From the Archive:
LUNCHPAIL GANG BECOMES THE STAR ATTRACTION IN HOLLYWOOD
Richie Rich of the NHL has been reborn.
The Los Angeles Kings have junked their private airplane to fly commercial and under rookie coach Barry Melrose, were grinding out wins at a pace that would easily eclipse their 1990-91 club record of 46.
More importantly, at 16-7-2 after 25 games, they were at the top of the Smythe Division. The Kings hadn’t lost more than two straight games and jockeyed for the league lead in goals scored.
Melrose and general manager Nick Beverley have had to fashion a winner without Wayne Gretzky, who is out until at least March with a back injury. But the team’s lineup is only cosmetically changed from last season when it was a.500 club that fell in the first round of the playoffs in six games to Edmonton.
Any franchise with Jari Kurri, Luc Robitaille and Paul Coffey in its employ can’t portray itself as bereft of talent. But what is turning heads is the Kings’ transformation from Team Beverly Hills to Beverley’s Hillbillies.
“What the Kings have become,” said Ottawa Senators’ pro scout Jim Nill, “is a lunchpail team with three or four players any team would love to have.”
When Melrose arrived in Los Angeles fresh off an American League championship with Adirondack, he found the wreckage of what was Edmonton West.
Kurri was coming off his all-time low season of 23 goals and 60 points. Whispers had elevated into roars that the 32-year-old was on a permanent downslope. Defenseman Charlie Huddy suffered through an injury-ravaged and disappointing 56-game season. Coffey, a late-season acquisition from Pittsburgh, played well in the playoffs but his 11 goals and 69 points were a disappointment.
Even Gretzky was coming off an NHL career low of 121 points and his back, the Kings’ traditional vehicle of transit, was ticketed for rehabilitation early in training camp.
Now that the Kings have shown they can live without Gretzky, some NHL observers are suggesting the unthinkable: the Kings are a better team without No. 99 in the lineup.
“The idea that we’re a better team without Wayne is a complete joke,” Coffey said. “We’re 16-7-2 now, maybe with Wayne we’d be 25-0. I don’t care how well we’re playing, with him we’ll be playing that much better.”
High expectations were not a burden imposed on Melrose. After firing Tom Webster, the Kings sought out somebody, anybody who could consistently extract an honest night’s work from his players.
They found him in Melrose.
“Barry’s teams in Adirondack always worked hard,” Beverley said. “That was an area we felt we had been lacking in the past.”
In Melrose, a former journeyman defenseman with three NHL teams, Beverley selected a motivator for a moribund franchise.
A devotee of positive thinking guru Anthony Robbins, Melrose once took his Adirondack team to a local penitentiary to see first-hand the squalor of prison life. One of his team meetings was a talk with an AIDS patient about the disease.
“I like to show people that we get caught up in our world too much,” Melrose said. “It’s nice to come back to us and realize we have a gift. Sometimes you forget that and think it will go on forever.”
-ALL THE KINGS’ MEN
With Melrose’s sanction, Kings’ owner Bruce McNall mothballed the team’s private jet.
“I could probably get it back if we convinced Bruce we desperately needed it,” Melrose said. “But it’s good for us to suffer a little bit and get up at 5 a.m. together. Mr. McNall has always been good to us, it’s time for us to earn it.”
“From Day 1, it was, ‘Don’t work hard, don’t play,’” said Robitaille. “If Jari Kurri or Luc Robitaille aren’t working, we don’t play”
Melrose introduced a high-tempo, heavy-forecheck pressure system. The first checker pursues aggressively with another just a few strides away. It is hockey’s version of the full-court press.
The Kings have not become Jennings Trophy contenders. In fact, they were barely among the league’s top third in goals against. Much of their success on offense and defense has been their ability to create turnovers.
Positive reinforcement is never far away. The Kings have daily video sessions and meet at 6 p.m. on game day to prepare strategy.
“I hardly ever show negative stuff,” Melrose said. “We show what we want to do and show the hits, finishing checks, going to the net, speed.”
The videos and strategy meetings have produced immediate results. Of the team’s 25 first periods, the Kings led 14 times at the intermission and entered the break tied in four more.
“That’s really a function of being prepared,” Huddy said. “The six o’clock meeting gets us ready and we’re not behind the eight-ball before we even get out there.”
Huddy was leading the league in plus-minus at plus-27 and Kurri, whom Melrose describes as his team’s Mario Lemieux, was a close second. Kurri’s performance after being moved to center allowed the Kings to scuttle a deal for Detroit pivot Jimmy Carson and keep Marty McSorley, a hustling player who embodies Melrose’s style.
Robitaille, who has averaged 46 goals over his six NHL seasons, was on pace for 67. Coffey, his confidence heightened by his use as a penalty killer and in key defensive situations, was contributing a point a game and has been solid defensively.
As in any banner season, there have been surprises. Backup goalie Robb Stauber, promoted from the team’s International League affiliate in Phoenix, has posted a 7-0-1 record and his performance and share of the workload has heightened the game of incumbent Kelly Hrudey.
Along the blue line, the Kings boast an emerging core of talented young defenders. Third-year King Rob Blake, fresh from off-season shoulder surgery, is rapidly becoming a dominant defenseman.
Rearguard Alexei Zhitnik is only 5-foot-9 but is mobile and mean. Darryl Sydor, a player with generous offensive gifts, has flashes of big-league maturity and prime-time offensive skills.
The Kings won their next two games after Doug Gilmour broke Tomas Sandstrom’s arm with a slash. The club finally crashed with a 3-2 loss in Toronto on Nov. 28.
When Gretzky does return to the team, some have suggested that he might disrupt the chemistry that the Kings have created. But Melrose makes it clear, his way and Gretzky’s way are one in the same.
“How much he plays depends on Wayne, the guys who play the hardest play the most.” Melrose said. “If Wayne Gretzky is the Wayne Gretzky of old, he’ll get his 30 minutes a night.
“Wayne loves the way we play, the attacking style and the tempo game fits his style perfectly.”
Coffey holds his hands up about two inches apart and says, “When Wayne gets on the ice and sees the way we play, his eyes will be this big.”