Who Knows What Is Lurking Below?

With only seven weeks remaining in the regular season, the traffic jam at the bottom of the Western Conference standings is easing, which may indicate another wild finish, like last season’s.

And that worries the top four conference teams. Dallas, Colorado, Detroit and St. Louis have built and maintained a comfortable lead on the others, but they know that anything can happen once the playoffs start.

Just ask the Stars, who went into last season’s as the second-seeded team but were knocked out in the first round by No. 7 Edmonton, which began playing playoff-quality hockey down the stretch just to qualify for postseason play.

Detroit, the defending Stanley Cup champion, also realizes the danger of overlooking a playoff opponent. The Red Wings had to fight off a tough St. Louis team in six games in the first round and needed overtime three times in their four-game sweep of the Mighty Ducks in the conference semifinals.

“We got a lot of [dangerous lower-level] teams,” Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said. “I picked San Jose, L.A. and Edmonton to be the surprise teams [this season]. Look at [how] Edmonton was last year. Young teams benefit by the way they finish the season. Whichever teams get in are going to be a tough opponent because they’ll have more confidence going in now.”

How teams finish may have a particular impact on this season’s playoffs because of the NHL’s recent emphasis on obstruction penalties.

“The great equalizer now is that, if so many penalties are going to be called, it’s going to come down to who has the best power play and penalty killers,” King Coach Larry Robinson said.

The Kings, with their ability to hold leads, have caught everyone’s attention. They are 21-1-2 when they score first and 15-0-2 when they lead after one period.

“They got a good edge on some teams and their schedule is pretty favorable in the last third [of the season],” Bowman said. “[Not having many long trips] should also help them. They also get good goaltending and that’s important.”

BLAKE FOR NORRIS

The play of Rob Blake has been instrumental in the Kings’ turnaround. He has regained his scoring touch and with 14 goals has a good chance to break his career-high of 20.

But it’s his leadership that has inspired the team. No longer slowed because of injuries, as he was the last three seasons, Blake is not hesitating on the ice. His trademark hip-check is back and his teammates respond every time he crunches an opponent.

Blake played most of all six games for Canada in the Nagano Olympics and was named top defenseman of the Games. Then, after rejoining the Kings in Detroit, he played nearly 31 minutes, the most of any skater, in their 1-1 tie last Wednesday. The next night, Blake impressed Chicago Coach Craig Hartsburg when he again led all skaters in playing nearly 26 minutes while recording two assists in the Kings’ 7-4 win over the Blackhawks.

“Rob Blake played two nights and probably didn’t get back to North America until Tuesday, and probably was the best player on the ice two nights in a row because he has some heart,” Hartsburg said.

Dallas’ Sergei Zubov, Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom, New Jersey’s Scott Niedermayer and St. Louis’ Steve Duchesne all are having outstanding seasons, but it’s difficult to imagine any of them having a better one than Blake in consideration for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman.

HOME, SWEDE HOME

Lidstrom caught the Red Wings off guard when, after playing for Sweden in the Olympics, he said he was considering playing out his contract, then retiring from the NHL and returning to his native country.

Lidstrom, 28 in April, is bound through next season. He said he might play in the Swedish Elite League, beginning with the 1999-2000 season.

What makes Lidstrom’s announcement interesting is that he is scheduled to earn $1.7 million next season and talk around Detroit is that the Red Wings were ready to pay him close to $4 million a season on a new contract. Critics say that Lidstrom would probably make no more than $200,000 in Sweden and is just working up bargaining leverage.

“I’m sure some people might think that’s what I’m doing,” he told Cynthia Lambert of the Detroit News. “But that’s not the case. Playing in Sweden, you play half the number of games. The travel isn’t the same as here. You might be gone a few days every couple of weeks. It’s not about money.”

A Swedish player leaving the NHL at the prime of his career isn’t unprecedented. At 29, Hakan Loob returned to Sweden after six seasons with Calgary, one a Stanley Cup winner in 1989.

GOLDEN RETURNS

Dominik Hasek and Jaromir Jagr, the two most famous NHL players from the Czech Republic’s gold medal Olympic team, had great homecomings when they returned to the U.S.

Before Hasek made 33 saves in Buffalo’s 2-2 tie with Toronto last Wednesday, he was met by about 350 fans chanting his name when he arrived at the Buffalo airport. Another 100 were outside Hasek’s house and neighbors had replaced their American flags with Czech colors.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was such a big surprise,” said Hasek, who said he felt no resentment that the fickle Buffalo fans who jeered him at the beginning of the season were now embracing him again.

Jagr had his happy return against Czech teammate Martin Rucinsky, who also plays wing for Montreal. In his first game back, Jagr had two goals and two assists against Rucinsky and the Canadiens in a 6-2 Pittsburgh victory.

“Martin and I were friends before and we’re still going to be friends, except for the 60 minutes during the game when we’ll be enemies,” a laughing Jagr said. “That’s the way sports

is.”

BLUES STAY ON BEAT

St. Louis might have lost goaltender Grant Fuhr for at least four weeks because of knee surgery, but the Blues showed that they’re still a formidable team by sweeping the Kings and Mighty Ducks over the weekend.

The Blues are confident they will be able to hold off the Kings for fourth place in the conference because Fuhr’s backup, Jamie McLennan, has even better statistics than Fuhr.

“[McLennan] has won in some great buildings and played some huge games this year,” said St. Louis Coach Joel Quenneville. “The players [can] feel his confidence and play well in front of him. At the same time, Jamie plays in control and plays well.”

In his fourth NHL season, McLennan is 9-4-2, 4-0-1 in his last five starts. He has not given up more than three goals since a 5-5 tie against the Mighty Ducks on Dec. 27. To back him up, the Blues recalled rookie Rich Parent from Detroit of the International Hockey League.

ONE-TIMERS

Anaheim’s centers have taken some heat for their lack of production but ended February as the NHL’s fourth-best team in faceoffs won at 52.6%. . . . Agent Mike Barnett proved again why he is one of the best in the business in the Sergei Fedorov signing saga. Federov gets a $12-million bonus if the Red Wings make it to the Stanley Cup semifinals during his six-year, $38-million contract, and that innovation could become the guideline for future free-agent contract offers, according to several NHL general managers.

Detroit raised the prices of beer, hot dogs and pizza last week by 50-75 cents for games at Joe Louis Arena, but the Red Wings denied that the increases had anything to do with Fedorov’s deal. . . . Canadian writers have had fun with Team USA’s “Dormgate,” the $3,000 in damages done to the Olympic village by still-unidentified players. Scott Morrison of the Toronto Sun asks, if the U.S. players really believe that the story has been overstated, why haven’t they done the honorable, mature thing and confess to their petty crime?