ga. "When I told them I didn't want the shots, all I heard was, but we need jou. The TEAM needs In Miami he remembers discuss- -ing a foot injury with Dr. Herbert Virgin, the Dolphins' team physician, who recommended he taVe an Injection. Ginn said he would play without an injection and so informed "the coaches he would not identify which ones.

"I told them how I felt," he said, "and that the doctor said I didn't have to have a shot if didn't want one. I thought that.