Strike Worries Players : Hockey: With deadline near, they worry about replacement officials being intimidated.

An impromptu meeting Sunday between NHL executives and representatives of the NHL Officials Assn. failed to settle their differences, leaving officials poised to strike at midnight and players concerned about the standards of the game.

“This is not like three-on-three basketball where you call your own fouls. There’s too much at stake,” King center Wayne Gretzky said. “In the famous words of a guy I played with a long time, Marty (McSorley), ‘If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying to win.’

“If they strike, we’ll find out in about 10 days how important our officials are.”

Said Duck wing Stu Grimson: “You can say what you want about (the NHL) officials, but they have a feeling for how to call a game. My fear is the new guys will be intimidated and want to call everything. . . . I think the game will suffer.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the delegations “met (in New York) for several hours and it wasn’t productive,” and added both sides agreed to make no further comment. He said no additional negotiations are scheduled before replacement officials take the ice today at Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary, “but we have each others’ phone numbers.”

Don Meehan, the Toronto attorney and agent who represents the officials, saw no sign of compromise Sunday. “(The meeting) was positive from the extent we sat down and talked, but nothing was resolved,” he said.

The dispute centers on officials’ request for a package of benefits worth $6.5 million over four years. A source familiar with the negotiations said the NHL’s benefits offer is $5.021 million and its salary proposal was a raise of 65% in base salaries for referees and linesmen over four years.

“It’s very unfortunate, but all that could have been done has been done,” said King owner Bruce McNall, chairman of the NHL’s Board of Governors. “Offers have been made and they’ve been very generous. You look at the offers compared to other professional sports, and they’re commensurate with what those sports’ officials get. We’re fairly far apart.”

The NHL has hired 70 replacements, but it wouldn’t identify them. Twelve are said to be from the International Hockey League and others are from college, minor and Canadian Junior A leagues.

“The quality of the officiating for the most part will be adequate,” said Bryan Lewis, the NHL’s director of officiating. “I don’t want to say there won’t be any problems.”

Referee Paul Stewart, the only former NHL player on the officiating staff, questioned the subs’ aplomb and their knowledge, based on his experience and his failure to pass his first NHL rules test. Stewart’s grandfather, Bill, was an NHL referee and major league baseball umpire; his father, also named Bill, was an amateur baseball umpire who refused to replace striking major league umpires in 1979.

“I don’t know if (the subs) are capable of handling NHL play or not,” Stewart said, “but I know when I arrived--and I’d been on the ice with the Mario Lemieuxs and the Wayne Gretzkys--I can remember how quivering my knees were. And that’s from a tough guy.”

Members of the officials’ association discouraged potential replacements. Referee Kerry Fraser sent them a letter that read in part: “I would like you to ask yourself what you have achieved by doing this. A little extra money and a label that would follow you forever--scab. The word makes me sick, as do your actions.”

Said Stewart: “None of the people I know would do it and would call me a friend.”

A walkout would be officials’ first league-wide work stoppage. Referee Dave Newell and linesmen Ray Scapinello and Gord Broseker boycotted a 1988 playoff game between the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins to protest a restraining order that allowed Devil Coach Jim Schoenfeld to ignore a suspension imposed on him for abusing referee Don Koharski by saying, “Have another doughnut, you fat pig.” The goal judge, Paul McInnis, refereed that game, with minor league officials Vin Godleski and Jim Sullivan as linesmen.

“It’s a scary thought, having substitute officials again,” said St. Louis winger Brendan Shanahan, who played for the Devils in that game.

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story from Vancouver.