The NHL / Tracy Dodds : This Class Is No Simple Skate in the Park

PITTSBURGH — It wasn’t exactly a scrimmage, but it wasn’t really a clinic, either. And it wasn’t a practice session, although it was ice time on the day before they played the New York Rangers. Call it an exhibition.

Whatever it was that the Kings did in New York’s Central Park Sunday morning, it was different.

The Kings took to the outdoor ice of Lasker Rink at 110th Street and Lenox Avenue on a brisk December morning and knocked the puck around with a bunch of youngsters who did not look the part. Those were black kids and Hispanic kids wearing those skates and helmets. You just don’t see that where Wayne Gretzky is from. Or where Bernie Nicholls is from. Or Steve Duchesne.

But this game is expanding to new neighbors with the Ice Hockey in Harlem program, a part of an after-school program that gives these kids places to go to learn not only a sport, but such other “fun” things as math and geography.

Pat Hickey, a former Ranger who is now director of operations for the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate in New Haven, Conn., scheduled the unusual meeting of teams to help promote the fledgling program. He has previously had Rangers working with the kids, and he’s expanding the program to other National Hockey League cities.

“We get the kids in a classroom situation once a week, and they learn about other things through hockey,” Hickey said. “They learn math so that they can figure the hockey standings and the stats, they learn geography through studying where the franchises and affiliates are.

“They love it.”

That much was obvious.

The players had some fun with the kids, but it was a little too cold out there for their liking. It has been a while since most of players skated on frozen ponds.

Nicholls was skating with a warm cap under his helmet, complete with ear flaps. And he wore sunglasses to fight the glare.

Then the players had to fight their way to the bus through crowds of autograph seekers.

But, Hickey said, “This will give our program a big boost.”

NHL Hockey San Jose, a nonprofit corporation that was formed to show the NHL the way to San Jose, held a news conference Tuesday to kick off a massive membership drive designed to prove that there are fans in the Bay Area who would support an NHL franchise.

The California Golden Seals, who played in Oakland and San Francisco, folded after the 1975-76 season because of lack of fan support.

According to Randy Hahn, vice president of NHL Hockey San Jose, however, the group “tested the waters” in early October and more than 300 people joined and sent in money to support the cause.

On display Tuesday was a model of the new arena--for now named the Downtown San Jose Arena--that is the proposed home of the proposed team. It’s a $100-million project. Ground-breaking is scheduled for the summer of 1990 and occupancy for 1992.

Hahn hopes there will be an NHL franchise formed, approved and moved in for the 1992-93 season.

He is aware that the league has not even committed to expansion yet, and he also is aware that Milwaukee, Dallas and Seattle have expressed interest in franchises.

“What we have to do is impress upon the league the renaissance of this area, the population shift to this area, the number of hockey fans within driving distance,” Hahn said. “We are the largest market left without a team. . . . In the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area, there are 3 to 4 million people.”

San Jose also is trying to impress upon the league the need for a strong West Coast rival for the Kings. To do that, NHL San Jose asked King owner Bruce McNall to address the press conference on a telephone hookup.

“If we’re going to have a true National Hockey League, rather than an East Coast-Canadian hockey league, we need expansion to happen,” McNall said.

When King Coach Robbie Ftorek made his first phone call to Igor Liba, the Czechoslovakian forward acquired from the New York Rangers in a trade Monday, Ftorek mentioned his friend, Peter Stastny of the Quebec Nordiques.

Ftorek, who had played with Stastny in Quebec, thought maybe a call from Stastny would help in explaining to Liba why the trade had been made and why the Kings wanted him.

“I thought he would know Peter and maybe Peter could tell him about me and the team and make him feel more at ease with things,” Ftorek said.

But Ftorek was able to talk with Liba through Liba’s wife, a language professor who speaks English. So he never did call Stastny.

Asked if he knew any Czech, Ftorek shrugged.

But isn’t Ftorek a Czechoslovakian name?

“I don’t want to get into that,” Ftorek said. “I told Stastny I was Czechoslovakian once, and he asked me my family’s town. It’s Bratislava. He informed me that I’m Slavic (Slovak), not Czech. I don’t know the whole history on that, and I don’t want to take any chances with Igor if I’m the wrong one.”

Hockey Notes

Calgary Coach Terry Crisp on Bernie Nicholls of the Kings: “Bernie has great skills, and he’s a mean sucker, too.” . . . Sports inc. magazine reported that the Kings’ road attendance was up 11% over the first 8 games of the season, an increase the magazine figured amounted to $271,836 at the gate.