HOCKEY NOTEBOOK : Players Are Chilled by Trademark Rules

Skip Cunningham, the Hartford Whalers’ equipment manager, uses an incredibly potent and highly toxic aerosol stripper called Zep Eraser to remove brand names off sticks.

For skates, he simply paints black over the trademark.

It’s too bad Zep Eraser, hyped as a vandal mark remover, can’t be used to wipe away the National Hockey League’s weak policy on licensing equipment, first implemented in 1989 and seemingly doomed to failure.

Manufacturers must pay $12,500 per product if it is to be used in the NHL with the brand name visible. There also is an 8.5 percent surcharge on sales -- payable to the NHL and, unfortunately, passed on to the consumer. The reward? An official NHL logo on all approved material.

The NHL is enforcing the rules, too. This past week, St. Louis’ Scott Stevens was sent back to the locker room to cover up his skates.

And in Montreal Monday, Ray Ferraro had to go back and cover up his helmet.

“Cost our line a shift,” Kevin Dineen said.

Although the Whalers’ Dineen, Ron Francis and Pat Verbeek have minor endorsement contracts, it’s costing other star players substantial money. Denis Savard lost about $30,000 when a stick company canceled his contract because the trademark isn’t visible anymore.

Could you imagine the brand name on Michael Jordan’s sneakers being washed out?

The Toronto Globe and Mail estimated that at least 55 percent of the sticks and 80 percent of the skates are being blacked out this season. Karhu Canada, which makes Canadien, Titan, Jofa and Koho sticks, and Canstar Sports Inc., which makes Bauer, Micron and Mega skates and Cooper equipment, refused to sign up with the NHL this year.

The NHL, meanwhile, filed suit against Karhu Canada, Karhu USA and Karhu Titan USA, charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The NHL suits says the companies conspired illegally with other manufacturers to raise prices by 15 percent in retaliation.

Even more than players getting ripped off, the agreement simply doesn’t work. Of the $100,000 in fees the NHL will receive, $20,000 will go to the Licensing Corporation of America. That means each club will receive only about $4,000.

The NHL has defended its policy by saying substantial money will be poured back in youth hockey. The Globe and Mail reported that one publisher of a manufacturers’ newsletter tried 12 times without success for the name of any group receiving any money. But even given that youth hockey will benefit, why pass on increased prices -- anywhere from $3 extra for a stick to $25 more for a skate -- to the parents in the first place?

“For the $100,000 they get, it isn’t worth the hassle and all the public image problems it has caused,” Dineen said.

“Two things I don’t like about the rule,” Francis said. “They’re passing along the costs to parents of the kids who play hockey. Hockey is already an expensive game. For the first time, there are more kids in Canada playing soccer than hockey.

“Second, strict enforcement on uniforms is fine, but sticks and skates are individual tools. Making them uniform is wrong. I’d pay for my own Bauers if I had to.”

League President John Ziegler recently defended the league stance by saying he didn’t want NHL players looking like Europeans wearing things that said, “Eat at Joe’s.” This argument, of course, runs contrary to teams selling all those dasherboard ads.

“The rule stinks -- a totally messed up deal,” said Verbeek, who, like Francis, uses Bauer skates (which must be covered) and Louisville sticks (which are approved). “They’ve either got to abandon it or work out something with the maunfacturers.”

Milwaukee, considered a virtual lock for a National Hockey League expansion team, suddenly pulled out of the running Tuesday. Suspicious? So are a lot of folks around the NHL. The Petits never liked the inflated idea of paying $50 million for a new, bad team. Rumors are rampant Milwaukee is trying to buy an existing team. Minnesota and Winnipeg have been mentioned as logical candidates. But wait a minute: “I hear it might be St. Louis and they may have been behind the Brett Hull and Scott Stevens signings,” one member of the NHL hierarchy said. Truth? Or vindictive rumor to hurt the Blues because they so badly rocked the salary structure?

Although he set up the game-winning goal Wednesday against Buffalo, Hartford Whalers’ center Ray Ferraro, the consummate Boston Red Sox fan, wasn’t all smiles afterward. “I can’t say anything about that call (by Denis Morel, who mistakenly waved off Ferraro’s empty-net goal last weekend). I’ll get fined. But I can comment on Terry Cooney throwing out Roger Clemens. It was an awful call.”

Watching Clemens mouth off in the American League Championship Series and promptly getting ejected by Cooney raises a hockey question. How far can a captain get away with complaining to a referee without penalty or ejection?

“When you go to a referee to question or complain, you’ve got to keep it focused on the call itself,” said Francis, the Whalers’ captain. “A few curse words sometimes slip in there, like, ‘That was a blankety-blank call.’ But then if you come on too strong, he’ll warn you to back off.

“What you cannot do is get personal. You can’t tell the guy he is a brutal ref. And, above all, you can’t pull a (Jim) Schoenfeld and tell him, ‘Have another doughnut, you fat pig.’ That’ll get you in trouble for sure.”

Our favorite guy in hockey is Wayne Gamble, director of operations for the new American Hockey League affiliate in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Before the season, Bryan Lewis, NHL director of officiating, sent out a list of the rule changes to AHL clubs. As a joke, Lewis added on the final page a rule from the 1943-44 season. It calls for a red line running from side board to side board 28 feet out from the rear boards to be used for what was called a “minor penalty shot.” If a goaltender was responsible for causing a penalty shot under the old rules, a player could close in to that line before shooting, instead of coming all the way in on net on normal penalty shots.

Unfortunately, Gamble, a newcomer to the sport, didn’t know it was a joke and had the line painted.

“Now, I’m the laughingstock of professional hockey,” Gamble said. “I know business, but I don’t know much about hockey. When the linesman (who first worked an exhibition game) found out what happened, there were tears in their eyes they were laughing so hard.”

Being a good-natured sort, Gamble is leaving the lines on the ice.

“They’re my red badge of courage,” Gamble said.

New York Islanders goalie Mark Fitzpatrick has gone home to British Columbia for rest, relaxation and therapy after coming down with eosinophilic fascitis. Fitzpatrick suffered considerable swelling in muscles and tissues and had to be hospitalized in Los Angeles when the Islanders were on the West Coast. He’s taking oral cortisone medication and probably will be out for a month. Fitzpatrick feels like he has rheumatism in his wrist, hands and feet. He says it feels like he has been “driving with power steering for years and all of a sudden the power steering is gone.” The problem, experts feel, may have come from an adverse allergic reaction to vitamins the Islanders gave their players.