THE NHL / LISA DILLMAN : Teammates Are Rallying to Help a True North Star

A copy of “The Goldy Shuffle: The Bill Goldsworthy Story” arrived in the mail from Minnesota last week, with a corner chewed off many years ago by our family’s dog, Etoile.

L’Etoile du Nord--the full name of this strung-out poodle--was named after the North Stars. And that’s all you need to know about the Dillman family. My father, Dick, was the third employee hired when the Minnesota North Stars were born in 1967, and he stayed with the team as its public relations director through the down years and an appearance in the 1981 Stanley Cup finals until his death in 1988.

“The Goldy Shuffle” once held a prominent spot on the bookshelf of a pre-teen girl, pushing aside “Little Women” and “Anne of Green Gables.” It was published in 1971, cost $2.95 and pictured a sideburned Bill Goldsworthy doing, well, the Goldy Shuffle, a raised knee and slight arm pump. Compared to NFL end zone celebrations, it almost seems like an innocent display of showmanship now.

Goldsworthy, one of the original North Stars, was the franchise’s first genuine star, a charismatic high-scoring right wing. His No. 8 is one of the two numbers that were retired by the North Stars, the other being Bill Masterton’s No. 19. Goldsworthy’s No. 8 once hung from the rafters of the Met Center. Sadly, the franchise no longer is in Minnesota and the building the North Stars played in was torn down shortly before Christmas.

When the team moved, North Star employees made sure that No. 8 did not make the trip to Dallas, instead sending the banner to the Hall of Fame. Very few people would have been familiar with Goldsworthy’s accomplishments in Texas, and the recent stunning news that the 50-year-old is dying from complications caused by AIDS was worth no more than a few paragraphs in Dallas.

His public revelation, to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, has moved the Minnesota hockey community into action, however. The North Stars’ alumni group is discussing a plan of assistance. Goldsworthy’s former roommate, Murray Oliver, now a scout with the Vancouver Canucks, said there may be a charity game to raise money.

Oliver learned of Goldsworthy’s illness about a week before it came out in the newspaper. His voice cracked as he discussed his friend at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit last week.

“It’s a shocker,” Oliver said. “You can get over a lot of things, but you can’t get over this. All we can do is give him our support. We’ve gone through a lot of things together. We’re all in our 50s now and still at this game. Time goes by.

“He was single and he fell off the wagon. You get drunk and you do crazy things. Obviously he did some crazy things.”

Goldsworthy, who played in Minnesota from 1967-1976, said he believed he was infected through heterosexual sex when he went through a period of heavy drinking after going through a divorce.

“I can live a good life. I can’t live a long life,” he told the Pioneer Press. “Every day when I wake up, I know I have one less day to live.”

ALL THE FORMER KINGS MEN

It looked something like a King family reunion Sunday night on ESPN--Tomas Sandstrom, Luc Robitaille, Shawn McEachern, Alexei Zhitnik, Charlie Huddy and Robb Stauber, all in the same arena.

Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo, a 3-3 tie.

If the current Kings aren’t scoring a lot of goals, what’s the next-best thing? Goals by former Kings.

For Pittsburgh, there were two goals by Robitaille, giving him six in his last two games, and McEachern scored once. Buffalo’s former-King offensive contribution came from Zhitnik, who assisted on the Sabres’ first goal. Zhitnik had scored in his Sabre debut on Wednesday. He later broke his thumb in Sunday’s game and is expected to miss 2-3 weeks.

The Kings say they need two goaltenders during this shortened season, hence last week’s trade of Zhitnik, Stauber and Charlie Huddy to the Sabres for goaltender Grant Fuhr and two defensemen. Other league executives privately disapprove of the deal, and trading Zhitnik, 22, hasn’t brought an outpouring of support from the fans or almost anywhere outside of the King front office.

The day of the trade, Wayne Gretzky gave it a spirited try, however.

“It’ll take a lot of pressure off Kelly (Hrudey),” Gretzky said. “He’s faced so many shots, faced the firing squad the last few games. Grant will keep Kelly fresher. I think they’ll both push each other. The way Kelly has played the last few games, I see us getting goaltending like that the rest of the year.”

WHERE’S OLIVER STONE?

Been wondering about Marty McSorley’s interest in everything and anything? Is he a philosopher, a coach, a general manager, a trainer, a union chieftain, a journalist? Sometimes, the King defenseman seemed pulled a little thin during the owners’ lockout.

He spoke out about a league supposedly in dire straits, disputing that claim made by many clubs. Instead, he said, the NHL was on the verge of more expansion and consequently, a revenue explosion.

He was right, according to the latest issue of Financial World. The magazine says that the longer the players and owners were without a collective bargaining agreement, the more apparent it was that hockey’s financial situation is improving rapidly.

There are new arenas in Chicago and St. Louis this season and others scheduled in Boston, Montreal and Vancouver for 1995-96, as well as long-term agreements with Fox, Nike and Anheuser-Busch.

However, the growth in average player salaries is slowing, the magazine said, pointing out the annual rate of increase has dropped from 40% in 1991-92 to 19.3% this season.

League numbers had the average salary at $369,000 in 1991-92, and the NHL estimates the average salary would have been between $625,000 and $650,000 if a full season had been played in 1994-95.

Additional evidence that the NHL is hardly a poor investment accompanied the news over the weekend that Comsat Corp., owner of the Denver Nuggets, reportedly is trying to buy the Quebec Nordiques for $75 million and move them to Colorado.

Comsat, an international communications and entertainment products and service company, wants another occupant for a new $193-million, 19,200-seat arena it is building for the Nuggets for the 1997-98 season.

LAST EXIT TO ST. LOUIS

Although it may be temptingly simple to blame St. Louis Coach Mike Keenan for driving center Craig Janney back to his home in Boston, there were other reasons for his weekend flight.

Keenan said “personal problems” were involved, and those close to the situation say it’s true. Janney, the Blues’ third-leading scorer the last three seasons, left the team in Winnipeg on Saturday.

Janney is making $1.8 million this season, but there appears to be no shortage of interest in him around the league. He had been scratched for four consecutive games and six of the Blues’ 14 games. In eight games, he had two goals, seven points and was a plus-3 on the plus-minus scale.

SLAP SHOTS

Legal experts say that Blackhawk forward/enforcer Bob Probert does not face the threat of deportation because his case was “terminated” by a judge last month at an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) hearing in Chicago. Probert earlier had spent four months at a rehab clinic in California. It is continually amazing that the NHL still has no drug policy.

Dallas goaltender Andy Moog probably will sign a two-year contract sometime this week. He agreed to $1.1 million this season and $800,000 next season. Because of the owners’ lockout, players are receiving 58.65% of this season’s salary. There is a bonus package involved and Moog will have $200,000 deferred from each year’s salary.

San Jose lost the 1995 All-Star game because of the lockout, but Joseph George distributors is planning to sell a Napa Valley Chardonnay--with a Shark logo--as a collector’s item for $7.99 a bottle. The league had commissioned a substantial order for the All-Star game.