‘The Trade’ shook Canada, but it put NHL hockey on the California map in the 1990s, especially after Wayne Gretzky and the Kings advanced to the ’93 Stanley Cup final.
One of the most tectonic shifts in hockey came just before the ’90s began, when Wayne Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988.
After a seamless transition to the Kings, Gretzky had 163 points in ’90-91 and 121 points the year after. What followed in ’92-93 was crucial to the growth of the game, as the Kings made it to the Stanley Cup final before falling to Montreal. But it was far from easy for Gretzky that season.
“It was pretty incredible,” he said. “The year started not so good for me because I had excruciating pain in my ribs, and we weren’t sure what it was. The first day of camp, I couldn’t even tie my skates up. I thought it was a tear in my stomach or a cracked rib, but they did tests on my back, and that’s when I found out I had a thoracic-disc injury.”
Gretzky went to six doctors for their opinions. Three said to operate. Three said to do treatment instead.
“There was one other athlete we found who had the surgery, a downhill skier,” Gretzky said. “And she never skied after that because it was a 15- to 18-month rehabilitation. So, we decided to do treatment from September to December, and I got better. At that point, the team was in a great place. I believe we were first in the division. Luc Robitaille had taken over as captain while I was gone. Kelly Hrudey and Robb Stauber were playing really well in net. So, when I got back, the team was really on a roll. My adrenaline was pretty solid, so for about five games, I played pretty well, and then reality set in. I had a tough stretch for about 10 or 15 games, then sat down with (coach) Barry Melrose, and we had a really nice chat. From that point on, I really felt good, and my game came around.”
Gretzky saw his teammates flourishing all over the place: Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato excelled, while youngsters such as Rob Blake, Darryl Sydor and Alexei Zhitnik chipped in with great performances to get the team on a roll.
Once the post-season began, Gretzky was back to his usual dominant self, racking up a beguiling 40 points in 24 games. While L.A. lost the Cup to Montreal, it was truly an impressive run.
“The one thing that really hurt us, not to make excuses, is we travelled so much,” Gretzky said. “Starting in Calgary, then Vancouver, then seven games with Toronto. We won Game 7 against Toronto on a Saturday night, flew to Montreal Sunday and started the series on Tuesday. We played really well in Game 1, had a tough overtime loss in Game 2 and the rest is history.”
Los Angeles didn’t return to the Cup final for almost two decades, until Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick and Drew Doughty helped the franchise win its first championship in 2012. Gretzky is proud of that ’93 squad, though he knew at the time that a repeat performance would be a challenge.
“We just had a really good group that came together,” he said. “When I lost in Edmonton, in my heart, I knew we were a good team and would come back the next year or year after and the team was good enough to win the Stanley Cup. The team in L.A., we played on grit and hunger, and all the players liked the coach and the staff. It was a tough pill to swallow, because we weren’t the most talented team in the league but a team that grinded and played hard. So, that was a tough loss for us, but the better team won. They deserved it.”
With Gretzky in town, Los Angeles and California in general started to really turn on to hockey, and the reverberations continue to this day (just check out social media whenever local Trevor Moore scores for the Kings). The ’90s were incredibly important to the growth of the game.
“People started to hone in on hockey,” Gretzky said. “I always tell people, the league got lucky because we had Steve Yzerman in Detroit, and not only was he a great player, but he understood the responsibility of selling the game. We had Brett Hull in St. Louis, and that franchise had been kicked around for years, but Brett got there, did what he did, and they built a new arena, and the city really took to the game of hockey. In Pittsburgh, Mario (Lemieux) was Mario. At that time, he was the best player in the game and understood his responsibility to the city. Then ‘Mess’ (Mark Messier) got traded to New York. So, with the combination of all those guys, it was the perfect storm.”
This is an excerpt from Ryan Kennedy's story on Wayne Gretzky, which appeared in The Hockey News' Top 90 of the '90s edition.
In this video, Adam Proteau discusses the changes in Gretzky's game over the years:
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