NHL NOTES : Terry O’Reilly Sympathizes With Coaches Battling Superstar Egos

Q. What’s Mario Lemieux’s favorite wine?

A. “I don’t like my coach.”

Perhaps that’s a bit unfair to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ superstar. After all, Lemieux has denied reports he wants to be traded or play for a new coach, despite having displayed apparent distaste for Gene Ubriaco. But other whine connoisseurs have helped hasten the departure of their coaches from other venues.

At the end of last season, Robbie Ftorek was dismissed from the Los Angeles Kings, who reached the second round of the playoffs after upsetting the Edmonton Oilers, because Ftorek reportedly upset Wayne Gretzky. And the benching of Soviet defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov was the catalyst for New Jersey Devils coach Jim Schoenfeld’s firing Nov. 6. Now the vultures are hovering over Ubriaco at the Igloo.

You can bet Red Wings Coach Jacques Demers is making sure Steve Yzerman gets the best table in his Detroit restaurant.

Former Boston Bruins Coach Terry O’Reilly was fired for reasons that had nothing to do with his ability to get along with star defenseman Ray Bourque -- whom he credits with being a hard-working leader by example -- but he sympathizes with coaches who have to worry more about soothing egos than juggling lines.

“A team shouldn’t have an untouchable player,” said O’Reilly, who is a good friend of Schoenfeld. “Look at Pittsburgh. Mario Lemieux has bad habits. You can’t discipline him. So how are you supposed to keep the other players in line? In New Jersey, they made a big mistake by giving the (Soviet) players that kind of power. There are 20 players on a team, and they should be treated equally.

“From what I’ve seen and heard, the Soviet players were not playing up to their potential. They were not in shape when they came to camp,” O’Reilly said. “It’s out of line for the general manager to step in and interfere with that process without seeing if it would work. What if Fetisov, when he returned (after the benching), became the player they expected?”

Several ex-Devils were not surprised to see Schoenfeld dismissed.

“He has an ego as big as the rink,” one former Devils forward said. “He’s a real stickler for little things -- you get fined for throwing your sweater on the floor, fined if you forget to wear a tie, fined if you’re late. Guys were worrying so much about these trivial things it was hard to concentrate on hockey.

“And he’s spiteful,” he added. “He resents players with talent. He likes blue-collar players because that’s the type of player he was.”

Another said the firing “suits Schoenfeld. It fits him well. And I hope he has trouble unloading his house.”

Schoenfeld replaced Doug Carpenter as coach on Jan. 26, 1988. He was the right man at the right time, taking over a young team that was in mutiny under Carpenter’s restrictive hand. But Carpenter, now coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, had laid a solid technical foundation, and Schoenfeld’s relaxed, good-guy approach -- and the addition of goalie Sean Burke -- helped the Devils reach the playoffs for the first time since they moved to New Jersey in 1982. The ugly-duckling team came within a game of the Stanley Cup finals, losing in a seventh-game semifinal to the Bruins. To mix storybook metaphors, the Devils have turned back into pumpkins.

Is there more bad blood than usual in the NHL this season? The Penguins’ John Cullen misses the beginning month with hepatitis, and so far Lemieux, the Devils’ Kirk Muller and the Vancouver Canucks’ Trevor Linden have gone for medical tests to determine reasons for unusual fatigue. So far, their tests have not indicated any ailments.

The 1990 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, which will mark the return of the NHL to network television for the first time since the early ‘80s, will have an all-star cast in the booth. NBC’s lineup for the Jan. 21 game: Bob Costas, Marv Albert and New York Rangers color man John Davidson.

And after several abortive attempts, the NHL is hoping to hold skills contests in skating, shooting and goaltending the day before the game. One such event, planned for All-Star weekend in Hartford, Conn., in 1986, was embarrassingly canceled because the league failed to secure the approval of the Players’ Association.

On Nov. 27, Red Wings center Jimmy Carson will play his first game at Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum since his trade from the Oilers ended his walkout. “I wonder what it will be like with 17,000 people booing me,” Carson said. No doubt he’ll find out.

Carson is negotiating a new contract with the Red Wings that would net him $500,000 a season, making him the second highest-paid Red Wing, after Yzerman. Carson, a 100-point scorer in 1988-89, was decidedly underpaid last year, earning $180,000 under his current contract.

Haven’t we had enough of the anti-Soviet tirades and complaints about the overage “Kalder kandidates?” Would anyone be this upset if some of the Soviet rookies weren’t so good?

Chicago’s Darren Pang on the shortcomings of Blackhawks goalies (Pang is 5-5, Jacques Cloutier is 5-7 and Alain Chevrier is 5-8): “I think our goalie scout must be that guy from Fantasy Island.”