Hockey Notebook : Where Will Michel Bergeron Coach Next Season? Quebec? Uniondale?

Michel Bergeron, fired and replaced Saturday by Phil Esposito, said of next season, “One thing is for sure: I’ll be coaching somewhere” in the National Hockey League. The question is, where?

Quebec writers are lobbying for the Nordiques to rehire Bergeron, who had a 243-222-79 record with them from 1980-87 and twice took them to the Stanley Cup semifinals. This year’s Nordiques had the league’s worst record (27-46-7), setting a club record for losses. They were 10-20-2 when Coach Ron Lapointe resigned after being stricken with cancer of the kidneys, and 17-26-5 under his replacement, Jean Perron, who has two years left on a contract.

After Bergeron’s firing, Nordiques GM Martin Madden said there is “no way” Bergeron will return next season. Nordiques spokesman Jean Martineau quoted Madden as saying of Bergeron, “We have no place for him.”

Bergeron’s problem, insiders say, is that the Nordiques expect to undergo an Islanders-style youth movement. Alain Cote is retiring. Peter Stastny, Michel Goulet, Mario Gosselin, Robert Picard and Gaetan Duchesne are said to be available for trades. Bergeron is known for impatience with young players.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “When I decided to come here last year, it was a big decision. My family was behind me. And now, poof! They just fire me. They don’t think about that. It’s the shock of my life.

“I think I’m going to go on a vacation with my wife,” said Bergeron, who could relax next year and collect the final year’s salary on his Rangers’ contract. “I’m thinking of not answering the phone because I don’t want to distract the Rangers. I want the boys to win.”

He would not comment on where he thinks his next job will be.

Uniondale?

Kings Were Sick Before Loss: The Kings were without goalie Kelly Hrudey and left wing John Tonelli (both had the flu) for their 4-3 loss to the Oilers in Game 1 Wednesday.

Hrudey sat in the Forum dressing room in his pads in case Glenn Healy was injured. Healy (25-19-2, 4.27) played well despite not having appeared in a game since March 18. Hrudey (10-4-2) played 16 of the Kings last 19 regular-season games after arriving in a Feb. 22 trade from the Islanders.

Healy, just recovering from the flu himself, suffered dehydration after the game and was hospitalized. He was expected to back up Hrudey in Game 2 Thursday night. The Kings were said to be trying to sign their fifth-round 1988 draft pick, University of Minnesota goalie Robb Stauber. They recalled goalie Bob Janecyk from New Haven.

Tonelli also missed Thursday night’s game.

Messier on the Money: Edmonton’s Mark Messier had a mediocre season -- for him -- with 33 goals and 94 points, but he was the best player on the ice Wednesday during the Oilers’ come-from-behind win. He bumped and checked former teammate Wayne Gretzky, who had one assist for the Kings, and started the play that led to Craig Simpson’s game-winning goal with 2:47 left.

In Edmonton’s march to four Stanley Cups in the past five years, Messier got 43 goals and 70 assists in 77 playoff games. It will be up to Gretzky to outplay Messier if the Kings are to advance.

Trade Winds in Philly: A hot rumor is that Flyers owner Ed Snider has been burning up the telephone lines to Winnipeg, trying to arrange an off-season deal in which goalie Ron Hextall, a Winnipeg native, would go to the Jets in a package for Dale Hawerchuk. Jets insiders say the Flyers also are offering Scott Mellanby, who is in disfavor with Coach Paul Holmgren.

Sources say Philadelphia GM Bob Clarke and Hextall do not get along. By obtaining goalie Ken Wregget from Toronto on March 6 for two first-round draft picks, Clark might have been laying groundwork for next year, when Wregget could be the Flyers’ starter, backed up by Mark Laforest.

Cold, Hard Shoulder: Hawerchuk welcomed Soviet winger Sergei Priakin to the NHL this past Friday with an open-ice body check in the first period of the Jets’ game against Calgary. Hawerchuk said later he does not appreciate a Soviet taking a job away from a Canadian-born player, and Montreal’s Claude Lemieux made a similar remark. Said the Rangers’ Ron Greschner: “I think we should leave the Russians where they are.” Priakin, the first Soviet released to an NHL team, has not shown much and is not likely to dress during the playoffs.

Reinhart Gets Back at Flames: It was ironic Paul Reinhart got the overtime game-winner for Vancouver Wednesday in its 4-3 upset win in Calgary. Reinhart, 29, is the Flames’ career playoff scoring leader with 72 points, but was traded to Vancouver last September after a chronic back condition limited him to a total of 122 games over the past three seasons. Reinhart played 64 games for the Canucks this year and had 57 points.

Green Goalie Sees Red: Peter Sidorkiewicz (22-18-4, 3.03) took over from Mike Liut (13-19-1, 4.25) as the Whalers’ No. 1 goalie this year. But Coach Larry Pleau started Kay Whitmore, who will be 22 Monday, in Montreal Wednesday. Whitmore led the AHL in games played with 56 but had three games of NHL experience. He was bombed, 6-2.

“I made my decision a couple of days ago,” said Pleau, who kept it to himself until game time. “We wanted to try something different.” Liut, 33, has a 25-27 career playoff record. Sidorkiewicz has not played in a playoff game.

Another Whalers’ note: Rookie Scott Young has been on ice for 15 of Hartford’s league-high 19 shorthanded goals against, including one by Montreal’s Ryan Walter, which proved to be the game-winner Wednesday.

Klima Enjoys Late Success: The Red Wings’ top line during the last month of the regular season was Adam Oates between Petr Klima and Dave Barr. It combined for all three goals in Detroit’s 3-2 win over Chicago Wednesday. Klima, who served a few days in jail in December after his second alcohol-related arrest in 17 months, scored 21 of his 25 goals in the second half.

Wings’ insiders say Klima’s season turned around after he spent several days, at a judge’s direction, visiting patients at Detroit’s Children’s Hospital. “I can say I learned a lot in the hospital,” Klima said. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just started working hard in practice, I’m getting more ice time and that helps.”

Ready Malarchuk Waits: Goalie Clint Malarchuk has recovered from the skate gash on his neck he suffered in a March 22 game, but Sabres Coach Ted Sator started 29-year-old Jacques Cloutier in his first career playoff game Wednesday. Cloutier responded by making 29 saves in Buffalo’s 6-0 shutout in Boston, only his second shutout in seven seasons with the Sabres. Malarchuk was to have started Game 2 last night.

Big Night for Brooke: Bob Brooke, who got all Minnesota’s goals in its 4-3 overtime loss to St. Louis Wednesday, had not scored since March 7. He had seven goals this season and has 57 in 374 regular-season games. The last time he played in the playoffs, with the 1986 Rangers, he had six goals and nine assists in 16 games.

Exclamation Point Canadiens rookie Steve Martinson said of his club: “There’s a tradition from the bottom up with everybody in the organization. A winning tradition. It’s first class. They treat you real well, every way you could imagine, even the little things. It’s all done first class. Even in camp, when guys come that might not have a future here, they treat them the same way. They say, ‘You never know, five years from now, who’s going to score the winning goal on a Stanley Cup team.”’