Can They All Get Along? Not Likely

The idea is, there is labor peace, which is one of the reasons new money is coming into the NHL from places such as America Online. Its CEO, Ted Leonsis, bought the Washington Capitals, in part, because he wasn’t going to have to deal with a job action until 2004-2005 at the earliest.

But if there’s no real war between the NHL and the players’ association, there is guerrilla action, with skirmishes all around, including with Leonsis’ Capitals, who only Monday were able to sign winger Chris Simon, their leading goal scorer last season.

Some might see all the holdouts as the union just working as a union. But others know the owners are starting to work as a union too, and the sides are struggling, with the players in the middle.

The National Hockey League Players Assn. encouraged the holdout by King center Jozef Stumpel. Although he’s in uniform now, there are several players still among the missing, among them the Boston Bruins’ Anson Carter, the New Jersey Devils’ Jason Arnott and Scott Niedermayer, the Calgary Flames’ Derek Morris, and the Buffalo Sabres’ Michael Peca and Martin Biron.

Seldom is brotherhood mentioned in negotiations, but it’s clear the union wants major money for these guys, mostly because every farthing they earn becomes more for others when it’s time to sit in a room and talk deals and dollars.

It’s how the league’s average salary keeps creeping up, and it’s the product of a game owners and agents play called “comparables.”

The rules are simple enough. My guy scored 30 goals and had 30 assists. He’s 28 years old. Here is a list of three guys who scored 30 goals and had 30 assists and who are 28 years old. My guy should earn what the top guy on this list is making, and remember, he’s only 28 and has a long career ahead.

The rejoinder, of course, is that there are intangibles that your guy doesn’t have that these three players have, which is why your guy shouldn’t earn what the lowest guy on the list earns. And he could be injured at any minute, isn’t always in shape and could be back on the farm in a couple of years.

Lest anybody believe that these are merely negotiations among teams and players, and not any ex-officio reopening of the collective bargaining agreement four years ahead of the fact, understand that NHL owners are finally wising up.

Asked a year ago if the agreement was working, Commissioner Gary Bettman said: “For two years, I would have said yes. For the last two years, probably not.”

It’s back to yes, because owners are taking a stronger stance in negotiations, which is why players are still watching games on television instead of being on the set.

“You can’t prove it, but there is collusion,” says one agent. “They are sharing information better than they used to.”

Although collusion among owners is prohibited in the collective bargaining agreement, there are too many similar statements coming out of too many front offices to believe that there isn’t something afoot.

Within a week or so of the Kings telling Stumpel and defenseman Rob Blake that they had “take-it-or-leave-it” offers back in September, the script showed up in Calgary and Boston, among other NHL ports of call.

Collusion? Nah. Everybody had the same idea at the same time.

What the owners have finally learned is that Group II free agents aren’t really free at all. They have limited rights, and not among them is the ability to move from city to city at whim. Until a player is 31, the team owns his rights and the only real bargaining chip he has is the withholding of his services.

A bit of that withholding business, and brotherhood becomes a thing of the past. For all of the financial wheeling and dealing, players want to play, and owners have learned they can take advantage of it by waiting them out and playing on players’ emotions.

In the end, that’s what got Stumpel into a King uniform.

Why did it take owners so long to figure all this out?

“Good question,” King President Tim Leiweke said recently, shrugging his shoulders because it’s a query without a good answer.

COUNTING KINGS INSTEAD OF SHEEP

The Kings’ worst nightmare is slowly unfolding and could last all season. The idea of losing both Blake and Luc Robitaille to free agency is very real.

The Blake story has been well-chronicled. He left a “take-it-or-leave-it” $22.5-million, three-year deal on the table in training camp under a veiled threat of being traded. It’s a threat nobody is taking seriously, especially since the Kings went 0-2-1 without him on their recent trip through Nashville, St. Louis and Dallas. The Kings need him like a baby needs milk, and they know it. Without Blake, the Kings are going to be an easier ticket than the Clippers.

But what of Robitaille, seemingly forgotten in a league roll call of potential free agents that includes Blake, the Philadelphia Flyers’ John LeClair, the Colorado Avalanche’s Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic and the Phoenix Coyotes’ Jeremy Roenick?

Robitaille earns $4.5 million a year and will be 35 in February. Dispatched to the Pittsburgh Penguins and then the New York Rangers in mid-career trades, he has become an exercise fanatic and has found the Fountain of Middle Age. His goal against Phoenix nine days ago was scored after he’d won a wrestling match with the Coyotes’ Keith Carney in front of the net, a bout Robitaille would have had no chance of winning when he was younger and friskier, 20 pounds lighter, but fatter.

He’s among the league leaders in scoring, but the Kings are in something of a quandary with him because they see a 35-year-old whose career could go at any time. Robitaille looks in a mirror and sees somebody who has scored 39 and 36 goals the last two seasons and could play four or five more years.

And who wants to.

Agent Pat Brisson sees a client bound for the Hall of Fame, with 559 goals, 1,162 points and a persona that makes him Southern California’s favorite King. He sees a winger who visits kids in hospitals on days off, who is on Hollywood’s A list and who represents what the public believes a professional athlete should be in an era in which some sports seem to recruit off a police blotter.

Talks have begun with the Kings, and the question probably won’t be money. It will be length of contract, and the answer could be found in another city next season.

TAKING A FLYER

Remember back in June, when the Kings, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Rangers were given permission to negotiate with Philadelphia’s dinged-up center, Eric Lindros?

All talked with him and nothing happened, in large part because Lindros is probably not going to be able to play until December--if then--because of a history of concussions.

So where will he play?

Philadelphia General Manager Bob Clarke, who seemed to be ready to send Lindros anywhere, is trying to make nice again. After citing the difficulty of dealing with the Lindros family--dad Carl is Eric’s agent--Clarke is courting his center again.

“My opinion is, you don’t have to like me, you play for your teammates,” Clarke said.

The Flyers’ 1-5-2 record could have something to do with this new era of let bygones be bygones. So could being without LeClair for six to eight weeks after back surgery. It kind of makes it hard to persuade Philly fans to forget about the Flyers’ best player.

Still, it’s strange that, though Lindros is a Group II free agent whose rights Philadelphia still own, the Flyers didn’t see fit to include him in their media guide.

For now, Lindros skates at York University in Toronto while Clarke tries to figure out how to undo what the team has done to its former captain.

SLAP SHOTS

After last spring’s turmoil, Boston Coach Pat Burns is having to duck a sniping attack from General Manager Harry Sinden. “[Sinden] has the right to make any comments he wants,” said Burns. “He’s the general manager of the hockey team. He has the right to show dissatisfaction, and there isn’t a lot I can do about it.” One thing he can do is win games, and a 1-4 trip out West didn’t help. . . . The Bruins have talked with several teams--including the Kings--about holdout winger Carter, but the price is too steep. . . . Nashville Predator Coach Barry Trotz understands it’s business as usual in calling penalties, league crackdown notwithstanding: “They’re still taking care of the stars. [St. Louis Blue captain] Chris Pronger could be called for 10 slashes a game. Now, we don’t have any stars. . . . The NHL is cringing about a clause in the contract of the San Jose Sharks’ Owen Nolan that calls for him to get another season at $6.5 million if there is a lockout preventing him playing 40 games in 2004-2005. . . . Hockey is becoming so popular in success-starved Dallas--where the Cowboys are leaving everybody hungry--that Star goalie Ed Belfour reportedly signed autographs while he was in jail on a drunk-and-disorderly rap last spring.