From the Star Tribune this morning in an article on College Hockey:
 
Richards Runaround............................................................
 
Former Gophers defenseman Travis Richards was scheduled to rejoin Team USA in
time for tonight's exhibition game against the Hartford Whalers, which means
he also will be back in uniform for the trip to Europe, where Team USA will
play two exhibition games before going to Lillehammer, Norway, for a
pre-Olympic tournament. For a while, Richards had been a pawn in an apparent
power play by Dallas Stars general manager Bob Gainey.
 
Team USA lost goalie Mike Dunham to New Jersey, leaving only Garth Snow in
goal for a tournament in Alaska last month. U.S. coach and general manager Tim
Taylor had requested the Stars' permission to call up Jeff Levy (formerly of
UNH), a goaltender at he Stars' Kalamazoo farm club. The Stars wanted
assurance that Levy wouldn't just be used as backup and then sent back down,
and Taylor assured them he would play Levy and give him every chance to make
the club on his second try, but that there would be no guarantees.
 
"We played Levy in some big games, and he played well," Taylor said. "But
after we got Dunham back, we had to decide which two to carry, and we decided
that while Levy played well, he hadn't done anything to dislodge Snow (or
Dunham) from the team."
 
So Team USA sent Levy back to Kalamazoo, after which Gainey got mad. In
retaliation, he called up Richards and assigned him to Kalamazoo, even though
the K-Wings already had six defensemen. It might seem that Richards, Team USA,
and the Stars all would benefit from Richards having a week-long stint against
NHL teams rather than playing all week in the IHL. But, because Richards is
under contract to the Stars, he had to go to Kalamazoo and miss U.S. games
against Chicago and Florida.
end quoted material
 
This really makes me angry!!!!!
 
I do have a couple of questions though...
 
1. Why is Taylor only going with TWO goalies? I thought that he could take
   three to the Olympics.
 
2. Can anything be done to stop the NHL general managers from this type of
   behavior?
 
Inquiring minds want to know!
 
-Carol
 
Carol S. White                            BITNET: c-whit@uminn1
University of Minnesota        internet:[log in to unmask]
Office of the Registrar
(612) 625-8517                                    GO Gophers!!!