NHL Season Isn’t Over Yet : Hockey: Deadline passes, but talks will resume today with hope for settlement. McNall is key figure.

It was to have been fired at high noon Thursday, the final shot in a hockey showdown that promised to leave no survivors. But when the deadline came, neither side could pull the trigger on the NHL’s 75th season.

Instead, the owners and players put away their weapons, took out their proposals and agreed to return to the negotiating table today in New York. There is some hope now that a deal could be hammered out in the next 24 hours, ending the nine-day-old strike, and that the season could be resumed, perhaps as early as Sunday.

After spending 3 1/2 hours on a conference call with the league’s board of governors, NHL President John Ziegler said that he had also talked to Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Assn.

“Mr. Goodenow and I have communicated,” Ziegler said in a statement. “We are to have further communications through the course of the evening and early morning. At this time, there is nothing specific or further that I can report.”

King owner Bruce McNall was a key figure in the revival of the talks that seemed dead Thursday morning. McNall is known to be a leader of the owners’ moderate forces, who had been overshadowed by the militants such as William Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and chairman of the board of governors. Wirtz is considered the most stringent among the owners.

McNall declined comment.

It was McNall, however, who devised much of the material in the last owners’ proposal, which was referred to as “The McNall Proposal” by other owners.

When that proposal was presented Tuesday, Ziegler gave the players 48 hours to consider it. If rejected, he said, the owners would cancel the rest of the season and the playoffs.

The player representatives gave their answer 47 hours early, a unanimous no.

Ziegler said the offer would remain until Thursday at noon PDT. By Thursday morning, it was clear that the players were not about to change their minds.

Sources in Calgary and Edmonton said that front-office personnel there were openly talking about the league’s course of action: a lockout in the fall with replacement players imported from Europe and the minors so that the NHL could open its 76th season on schedule--with all new faces.

The players, meanwhile, were talking of forming their own league in direct opposition to the NHL.

McNall even scheduled a Thursday afternoon Forum news conference to give his epitaph to the 1991-92 season.

Hardly the atmosphere for optimism.

But, behind the scenes, more positive moves took place. Reportedly as many as 70 players had met with Goodenow Tuesday evening to see if the season could be salvaged. There were rumors of unhappiness among the players’ ranks.

After a conference call among player representatives Thursday morning, contact was resumed between Ziegler and Goodenow.

Officially, Ziegler withdrew the owners’ proposal at noon.

“(Goodenow and Ziegler) are human beings,” NHL spokesman Bill Wilkerson said Thursday evening. “Something has to happen for offers to come back on the table or for players to report.”

It is believed Goodenow and Ziegler will meet this morning. Ziegler is scheduled to report to the owners via conference call this afternoon.

A federal mediator had offered Wednesday to help resolve the dispute, but mediators must be invited to enter stalled talks by the parties involved. No invitation was issued.

There are 30 regular-season games left before the playoffs. If the season resumes within the next few days, the Kings will play their final two remaining games, home-and-home against the Vancouver Canucks, next week, then start the playoffs April 18. Under this plan, the Stanley Cup finals could finish as late as June 12.

NHL Developments

* The NHL’s season-ending deadline passes at noon Thursday.

* John Ziegler, NHL president, spends 3 1/2 hours on a conference call with the league’s board of governors and resumes contact with Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Assn.

* Ziegler and Goodenow are expected to continue negotiations in New York today.