Niedermayer Gets 10 Games

The NHL issued a zero-tolerance policy against irresponsible use of the stick, suspending New Jersey Devil defenseman Scott Niedermayer for 10 games for hitting Florida’s Peter Worrell over the helmet with his stick. Tuesday’s ruling, which will sideline Niedermayer through the Devils’ first playoff game, comes a month after Boston defenseman Marty McSorley was suspended for the final 23 games of the regular season for hitting Vancouver’s Donald Brashear on the side of the head with a two-handed swing.

While Niedermayer’s attack against Worrell late in Sunday’s game against the Panthers didn’t seem as vicious as McSorley’s blindside hit on Brashear, he was assessed a match penalty for attempting to injure. The suspension could have been more severe but Niedermayer was a first-time offender. The suspension will cost him $152,343.74.

Worrell has been unable to play because of headaches, dizziness and nausea.

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Dallas Star goalie Eddie Belfour was cantankerous and uncooperative during his recent arrest at a fashionable Dallas hotel, spitting, kicking and ultimately offering to buy off police, according to the arrest report.

The hockey player first offered Dallas police officers $100,000, then $1 billion, if they would not jail him in connection with a scuffle earlier this month at the hotel.

Belfour “was placed in the rear seat of the vehicle and was seat-belted when he began attempting to lay down in the seat and putting his cowboy boots on the radio console,” the report said. Shortly afterward, Belfour “threw up all over his chest.”

Officers apparently struggled to control Belfour, who was jerking and spitting much of the time.

Belfour is scheduled to appear March 29 on charges of misdemeanor assault on a hotel security guard and resisting arrest.

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Bryan Berard, the Toronto defenseman who took a stick to his right eye March 11 at Ottawa, had the retina of his injured eye reattached in a 4 1/2-hour surgical procedure. . . . Chicago’s Eric Daze needs surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back and will be out the rest of the season. Daze is scheduled to undergo the surgery today. . . . Michael Peca, who suffered a shoulder dislocation March 5, is scheduled to rejoin the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night. . . . Edmonton’s Mike Grier is having surgery to repair a torn triceps muscle. . . . The Dallas Stars signed defenseman Sergei Zubov to a five-year contract extension through the 2004-2005 season.