The Vancouver Sun du lieu suivant : Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 47

BEST COrt SllC Sun D3 LeoFoirg set light fores EDMONTON (CP) Wayne Gretzky of the Stanley Cup-champion Edmonton Oilers says he will probably undergo minor surgery June 17 in Edmonton to correct a circulation problem in his ieft ankle. Gretzky has fluid on the ankle, a problem that developed because he was tying his skate too tight, cutting off circulation. Gretzkyset for surgery BUY YOURSELF i A WHITECAPS TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ALL VTCCBO OUTLETS. CALL THE TICKET LINE AT 280-4400 OR WHITECAPS TICKET OFFICE. 4190 LOUGHEED HIGHWAY.

FOR INFORMATION CALL 291-6661. and lacrosse. He guided Enoch's 1980 junior team to the Can-Am championship. LaForge builds his teams on a work ethic foundation, emphasizing constant communication between the coach and his players. "It takes talk to figure out problems," he says.

"I don't want players unhappy because they feel left out after getting only a few shifts. I like to meet with all players one-on-one, especially the 15th to 20th after every game to tell them why they haven't played much." LaForge plans to spend most of July "travelling around to meet all the players I can before training camp (starting Sept. 17 in Duncan)." In a radical departure from the methods of Neale and Neilson, the new coach says "there will be lots of days off, days when we won't come to the arena to practice there are times talking practices can be more important." LaForge describes his practices as "never the same and tougher than games. Hard work can beat talent if talent doesn't work hard. I strive to make players believe in themselves, the system and the coach." The Smythe Division, he observes, will be more competitive next season.

"Edmonton, of course, is a great team," he smiles. "Calgary gave them a good run and I expect both Winnipeg and Los Angeles to be improved teams." How will he take the Canucks beyond the mediocrity of 70 to 77-point finishes each of the last five seasons? "I'm not setting any goals yet," says LaForge. "The style will be geard to speed, offence-oriented involvement of 20 guys to push themselves and the opposition. I want them riding to the puck in ill-humor, giving 100 percent to arrive there first and put it into the net. "My teams don't lose many fights and I like them to win on the road.

Sometimes it takes more physical energy to win on the road. You've got to be kept turned on emotionally." INTERPAKAND ENJOY EXCITE WHITKAP5 By ARV OLSON The eighth man hired to coach the Vancouver Canucks had an opportunity to ride into the National Hockey League on the tuxedo-tails of the Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers. "With Vancouver," says Bill LaForge, his voice laced with optimism, "there's the chance, the challenge, to move up and go places. Besides, I'm not the assistant coach type." LaForge, fiery and emotional and a man who brims with determination to succeed, comes to the Canucks directly from junior hockey as Harry Neale's first choice to handle the 14-year-old team. The NHL's youngest coach at 32, the Edmonton native comes here via Kamloops, Regina and Oshawa, where he and his major junior teams gained considerable notoriety, respect and success in four years.

"Ever since I can remember I've wanted to make coaching my career," says LaForge, the father of five children aged 10 to five months and the motivator of countless hockey players who worship him. "I got my first coaching job when I was 12 I was playing-coach of a peewee baseball team. My first decision was to make everyone bicycle to all practices and games." LaForge may not have the quick wit of his new boss, general manager Neale. But they are on the same wave-length in many respects and physically similar (LaForge is 5'9" and 190 pounds) with receding hairlines. If Neale wore a matching moustache, you'd swear they were brothers.

