THE NHL : Gretzky Finally Gets a Little Good News

The days have been dark and gloomy in Wayne’s world.

After a lifetime of brilliant hockey achievements, Wayne Gretzky has been skating on thin ice since last spring, struggling both personally and professionally.

It began with an errant puck, hit by then-teammate Steve Duchesne, in the Smythe Division finals against the Edmonton Oilers.

In a freak accident, Duchesne’s shot hit Gretzky in the ear, leaving him bloody that night and largely ineffective for the rest of the playoff series, which the Kings lost in six games.

Then came the Canada Cup in late summer. Cross-checked from behind by Gary Suter, Gretzky suffered a back injury that plagued him into this season.

In the slowest start of his career, Gretzky didn’t score a goal in his first five games.

But all of that became insignificant after Oct. 16, when Gretzky’s 53-year-old father, Walter, suffered an aneurysm of the brain.

Gretzky, who calls his father his best friend, took some time off to be with him, then returned to the team, but his thoughts remained focused on his father, lying in a hospital bed on the other side of the continent.

Gretzky said recently that he has been more disappointed with his performance on the ice than at any time in his career.

Perhaps that is why this past weekend seemed so sweet for him. His father is making slow, but steady progress. Although Walter Gretzky’s memory is not completely back, he has reached the point where his son can talk to him on the phone.

On the ice at the Forum Saturday night, Wayne Gretzky had his first big night of the season with a hat trick, the 49th of his career.

On a football field in Winnipeg Sunday, the Toronto Argonauts, with minority owner Gretzky in attendance, defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup, the championship of the Canadian Football League.

And on a race track in Tokyo Sunday, Golden Pheasant, a horse owned by Gretzky and King owner Bruce McNall, won the $2.77-million Japan Cup.

Truly, Gretzky’s cups runneth over.

After playing Saturday night, Gretzky flew to Winnipeg early Sunday, nearly froze on the sideline watching his team, then flew home Sunday night to be at practice Monday.

Gretzky and actor John Candy each own one-fifth of the Argonauts, McNall the rest.

“I’m happy with my level of participation,” Gretzky said. “I don’t have time to be more involved. I’ve got to play hockey.”

Gretzky conceded that it is a lot different signing the paychecks than cashing them.

“As a player,” he said, “you see the good times and the bad times. As an owner, there are no bad times. When the team loses, you’re not around for that whole week, which is a down period. You just say, wait till next week.”

Now, if Gretzky can just win that other Cup. . . .

Add Walter Gretzky: During Thursday night’s telecast of the Kings’ game against the Flames in Calgary, Prime Ticket will show an interview with Gretzky’s father made last summer.

Walter Gretzky reminisces about the cold winter night his then-tiny son insisted on being taken to a rink near their home in the small Canadian town of Brantford.

Sitting in his frozen car with the heater broken, his bones shaking, while his son worked under the lights on the skills that would some day make him famous, Walter Gretzky decided that enough was enough. Soon thereafter, Wayne Gretzky had his own back-yard rink, courtesy of his father.

During the interview, the elder Gretzky also conducts a tour of the family basement, which has become a shrine that draws hundreds of visitors annually to see the trophies and other memorabilia from No. 99’s career.

Among the items is the first sweater worn by the younger Gretzky as a member of the Nadrofsky Steelers. He scored only one goal that season. Of course, he was only 6, playing in a league with 10-year-olds.

In his final season with the Steelers, Gretzky, by then 10, scored 378 goals in 69 games.

Sticking to violence: The news that Calgary defenseman Jamie Macoun will receive no further punishment for breaking the jaw of the Buffalo Sabres’ Pat LaFontaine means it is business as usual in the NHL.

Dirty business.

LaFontaine may be sidelined for two months after getting hit by Macoun’s stick, a blow that also severed a facial artery.

So, what was Macoun’s punishment? Major and game-misconduct penalties.

Do it on the street and go to jail.

Do it in the NHL and go skate-free, encouraging others to do the same.

For HIV testing: The revelation by the Lakers’ Magic Johnson that he has tested positive for HIV has all athletes thinking, but few more than those in the NHL, where bloody incidents like the one involving Macoun and LaFontaine occur frequently.

Todd Gill, player representative of the Toronto Maple Leafs, thinks there should be league-wide testing, although he assumes that there will be some resistance.

“But why wouldn’t you want to (be tested)?” he said to the Montreal Gazette. “Why would you want to put anyone else in danger? Why should someone who doesn’t practice safe sex put other people at risk?”

AIDS experts have said that the risk of transmitting the virus when blood is spilled during competitive sports is a remote possibility. There have been no such documented cases.

Nicholls defense: When defenseman Jeff Beukeboom went from the Edmonton Oilers to the New York Rangers recently, he obliquely mentioned the case of Bernie Nicholls.

Nicholls, traded from the Rangers to the Oilers at the start of the season, has refused to report, at least until his pregnant wife, Heather, gives birth.

“I’m not reporting until my wife gives birth,” Beukeboom said. “And she’s not even pregnant.”

Just kidding. Beukeboom reported without incident.