THE NHL / HELENE ELLIOTT : There May Be a Duck in the Cup

NHL executives met with Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, between All-Star game parties last weekend in Boston and completed arrangements for this summer’s World Cup tournament.

The NHL and the IIHF are scheduled to announce dates and sites for the eight-team event--formerly known as the Canada Cup--at a news conference Thursday in Toronto.

Mighty Duck Coach Ron Wilson remains the top candidate to coach Team USA, and Lou Lamoriello, general manager of the New Jersey Devils, has accepted an invitation to be general manager. Lamoriello and Wilson have ties dating to their days at Providence College, where Wilson played and Lamoriello was coach and athletic director.

Team Canada has picked Glen Sather of the Edmonton Oilers as its general manager but hasn’t chosen a coach. Mike Keenan, who coached Canada to victory in the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups, will not reprise his role. Sources said too many players vowed they wouldn’t play if the hard-driving Keenan got the job. Canadian players will get a say in the coaching selection.

Teams from Canada, the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic will compete and for the first time, games will be played outside North America. Games are scheduled for Helsinki, Finland; Prague, Czech Republic; Stockholm, Sweden, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, as well as in Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Philadelphia, New York and Detroit. Philadelphia and Montreal will share the best-of-three final.

The World Cup will be a rehearsal for the 1998 Olympics, which will feature NHL players representing their countries in a Dream Team format. The World Cup will open Aug. 26 and will end Sept. 14 if the final goes the limit.

DEVILISH ANTICS

Dissension bubbled over in New Jersey last week after Coach Jacques Lemaire ordered his players to practice on what they anticipated would be an extra day off before the All-Star break.

Lemaire, who has angered players by publicly criticizing their lack of effort, told them if they lost to the Boston Bruins last Tuesday they would have to practice Wednesday. They lost, Lemaire scheduled a skate, and players decided in a team meeting to ask Lemaire to reconsider. He didn’t, and Neal Broten didn’t show up.

“If they want to fine me, go ahead,” said Broten, who joined his wife and children on vacation in Florida.

Lemaire planned to talk to Broten this week. The incident brought to a head the frustration felt by last season’s Stanley Cup champions, who are 19-22-4 and would not make the playoffs if the season ended today.

“Our biggest problem has been inconsistency,” defenseman Scott Stevens said. “We’ll put three good games together and it’ll look like we’re going forward and then we’ll fall back.

“People say it’s more difficult to defend the Cup than to win it. I’ve never defended it before, so I don’t know, but this is tough. I look at the personnel we have and I see no reason we should be below .500. We should be up there fighting for first place. Hopefully, the All-Star break will help us mentally.”

LET’S TAKE A MEETING

Philadelphia Coach Terry Murray, concerned over the Flyers’ 3-4-5 record the last month, had a conference with captain Eric Lindros and alternates Rod Brind’Amour and Eric Desjardins last week to sound them out about the players’ mood and why they have fallen into a rut.

“It’s tough to pinpoint one thing we’ve been doing badly,” Desjardins said. “It’s a lot of little things. Certainly, we have to start playing better defensively and make sure we’re not making big mistakes. Mentally, you get tired, but that’s why the All-Star break comes at this time of year.”

WINGING IT

Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said it’s too early to tell if his team is better than last year’s, which was swept by the Devils in the Stanley Cup finals. But he is encouraged that the Red Wings have maintained their defensive excellence and had a league-leading 2.15 team goals-against average at the All-Star break.

“What I was mostly concerned about is, we played pretty sound hockey all season and lost the last four games, but not because we didn’t play well defensively,” he said. “I was wondering if the team would come back and play the same style defensively and play as well without the puck.

“We probably have a little more depth this season. We’re playing four lines and not playing the top guys as much. I think we have a better team because we have a better defense.”

REEL LIFE

Calgary Flame forward Sandy McCarthy has been cast as Jim Thorpe in a movie biography of Thorpe, who won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics and went on to play professional football and baseball.

The movie, which is being produced by the Entertainment Group, is to begin shooting in New York and California in July. A key point for the producers was that like Thorpe, McCarthy is of Native American ancestry. They didn’t mind that his previous acting experience was limited to school plays.

“Their real interest was with his athletic ability and his heritage was a key point,” said McCarthy’s attorney, Wayne Logan. “He can do the running and jumping and all that. For the later years [of Thorpe’s life], they may cast more skilled actors because that calls for lots of acting.”

SMART LIKE A FOX

If the NHL’s attendance increases after the All-Star break, it can thank the Fox network. After one look at the computer-generated blue dot that was designed to make the puck easier to follow during Fox’s All-Star telecast, fans are bound to turn off their TVs and head to arenas, where the dot is not.

Fox’s gimmicks didn’t enhance the game. The dot was distracting and the red comet tail that was supposed to create an illusion of speed as it trailed the puck instead had a cartoonish quality. Fox gets an A for effort but a C for execution.

SLAP SHOTS

Perhaps the best advice given to Paul Kariya at the All-Star game came from Bill Robertson, the Mighty Ducks’ media relations director. “I told him to watch Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky and see how they handled the media,” Robertson said. Kariya, who hasn’t always been accommodating, learned quickly. He was gracious under a barrage of questions all weekend. . . . Vancouver winger Pavel Bure, a spectator after undergoing knee surgery, is hoping to return in the playoffs. “It’s coming along better than expected,” he said.

Owner Tom Hicks of the Dallas Stars contributed half of the $40,000 cost of a customized van given last week to Travis Roy, a Boston University freshman hockey player who was paralyzed from the neck down in his first game. Star fans contributed the other half. . . . Ottawa center Alexei Yashin thinks people expect too much from him since he signed a five-year, $12.72-million contract. “One guy’s not going to make this team the Pittsburgh Penguins,” said Yashin, who needed eight games to score his first goal.

Buffalo Sabre right wing Donald Audette, who has been bothered by swelling in his surgically repaired right knee, will find out this week if he needs another operation. If so, his season will be over. . . . The Winnipeg Jets were 7-13-1 while goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was idled because of an injured knee. He’s 1-0-1 since returning and 12-5-1 overall.

Florida Panther goalie John Vanbiesbrouck heard there has been “some movement” in the search for someone who will purchase the club from owner Wayne Huizenga and keep it in South Florida. “We want to stay,” Vanbiesbrouck said.