Walking to his locker in the Red Wings dressing room Monday, a slight bounce to his step, Steve Yzerman seemed to be telling everyone to forget what last year's neck surgery may mean to the way he plays hockey. Understand instead that it's in other, more basic ways _ even in something as simple as a night's sleep _ that the Red Wings captain can again enjoy life.

He's glad he no longer must stack pillows in a certain way to keep pressure off a herniated disc in his neck. He's grateful that he isn't obliged to spend an entire night lying on his right side, board-stiff, which is the way nights were spent a year ago.

The hockey's all extra. There will be less pain this season, more ability to stickhandle and do the things that always came naturally and painlessly. It could translate into a big season for the leader of a talented, Stanley Cup-contending team, at least if you go by the wishful thinkers who are betting on the Red Wings, and by extension, Yzerman.

"I'm excited about the short season, yeah," Yzerman said a few minutes after a morning practice at Joe Louis Arena. "The playoffs are three months away. It's not the same routine, with training camp and a long season. A little variety in the year, a little change, is good."

He is still four months away from his 30th birthday, yet Yzerman talks as if he has been in the NHL forever. It is easy to forget that he's now in his 12th season in Detroit.

But if there's a certain wistfulness to Yzerman's words, it could be that few understand how much it bothers him that all of the building, and contending, and challenging for a Stanley Cup this past decade have produced zilch. If that's so, Yzerman knows what's behind the perception.

A lot of it has to do with himself. Specifically, the quiet, private, consistently low-key way in which he talks about any subject, but especially about Steve Yzerman.

About the Stanley Cup obsession, Yzerman said, "It's not something I really share with a lot of people. I can't really explain it to people. And I don't really want to feel a need to explain my thoughts. But I certainly want to win. It's the one thing (the Cup) I want to accomplish."

Some sports theorists believe Yzerman is poised to do for Detroit in a shortened NHL season what the crafty baseball veteran traditionally has done when acquired by a pennant contender in August. He is projected to win some games through sheer talent. He is expected to win other games through sheer experience. His presence is designed to bring a calming influence to an otherwise skitzed-out team, which is a description that some would be tempted to paste upon the Red Wings.

A problem, though, with the crafty-old-coot label is that Yzerman isn't buying. One reason: He's definitely a little young for such talk. Another reason: He's way too smart to accept some movie-set script that puts him _ especially him _ in such an uncomfortable spotlight role, captain or not.

"I think we're a good team with a lot of good players," he says, drifting safely into team generalities.

If he's going to talk about anything personal, better in Yzerman's mind to talk about his June 21 surgery in Los Angeles, in which bone from his hip was grafted onto his neck to replace the bad disc. After a miserable 1993-94 season in which he played in only 58 games and scored but 24 goals and "just generally felt lousy," the pain is now gone.

He feels good, and looks even better after convalescing and getting into superb shape during the NHL lockout. At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, there is more muscle and less fat on Yzerman than in previous years. And there are a couple of logical reasons for it.

"The years come and go, and while skills-wise I'm probably no different than I was five years ago, I've learned how to get into shape, learned what works and what doesn't," Yzerman says. "I look at how many athletes, football players and basketball players, are blossoming at age 30. I notice now that my off-season weight doesn't go up the way it used to.

"I'm not a great dieter, but I try to be careful about what I eat and try to be careful about fat. I know I still eat too much red meat, but my wife (Lisa) is a real healthy eater and that helps. I'm not as disciplined as she is, but I'm better than I was."

Pasta is a typical entree at most Yzerman dinners. Lasagna, spaghetti, gnocchi _ there may be some lean meat in the tomato sauce Yzerman prefers with his pasta, but it's not the beefsteak binge that once was his hallmark. Even when Lisa's mother visits from out of town, she makes extra gnocchi and puts it in the freezer. At least for a while for her son-in-law, it will be carbohydrates over cholesterol.

He knows, of course, that being healthy and feeling so strong at age 29 make him, potentially, even more of a candidate for a trade that so many NHL followers have been predicting. Wings Coach Scotty Bowman is saying, again, that there are no plans of the kind, and that Yzerman will lead his hockey team in 1995.

Yzerman knows there are practical reasons against a deal that even interested clubs _ Washington and Montreal being two examples _ have to consider: Such as his $3.5-million annual salary.

He shakes his head and repeats that it's all out of his hands, anyway. All he knows is what would stand as his greatest regret if he were ever to be traded:

"Just the fact that I would have been here 11 years," Yzerman said, "and no Stanley Cup