NHL NOTES : Oilers Will Need Healthy Meissier

The Oilers have won two Stanley Cups since the departure of Paul Coffey. Last season, without Wayne Gretzky, they won their fifth Cup in the last seven years. But if Mark Messier is not healthy this spring, there is no way Edmonton will pull it off again.

The Oilers are 6-13-0 in games Messier missed during two absences because of a sprained knee. After beating the New York Islanders Thursday, they were 16-7-3 in the 25 games he had played. “If Mess doesn’t stay healthy,” Coach John Muckler said, “we’ve got a big hole, one we can’t fill.”

Messier turned 30 Friday. He will play in his ninth NHL All-Star Game Saturday in Chicago. Last Saturday against the Devils, the 6-1, 210-pound center became the 28th NHL player to reach 1,000 points. But this has been his most points. But this has been his most trying season.

“Since I’ve been injured,” said Messier, whose original injury occurred in an Oct. 16 game, “I’ve been trying to get back to 100 percent. I feel real good right now. The knee seems pretty close to being back to normal, so that’s pretty encouraging.”

With two years left on a contract that pays him $1.1 million this season, Messier is seeking a new deal starting at $2 million per season and reportedly has rejected an Oilers’ offer of $1.5 million. “It’ll get down to one of two things,” he said. “I’ll either sign for five, six or seven more years, or I’ll be traded . . . I won’t be allowed to play out my option.

“I’m going to be a total free agent at the end of two years,” he said, “so obviously, the thing for them to do would be to try to get compensation for me . . . if I wasn’t able to come to terms.”

With sniper Jari Kurri having left the Oilers to play in Italy the season, Messier is the glue holding the Oilers together. Without Messier, the dynasty ends. Teammates hope he re-signs.

“When you have the best player in the league out of the lineup,” Craig MacTavish said of Messier, the 1990 NHL MVP, “it’s a lot tougher. He adds a dimensions to our team the way he moves the puck, runs the power play, kills penalties . . . Having him out, nobody’s going to pick up the slack.”

The Montreal Canadiens’ current 10-2-1 run (including Thursday’s victory in St. Louis) began one night after managing director Serge Savard gave Coach Pat Burns a vote of confidence. “Serge told me firmly that I didn’t have to worry about my job,” Burns told The Hockey News. “It did me good to hear that. It’s not that I thought my job was really in danger, but when you keep hearing all kinds of things, it works its way into the back of your mind.”

The Canadiens are getting balanced scoring and better defense lately from Eric Desjardins and J.J. Daigneault. The “Marble Club Line” of Brian Skrudland, Shayne Corson and Mike Keane (they were arrested Dec. 14 outside a Winnipeg bar of that name) also is playing well. Goalie Patrick Roy, back after a knee injury, is 6-1 in seven straight starts.

You would expect former New York Rangers defenseman Mario Marios to have been delighted Oct. 1 when the St. Louis Blues claimed him from the Quebec Nordiques in the waiver draft. He was not. Marois, 33, was born in Quebec, played junior hockey for the Remparts there and enjoyed his two stints with the Nordiques (1981-85, ‘88-90). “I was sorry to leave,” he said. “But things are going pretty good here. The guys work hard. I like it here. I just try to play well iN my own end and get the puck up to the forwards.”

Bob Johnson said he missed coaching in 1987 when he left the Calgary Flames to become executive director of the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States. So why did he let Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick convince him to take the Penguins’ job?

“I could have stayed in the game another 10-15 years at a high level,” Johnson said, “but as an administrator, you’re not at ice level. I enjoy coaching, working with players, seeing them get better, molding a team.”

He is trying to teach the Penguins to play tighter defense. “We’re still working at it,” he said. “The moment we can come back in our end and play with the same enthusiasm as we do in the offensive end, we’re going to arrive.”