Sport: No More Sauerkraut

The best forward line in major-league hockey is the Boston Bruins trio: Porky Dumart, Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer. Dubbed the Sauerkraut Line because they played together in Kitchener, Ont. (formerly Berlin), these sharpshooters have led the Bruins to three national championships in the past three years.

This week, retaining their unbroken ranks, all three Krauts will step out of their chocolate brown shorts, step into uniforms of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Granting that this means the downfall of the Bruins, U.S. rink fans wonder whether it also means the beginning of the end of major-league hockey. More than half its players (90% of whom are Canadians) are eligible for service.