It's Hockey Night in North America! Or at least it will be relatively soon. The longest work stoppage in the history of professional sports was like watching 300 consecutive reruns of "Without A Trace," but with Jack Malone, the FBI gumshoe played by actor Anthony LaPaglia, taking forever to turn up the missing persons. This week the missing persons began re-emerging on television screens - Michael Peca, the Islanders' captain; Matthew Barnaby, now with the Blackhawks, Rory Fitzpatrick of the Sabres, analyst Barry Melrose, New York hockey maven Stan Fischler and assorted other hockey personalities. They were talking about offense and defense, not about multi-million dollar contracts. Most fans would agree that if they had 10 acres of swampland in the Everglades they wanted to sell, their most likely pigeon would be a hockey player. I doubt that people who like hockey are all that interested that free agency will be available to players as young as 27 in four years; or what the salary cap number will be in 2007 or 2008; or whether Bob Goodenow, the union president, will have a job next year.