Wayne Gretzky: On the Ice With... (9 page)

The trade proved to be beneficial for the Kings, too. Season ticket sales skyrocketed from four thousand to over thirteen
thousand. On opening night, Roy Orbison sang the national anthem before a crowd that had sold out even though the Dodgers
were playing in the World Series that same night.

Coach Rob Ftorek, who had taken over halfway through the previous season, had turned a team comfortable with losing into a
team fighting to win. Wearing his old number but a new uniform, Wayne was ready to join in the battle against the Detroit
Red Wings.

He didn’t waste any time proving that he could adjust to his new team’s method of play. With the Kings enjoying a five-on-three
two-man power play advantage, winger Dave Taylor fed Wayne a perfect pass just to the right of Red Wing Greg Stefan. Wayne
caught the puck on his stick and quickly dished it by the goalie. Score! His first shot on net found its mark. He finished
the night with 3 assists, helping the Kings to their first victory of the season.

On October 19, 1988, Wayne found himself back in Edmonton for a game against the Oilers. He dreaded the visit. If L.A. won,
he would have beaten some of his best friends. If L.A. lost, the Kings and their owner would appear to have paid too high
a price for their newest player. Either way, Number 99 felt he would come up the loser.

Oilers coach Glen Sather didn’t say a word to Wayne when he arrived at the rink. It was to be strictly business. Owner Peter
Pocklington wanted Wayne to pose for a friendly picture with him but, following Sather’s lead, Wayne refused.

When he entered the rink from the visitors’ end, Wayne was unsure of what to expect. To his amazement, the fans greeted him
with a thunderous ovation.
Even though he no longer played for the Oilers, he was still the man who had built their beloved team into what it was. They
would not soon forget the four Stanley Cups Gretzky’s expertise had helped earn.

It was an emotionally and physically charged game. Wayne got 2 assists — and a bad bruise on a check from his old friend Mark
Messier. The Kings lost 8–6 and Wayne lost his inhibitions about playing against his former teammates. He wasn’t an Oiler
anymore.

As the 1988 season unfolded, the Kings quickly earned a reputation as a “run ‘n’ gun” free-skating, wide open offensive machine.
Fans were flocking to the Great Western Forum. On the road, the team played to one sellout crowd after another, something
they had failed to do even once the season before.

By the All-Star break, the Kings had achieved by far their best ever first-half-of-the-season record: 24-15-1. Reunited with
Jari Kurri for the game in Edmonton, Wayne picked up a goal and 2 assists. He was once again honored with the MVP award.

The team slumped a bit in the second half of the
season (18-16-6), but approached the playoffs in good position overall. A combination of veterans like Dave Taylor and Bernie
Nicholls and third-year player Luc Robitaille vaulted the Kings to the top position in total goals in the NHL with 370. In
one of the greatest turnarounds in hockey history, they placed second in the Smythe Division with 12 more victories and 23
more points than in the previous season.

Though Wayne finished second to Mario Lemieux in the scoring race, his 114 assists led the league for the tenth consecutive
year. Among his 54 goals was the 600th of his career. His injuries now completely healed, he played in 78 of 80 regular-season
games.

The Great One was overwhelmed by emotions as the 1989 playoffs began. The Kings’ first opponent was a team of familiar foes:
the Oilers.

In Game One, goalie Grant Fuhr stopped Wayne cold. Wayne now knew what it had been like for opposing forwards to go against
Fuhr when the money was on the line. Edmonton prevailed 4–3 that night, but the Kings evened it up in the second game. Back
in Edmonton, Mark Messier led the Oilers to victory with 3 goals and 4 assists in Games Three and
Four. Down 3 games to 1, the Kings rallied back in the next 2 games to tie the series.

Los Angeles had gone hockey mad. The Magic Johnson-Laker fans had discovered the Great Western Forum’s other winter resident:
Wayne Gretzky and his Kings. They flocked to the stadium for the final game of the series.

Fifty-two seconds into the deciding match, Wayne scored against his old teammate Grant Fuhr. The game turned into a frantic
end-to-end battle between the two offensively charged teams. First Jari Kurri tied the game, then Chris Kontos of the Kings
upped the score another notch. Edmonton’s Craig Simpson answered and brought the score even again. High-scoring Kings center
Bernie Nicholls took the lead back, but Oilers defenseman Kevin Lowe added one of his own. The score read 3–3.

But that was as high a score as the Oilers could get. Bernie Nicholls chalked up another goal on a 5-on-3 power play, then
defenseman Dale DeGray sweetened the lead with yet another. In the final minute and a half, Wayne Gretzky iced the game with
an empty-net tally.

Final score: 6–3. The Forum erupted. The series
was over — and with the game behind them, Wayne and his former teammates could finally talk as friends.

The Smythe Division final catchup with Calgary was almost anticlimactic. The Flames swept the Kings in four straight games.
Despite its disappointing conclusion, the year had been a positive one for Los Angeles. With Wayne Gretzky, the Kings had
moved up two spots in the division and improved by 23 points overall. Wayne himself had accepted his ninth Hart Trophy.

