GULL NOTEBOOK : Practice Doesn’t Impress Dudley

After Saturday’s scrimmage at the San Diego Ice Arena, Gull Coach Rick Dudley expressed disappointment with the lack of physical play.

“I would liked to have seen a little more contact,” he said. He was asked how physical a scrimmage can get because it involves teammates going against each other.

“Some of these guys are trying to miss the next cut,” he said. “There are no friends in such circumstances.”

Dudley said he planned to meet Don Waddell, vice president/general manager, Saturday night and will announce cuts today.

Among the invitees who have caught Dudley’s attention is Russian Andrei Iakovenko, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound defenseman.

“I thought he played excellent today,” Dudley said. “And he’s another defenseman who moves up well on the shot.”

Iakovenko has displayed a willingness to get into scrapes since training camp opened.

“That first day he got his tooth knocked out,” Dudley said. “And he was very proud to show it to me.”

For the record, Scott Arniel, Perry Anderson, Dale DeGray and Bill Houlder scored goals in the white team’s 4-3 victory over the black team. Brian Schantz, Alan Hepple and Mitch Lamoureux scored in the losing effort.

If you’re in the business of selling hockey in San Diego, you’re always looking for a barometer to measure success.

There is only one: attendance. And the Gulls, who own exclusive rights to market hockey at the Sports Arena, missed an opportunity to claim a victory in such matters Thursday night when they brought the Kings and New York Rangers to town for an NHL exhibition.

Before the game, Bill Hunter, a Gulls co-owner and vice president in charge of marketing, insisted a crowd of 9,000 to 10,000 would show up, “at the very least,” he stressed.

The announced crowd was 8,099, a decent gathering considering the cheapest seat cost $20 and the best $35. But still it fell short of Hunter’s optimistic prediction and caused the Gulls to backpedal.

“I think this is a good crowd,” Waddell said before qualifying his statement. “For an exhibition game on a Thursday night in late September when it’s 85 degrees outside. I don’t think the fact that it’s not a sellout has anything to do with whether the NHL will be accepted here.”

Fred Comrie, managing general partner of the Gulls, was asked why the club could only attract an exhibition game to San Diego when cities such as Oklahoma City, Birmingham, Ala., and Providence, R.I., as well as 12 other non-NHL cities, will be play host to “neutral site” regular-season games.

“Hey, we’re just helping to promote the game,” he said. “And maybe it’s because we already have quite a successful hockey program here already.”

It was a variation on the Gulls’ refrain that there is little to distinguish between the NHL and IHL except for a few superstar players.

The day after the Gulls opened training camp, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported “most of the news concerned players not on the ice” and postulated that center Dmitri Kvartalnov, who scored 60 goals for the Gulls last season before being tabbed in the first round of the NHL draft by Boston, might be rejoining the club “as early as next week.”

Kvartalnov was in the midst of contract negotiations with the Bruins. Speculation was sparked because training camp had begun and he had not come to terms.

Waddell chuckled at the report Thursday night during the Kings-Rangers game.

“Let’s just give Boston a chance to work out a contract,” he said. “I haven’t even talked to (Kvartalnov’s) agent since last Thursday.”

The following day Kvartalnov and the Bruins, as expected, reached agreement on a two-year contract.

It appeared that one of Kvartalnov’s linemates from last season, Ray Whitney, would be returning to the IHL late last week when his name came across the wire as being sent down to Kansas City by the San Jose Sharks.

But Chuck Grillo, the Sharks’ director of player development, said Thursday that it was only a “paper move.” Because of an unexpectedly long recuperation period following surgery to repair a bone spur problem, Whitney did not begin skating until a few days ago. He will continue to try out for the parent club.

What are his chances?

“It’s up to Ray,” Grillo said. “We can only get him under contract. He has to get himself into the top 23.”

The Gulls last year made headlines around the league with their courting of Eric Lindros and later by signing Canadian Olympic goalie Sean Burke. This year they will cede their role as league PR leader to Atlanta, where Manon Rheaume will be one of three goalies.

Rheaume became the first woman to play in an NHL game Wednesday night, tending goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning for one period in an exhibition against the St. Louis Blues. She faced nine shots and gave up two goals.

Afterward, Phil Esposito, Tampa Bay general manager, said he would like to sign Rheaume to a one-year contract and allow her to develop in the IHL.

“We want her in our organization for a long, long time,” he told the Associated Press. “I can’t wait to see her in training camp next year. . . . The question is how much can she progress? I think she can play.”

Upon hearing the news, Waddell acknowledged he will have competition this year as far as public relation coups go.

“But we’ll come up with something,” he promised. “I’m sure we will. Or maybe we’ll just win some hockey games.”