It’s Time to Drop the Puck

OK, now, where were we?

Hockey. Right. We were getting ready to watch hockey. The sport that’s played on ice. Or kept on ice. One or the other, I seem to recall.

Hockey. Hockey openers. “The 1994-95 National Hockey League gets under way this week.” Remember that one? Way back in late September, when a 1994-95 National Hockey League season remained a possibility? Instead of what we have now--the 1995-95 National Hockey League season ?

Think back to where we were all those weeks ago.

The World Series had yet to be played.

The baseball strike was still under way.

San Francisco was favored to win the Super Bowl.

Nebraska was undefeated.

The Rams had a better chance of going to St. Louis than to the playoffs.

Now, by the time we finally get around to dropping the puck, it’s an entirely different world.

So, we have some catching up to do. Tonight, the Ducks play at Edmonton, the Kings play host to Toronto, and with 48 games to go, both local teams remain in serious playoff contention.

So much for the pro side of 103-day puck stoppage.

As for the con side, consult your new Duck and/or King pocket schedules. There you will find the correct answer to the nagging week-old brain-teaser, “Who lost the NHL lockout?”

The fans did, of course.

Was there ever any doubt?

They lost the New York Rangers--billed for the first time in two generations as “defending Stanley Cup champions.”

They lost the Pittsburgh Penguins--which, for Luc Robitaille, truly means you can’t go home again.

They lost the Montreal Canadiens--whose blue-banded crimson shirts remain the hockey equivalent of New York Yankee pin stripes.

They lost the Boston Bruins and Ray Bourque . . . the Philadelphia Flyers and Eric Lindros . . . the Buffalo Sabres and Alexander Mogilny . . . the Quebec Nordiques and Peter Forsberg, who, most likely, will win the NHL’s top rookie award if Paul Kariya doesn’t.

Most of professional hockey’s most glamorous teams and stars, wiped off the schedule because it took Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow 3 1/2 months to decide “four arbitration walkaways every two years--or three?”

But the Ducks and the Kings do get the Stars. Each plays Dallas four times.

And they get Winnipeg four times.

And Calgary five times.

And San Jose five times.

Which, looking on the bright side, means the Ducks won’t go 0-6 against the Sharks again.

For the purposes of this season, the NHL’s Western and Eastern Conferences have become the American and National Leagues of baseball yore.

West plays West, and East plays East, and never the twain shall meet until the championship series.

This is lousy for the customer who laid out his $52.50 in advance for his one chance to watch Mark Messier, Adam Graves and the rest of the Rangers pillage The Pond this season, only to be told by a cheerful box-office employee, “How ‘bout those Oilers? They used to have Gretzky! Jan. 23 or April 5--take your pick!”

Hockey coaches don’t seem to mind as much, for, as the Ducks’ Ron Wilson notes, “Now, we only have to focus on 11 teams,” instead of the customary 25.

For the Ducks, this is nothing short of a windfall. Seven of those 11--Edmonton, San Jose, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Chicago, St. Louis and the Kings--won fewer than half their games last season. Meanwhile, the three best regular-season finishers from 1993-94--the Rangers (112 points), New Jersey (106) and Pittsburgh (101)--are off the board for Wilson and his staff.

Out of conference, out of sight, a load off a hockey coach’s mind.

With less than half the league and barely half a schedule to worry about, the Ducks and the Kings--who placed ninth and 10th in the Western Conference last season--have been reassigned to contender status. In fact, the Kings might have benefited from the lockout more than any team in the league.

For one, there’s Gretzky, who, at 33, is better suited to 48-game sprints than 84-game sojourns. The last time Gretzky did this sort of thing--miss the first 3 1/2 months of a season, resume playing in late January--he landed the Kings in the Stanley Cup finals.

For another, the Kings’ frequent-flyer program has been dashed. Usually worn down by cross-country hauls this time of the season, the Kings now start fresh and have no flights to New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Florida on the itinerary. Now, their farthest trip is Toronto-Detroit, which they will make once, in mid-March.

Finally, there was the recent Wayne Across Europe tour, which had Gretzky and seven other Kings participating in a series of all-star exhibitions in Finland, Sweden and Germany, playing themselves into game shape while the rest of the union was fighting off 8-year-old figure-skating pixies for ice time at the neighborhood rink.

“The circumstances are the same for everybody, with the exception of L.A.,” Duck winger Todd Ewen says. “The Kings had a chance to go to Europe and play as a team. The rest of us have been skating a few times a week, but there’s no substitute for game competition. That gives the Kings a big advantage out of the gate.”

The shorter schedule also plays to the strengths of the Ducks, a young team with strong goaltending--a combination conducive to quick opening bursts.

“We’ve got to get out of the gate quickly,” Wilson says. “If, after 15 games, you’re 12-3 or 10-5, you can say you’ve almost made the playoffs. Conversely, 3-12 could take you out of it right away.”

Then again, Wilson points out, a full schedule of intraconference games means “every game is worth four points (in the standings) and very important. I don’t think a team, say the Detroit Red Wings, is going to look past the Mighty Ducks on a Tuesday if they’re playing the Chicago Blackhawks on a Friday.

“It could work against the lesser teams. The better teams won’t be throwing them any games.”

Speculation.

Hearsay.

Hockey has suffered far too much of that these last four months.

The time has come for all NHLPA dues-paying men to put up, shut up and lace them up.

At last, the puck starts here.