THE NHL : Time to Deal, but Oilers Get Lost in Shuffle

In Pittsburgh, they went for defense. In New York, for muscle. The Kings got conservative, and the Edmonton Oilers got nothing.

In the hours before Tuesday’s trading deadline, the action got fast and furious. The New York Rangers completed a deal 10 minutes before zero-hour, the 14th and final trade in a day of wheeling and dealing that rivaled the activity on Wall Street.

With all the results in, here’s a thumbnail analysis:

--The Big Winner, Pittsburgh. Much like the Kings before them, the Penguins realized that you can’t take aim at the Stanley Cup with just a slap shot. Scoring goals on the ice and scoring points in the standings are not necessarily the same thing. Offense is nice, but defense is crucial.

So, blessed with offensive stars such as Mario Lemieux, Mark Recchi and John Cullen, Pittsburgh packaged Cullen, a center with 31 goals and 94 points but in his option year, with defenseman Zarley Zalapski and wing Jeff Parker and shipped them to the Hartford Whalers for center Ron Francis and defensemen Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings.

Samuelsson is just the type of stay-at-home defenseman who can give the Penguins some hope they won’t be staying at home in the late stages of the playoffs. Jennings adds needed toughness to a defense that has given up 258 goals, most in the Patrick Division and second in the Wales Conference to the Quebec Nordiques. The big surprise was that Francis didn’t expect to be going anywhere. He wouldn’t have been as surprised in December when he was stripped of his title of team captain and the trade rumors started.

But last month, Francis, who is in his option year, was assured by Whaler General Manager Ed Johnston that the only place he was going was to the negotiating table to work out a new contract.

This could work out a lot better. For a decade in Hartford, Francis was expected to be the franchise’s savior. He responded with club-record numbers in every offensive category. But he has never quite become as big a star as predicted.

Now, Francis might excel in an environment where he will be second banana.

Lemieux is the center in Pittsburgh and will remain so, physical condition permitting.

Francis will center the second line. And with the pressure off, who knows?

--The Big Muscles. The New York Rangers’ postseason problems have been blamed, among other things, on the lack of a tough guy to gain respect on the ice and to keep the other teams’ goons at bay.

They attempted to solve that problem by picking up wing Joey Kocur from the Detroit Red Wings.

--The Big Freeze. With their first genuine shot at the Stanley Cup finals in the Wayne Gretzky era, the Kings were hesitant to shake up their successful chemistry.

General Manager Rogie Vachon settled for a minor deal, getting some insurance on the wing in the form of Ilkka Sinisalo of the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for an eighth-round draft choice.

But first, Vachon made a bid for Pittsburgh wing Tony Tanti, who wound up going instead to the Buffalo Sabres.

--The Big Zero. Perhaps the most surprising move was the one the Oilers didn’t make.

With two star goalies on the roster and a star wing playing in Europe, it was assumed the Oilers would do something. Trading the rights to wing Jari Kurri seemed the most likely. The possibility of dealing goalie Grant Fuhr has lessened recently with his successful comeback from drug problems.

Edmonton General Manager Glen Sather wasn’t totally opposed to a big trade. He talked with the Whalers about a package deal for Francis but lost out to the Penguins.

Doomed Comeback: The Washington Capitals’ suspension of wing John Kordic last Saturday was followed by an announcement that he entered an alcohol rehabilitation center and would stay there for a month.

There seems to be no question Kordic belongs there. The question being asked in Washington is, did Kordic belong in a Capital uniform so soon after his last bout with alcoholism?

It has been a chronic problem for the former Toronto Maple Leaf. Kordic was in rehabilitation part of last summer. After being traded to the Capitals, he missed practice on Feb. 11 because of problems with alcohol.

But after spending eight days in a clinic, he was reinstated, on the advice of his doctor, according to Washington General Manager David Poile.

“He told us all, in front of John, me, the coaches and the players, that John’s comfort zone was in the arena,” Poile told the Washington Post, relating the words of the doctor, whose name he wouldn’t reveal. “We all knew it was a gamble. I knew, the coaches knew, the players knew. And John knew.

“It was a patch to get through the year.”

But should that be the priority? Alcoholism is hardly like a pulled hamstring. People don’t bounce back from addiction as they do from a strained muscle.

Not in eight days.

An athlete may be assured that he can play through some injuries without endangering his career. No such assurances can be made about an addiction.

There is physical pain. And there is mental pain--two different animals.

Kordic didn’t belong back on the ice. Not so soon.

For what? To win some hockey games?

The priority should not be to get John Kordic through the year. It should be to get him through life.