It may not be an election year, but the Black Hawks have thrown another helmet into the ring in their attempt to pick a new right wing.
Keith Brown, a talented 25-year-old who has spent the last six seasons with the Hawks as a defenseman, was the latest nominee in a 7-6 loss to the the St. Louis Blues in overtime Thursday night. ”He`ll get some more shots at it,” promised coach-general manager Bob Pulford.
The campaign got off to a rousing start in what turned out to be a heartbreaking defeat just 24 hours after the Hawks had blown three 2-goal leads in a 6-4 loss to the Blues in the Stadium.
Brown has scored only 30 regular-season goals in his Hawk career, but he fought his way through Blues` traffic to pop one in off a beautiful feed from linemate Denis Savard late in the opening period.
”Just as long as they don`t expect 50 a season,” joked Brown, who was making his exhibition debut. ”I played wing maybe once in juniors, and I`m used to a little different perspective. But whatever they want, I`ll do. They pay the bills.”
This is not going to be a landslide election. Chicagoland native Mark LaVarre, a rookie who stamped himself as a front-runner with two goals in the opening loss to the Blues, kept his candidacy alive with another goal and an assist.
”The situation is that we`re just waiting for somebody to step forward in training camp like (Ed) Olczyk and (Marc) Bergevin did last year,” said co-coach Roger Neilson, who ran the team from bench again while Pulford watched from a distance.
”Nobody really has yet, except maybe LaVarre,” added Neilson.
”He`s got to keep putting the puck in the net to have a chance.
”I really liked Keith up there. It has to give him more confidence. He may end up playing the position on a part-time basis.”
Rookie Bill Watson, a college star everyone expected to move into right wing, remains the darkhorse in all this polling after missing a second straight game with the flu.
Wayne Presley played his second game at right wing and remained in the running by scoring his first goal.
In the second period, every player on the Hawks had to feel like a defenseman after spending most of the period in the Chicago zone while being outshot by the Blues 25-6.
After opening with a goal by Brian Sutter with the period only 11 seconds old, St. Louis fired in three more rapid-fire scores in 34 seconds against goalie Warren Skorodenski to go up 5-2. ”My eyes were still twitching so bad when I came back for the third period that I had to put my glasses on,” said Neilson.
Adding a lot of discomfort for the Hawks was Joey Mullen, the Blues`
high-scoring right wing. He was on the market this summer, but apparently it was for more than any clubs were willing to pay.
Mullen was back in a Blues` uniform for the first time following a lengthy contract dispute that cost him several training sessions, and he blithely went about scoring three goals.
The cruncher for St. Louis came at 2:50 of the sudden-death overtime when Dave Barr of the Blues intercepted Tom McMurchy`s pass in the middle of Chicago ice and passed to Denis Cyr for the game-winner.
”I thought we showed a lot the way we came back in this game,” said Neilson. ”There were some good things out there for us.”
