COLD PILL SENDS CHILL THROUGH NHL.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

The NHL condones fighting so why would it condemn a little pill that is the Tie Domi of enforcers when it comes to colds and influenza? Like Domi's on-ice role with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it's no mystery why Sudafed is a hit with hockey players; it fights whatever is ailing you without knocking you out.

But as the league's best players make their way to Nagano to compete in the first Olympics to feature professionals in the sport, the mere mention of Sudafed has become a real downer.

The over-the-counter drug that relieves cold and flu symptoms without causing drowsiness contains the stimulant pseudoephedrine, which is on the International Olympic Committee's long list of banned substances. Depending on to whom you talk, Sudafed use is relegated to players suffering from the sniffles or abused by players seeking an adrenaline rush.

In a recent article in Sports Illustrated, two NHL trainers estimated that one-in-five NHL players routinely takes medication that contains pseudoephedrine before a game to get an adrenaline boost.

Any player who does that during the next fortnight in Nagano runs the risk of a failed postgame drug test that would result in his suspension from the Olympics, his team's forfeiture of the game in which he played and one doozy of a black eye for a league that is going 5,000 miles out of its way to market itself.

The NHL isn't suspending its season for 17 days so that it can see its players' reputations dragged through the slush like those of, say, the U.S. bobsledding team, which has seen one athlete (Mike Dionne) take his doping suspension to arbitration and another (Brian Shimer) try to move on after being exonerated of using performance-enhancing drugs in spite of a suspicious drug-test reading last November.

``It would be really embarrassing if something happened in Nagano,'' said Teemu Selanne, the superstar winger for the Mighty Ducks and Finland.

Selanne wishes he could say with the same certainty expressed by Ducks goaltender Guy Hebert and Kings trainer Peter Demers, members both of the U.S. Olympic contingent, that the league doesn't have a problem with nonprescription pill popping.

But he can't.

``I know how badly young players want to make it in the NHL,'' said Selanne, the league's leading scorer with 41 goals. ``That's why it's a little scary. I don't think that's so big a problem as people think. I don't know how many guys on our team have used it. We've got to be smart.''

Kings defenseman Rob Blake, a Canadian Olympian, can't imagine anybody being dumb enough to take any drug on the Olympic's banned list for any reason. He said the players have been warned repeatedly to steer clear of the banned drugs, not only from officials in their own federations but from team trainers such as Demers.

``There's so much at stake,'' Blake said. ``Nobody's going to take a Sudafed and take that chance of getting caught. I think as you'll see, there'll be no cases going around.''

Ducks coach Pierre Page prays Blake is right. He hopes players have grown wiser since the 1995 World Championships when the Canadian team of minor leaguers that he coached endured an epidemic of failed drug tests.

``The majority of the players failed the first test we gave them when they joined us because of Sudafed,'' Page said. ``So we had to wait two or three days until it cleared their systems before we tried again. There's no doubt there's some players that have been using them to get a high. I don't know who takes them. I just know a lot of players do.''

Not to be blase about it, but ``if that's the only problem in our league,'' Blake said, ``we're doing fine.''

The problem is, that's not the only problem. A far greater ill in the NHL is an increased recklessness among players, which might or might not have anything to do with any artificial adrenaline rush as ex-King Jari Kurri suggested in the Sports Illustrated article.

The lack of manners and mindfulness routinely seen on our highways and byways has spilled over to the ice. No one is immune to being broadsided, least of all star players such as 1998 Olympians Paul Kariya, Dallas' Mike Modano, Detroit's Steve Yzerman and St. Louis' Brett Hull, all of whom have missed games this season as a result of borderline hits.

Chicago defenseman Gary Suter is not considered a dirty player, but his cross-check of Kariya, arguably the league's premier player, in the second period of a game last week between the Mighty Ducks and the Blackhawks was vicious. It earned him a four-game suspension from the league. Kariya, meantime, hasn't skated in the seven days since because of a concussion and is questionable for the Olympics.

What if Suter, a U.S. Olympian, had to sit out for as long as his target, Kariya, is sidelined?

What if Phoenix's Rick Tocchet had to sit out as many collective games as the four players he has injured this season?

What if everybody took a step back and a deep breath, for the good of the game?

``I don't really think there's enough respect for the star players right now,'' said Selanne, a sixth-year veteran. ``It's changed a lot since I broke into the league (in 1992). Back then, people had a lot more respect for star players. Everybody should think for a minute about what they're doing.''

They should if they want the world to keep watching after the Olympics are over.