Two Sides Still Drifting Apart : NHL strike: Players say they have two new proposals, but that’s news to the owners.

Wednesday, the NHL players went out on strike because they couldn’t agree with the owners on a proposal to settle their differences.

On Day 2 of the strike, things got worse.

The sides couldn’t even agree on whether there had been any new proposals.

The NHL Players Assn., said it had made two new proposals to break the impasse that has already resulted in the cancellation of nine games.

“We put out a proposal today, and they said no,” said the Washington Capitals’ Mike Liut, a member of the players’ negotiating team. “Then we put out another and they said no.”

The view was a little different from the other side.

“If they used the word proposals, that is not correct,” said Bill Wilkerson, a spokesman for NHL President John Ziegler. “No new proposals were presented.”

Liut, part of a group that met with the owners Wednesday in Toronto, says management is not negotiating seriously.

“We’re not getting back any kind of response on the problems we have,” Liut said. “We’re negotiating against ourselves. After a while, it becomes counter-productive. . . . We again have moved today on several issues. They haven’t moved at all. . . . You can’t negotiate anymore, because you know what you’re talking about isn’t going to fly.”

Union spokesman Paul Costello said Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Assn., and Ziegler had agreed to meet again today.

But in the present climate, nothing figures to happen before Monday, when the league’s Board of Governors is scheduled to meet in New York. Liut said the players plan to give Ziegler a position paper to take with him to New York.

As time goes by and more games are lost, it will be increasingly difficult to resume the season because of the unavailability of arenas. That will be particularly true in U.S. arenas where the NBA playoffs will begin soon.

The league has decided against allowing the players to use club equipment, facilities or personnel for practices. King player representative Marty McSorley said he expected his players to work out individually or in small groups, but not as a team.

“It’s easier up in Canada,” the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky said. “But here, it’s difficult to get the equipment you would need to hold a practice.”

Most of the players, McSorley said, don’t even own their own skates.

King owner Bruce McNall says the lost games have him concerned about others besides his players.

“What really annoys me is the other people who might lose jobs,” he said. “What happens to the game-day people, the guards, the little people? These are people who are trying to feed their families.

“I’m going to subsidize them. I’m going to take care of them . . . and the ushers. But I don’t think a whole lot of consideration has been given them by the players.”