Unless the impression they've given over the first month is terribly wrong, the New York Rangers will be the disaster of the NHL season -- and that takes a lot when you consider the messes in Toronto, Atlanta and Nashville.

	As much as Eric Lindros has been taking it, he's been dishing it out as well.

And what did you expect, especially considering general manager Glen Sather's willingness to throw dice with the team's future.

First there was the decision to deal for Eric Lindros. Through the first half of last season it looked like a great decision, but with Lindros you have to wait to see the long-range effect.

After forming a potent combination after the traded deadline last season, Lindros is totally ineffective on a line with Pavel Bure. Instead of being one of the players to benefit from the new crackdown on interference, he is taking bad penalties. The result was a potentially season-wrecking situation -- Lindros was benched on Sunday night when, for the second time in two games, he took a bad third-period penalty that led to a Rangers loss. Both Lindros and first-year coach Bryan Trottier were trying to be diplomatic about the situation at practice on Monday, but there is no covering up the growing unrest at Madison Square Garden.

Then too, there was the decision to hire Trottier as a head coach -- and pass up Pat Burns and Ken Hitchcock, among others. Trottier might turn into a solid NHL coach, but a first-year coach should not have to deal with a locker room containing Lindros, Bure and Mark Messier, who is an overwhelming presence for any coach.

Messier has played above and beyond what could have been expected, but his hold over the locker room is the kind that can quash the ability of free-agent acquisition Bobby Holik to develop into the kind of vocal leader that makes him worth the money the Rangers paid to lure him out of new Jersey.

Then again, the Rangers can be proud that they are doing their part to help the NHLPA stay the course. If payroll is the answer to success, how do you explain the Rangers? Gee, there must be more to winning than writing the biggest checks.

NHL commish Gary Bettman can warn all he wants about the need to cultivate some fiscal sanity in the game, but the other side of that argument is that old-fashioned front-office sanity is a better answer than a hard salary cap.

Chicago searching for selling point
The Chicago Blackhawks could get both Theo Fleury and Eric Daze beck within a week. The Hawks have the second lowest attendance in the NHL, behind Buffalo, and could use a quick infusion of victories.

Chicago made the dubious deal last week that brought Chris Simon to town, along with Andrei Nikolishin, in exchange for dependable Michael Nylander.

The Hawks might also be looking to make a deal for former Ranger Pavel Brendl, now playing sparingly with the Flyers.

The addition of Simon is interesting in that many GMs are still tentative about making moves until they are sure the league will hold the line on interference infractions. The worry is that they will alter the roster for the new NHL, and find it's really the old one come playoff time.

One thing is for sure: The Hawks need to start getting people back in the building before the team falls off the map. The past loss of captains Chris Chelios and Jeremy Roenick, and the offseason decision to cut ties with captain Tony Amonte has left the Hawks in need of some identity -- and it's not going to be in the form of Alexei Zhamnov.

Through their first eight home games, the Hawks had the lowest attendance perecntage in the NHL, averaging just over 12,000 per game, or 58.9 percent of capacity.

Maybe Simon will bring them back for some old time hockey.

Short shifts