HOCKEY / LISA DILLMAN : Aubut Re-Spins Lindros Story

The Philadelphia Flyers decided to close their dressing room to reporters--in violation of league regulations--on the morning of Eric Lindros’ first NHL appearance in Quebec last week.

Then the media-conscious Quebec Nordiques chose to do the same.

Lindros talked about playing against the team he had spurned twice. First, he talked with several reporters in Philadelphia, and then he answered questions at a packed news conference in Quebec the night before the game.

Perhaps sensing that the spin was, well, spinning toward Lindros, the Nordiques reacted. Team President Marcel Aubut invited four American reporters to his office for an informal discussion.

When it comes to Lindros and the Nordiques, there is a definite link, even months after Quebec traded Lindros to the Flyers for six players, two draft choices and $15 million.

Quebec won the first meeting, but that doesn’t mean the trade can be evaluated any time in the near future.

“You never talk too early about trades,” Pierre Page, Quebec’s coach and general manager, said. “The Lindros trade will be talked about eight to 10 years from now. That’s the good thing about history.

“One year, one team will have the edge. The next year, the other team will have the edge.”

Aubut was all smiles the day after the game. His team had won. There had been a sellout crowd at the Colisee. And his name had been in all of the newspapers in town.

Said Aubut: “As far as the business side, I would like to see him here every night. Maybe I should have traded him in the division.”

This saga might continue making headlines for years. Lindros keeps talking, and so does Aubut.

Aubut said he guessed it was the first time someone had crossed the Lindros family. More specifically, Eric’s mother, Bonnie.

“I think it was the first time in the history of their family that there was somebody who was able to tell them, ‘No, Madame, no, Monsieur,’ ” Aubut said. “ ‘We will decide when and at the proper time for the benefit of the Quebec Nordiques.’ That was probably the first time she heard that kind of answer.”

Aubut said he wanted to correct several perceptions about the Lindros affair, beginning with when he traded the 19-year-old center to the Flyers and the Rangers in a two-hour span at the NHL draft in June in Montreal.

He said that the Rangers had offered less money and fewer players than the Flyers. Aubut said that he wanted the Philadelphia package, but that his hockey department wanted the New York Ranger deal instead.

“That was the final decision of our hockey department,” he said. “There was a split in our organization and I supported our GM.”

But the case went to an independent arbitrator after the week-long bidding war ended with both the Flyers and Rangers claiming Lindros.

The circus-type atmosphere at the league meetings left the NHL and the Nordiques open to a barrage of criticism.

“It’s easy to say that when you’re not involved,” Aubut said. “Nobody in the past had an asset like Eric Lindros. Nobody had to accept he would not report. That was a first time in NHL history. And nobody had to face some kind of monument created by you guys, the press. It had to be right.

“Just assume we had screwed up the deal. That means the existence of the Nordiques was involved. After five years without winning, we had to get the right composition for the best asset we ever had. And that created an incredible pressure.”

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Add Quebec: The pacifier-throwing, diaper-clad throng last week at the Colisee was not the worst crowd that Philadelphia Coach Bill Dineen has encountered during his long career.

Dineen and the Detroit Red Wings were playing Montreal when the infamous Maurice (Rocket) Richard riot broke out at the Montreal Forum in 1955.

Richard, on the verge of winning the league’s scoring title, had committed a severe stick-related infraction, punched a linesman and had been suspended by NHL President Clarence Campbell.

His suspension for the final weekend of the season prompted the violent crowd reaction.

“The crowd did a million dollars’ worth of damage on St. Catherine Street,” Dineen said. “Broke all the windows. Of course, we didn’t see all of that. We stayed in the dressing room for about an hour and a half before Campbell awarded the game to us. . . .

“There’s no way I could forget that experience . . . when you talk about crowds. We went out the back door and fans just surrounded the bus, and they started rocking the bus. But we got out of there all right.”

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Shadowing is one thing. But it reached the foolish stage on Saturday in Hartford when the Whalers tried to slow Mario Lemieux.

Apparently, Whaler assistant coach Pierre Maguire came up with the dubious strategy of constantly shadowing Lemieux with either right wing Pat Verbeek or center Andrew Cassels--even on the Penguins’ power play.

At one point, Verbeek stayed with Lemieux at center ice on the power play and the Penguins, with a four-on-three advantage, promptly scored.

Afterward, Lemieux called it one of the most ridiculous game plans used against him in the last few years.

Final score: Pittsburgh 7, Hartford 3. And two points for Lemieux.

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St. Louis General Manager Ron Caron recently came within one number of hitting a $42-million jackpot in the Illinois state lottery. The missing number? 17.

A day later, rookie right wing Denny Felsner, who wears No. 17, was sent to the Blues’ minor league affiliate at Peoria.

Purely coincidental, Caron says.