They both have been volatile, out-spoken and suspension-prone, they have disdain for defeat and preference for tough, aggressive players. Neale, who returned behind the bench to finish last season after firing Roger Neilson in January, said LaForge was "locked in two or three weeks ago with a handshake" on a two-year contract. Neale had interviewed or considered at least a dozen candidates. Also on his short list, he said, were Ron Smith, who has the option to remain as assistant coach for the last year of his contract or find employment elsewhere, and Mike Keenan, the U. of Toronto coach now primed to take the vacant 3ob with Philadelphia Flyers.

approached by Neale were Pat Quinn, Tom Watt, Dave King, Bob Berry, Lome Henning, Red Berenson, Fred Creighton, Ernie McLean and, yes, Don Cherry. problem with Punch (McLean) is that he's Jjeen out of hockey for four years," said Neale of the former New Westminster Bruins' coach. "I INTERNATIONAL SOCCER! TEAM AJAX FLUMINENSE STUTTGART DATE TIME May 27 7:30 PM June 6 7:30 PM June 8 7:30 PM, i( Lake's A great money- saving ticket pack Ralph Bower photo BILL La FORGE determined talked to Cherry and he'd like to coach again. But in his position (TV color commentator) he's been coaching every team in the league and doesn't have to worry about being fired by any of them." LaForge had other alternatives, too. He had been negotiating with the Flyers and "lots of other teams wanted to talk after the Memorial Cup (tournament) but I was already committed to the Canucks." He was also on Edmonton's payroll the Oilers own 70 per cent of the Kamloops franchise that may be shifted to Swift Current for the Western League's next season.

"It was Sather (Edmonton boss Glen Sather) who hired me as g.m. and coach for Kamloops," says LaForge. "We talked about it about my going to Edmonton as an assistant (possibly to ex-Canuck scout John Muckler, who is expected to take over as head coach of the Oilers). But I'm not cut out to be anyone's assistant." LaForge played both hockey and football before turning his attention to a full-time coaching career in 1976, becoming recreational director for the Enoch Indian Band in suburban Edmonton. At Enoch, he was the overseer of nine age-group hockey teams on the wealthy Cree reservation for four years, also coaching boxing, soccer, football age that great for Dad, Mom and the entire family.

Your seats are reserved for all three matches, and you save substantially over casual game ticket prices. RIDE THE WAVE! DATE: May 26, 12:30 P.M. LOCATION: False Creek Marina PREVIEW: May 22-26, 9 A.M.-5 P.M. Featuring: KAVALK 570 PRESIDENT 41 ISLANDER 28 SEE DETAILS PAGE B2 STUDENT ADULT SENIORS Category 1 $36 $30 Category 2 $33 $24 Category 3 $24 $18 Mo draft- deals for Neale Admitting the team's priority is a left winger or centre, Neale added that "we'd love to get Corson or Burr but we probably won unless we can move up a few slots in the draft." Shayne Corson is a left winger with Brantford, Shawn Burr a centre with Kitchener. The Canucks will take five players among the OFFERS THE MICHELEV XWW RADIAL TIRE AT first 58 choices, their first and second round (31st overall) selections and three third-rounds their ZTV'ancouver Canucks' general manager Harry Seale has virtually exhausted his efforts to trade Hp for a top choice at the NHL's June 9 entry draft mMontreal.

"I've tried to exchange our first pick (10th over-ait) for the third or fourth choice, but the price is top stiff," states Neale. "They all want one of our top players to swap draft places, even to move up two or three slots." After Pittsburgh and New Jersey open the draft, Los Angeles and Toronto pick third and fourth ahead of Montreal, which holds Hartford's choice from the Pierre Larouche deal. Los Angeles is reporteldy close to exchanging places with Chicago, with the sixth pick, which would enable the Black Hawks to grab Chicago native Ed Olczyk off Team USA. Mario Lemieux and Kirk Muller are expected to go one-two, to the Penguins and Devils respectively. SI ifM 95 own and two acquired in exchange for trading Lars Lindgren and Kevin McCarthy to Minnesota and Pittsburgh respectively during last season.

Neale also said Wednesday that winger Lars Molin, centre Gerry Minor and goaltender Ken El- lacott will not be returning with the Vancouver P19575 R14 XWW TBLs (L.R.B.) While stock lasts. organization. The contract of Molin, the Swede who never recovered from a leg fracture of the previous season, will not be renewed while both Minor and Ellacott, who were on termination contracts, won't be offered new pacts. OPEN SIX DAYS A WEEK TO SERVE YOU. 'Players all loved him' Garth Butcher, who should know, says one appealing facet of Bill LaForge's coaching is that he is like a player himself.

