NHL NOTES : Minor Penalties Create More Operating Room for Best Players

When coincidental minor penalties were assessed at the end of a period in the NHL the last few seasons, it was a signal for fans to head to the hot dog stand. The delay at the penalty box was a perfect time for a fastbreak to the concession stands.

Not anymore.

Hold the mustard, pickles and onions. Hey, hold the hot dog until the intermission.

Late in the second period of the St. Louis Blues-Detroit Red Wings preseason game last Saturday, Detroit Coach Bryan Murray sent Sergei Fedorov and Vyacheslav Kozlov out as forwards and Nicklas Lidstrom and Mark Howe on defense. The Blues countered with Bob Bassen and Dave Lowry up front and Curt Giles and Garth Butcher on defense.

Quick, somebody call Blues Coach Bob Plager and have him check out that alignment. It’s an accident waiting to happen.

Oops. Too late.

Kozlov to Lidstrom to Fedorov. Goal Red Wings.

Those poor fans who were first in line for refreshments just missed the prettiest goal of the night.

“Awesome play,” Brett Hull said after watching the replay in the Blues’ locker room. “When you give talented players like that more room to operate 4 on 4 it’s exciting. The fans are going to love that new rule.”

Well, Brett, the fans loved that rule in the early 1980s before Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey made an art form out of scoring with all that extra room on the ice.

It would be like baseball eliminating one of its outfielders. Think about all those extra-base hits that would result.

But in its infinite wisdom, the NHL changed the rule so that players were penalized but the teams did not play shorthanded. The rule penalized the Edmonton Oilers, intimating they had an unfair advantage because they had all that talent and two Stanley Cup championships to boot.

But that was 1985 and now the NHL is attempting to reward teams with skill.

“Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Steve Yzerman, Wayne Gretzky and others are tough enough to stop when teams are playing 5 on 5, but they are going to be awesome with all that extra room to skate,” Hull said. “I like it. It gives the fans a chance to see the really great players display their skills.”

At the other end of the Arena, Yzerman also was talking about Fedorov’s goal. But he added Hull’s name to the conversation.

“Brett Hull is tough to stop the way he always seems to find the open ice,” Yzerman said. “He has a knack of disappearing and then reappearing just in time to fire a hard shot into the net.

“If the Blues can find the right guy to control the puck out there with Brett -- maybe one of their Soviets -- he is going to be almost impossible to stop in that kind of situation.”

Blues goalie Curtis Joseph didn’t have time to think about what was in store.

“It was zip, zip and zip,” Joseph said. “It was in the net before I could move.”

Joseph was still shaking his head at the quickness the Red Wings displayed on Fedorov’s goal after he saw the replay.

“I guess there isn’t a goalie on that rules committee, eh?” Joseph said.

“We haven’t even had time to practice the 4 on 4 with all of the players coming and going in training camp,” Murray said. “I guess I am pretty fortunate with guys like Fedorov, Kozlov, Lidstrom, Howe, Yzerman and Dino Ciccarelli.”

Murray’s voice was trailing as though he could name another five or six players.

The Red Wings aren’t the only team to benefit from 4-on-4 play. The Penguins, Rangers, Canadiens and, yes, even the Nordiques will benefit from this rule.

But the fans will benefit most.

Though the NHL made Gil Stein its president last week, the league is still looking for a CEO to bring the NHL into the 21st century marketing-wise.

Stein, who has made all the right moves public relations-wise since taking over as president-elect for John Ziegler in June, continues to quip about his tenuous position.

“Nobody except Fidel Castro is president for life,” he says.

Kings Owner Bruce McNall has suspended the players’ use of his private jet until the Kings show they can win without Gretzky, who is out indefinitely with a back injury.

The Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames must be salivating over the prospect of facing the Kings and San Jose Sharks at least 14 times plus another six games against the expansion Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.

“What’s great for us is everyone’s writing us off,” Kings Coach Barry Melrose says. “That’s perfect for us. We can show everybody they were wrong.”

Not when you are toying with the idea of switching Jari Kurri from right wing to center. Kurri is 32, not 22. Such a change shows desperation.

Mario Lemieux’s new seven-year, $42-million contract calls for him to receive $3.6 million this season plus $2.4 million in deferred salary. That puts Lemieux $100,000 ahead of Philadelphia’s Eric Lindros. ... Wendel Clark signed an interesting play-for-pay contract in which he can earn as much as $250,000 in incentives if he plays 70 games this season. Clark, who played only 43 games last season, 63 in 1990-91, 38 in 1989-90 and 15 in 1988-89, reportedly will receive a bonus of $50,000 for every five games he plays beginning with 50 games. Clark has played a full season just once, in 1986-87. ... The Hartford Whalers received a $29-million assist from the state of Connecticut to refinance debt, a move aimed at keeping the Whalers in Hartford for at least the next seven seasons. Owner Richard Gordon also has received a $4-million, seven-year loan he will use to buy the bankrupt Colonial Realty Co.’s 37.5-percent share in the team, raising his stake in the team to 75 percent. Gordon estimates the Whalers lost $4.5 million last season.

Rookie right wing Teemu Selanne might be the biggest star to hit Winnipeg since Kent Nilsson. He recently had a game against Vancouver in which he scored twice and could have netted seven goals. Fifty goals is a possibility. ... The Canucks lost defenseman David Babych for two months with a hernia. Pelle Eklund, who was on the Flyers’ No. 1 line with Lindros and Mark Recchi, will miss six weeks after sustaining a broken ankle. ... Goalie Stephane Beauregard’s travels have sent him from Winnipeg to Buffalo to Chicago to Winnipeg to Philadelphia this offseason. Despite the many moves, Beauregard will challenge Dominic Roussel for the starting goaltending job for the Flyers. ... Capitals fans who thought their team gave up too much offense in trading Ciccarelli to Detroit for Kevin Miller had to be ecstatic over the acquisition of front-line right wing Pat Elynuik from Winnipeg for fourth-line dud John Druce. ... The trade of checking winger Brent Fedyk for a fourth-round draft choice in 1993 shows how deep the Red Wings are this season. ... The Canucks are now set in goal after acquiring Kay Whitmore from Hartford for minor league goalie Corrie D’Alessio and a draft choic e to backup Kirk McLean. Troy Gamble could not provide a quality start or two when McLean needed a breather last season. ... If there are 47 defensemen in the NHL better than holdout Steve Duchesne as Nordiques G.M. Pierre Page says, I would like to see that list immediately. Duchesne is in the top 20. More importantly, he is No. 1 on Quebec.