PRO HOCKEY : Caps Need Someone to Step Forward in the Absence of Hunter

You can excuse Capitals Coach Terry Murray for lifting his calendar and checking out the month of November. October, after all, is shot after his club’s 0-6 start.

Murray’s mind was still wandering after a 4-3 victory last Saturday against Buffalo. Some may say that was the first step back to respectability, but it’s not a cure-all for the Capitals, who face a tough western swing through Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Anaheim and San Jose beginning Sunday.

The Capitals’ 43-34-7 record last season was second in the Patrick Division and 10th in the NHL, but it was even better when you consider their 4-8 record in October and 7-12-1 record before forwards Dimitri Khristich and Michal Pivonka returned from injuries.

This season, however, there are no injuries. But Murray is without one of his key players nonetheless, with center Dale Hunter serving a 21-game suspension for injuring Pierre Turgeon of the Islanders in the playoffs. Without the omnipresent Hunter, the Capitals are listless--and bad.

And as Murray finds out when he looks at his calendar, Hunter won’t be back until November 25.

“It’s an immeasurable factor right now that he’s not here,” Murray says. “His leadership ability on the ice and off the ice can’t be calculated. He is the heart of the team.”

Actually, Hunter is the heart and soul of the Capitals. And the fact that they rely on him too much to jump-start their emotions is a problem. Someone else has to step forward.

That’s why newcomers Dave Poulin and Keith Acton are so important to the Capitals. They have been leaders on other teams. The same is true of Washington’s talented defensemen--Al Iafrate, Kevin Hatcher and Sylvain Cote. Otherwise, General Manager David Poile may have to react to rumors that he will fire Murray or trade Hatcher to Quebec for Joe Sakic.

“They’re missing one big player,” Rangers Coach Mike Keenan says of Hunter. “They’re missing his intensity.

“We had that same problem when I coached in Philadelphia and Ron Hextall was suspended. We dropped into last place without his intensity in the locker room.”

One player does not make a team. But one player such as Hunter can make a difference in the way a team plays. When you consider that Hunter takes all the key faceoffs, delivers a ton of unpenalized penalties to keep the opposition honest and all the battles he wins along the boards and in the front of the net, it adds up.

“One guy has never made a hockey team,” Rangers captain Mark Messier says, “but Hunter does so many things that when he’s not in the lineup, they have to fill a big hole at center.”

It’s easy to point to Murray’s inability to get the rest of his players going and to point to his inability to win in the playoffs. But to say that the Capitals need a coaching change is not true.

“If it was March or April, it would be time to panic,” center Mike Ridley says. “This is something one guy can’t cure. This slump has to be fixed by everybody.”

IT ISN’T SURPRISING that there are already some unhappy campers in New York and Detroit as Keenan and Scotty Bowman begin to get a hand on what it will take to make the Rangers and Red Wings Stanley Cup contenders.

However, defenseman James Patrick in New York and left wing Shawn Burr and goaltender Vincent Riendeau in Detroit are not playing and have requested trades if more ice time doesn’t come soon.

Actually, things are running pretty smoothly with the Rangers, who began 4-3 under Keenan, before a 4-2 loss at home to expansion Anaheim. But with the Red Wings off to a 1-5 start, their worst since 1985-86, it didn’t take long for some of Bowman’s players to dislike him.

The reason for the difference is simple: Though the Rangers finished last in the Patrick Division last season, they had the best record in the NHL in 1991-92 and have a large nucleus of players who have won Stanley Cup titles; the Red Wings are still resting on individual laurels and have not yet really learned how to win.

Keenan, for instance, benched All-Star defenseman Brian Leetch for the final six minutes of the first period of a game last week against Quebec. Leetch learned his lesson, coming back with two goals and two assists to help the Rangers to a victory.

But when Bowman kept Burr and Riendeau out of the lineup, they asked to be traded.

“I’ve heard he’s a master of playing with players’ minds,” says Burr, who was a key player on the Red Wings’ second line with Sergei Fedorov and Paul Ysebaert the past two seasons. “I just want to work hard and play. I don’t need anybody to pull my strings. I’ll do anything to help this team win except sit and watch.”

The Penguins’ players didn’t get along with Bowman in 1991-92, either, but they learned in the playoffs that his 10 visits to the Stanley Cup finals are no fluke.

Once Red Wings Owner Mike Ilitch reads the riot act to his players and they learn that it’s Bowman’s way or the highway, the whiners will be gone and the real talent on this team will come out.

ICY BITS: NHL officials will go on strike November 15 if a new collective-bargaining agreement isn’t completed. The officials want to double their salaries and the NHL reportedly has offered only a 10% raise. The league plans to open a training camp for referees and linesmen November 5-7 to make sure they have qualified replacements if league officials go on strike. Sounds like a stalemate to me. Commissioner Gary Bettman’s response to a potential work stoppage: “The games will go on, with or without them.” . . . Buffalo’s 1-5 start is a sign of the club’s lack of leadership on defense. That’s why we should look for Sabres G.M./Coach John Muckler to make another pitch for veteran Chicago defenseman Craig Muni.