NHL NOTES : Lemieux’s Lack of Conditioning May Have Contributed to Problem

It never fails. Pick up a newspaper in a National Hockey League city, turn to the sports page and tune in for a little Mario Lemieux bashing.

In the Feb. 24 Toronto Globe and Mail, for instance, Phil Esposito was asked to compare Lemieux with Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. Espo responded, “I don’t think Lemieux could tie their shoelaces.”

Maybe Lemieux could or maybe Lemieux could not, but one thing is sure: If Orr or Gretzky had scored a point in 46 successive games despite a terrible back injury, the media and fans would canonize No. 4 and No. 99 as skating saints.

Before Lemieux finally succumbed to a herniated disk, which is scheduled to put him out four to six weeks and maybe the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season, it almost seems people doubted its seriousness.

“I think Mario got the reputation because he was the type of guy who would lay on the ice after he got sticked,” Hartford Whalers strength coach Doug McKenney said. “He’d wait for a referee’s call. I think he pretty well has got the reputation that he milks things.

“This back thing has been going on for two, three years and everybody has been aware of it. I think some people think this is just another one of his ordeals. That it was nothing serious. But there were times when his lower back really caused him pain and discomfort and he played with it. But a herniated disk is a different circumstance. He didn’t have that before.”

As any of the Whalers will tell you, McKenney is a most insistent man. Before he came from Pittsburgh with General Manager Ed Johnston, he used to be on Lemieux all the time to stretch the muscles in his trunk to prevent injury. Even McKenney could not keep Lemieux locked into his regimen, so one could imagine how it was after he left.

“Mario always had some back discomfort,” McKenney said. “The main gist of what we could gather from physician, trainer and conditioning coach discussing it was that he had a lack of flexibility in the lower back and hamstrings. Every time we took the approach of trying to lengthen that muscle and stretch it, we really got some decent results. He has shortening of those muscles and that’s what created that problem. It’s not genetic.

“The exercises they are doing now with the herniated disk are the same sort we were doing to prevent it initially. I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s going to need an operation. What they’re doing now is trying to alleviate some of the bad pain he’s having and hope it will let him be involved in the playoffs. My personal opinion is that they’re prolonging the obvious: surgery.”

With Eric Lindros available in the 1991 entry draft and projected to be the next superstar in the NHL, there is some sentiment in hockey that a lottery among nonplayoff teams should be used.

The New Jersey Devils’ Lou Lamoriello and Philadelphia Flyers’ Bobby Clarke support the idea. New York Islanders General Manager Bill Torrey does not.

“It’s been discussed before and didn’t have enough support,” said Whalers General Manager Ed Johnston, who seemed lukewarm to the idea. “I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but I certainly wouldn’t say it’s close.”

There is still an undercurrent in the NHL that Johnston’s Penguins and the Devils battled hard to finish in last place in 1984 in order to draft Lemieux. But nothing was proven. A lottery on television, something like the NBA’s, could end any speculation of a team going into the tank. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported that one general manager said he knew of three instances in the last 10 years when a team deliberately lost in an attempt get the No. 1 pick.

Besides the obvious reason of preventing teams from losing on purpose, one good argument for the lottery is that the unbalanced schedule makes some teams’ schedules more difficult.

Godfrey Wood, one of the new owners of the Global Hockey League franchise granted to Providence, R.I., is shooting for an introductory news conference this week after a couple of postponements the last 10 days.

The franchise will be called New England, although Wood has held off announcing the team name. Each GHL team must pay $400,000 in franchise fees (a far cry from the $50 million the NHL is seeking from expansion cities) and must post $1 million in credit. The Albany team evidently will be called New York. The regional-name idea is to give these smaller-city franchises more drawing power when they play in Europe. GHL officials are in London trying to bring their potential European franchises together.

Wood was rebuffed twice over the years in attempts to buy the Boston Bruins. He also will be remembered for trying to put together a group in 1988 for a last-ditch attempt to buy the Whalers before the club was sold to Richard Gordon and Donald Conrad for $31 million.

Wood was a goalie at Harvard and a renegade in the defunct Central Hockey League. Wood wrote an article for the Boston Globe about the evils of the NHL’s reserve clause while playing for Detroit’s farm team in Memphis, Tenn. Old owner Bruce Norris promptly told him to pack his bags.

Wood resurfaced in hockey as one of the original partners with the World Hockey Association Whalers. Wood, who is forming a group of Rhode Island and Massachusetts men for the fledling GHL team, approached Boston attorney Bob Caporale about getting involved. Because Caporale is involved representing the Whalers, he declined.

With all these threats of the Minnesota North Stars moving and new leagues being formed, doesn’t it seem we are reliving the 1970s?

There are famous photographs of Bobby Hull signing his million-dollar contract with the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA in 1972. In some, there is a little blond-haired kid in the foreground.

That is Brett Hull.

Brett has grown up and -- isn’t this deja vu? -- he will be looking for a big-time free-agent contract this summer. Hull, on his way to more than 70 goals with the St. Louis Blues, is making only $125,000 this season.

Will he sign with the Global?

Will the Blues pay him big bucks?

Or will one of the NHL teams take a chance and pay the big compensation and the big bucks?

Bobby has a message for Brett: “If the Blues can’t pay you what you’re worth, there are other teams that will, and I’m not necessarily talking about the proposed Global Hockey League.”

NHL compensaton for Hull will be $100,000 and first-round draft picks among the top seven in two of the following three years. If a team can’t deliver two top-seven picks (it may have to do it through trade), it would be forced to compensate the Blues with five first-rounders.

Who would do it? The Detroit Red Wings are being mentioned prominently. Could you imagine Hull on Steve Yzerman’s line? The Calgary Flames are also a possibility.

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ Al Iafrate is the other big-name, young free agent this summer, although most figure he will remain a Leaf. Minnesota’s Mike Gartner is the biggest name among the thirtysomething free agents.

While the proposed Gerard Gallant-for-John Vanbiesbrouck deal between the Red Wings and New York Rangers sits with no action, here is a hot rumor: the Edmonton Oilers’ Grant Fuhr to the Washington Capitals for Kevin Hatcher.

It will be interesting to watch how this North Stars situation will shake out in the coming weeks. Two potential buyers, Harvey Mackay and Compuware Corp. of Detroit, have surfaced in recent days and each has said it would keep the club in the Twin Cities. The Gund brothers, who threaten to move to the Bay Area because $15 million in improvements are not forthcoming at the Met Center, have discussed a move to California cities Oakland or San Jose (with a temporary home in San Francisco’s Cow Palace until the San Jose arena is built).

Some sources around the league insist that if the Gunds move to the Bay Area, a new team will be put in place immediately in the Twin Cities. There has also been talk that Peter Pocklington might be interested in moving Edmonton to Minnesota if the North Stars leave.

Quebec Coach Michel Bergeron is not a happy man these days. Many foresee Robbie Ftorek taking over as head coach next year. Said Bergeron: “Guy Lafleur’s my fourth-leading scorer, he’s 38 and has only played 34 games. Even if he doesn’t play another game this year, he’ll be fourth. That’s really all you need to know.”