Off-Ice Distractions May Be Hurting Canucks : NHL: Contract problems with key players, or coaching change, might be keeping 1994 Stanley Cup finalists at the bottom of Western Conference.

There are plenty of theories about what has happened to the Vancouver Canucks, but there’s one indisputable fact.

The Canucks, Stanley Cup finalists last June, are in last place in the Western Conference, mingling with the Mighty Ducks and the Dallas Stars.

Since they lost to the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the finals, the Canucks have won two games.

It sounds almost. . . . King-like , if you remember their plummet from Stanley Cup finalists to out of the playoffs.

Is it post-Cup letdown, delayed by the lockout? Is it the distraction of contract squabbles involving--well, it only seems like half the team--but most notably Pavel Bure, Murray Craven and Trevor Linden? Or is it the coaching transition, from Pat Quinn, the silent type, to former assistant coach Rick Ley, the in-your-face type still feeling out his new role?

“To be quite honest,” Ley said, “if I had my finger on the pulse of it, I think we would clear it up.”

So, pick your theory.

After the intensity of the playoffs, when every game seems like life or death, maybe the Canucks have struggled to put aside their disappointment and get up for a bland little 48-game season.

“Maybe we weren’t quite prepared to pay the physical price we paid in the playoffs,” Ley said. “But we’d better start paying it or we won’t be in the playoffs.”

Maybe it’s the case of Bure, the team’s mercurial star.

Bure is unhappy the team refused to pay the $1.5 million that he and agent Ron Salcer contend was guaranteed despite the lockout. But Bure reported to camp once the Canucks agreed to put the money in escrow and let an arbitrator decide it.

“I think Pavel can separate that from the game and come to the rink with his game face on,” Ley said. “That might distract him off the ice, though.”

And how’s this for a distraction? The New York Post, which has been wrong before, printed a headline last week that screamed, approximately, “BURE TO DEVILS?” Quinn, Vancouver’s general manager and president, called it yellow journalism and there were scoffs of absurdity all around, but just thinking about life without Bure has to unsettle the team.

Linden, the captain, is in his option year and the sides are far apart as they negotiate an extension. It goes on and on, except for defenseman Jeff Brown, who actually resolved his contract situation last week, re-signing for $7.8 million over four years and quickly responding with a two-goal game.

Then there’s Craven, a case so ridiculously drawn out it seems it could happen only in the NHL.

The veteran winger has spent this season in limbo, waiting for an arbitrator to decide whether he is an unrestricted free agent or a restricted one, which would require any team that signs him to compensate the Canucks--who basically are waiting to officially lose him to another team. All that has to be decided is whether they get anything in return.

The crux of the dispute is whether Craven, who made $570,000 last season and has at least 10 years in the NHL, made more or less than the NHL average. If more, he is a restricted free agent. If less, unrestricted. But the NHL and the NHL Players Assn. can’t agree on what the average was. They’re waiting for arbitrator George Nicolau--who heard further arguments Thursday--to decide.

“That’s probably had the most effect,” Ley said. “He helped the team succeed, and now he’s not with us. He has a lot of friends in there who are waiting for it to be resolved. We’re waiting for it to be done and put to bed.”

The Canucks need to pick up the pace to avoid being put to bed before the playoffs. It’s not too late. It usually takes .500 hockey to make it--and they’re three games under.