31.   Parker has been the best hockey coach in Boston for more than two decades.

32.   Potvin, who has been playing his best hockey the past two weeks, stopped seven of eight shots in the first period and all five in the second.

33.   Sadowski is quite simply the best hockey writer in North America and he will be missed. . . .

34.   Since returning last week for the playoffs he has played his best hockey of the season, according to Coach Colin Campbell.

35.   Some historians consider Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr to be the best hockey players ever, but others laud the Great One as the best.

36.   The best hockey defenseman before Bobby Orr beats old-time Tiger Charlie Gehringer and a pair of Dodgers managers, Leo Durocher and Tommy Lasorda.

37.   The best hockey players in the world will convene in Salt Lake City later this month, but should they even be there?

38.   The best European hockey player with long hair, visor and devilish skills remains Jaromir Jagr.

39.   The Flyers are indisputably playing the best hockey in the NHL right now.

40.   The happy man is the fifth-leading scorer on the best hockey team in the Eastern Conference.