Picture, for instance, Butcher and LaForge, arms draped around each other, weeping unashamedly following a Regina Pats' loss to Portland Winter Hawks in the playoffs two years ago. "He gets emotional," says Butcher of the freshly inducted 32-year-old coach of the Canucks, "and he expects his players to get MICHELIN TECHNOLOGY STEEL-BELTED RADIAL WHITEWALL IIVWWIIOIM l3i For a different reason he may also seem like a fellow player to goalies John Garrett, who is three months older than his new boss, and to Richard Bro-deur, who is one year younger and inclined to loaf through practices, a habit LaForge has despised among his Michelin standards make all the difference FRONT DISC BRAKES $5495- HEAVY DUTY SHOCKS Includes: New Pads ed by the response. Granted he may have offended some people by the aggressive way his teams played, but his players all loved him. "Over the years his teams displayed characteristics that I know don't come naturally without the influence of the coach. His teams always displayed enthusiasm on a regular basis." There is a cynical response to the hiring of one so young to be the ninth coach of the Canucks in 14 years, and LaForge feeds their sarcasm with cliches and slogans.

He likes players "who arrive at the puck in ill humor." He has a "PHD coaching philosophy pride, hustle, and desire." And "older players are just over aged juniors." But on a one-on-one situation, LaForge reveals some magnetism. When he tells you he is big on communication, you tend to believe. "He has an attractive personality in dealing with people," says Bob Strum the man who hired him to coach the Regina Pats in 1981 after he had been suspended 50 games for becoming embroiled in a pre-game fight with Peterborough coach Dave Dryden. "He is a tremendously strong person. He is a leader and that ability is so important in a coach.

If the Canucks stick with him he'll deliver an outstanding team in two or three years The 50-game suspension and a five-game sentence and team fines while with Regina the following season assured his growing reputation as a goon coach. LaForge. who says he never lies, claims the Dryden fight never took place. He sw ears on a rule book that he came out of his office to find a battle in progress and Dryden holding one of his players. LaForge says he grabbed Dryden by the shirt and had a vigorous verbal exchange for 10 minutes.

LaForge views the discrepancy between Dryden's JO-game suspension and his 50 as "typical Eastern mentality. Ontario thinks it has the greatest hockey minds in the world and they didn't like a westerner intruding on their territory Although his name has French roots LaForge says he is Irish on both sides of his family. La-Forge translates to which gives him something in common with a few of his players. Turn Rotors Re-pack Bearings tte-pacn i k-'A Inspect all Jt Hydraulic Buy one shock -get the second shock at Vl Price farts RoaJ Test Car 13 For mi st cars. BUTCHER junior charges.

"That would be my only concern how he gets to the older half of the says general manager Harry Neale. After four years of coaching major junior in Oshawa, Regina and Kamloops, LaForge vaults directly into the NHL. the only man to take that express route. He eclipses Quebec Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron who jumped from junior to assistant coach and was elevated to head coach 15 days into the 1980 season. Since the day in January when he pulled the plug on Roger Neilsons video machine.

Neale said the hiring of a replacement would be the most important decision of his career. He could have played it safer by recycling a Pat Quinn. Bob Berry or Tom Watt, people with greater experience and higher profiles, people who have been in the kitchen and can share the heat. The owners could scarcely let the axe fall cn LaForge without making it a double execution. Last summer Neale had suggested LaForge coach Fredericton Express, the American League farm team they share with Quebec, but it never got beyond the talking stage.

No doubt LaForge was the front runner for the Canucks' job from day one. and when the race was over unsung assistant Ron Smith and University of Toronto coach Mike Keenan were the place and show horses. Says Neale: most impressive thing when I researched him was to find a consistent feeling among his former players. They all had the utmost regard for him. I was a little stagger- Bv Appointment Only ABBOT SEORD: 33210 South Fraser Way 853-5474 BLRNABY: 3765 Canada Wav 433-1432 6092 kingswav 437-4220 CHILLWACK: No.

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