SOME GOALTENDERS SKATING ON THIN ICE.

Byline: MATT McHALE Hockey

Ask Scotty Bowman if he would like to have Ed Belfour in goal for the Detroit Red Wings. Heck, save the toll call and ask the Kings Andy Murray.

Don't expect them to say much, but let their eyes do the talking. For coaches in the 30-team NHL, keeping goaltenders healthy, happy and productive is more barrel jumping than hockey.

Bowman won Stanley Cups with Chris Osgood. Now, the Oz is cowering nightly behind the curtains at Joe Louis Arena.

Murray thought he could make a playoff run with Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr. Must have read too many of those Rick Pitino motivational books.

Fiset is gone for the second time this year with a badly torn MCL in his left knee and might not be back. Storr? Well some nights he pitches a shutout, as he did Saturday. Other times you want to throw him out with the Zamboni water.

Add Steve Passmore, Marcel Cousineau and Travis Scott to the list of Kings goalies and can Rogie Vachon be far behind? And the guy who took away Osgood's job in Detroit? Kings castoff Manny Legace.

Belfour? He never was called ``Steady Eddie'' in the Dallas dressing room, but for the first two months of the season, he was the league's best goaltender. Now he is AWOL, bolting the Stars after a disagreement with his coach Ken Hitchcock.

Belfour was personally responsible for Dallas winning the Cup in 1999 and reaching the finals last season. His 10 shutouts this season - including three straight - speak for themselves. But they don't tell the whole story.

The Stars' raucous fans giggled after his arrest last year for an incident involving alcohol and prostitutes. It was another day in the neighborhood, but it spoke to his growing instability.

Add Hitchcock, the taskmaster coach, to the mix and the results were explosive. Hitchcock, who has been criticized by many Stars for being too controling, has bent rules for Belfour. What choice did he have? Backup Marty Turco? Good guy, but he doesn't get them back to the Stanley Cup the year before the team's new building opens.

Hitchcock, it seems, did change his mind several times after working Belfour hard in pregame workouts for games the goaltender was not scheduled to play. Belfour played poorly, then flipped out.

Belfour once threw a tantrum in Chicago against Passmore, then his backup with the Blackhawks. After a practice, Belfour packed Passmore's equipment and literally threw it into the street.

Now, Belfour has been suspended by the Stars, who are uncertain when he'll be back. His agent, Ron Salcer, thought it was tough getting the Kings to budge on a new contract for Rob Blake.

Now, Salcer might be Belfour's only friend. In the NHL, a contract holdout is acceptable locker-room behavior. Jumping a team that is searching for its playoff legs is not. The league prides itself on the togetherness of its players. They even have roommates on the road.

Not sure who Shawn Green or Kobe Bryant is rooming with this year, but hockey players all have them, except the snorers and . . . . the goaltenders.

Long before a domestic-violence dispute darkened his reputation as one of the game's best, Colorado's Patrick Roy talked to the net. Roy, once embarrassed at being left on the ice in a blowout loss in 1995, told the Montreal Canadiens team president seated behind the bench that he was gone. Roy was traded and won the Stanley Cup with the Avs a few months later.

Before Buffalo's Dominik Hasek was a two-time league MVP, he wanted his coach Ted Nolan fired in 1997. Even though Nolan was NHL Coach of the Year the season before. Guess who stayed and who got canned?

Hitchcock has gotten the Stars to the finals the past three years. Belfour has put them over the top. Dallas can't get rid of either. The organization has to take its time, play Turco for now and find a way to ease Belfour's demons.

In a league too big to maintain the quality of its goaltending, there is one simple truth in all the madness.

Ed Belfour acts this way because he can.

HURTING UNSUNG HERO

The Avs, who looked so impressive beating the Kings twice in two weeks in Denver, were stung by news that will make it very difficult to stay even with St. Louis for the top spot in the West.

For the second time this season, Colorado has lost defenseman Adam Foote, who would miss two to tree months with a badly separated right shoulder.

Foote was sidelined 12 games with a stress fracture in his right heel, but Colorado was able to keep pace. They entered Monday's action with 60 points, which leads the league even though St. Louis had played four fewer games.

The Avs have captain Joe Sakic, who is among the league scoring leaders and an MVP favorite at the season's midpoint. Peter Forsberg, their $10 million man, is back with the first unit after a scoring slump and demotion.

They also have skilled youngsters Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk and Alex Tanguay, and, of course, Roy.

But Foote might have been the most important Av of all. He was averaging 26 minutes per game, including time with the top power-play and penalty-killing units. It is merely a Foote-note to say he had three goals, 12 assists and 34 penalty minutes in 28 games.

He also was paired defensively with ageless Ray Bourque, who with Foote appeared certain to be named to his 19th consecutive All-Star team. Without him, those 40 games left in the regular season could seem awfully long.

BLUE LINES

By Matt McHale

WHO'S THE BOSS?

With all the well deserved feel-good chatter about Mario Lemieux's return in Pittsburgh, there are some awkward moments when an owner is playing on the first line. Coach Ivan Hlinka had to cut someone's ice time when Lemieux returned, and Matthew Barnaby has been one of the hardest hit. Barnaby has demanded a trade, and in a game last week vs. Ottawa, Hlinka dressed Barnaby but didn't play him. Then Lemieux stepped in and suggested Hlinka use Barnaby. He played the next game.

MOVING ON?

Garry Galley, the former Kings defenseman who signed last summer with the lowly New York Islanders, might be on the move again. With the Isles set to become just the seventh team in NHL history to miss the postseason seven straight years, Galley, 37, could be headed to the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa is Galley's hometown and one of the top seeds in the East. The Islanders recently had Galley playing more than 30 minutes a night after injuries to ex-Duck Kevin Haller, Kenny Jonsson and Roman Hamrlik.

NOTHING CHANGES

When the Tampa Bay led Chicago 3-1 late in the first period, it looked like it might be a nice debut for coach John Tortorella, who replaced Steve Ludzik on Thursday after the Lightning's 8-3 loss in Ottawa. Then the Blackhawks scored five consecutive goals, won 7-4 and it looked like old times. Actually, the long-slumbering Hawks have made a little move in the West since threatening the job of their coach Alpo Suhonen. They are 6-2-1 in their last nine and have climbed from being the worst non-expansion team in the West to within four games of .500.

STEVIE WONDER

Don't stop if you've heard this before. Visiting team scores in the final seconds to tie the game only to have Detroit's Steve Yzerman win it in the end with a goal. It happened New Year's Eve to the Kings and it happened Sunday night against the Colorado Avalanche. Rob Blake tied the Kings game with 32 seconds left, then watched Yzerman snatch away the game with 4.3 seconds remaining. A week later, the Avs' Chris Drury tied it with 11.3 seconds left, but Yzerman beat Patrick Roy to win it in OT. Playoff preview? Wings have won six of the last seven regular-season meetings. Colorado has eliminated them in the last two postseasons.

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Box: BLUE LINES: WHO'S THE BOSS (see text)