Maybe playoffs can cure what ails NHL

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is proud to announce that scoring is up, penalty minutes are down and, at last count, none of Canada's financially strapped teams skating on thin ice had gone underwater.

''The league and the game never have been bigger or stronger,'' Bettman said in a recent state-of-the-NHL address. ''But ... ''

When the playoffs began last week, there was little reason to celebrate everything that is right in this league.

The defining moments of this NHL season weren't provided by Detroit captain Steve Yzerman, who passed 600 goals, 900 assists and 1,500 points.

Nor were they the work of Dallas' Brett Hull, who scored his 600th career goal on his way to catching his father, Bobby, in the NHL record book.

The center of attention wasn't Patrick Roy, the Colorado goalie closing in on the league's all-time record for victories.

Sadly, the cover boy of this season is Marty McSorley, who never gave Vancouver's Donald Brashear a chance to duck for cover, skating up from behind and whacking Brashear alongside the head with his stick.

League officials responded quickly, slapping McSorley with the stiffest penalty in NHL history by banning him for the season.

McSorley faces criminal charges for assault. His trial will begin Oct. 2 in Vancouver.

It's the NHL that is on trial now.

The league's public image - and far too many players - took a beating during the regular season.

The playoffs offer a time for recovery, redemption and reflection.

What the league needs most are some exciting seven-game series free of gratuitous violence and cheap shots.

It may happen, too, because most teams shelve their hired hatchet men for the playoffs, because those hard hitters suddenly aren't as valuable as a guy who can kill off penalty minutes, provide solid forechecking or play good defense.

But why has hockey allowed itself to get into this mess?

League officials want us to believe that McSorley's act of violence - and cowardice - was an isolated incident that shouldn't influence public opinion of this family-friendly sport. But who are they kidding?

During the regular season, 36 suspensions were meted out for violations that included throwing a bench onto the ice, an off-ice fight and intent to injure.

Less than a month after the McSorley incident, New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer raised his stick and hit Florida's Peter Worrell after Worrell made a now-banned throat-slashing gesture toward the Devils' bench.

Niedermayer was given a 10-game suspension. The league broadened the scope of a rule against obscene gestures to include any unsportsmanlike conduct, such as taunting.

And hockey, which is fighting to hold on to its tenuous place in the major sports marketplace, received another black eye it can't afford.

Bettman says the NHL's successes this season far outweigh the ugly, widely publicized, unfortunate incidents.

''Those acts do not define our game or the 700 players who play the game,'' Bettman said.

It appears blinders may be restricting his view of this league in which players refuse to wear protective visors.

It's past time for the NHL to clean up its act. The place to start is with the players, who don't seem to have enough respect for each other or themselves, for that matter.

Sticks are out of control. So too, are macho players who steadfastly refuse to wear protective equipment.

Toronto defenseman Bryan Berard, blinded in his right eye by being accidentally struck by a stick, says he won't wear a visor if he is able to resume his career.

''I don't like to wear a visor,'' he said.

Players can't be compelled to wear visors, because equipment rules are determined through collective bargaining.

If the NHL Players' Union wants to preserve the right of every player to risk permanent vision loss, so be it. The NHL should move to provide a safer work environment by controlling other aspects, such as eliminating the gratuitous violence.

The place to begin is with stiffening penalties for fighting. If a guy drops his gloves and throws a punch, he should get more than a two-minute roughing penalty or a five-minute fighting penalty.

He should receive an automatic ejection. Get ejected for fighting twice in a season, it's a one-game suspension. Get caught three times, it's two games. And so on.

The old argument that cracking down on fighting would encouraging players to take more liberties with their sticks is easily dismissed. Instruct referees - there's two of 'em on the ice now, right? - to crack down on stick infractions.

Why do players need to drop their gloves or raise their fists to send a message, anyway? Why not accomplish the same thing with a clean body check?

The intent here isn't to turn the sport upside down. It's to help it get right-side up. It's about helping hockey reclaim the grace and flow of the game.

Talk to junior hockey coaches and they'll tell you sticks are flying there, too, as players put more emphasis on the physical side of the game than on developing skill levels.

Who do you think they're mimicking?

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.