38 — Wednesday, June 23, 1999 - North Shore News Bob Mackin News Reporter THE Vancouver North Stars are feeling a little heavenly after the “road trip from hell” — despite all the bumps and bruises. The local catry in the inter-city Rugby Canada Super League returned home tied for first place with a pair of wins after back-to- bsck games on Saturday and Sunday. The trip began with a 90-minute deiay. The club’s flight was stuck on Vancouver International Airport’s tarmac because of technical problems. When the Stars finally arrived in Calgary, they found the venue had been changed. The Stars fell behind 19-5 at halftime to the host Mavericks when the game eventually kicked-off. But Vancouver went on to get its first road win of the year by coming back to beat Calgary 29-19 on tries by Ryan Stewart, Darren Smith, Barry Eb! and Leif Carlson. Stuart Wright Rad three converts and one penalty kick for nine points. The Stars flew to Winnipeg for a Sunday match with the Manitoba Bison. The Bison, like the Mavericks, managed to score 19 Sunday at 3 north shore news points. The Stars, however, were on the winning end with a 23-point tally. Wright had two penalties, nwo converts and one drop goal for 13 points. . Stewart and Chad Tauro bad onc try apiece. Ebl, Wright, Stewart, Tauro, Carlson, Ron Johnstone, Jason Hall and = Colin McKenzie were on-field for ali 170 minutes of action over the two games. “The boys were very tired, a lot of bumps and bruises, but they did what they had to do,” said North Stars’ coach Bill Turpin. The North Stars host the Edmonton Gold p.m. in West Vancouver's Kiahanic Park. It will be the second of three regular season home games on the North Shore. The teant moved here after one season at Stanicy Park’s Brockton Oval. The North Stars are tied for first overall with Abbotsford-based western division rival Valley Venom. Both teams have three wins. The Venom hold the advantage with one game in hand, while Vancouver has once loss. The winners of the western and. castern conferences meet after the six-game regular season at the home pitch of the western team to decide the national semi-professional rugby champion in a one-game final. Burrards edge indians in lacrosse Bob Mackin News Reporter CHRIS Konopliff’s goal at the final buzzer lifted the Maple Ridge Burrards to a 9-8 victory over the North Shore Indians Saturday in a Western Lacrosse Association game in Kelowna. A win instead of a heart- breaking loss would’ve vault- ed the Indians out of fast place. Instead, North Shore remains in the cellar of the six- team league with a 4-10 record — onc loss more than the fifth-place = Burnaby Lakers. The game was the third hosted by the Indians in Kelowna. The team’s bid to Move to the Okanagan city full-time was thwarted by league governors. The next home game is tonight at Lonsdale Arena against the defending WLA champion Coquitlam Adanacs. It’s the first leg of a two-game, home-and-home series against the Adanacs. After seven weeks of action, the Adanacs lead the league with a 12-2 record. The 8-5 Victoria Shamrocks are in sec- ond. Konopliff’s marker was assisted by Ken Thomas. Thomas scored twice late in the third period to tie the game 8-8. Derek Malawsky and Kevin Biggs scored carly in the peri- od to give the Indians an 8-6 advantage. The indians led 4-2 after the first. The Indians added to the {ead outscoring the Burrards 2-1] in the second. See Indians page First to the shore BRENDAN Brazier of North Vancouver won the Extreme Afternoon Triathlon Saturday. The Deep Cove-to-Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve race consist- ed of a 750-metre swim, 13.5-kilometre run and 40-km bike race. Brazier won all three legs, defeating eight opponents including the North Shore's Frank Kuruez, Michael Obeime and Anne Marie Lavalee. — Entertainment sidelined in Stanley Cup ‘NOW that the Dallas Stars’ Stanley Cup win has proven the truth of the old adage “if you can’t create, you must destroy,” fet’s have a closer look at the National Hockey League’s split person- ality. The Stars ~ and what a misnomer that is — finished first overall in both the regu- lar season and the playoffs by reducing what was once a free-flowing and graceful game to a mind-numbing grind. Equally dedicated to grinding, the Buffalo Sabres fully co-operated in turning the series into grinders’ heav- en — 90% of the game played within five feet of the boards; the skill players on both teams required to park their creativicy in the dressing rooms and concentrate on wrestling along the side and back walls and clogging up the no-go arca between the bluclines. Effective? Most definitely. Boring? Most certainly. This was like football without the forward pass; like using the forbidden zone defence in pro basketball; like removing the home run from baseball. Pro sport is, or is supposed to be, the jock deparyment of the entertainment business. Entertaining? How could it be when the entertainers were sent into the kitchen to peel potatoes along with the supporting cast? But it’s the wave of the future. Coaches are hired to win, not enter- tain. If, as mentioned at the start, they can’t create, then their only hope is to destroy. And, for the most part, they ~ can’t create. Too many teams and not enough creative taf- ent. But here comes the anomaly, the other half of the NHL's split personality. The entry draft is all but upon 33s and, at a minimum, the first four players to be chosen will be highly skilled prospects from Europe. The worst teams in the league will get them and will have to channel their creative skills into being part of the only way they can hope to win games: chip the puck out, chip it in and clog up the neutral zone. Two centuries ago that old “Kraut,” Goethe, said of the Irish: “They always pull down a nobie stag.” Substitute NHL tor Irish and you have the mindset today in pro hockey. The NEL tailors its rules: to give a leg up to its offen- sive stars, the quarterbacks and pass receivers, the guys who sell the tickets. Similarly, the NBA overlooks the little things, such as travelling, to make things easier for its scoring stars. Decades ago it outlawed the zone defence in order to give the attackers more of an edge. And the fans more in the way of enterrainment. The NHL goes the other way. It gives the edge to the defenders; virtual carte blanche to drag, down the scorers and playmakers. And in so doing, encourages the coaches to accent the nega- tive; to reduce everyone to the same level. The attitude it produces is sterile. And so is the product. . For a change in philoso- phy, there must be changes both in the structure of the game and in Canada’s player development programs. Widen the ice surface to give the skill players more room. Experiment with innovations during the pre-season exhibi- tions when the results don’t count. For instance, eliminate the centre red line, Or keep the red line and get rid of the blue fines. Erase the cor- ner faceoff circles and replace them with a single circle directly in front of the goal. It might lead to fewer icings and more scoring. Bend the blue lines so the wingers can get in deeper without going offside. ‘The result could be fewer stoppages and more goals. As for player develop- ment, Canada has more com- munity rinks and more kids playing in them than the rest of the world combined. So, why does the percentage of Canadian player content in the NHL continue to decline? Why are we produc- ing more than our share of grinders; fewer than what should be our share of Forsbergs, Jagrs, Sclannes, Sundins, Bondras, Bures, Yashins and Palffvs. Why deo we persist in try- ing to develop skilled players by exposing them to constant contpetition and a concami- tant survival-of-the-fittest philosophy? Why don't we Pay more attention to prac- tice and teaching time? The rule of thumb in all other team sports is that there should be three practices for every game played. Why not in Canadian hockey? Call me if you wish, as that late crook Spiro Agnew Stanley Cap dynas 1980s Gilers and the Canadiens of the 1970s. Then, maybe, vou'l! shed a tear for the way our national autumn-winter-spring-sum- Mer sports passion has evolved. ,