A little drum roll please . . .
     Ladies and gentlemen, the No. 1 pick in this year’s National Hockey League draft will be . . . Brian Bellows.  Or, will it be Gary Nylund?  Or, will it be somebody else?
     Boston Bruins’ general manager Harry Sinden, whose team will pick first next month, said recently he may pass up right winger Bellows of the Kitchener Rangers and take defenceman Nylund of the Portland Winter Hawks depending on which position Sinden feels the Bruins need to strengthen most.
     Sinden’s talk came at a time when Bellows, by his own admission, wasn’t doing great things.  “I feel my defensive play is okay but I don’t think I’m contributing enough offensively,” he said on the eve of the final game of the Emms Division finals against Sault Ste. Marie.
     The following night Bellows began dominating like his old self.  He hasn’t stopped in six games and if Sinden once was thinking of not drafting Bellows, he may be having second thoughts.
     This is the vintage Bellows, a phenominal 17-year-old who at last year’s Memorial Cup tournament was said to be the brightest pro prospect in the country.  But Bellows wasn’t eligible for the draft last summer and the Winnipeg Jets took Dale Hawerchuk, who in his rookie NHL season was everything – and perhaps more than – the Jets had hoped he would be.
     Bellows scored two goals in the final game against the Soo, leading the Rangers to a 4-3 win.  He failed to score in the opening match of the Ontario Hockey League championship series against the Ottawa 67’s but fired two goals in each of the next three games and one goal Sunday night when the Rangers triumphed 4-1 to capture the eight-point series 9-1.
     Rangers had many star performances against Ottawa but Bellows was the kingpin.  He played on of the best game of his life in Ottawa.  After calling the 67’s a bunch of pansies – he was “under the gun” but came out shooting with two goals and two assists in a 4-3 victory.  Without Bellows, the Rangers wouldn’t have won.
     “I was really up for the series.  I thought Ottawa was going to give us a good go,” Bellows said Monday after the Rangers skated through a light workout in preparation for their Cup opener Saturday in Hull, Que. against the Sherbrooke Beavers.  For Bellows the OHL final series was his best hockey of the season.
     “It was probably as good as I can play, (coach) Joe (Crozier) wanted to play me a lot because the more I play, the better I s    eem to skate and the more I can dominate.  My game is in handling the puck.”
 With 16 goals and 13 assists in 15 playoff games, Bellows couldn’t be peaking at a better time.  He desperately wants to help the Rangers win their first national title and hopes to be the NHL’s No. 1 draft, although the latter doesn’t seem as important to him as it once was.
     “It doesn’t really bother me.  There’s a lot of pride and prestige if your’re No. 1, but in some wyas it’s almost a little better if you’re No. 2.  Your name’s not in the paper as much, there’s not as much pressure and you probably get about the same amount of money.”
     Bellows got off to a flying start this season and, after 15 games, was leading the OHL scoring race with 14 goals and 42 points.  But in the 16thg game he separated his shoulder in Niagara Falls and missed 21 games and the world junior championships.  He showed traces of brilliance after he returned, but for several months he often appeared to be coasting, waiting for the schedule to end so he could get down to the serious business of the playoffs.
     His roller-coaster season has been followed closely by one of his biggest fans – his father, Steve.
     After the Rangers won the OHL title Sunday, the elder Bellows walked on to the ice and with his ever-present camera around his neck, followed in line with the Rangers as they shook hands with the 67’s.  Then he assembled Rangers at center ice for a team picture, followed by more shots in the dressing room.
     “With about three minutes left in the game I told dad to come out on the ice after the game,” Bellows said.  “I wanted some pictures for my scrapbook.  The guys didn’t mind. It’s good for them because they get a bunch of copies of the pictures.  Steve’s been known as a camera man.  Last year at the Memorial Cup he was clicking away.”
     Both Bellows – especially Brian hope to be doing a lot more clicking next week.