Has NHL Outfoxed Itself by Icing Playoffs?

While the NBA was giving us daily thrills this week, the NHL disappeared into a black hole.

The Philadelphia Flyers, who play Game 1 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals against the New Jersey Devils Saturday on ESPN, have been off for more than a week. And the Devils have been off since Sunday.

The Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks had a three-day break before Thursday night’s playoff game.

Hockey’s geniuses did it that way in an effort to give Fox an extra weekend telecast.

They’re not doing Fox any favors, though, at least not in this neck of the woods. Last Sunday’s NHL playoff telecast on Fox got a 1.3 rating in Los Angeles, compared with a 9.4 for the NBA playoff telecast on NBC.

The Indianapolis 500 got an impressive 10.9 rating in L.A., despite a 9 a.m. start here. The overnight average in the nation’s 33 largest markets was an 8.6.

Even the LPGA Skins Game, with a 3.3 L.A. rating Sunday, more than doubled the NHL rating here.

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Did you happen to hear the radio call by Indiana announcers Mark Boyle and Bobby (Slick) Leonard after Rik Smits’ shot at the buzzer won the game for the Pacers Monday? They went nuts.

“He hits! He hits! He hits! He hits! . . . “ screamed Boyle.

UCLA announcer Chris Roberts was watching at his home in Glendora when ESPN replayed the call on “SportsCenter� that night.

Roberts told his wife, Ann LaPeer, tongue in cheek: “Those guys are absolutely ridiculous.�

Said LaPeer: “Look who’s talking.�

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It would appear that the writing is on the wall for Bill Walton to become NBC’s lead NBA commentator next season. He is working the San Antonio-Houston series with Greg Gumbel and Steve Jones and will join Marv Albert and Matt Guokas for the NBA finals.

But an NBC spokesman said that the network is pleased with Guokas and that he will be working with Albert again next season.

Walton, asked if he prefers being at a game or in a studio, said: “I just like working.�

There’s nothing really wrong with Guokas, it’s just that he’s sort of a nonentity who rarely says anything memorable.

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Tuesday night, NBC showed Walton and Jones together in an old Portland Trailblazer team photo, and neither had the conservative look he has now. Walton had long hair and a scruffy beard, and Jones had a goatee.

“That is the year Gillette went on strike,� play-by-play man Greg Gumbel said.

Walton and Jones played together for one season, 1975-76. Walton was in his second year in the NBA, and Jones had come over from the old American Basketball Assn. for one season.

“Steve was like an older brother to me,� Walton said from Houston.

Walton, Jones, Gumbel and some other members of their crew have been traveling between Houston and San Antonio in a motor home. “It’s been great fun,� Walton said.

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Career change: Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports, announced Thursday that he is leaving the network and starting his own television consulting and marketing company.

A little more than a year ago, CBS bumped Pilson sideways from his position as president of the sports division to senior vice president, CBS Broadcast Group. David Kenin replaced him in sports.

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Pioneer retires: Bill MacPhail, longtime sports television executive, is retiring today.

MacPhail headed CBS Sports for 18 years, pioneering the use of instant replay, and has been at CNN since 1979. He was the first in broadcasting elected to the NFL Hall of Fame.

MacPhail was hired by Ted Turner to start CNN’s sports division and ended up sticking around for more than 15 years.

MacPhail’s father, Larry, when he was president of the Cincinnati Reds, started night baseball and later was president of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Bill’s brother, Lee, is a former American League president. And Bill’s nephew, Andy, is president of the Chicago Cubs.

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TV-Radio Notes

A deal in which KMPC would broadcast USC football this fall is reportedly close. The announcers would be Larry Kahn and Mike Lamb. KMPC would also broadcast USC basketball, but only on weekends. KMAX-FM would carry weeknight games. . . . There won’t be any USC radio broadcasts from the College World Series in Omaha. . . . The Southern California PGA has put together a radio show, “Talkin’ Golf,� which, beginning this weekend, will be broadcast Sundays at 10 a.m. on XTRA. Guests for the first one-hour show include Nick Price, Golf Channel executive Gary Stevenson and golf enthusiast Joe Pesci. The host is veteran broadcaster Joe Buttitta, who is also a teaching pro at Westlake Golf Course.

Is this sports talk? What in the world was convicted madam Heidi Fleiss doing as a guest on a sports-talk show on KMAX-FM Wednesday afternoon? She said she finds quarterbacks attractive, particularly John Elway and Bobby Hebert, and she called hockey’s Marty McSorley “God’s gift to women.� Powerful stuff, huh? Mainly, she talked about herself and admitted she loves being famous. At XTRA Thursday, the topics on the Loose Cannons’ show included Marilyn Monroe, whose 69th birthday would have been that day.

CBS offers a track and field doubleheader Sunday. At 11 a.m. there will be taped coverage of the NCAA Championships at Knoxville, Tenn., and at 1:30 there will be live coverage of the Steve Prefontaine Classic from Eugene, Ore. In between, at 12:30, there will be a one-hour feature on the life of Prefontaine, who was killed at 24 in a traffic accident 20 years ago. . . . David Kenin, CBS Sports president, announced at an affiliates’ meeting in Los Angeles Thursday that CBS will televise a NASCAR Busch series race live from Watkins Glen on June 25, giving the network five motorsports events in a five-week span beginning with the NASCAR Michigan 400 on June 18.

NBC’s pro beach volleyball begins Sunday at 2 p.m. with the Nestea Open from Atlanta, with Chris Marlowe and Paul Sunderland reporting. NBC will televise eight events this year. . . . Joe Namath, who will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular on June 11 at the Century Plaza, will be a guest on Irv Kaze’s KIEV show tonight at 6:15. . . . Department of incidental information: ESPN’s lead hockey producer is Tom McNeeley, whose brother, Peter McNeeley, will fight Mike Tyson on Aug. 19 on pay-per-view.