European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 27, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Pago 38 the star3 and stripes sports saturday. November 27,1993 is just too Disney fied i know it was a bad idea to let Disney into hockey. I knew it i knew it i knew it. You Start calling a hockey team a cutesy name like the mighty ducks anythings Start to fall first thing you know Lemieux pops his Back again. Then Lindros gets Hurt. Then the officials go on strike. This has All happened since the National hockey league put a new team in the Shadow of the Concrete matter Horn. It s All show Biz. Put a furry uniform on somebody and Tell everybody he s Mickey mouse. Put a striped shirt on somebody and Tell people he s a major league hockey official. The the Ory is the people in the scats won t know the difference. It s All gone wrong since hockey got Disney fied. I thought hockey was just Fine when All the teams were based in Canada or suburbs of Canada like Detroit and bos ton where fans swarmed into the Arena knocking the slush off their mukluks. I thought hockey was just Fine when fans had to pass a test about icing the puck or they could t buy a ticket. Hockey had standards in those Days. Now it s a tourist attraction. You buy a ticket and you get six rides and one hockey game. And the officials arc Day labourers. The other night in new York at Madison Square Garden a Linesman made an offside Call in the closing seconds and nullified a goal that would have tied the game for Montreal. George Vecsey commentary the Linesman was somewhere Between sixth Avenue and Broadway when he made the Call which is a bit out of position since the Garden is located Between seventh and. Eighth avenues. Nothing like on the Job training. The ultimate test of officials is the Way they approach the ubiquitous fight. A real Linesman like Kevin Collins gets a bored sneer on his face and folds his arms not about to risk until the clod hop pers arc safely flopping on the ice. I m afraid one of these strike Breakers is going to Hurt somebody by getting into the act too quickly. As far As i m concerned it All started to go bad when they let in the mighty ducks making hockey sound cuddly like it or Home alone when it is really a Bunch of Guys named Gord punching each other in the snoot because Well they like it. Hockey is supposed to be Gritty and Grubby. When i was breaking into this business there was a decidedly minor league team called the ducks that played in a renovated Duck Coop somewhere on the Frozen Steppes of Long Island. There was nothing mighty about those ducks. They were dirty their manners and their uniforms and there was none of this logo of the month consumerism in which every kid has to have a mighty ducks Cap or he is a social failure. You know the mighty ducks colors Jade. Purple. Silver. And White. Four colors. We be got designer hockey clubs. The thing i really resent about the mighty ducks is that they advertise a movie promote a corporation and what is worse they generate tons of Money so Disney can expand its trite Empire. Nobody was happier than me when europeans Flat out refused to let anything get in the Way of lunch and dinner certainly not a so called amusement Park i France that is taking up precious Farmland that should be used to grow haricots verts. Europeans love goofy and Minnie but Only in their place the new world. Any Day now euro ency is going to go belly up but Disney is undaunted. The Empire is taking the proceeds from every mighty ducks Cap you buy and i threatening to build yet another baby sitting mall this one a sanitized homogeneous offend no one version Ofa ghastly american tragedy Grant and Lee skipping hand in hand through a plasticized civil War Battle Field singing it s a Small world after this latest blight on the mind is intended no for the smoggy sprawl of Orange county or the yawning Ved of Central Florida but the haunting Virginia Countryside Manassas not far from Bull run the scene of two bloody Battles that gave Hope to the Conedera 7 even with the ooze of Suburbia outward from the District of Columbia historic Virginia still has country roads and Small towns and National Parks and Battle Fields where you can imagine frightened soldiers per forming the grisly chores i warfare. Now Disney is threatening to plunk Down parking lots and loudspeakers and delivery trucks in this Hal Lowed Corner. Compared to that ersatz hockey officials Are insignificant. Bowden s seminoles going after Quick striking gators Byre Goodall Gainesville Fla. A bal control will be a priority but not necessarily essential when seventh ranked Florida faces no. 1 Florida state on saturday. The gators and seminoles both have explosive offences capable of overcoming opponents who successfully com pile an advantage in time of Possession. Florida state coach Bobby Bowdon expects a High scoring shootout that might Lake 40 Points or More to win. The difference will be which de sense can get hold of the other s of of Csc Best said Bowden whose team is averaging 544 Yards and 44 Points per game during its 10-1 Start. Florida 9-1averaging 497 Yards and 42 Points has scored 41 of its 53 offensive touchdowns on drives lasting less than three minutes. The gators have 33 to drives of two minutes or less and have scored 16 times in less than a minute. You have to think in terms of out scoring them Bowden said. They Are going to score Points. We re going to do our thing when we be got the Ball and we re going to try to Stop you when you be got it. We do not try to eat up the clock. I m afraid they d get us if we did Florida is 19-1 when enact Rhett rushes for 100 Yards or More. The gators Are averaging 339.4 Yards per game passing and like to use Rhett to Wear Down defences after building leads. It s important that we stay on the Field and make some first Downs some How but that does t mean we re going to run it Down their Throat Florida coach Steve Spurrier said. Hopefully we can mix it up. We be just really got to play Well offensively and that will certainly help our Spurrier announced thursday that Danny Wuerffel who has thrown a running Back Derrict Rhett is the Mala cog in Florida offensive machine. Mcaa freshman record 21 touchdown passes will Start at quarterback for the gators. He regains the Job he took from Terry Dean in the third game of the season then lost four weeks ago although Spurrier said Dean also will be ready to play. Florida state which regained the no. 1 ranking when notre Dame Tost to Boston College last week needs to win to keep its National championship Hopes alive. Florida still has next week s South Eastern conference title game against Alabama although an upset saturday would improve its standing in the race for the no. 1 ranking. It s obviously a big game for both schools. It s a bigger game for the team that wins it Spurrier said. We redoing to give it All we got and see what happens. Turn us Back 8-6 Quebec a Quebec Rookie goaltender Jocclyn Thibault did t mince words when discussing the work of the replacement officials after the Nordi ques 8-6 Victory Over the los Angele Kings on thursday night. It was the Only nil game schedule thursday. The referee must have thought it Wasan atom or pee wee game Thibault said in assessing the work of Jim Anderson usually a referee in the Quebec major Junior hockey league but now Amon those filling in for striking nil officials. Anderson called 30 minor penalties in Chippy game that was punctuated by High Sticks spearing and a number of animated discussions Between the referee and think he went to the wrong Arena he must have thought he was in Charles Bourg Thibault added referring to a Quebec City Nordques took a 5-0 Lead then had to hang on for just their fourth Home Victory in 11 games. Joe Sakic had two goals and two assist Sand Valeri Kamensky added two goals and one assist for Angeles did have the game s out standing individual performances As Luc Robitaille scored four goals and Wayne Gretzky had a goal and three doing the Best they can and that All we can ask for Gretzky said when asked to assess the work of the officials. " Anderson is a Young Guy under alot of pressure. It s a situation 1 Don t think any of us would want to be defens Eman Kerry Huffman feels games like this May help to Settle the labor problems. Both sides had reason to complain he said. It s evident that this situation has to be resolved. It s not Good for the players the fans and everyone Rookie defens Eman Mike Mckee with his Fust nil goal and Mats Sundin also scored for the Nordques. I
