Fuhr Is a Target for Fans : Hockey: Before Oiler goalie’s return to NHL, he gets plenty of abuse in a minor league game.

Grant Fuhr might have figured things couldn’t get any worse. After all, hadn’t he gone through hell the last few months?

He was wrong. He hadn’t been through New Haven yet.

He passed through a week ago as the goalie for the Cape Breton Oilers of the American Hockey League.

That was quite a comedown for Fuhr, who spent the ‘80s in the net for the Edmonton Oilers through four Stanley Cup championships.

But it was actually his first step back up after sitting out the first half of the season. Fuhr was suspended by NHL President John Ziegler at the end of summer after acknowledging that he had a drug problem.

Satisfied that Fuhr had remained drug-free, Ziegler lifted the suspension earlier this month.

Fuhr, playing himself back into shape with the Oilers’ farm team, was ready to put his troubles behind.

But the New Haven fans weren’t.

Playing against the New Haven Nighthawks, the Kings’ AHL club, Fuhr was hit with a verbal assault as vicious as anything he has faced on the ice.

The evening’s most popular chant was: “Grant does it up the nose, doo dah, doo dah.”

Other choice taunts included:

“Eight seconds left, Grant. Time for a toot.”

And, “Hey, Grant, are you going to meet Bob Probert (the Detroit Red Wing who has had drug problems) after the game?”

When Fuhr came to the bench for a break, one unenlightened soul appeared behind him, holding up a plastic bag containing a white powdery substance and a straw.

“You’re disgraceful,” yelled one fan who appeared to onlookers to have had too much to drink.

And when these creative minds ran out of material, they fell back on the old standby, hitting Fuhr, who is black, with racial slurs.

Most of the problems came from the infamous Section 14 at the New Haven Coliseum, an area of rowdies that has been compared with San Antonio’s Baseline Bums.

The Nighthawks’ mascot, a gorilla named Elmo City because New Haven is called the Elm City, helped fire up the crowd.

Fuhr handled it all with a shrug.

“It was different,” he told the Edmonton Sun that night. “It’s no place for a sensitive person, but it’s going to happen, so there’s nothing you can do about it except laugh.

“They were bad enough that it was actually funny. . . . It gives you something to watch while the play is in the other end. . . . If that’s what they want to do to amuse themselves during a hockey game, that’s their prerogative. They paid their money to be there.”

King General Manager Rogie Vachon, a longtime goalie himself, was not so forgiving.

He shook his head when Section 14 was mentioned.

“I was sorry to see that happen,” he said. “In 1991, that is uncalled for. (Fuhr) has paid his dues. I feel bad about it.”

Nick Fotiu, the Nighthawks’ assistant coach, called the disruptive fans “frustrated people. When the economy is bad, they start blaming anybody.”

But Coach Pat Hickey wasn’t about to blame anybody.

“I think it was just a healthy crowd,” he said. “The people in Section 14 are fans of theNighthawks, and they razz the linesman and they razz the other team.”

Nor did he think Elmo City was out of line.

“That’s what a mascot does,” Hickey said.

Hickey didn’t appreciate the comments of his rival coach, Cape Breton’s Don MacAdam, who complained about Fuhr’s reception.

“I think the coach acted immaturely,” Hickey said. “Those things are best done internally.

“This is something (Fuhr) is going to have to get familiar with because it’s something he’s going to have to go through. He got into a building where 4,000 people got on his case. What’s he going to say when 17,000 people get on his case in an NHL building?

“I don’t think it got out of hand. His first game back (actually his second) just happened to be in our building. That’s hockey. That’s what’s expected.”

Fuhr’s long nightmare ended with a dream return to the NHL Monday night. Starting in his first game back, he shut out the New Jersey Devils on 27 shots at East Rutherford as Edmonton won, 4-0.

To Fuhr, that is hockey.