A NEW LEAF: The Maple Leafs "agreed to pay" the final
three years of Dmitri Khristich's US$10.3M contract and the
option on the fourth, which "averages" $100,000 more per
season than the $2.8M the Bruins declined to pay him in
arbitration (NATIONAL POST, 10/22). In Toronto, David
Shoalts notes that Khristich will be paid almost $400,000 a
year less this year in the new deal than he would if he
accepted the arbitration ruling (GLOBE & MAIL, 10/22). But
in Calgary, Eric Francis writes that the Bruins "did what
they could" to help teams like the Flames "survive" by
holding firm on Khristich's salary demands, but yesterday
the Maple Leafs "did what they could to help kill them" with
the signing of Khristich. Francis: "So much for the
solidarity [Maple Leafs President Ken] Dryden preached at a
recent summit where all six Canadian clubs discussed ways to
save hockey north of the border" (CALGARY SUN, 10/22).
TESTING, TESTING, ONE, TWO, THREE: In N.Y., Peter
Vecsey wonders how the media "discovered" six players
reportedly tested positive for marijuana during the NBA's
drug-testing period in training camp. Vecsey: "Far be it
from me to accuse [NBPA Exec Dir] Billy Hunter of being the
source. ... for the express purpose of turning a crime into
a persecution, hoping to have collected evidence suppressed,
or, at the very least, transform the culprits into
sympathetic victims" (N.Y. POST, 10/22). In Toronto, Craig
Daniels writes the media leak is "precisely what the league
and the union signed up for when they opened the issue
during negotiations. What is unfathomable is why either
side bothered. ... Marijuana use widely is accepted as
something other than the depraved habit of the
lunatic/criminal fringe" (TORONTO SUN, 10/22). NBC's Jay
Leno said the fact that NBA players have to provide urine
samples to the league is "bad news for the Clippers. Not
one of 'em yet has been able to hit the cup" (NBC, 10/21).
