The NHL : Board of Governors Passes a Pat Quinn Rule

When they weren’t golfing or lying in the sun last week at West Palm Beach, Fla., the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors approved an amendment requiring that contracts of non-playing personnel be filed with the league office.

The so-called Pat Quinn rule also raises the maximum fine for tampering from $25,000 to $500,000.

Also, the maximum fine for “conduct detrimental to hockey,” which was the violation for which the Vancouver Canucks were fined last season for signing Quinn, was raised from $10,000 to $100,000.

Last January, it was revealed that Quinn, former coach of the Kings, had signed to become president and general manager of the Canucks while still under contract to the Kings. Quinn’s contract with the Kings had not been filed with the league office.

“This kind of thing had never happened before, so there was nothing in the rules to prevent it,” said Ken Doi, executive vice president of the Kings and the Kings’ representative at the meetings.

Meanwhile, the Kings are preparing for a special meeting of the Board of Governors Jan. 19 at Chicago at which they will seek compensatory damages from the Canucks for the Canucks’ signing of Quinn.

The Kings reportedly had sought $1 million in punitive damages, but NHL President John Ziegler ruled that the Board of Governors does not have the authority to award punitive damages.

So, Doi said, the Kings are now attempting to calculate how much they have a right to ask for in compensatory damages.

“It’s hard to figure out because it’s hard to figure out how much we lost in gate receipts and how many games we might have lost because Pat Quinn was not our coach,” Doi said.

“Also, it’s hard to figure out how much we might have lost in season-ticket sales this season.”

Try a mirror: Coach Terry Crisp of the Calgary Flames: “I see guys in slumps going into the stick room and discarding their Sherwoods, testing a Canadian and fooling around with a Koho, and I tell them: ‘Don’t look at the lumber.’ Remember what Fred Shero used to say: ‘Don’t blame the gun, blame the trigger man.’ ”

Trivia Time: In his only season in the World Hockey Assn., eight-time NHL scoring champion Wayne Gretzky finished third in the scoring race behind what two players? (Answer below.)

When Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins, who had worn No. 7 for nine seasons, gave it up during a ceremony so it could be retired in honor of former Bruin Phil Esposito, the capacity crowd at Boston Garden wasn’t the only group touched by the gesture.

Bourque, in a surprise move, took off his jersey and presented it to Esposito, revealing a jersey underneath with No. 77 on it.

“As soon as I saw that shirt starting to come off,” former Bruin Bobby Orr said, “I looked at the (other ex-Bruins in attendance) and saw a lot of eyes fill up.”

And you thought owners of professional teams in the United States would do anything for a buck.

A hockey team in Duesseldorf, West Germany, has discarded jerseys advertising Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi after receiving an ultimatum from the West German Ice Hockey Federation.

In a game this month, EDC Iserlohn wore uniforms bearing the words “M. Kadafi” and pictures of the Libyan revolutionary leader’s green book.

Heinz Weifenbach, owner of the debt-ridden team, said that for promoting Kadafi’s ideas, he had been promised payment of $910,000 from the World Center of the Study of the Green Book, in which Kadafi’s ideas are summarized.

Attention Kings: A Cornell psychology professor told the Hockey News that teams that wear black are more combative.

Professor Tom Gilovich said: “We did lab research and found that black in the uniform spurs aggressiveness.”

When the consecutive-games-played streak of Hartford’s Doug Jarvis ended in the first week of the season, apparently so, too, did his playing career.

Jarvis, who had played in 964 straight games, has not played since being scratched from the Whalers’ third game of the season.

Sunday, he was assigned to the Whalers’ American Hockey League affiliate at Binghamton, N.Y., where he will be groomed as a coach.

“It hasn’t been easy for him this year, but he handled it in class fashion,” Whaler General Manager Emile Francis said. “I feel confident in saying that you will be hearing his name a lot in coaching circles for years to come.”

Thanks for the memories: Owner Harold Ballard, 84, of the Toronto Maple Leafs, on the recent death of George (Punch) Imlach, who coached the Maple Leafs to four Stanley Cup championships in the 1960s: “Better him than me.”

Willi Plett of the Boston Bruins, who had been one of only 12 NHL players who did not do so, wore a helmet last week against the Kings.

Seeing teammates Cam Neely and Ray Bourque hit Brad Marsh of the Philadelphia Flyers simultaneously and knock him unconscious influenced Plett’s decision, he said.

Marsh, Plett’s former teammate with the Atlanta and Calgary Flames, does not wear headgear.

“He could have been killed--absolutely stone-cold dead--right there on the ice,” Plett said. “He was unconscious for a short time with blood pouring from his head. As soon as I saw it, I told myself, ‘You have to wear a helmet.’ ”

Trivia Answer: In the 1978-79 season, when Gretzky had 110 points for the Indianapolis Racers and Edmonton Oilers, Real Cloutier had 129 for the Quebec Nordiques and Robbie Ftorek, the new coach of the Kings, had 116 for the Cincinnati Stingers.