The transition from Canada to L.A. had been challenging, but now his future seemed bright, both on the rink and off. In addition
to having a tremendous first year, Wayne found himself playing a new role — that of father to his first child, Paulina. He
took to fatherhood with great joy. Two years later, his and Janet’s second child, Tyler, was born, followed by Trevor two
years after that. From all indications, Wayne was content to settle down in southern California.

Then, in August of 1989, Wayne received a request to return to the town of Edmonton for a ceremony unveiling a statue outside
of the Northlands
Coliseum. Since many of his former Oilers teammates were participating, he agreed to attend. Nothing he experienced in hockey
had prepared him for what happened there.

The building was sold out. A huge parade was organized. The statue itself was a six-foot-high bronze of Wayne in his Oilers
uniform holding the Stanley Cup overhead.

When called upon to speak, Wayne had tears in his eyes. He spoke of his greatest years, the lifelong friends and memories.
He mentioned his own boyhood idol, Gordie Howe, and the long-ago night he met him at the sports banquet in Brantford. As he
talked, one thing became clear: Wayne Gretzky might live and play in L.A., but his home would always be in Edmonton.

Wayne’s second season in Los Angeles was one of great personal triumph. Despite a back injury (an ominous sign of a future
ailment) that sidelined him for the last five games of the regular season, he regained the scoring title for the first time
in three years, posting 40 goals and 102 assists, for 142 points.

Early in the season, on October 15, 1989, at Edmonton, Wayne was on the threshold of breaking hockey’s all-time scoring record.
The mark of 1,850 points had been established by Wayne’s idol, Gordie Howe. As he neared the mark Wayne felt a little uncomfortable.
Was he worthy to hold this record? Howe had been among the top five league scorers for twenty straight years. At forty-eight
he had been named MVP of the now defunct WHA.
He was still Wayne’s all-time hockey hero. Wayne almost wished he could just stop at 1,850 and share the record. He thought
it might be nice to see Number 9 and Number 99 on the same line in the record book.

Gordie and his wife, Colleen, were in Edmonton to see Wayne set the record in a game against the Oilers. Walt and Phyllis
Gretzky were also there, as was Wayne’s wife, Janet.

With an early assist, the Great One drew even with his idol. For much of the rest of the game, though, it looked as though
the record would stay that way. The Oilers’ tenacious defensive forward, Esa Tikkanen, shadowed Wayne all over the ice. Late
in the third period, the Oilers led 4–3 and Wayne still trailed the record by one.

There was under a minute remaining when L.A.’s Steve Duchesne intercepted a clearing pass by Edmonton defenseman Kevin Lowe.
Gretzky headed to the net. He picked up the puck off the knee of teammate Dave Taylor, then lifted a backhand shot high over
Edmonton goalie Bill Ranford. Score!

Wayne leaped into the arms of Kings defenseman Larry Robinson. The Northlands Coliseum crowd
erupted. It didn’t matter what jersey Wayne was wearing — he was their hometown hero once again.

The game stopped as Walt, Janet, Bruce McNall, and Gordie Howe and his wife rushed out on the ice to congratulate Number 99.
After order was restored and the game resumed, a fired-up Wayne Gretzky scored yet another goal in overtime on a backhander.
The Kings took the game, 5–4.

The Kings went on to finish fourth in the Smythe Division. While Wayne battled his back woes, Los Angeles upset Calgary in
seven games. Then the Oilers gained a measure of revenge for the previous year by sweeping Los Angeles four games to none.
Wayne’s second season in L.A. ended.

Wayne showed no signs of slowing down in the 1990–91 season. His 41 goals and 122 assists for 163 points were good enough
for his ninth Art Ross Trophy in eleven years. He broke his own assist scoring record with a 23-game streak. Wayne also picked
up his 2,000th point and became the fourth player in history to record 700 goals. Best of all, the back problems of the previous
year didn’t recur.

Most important, the Kings, under new coach Tom Webster, surged to the Smythe Division title with
102 points, third best in the league overall. Expectations were high as the playoffs approached.

The Kings dropped two of their first three playoff matches to the underdog Vancouver Canucks before turning the series around
with three straight wins. For the third year in a row Wayne would battle his former team in a playoff series.

Edmonton had finished some 22 points behind Los Angeles in the regular season. But this was the playoff season and the Oilers
were the defending Stanley Cup champions. They had won a Cup without the Great One. Could Wayne lead Los Angeles to hockey’s
Holy Grail?

The series’ first three games all went to overtime. Luc Robitaille won the first game for L.A., but Edmonton took the next
two, then added a third and fourth victory to oust Los Angeles from the contest. Wayne was bitterly disappointed. He had played
his hardest, but not even his 15 points in 12 playoff games had been enough.

Los Angeles didn’t approach the lofty heights of its previous regular season in 1991–92. The team’s 84 points positioned it
in second place. Wayne led the league in assists for the twelfth time with 90,
but his goal total slipped to a career low of 31. A disappointing, abrupt playoff season and accompanying subpar effort by
Wayne had hockey fans wondering if this could be the end of the line for 99.

They seemed to receive their answer in the 1992 off-season. Wayne’s amazing stretch of injury-free professional hockey came
to an end.

Arriving at training camp in top shape, anxious to erase the memory of the previous year’s quick playoff exit, Wayne began
to experience excruciating chest pain. He was forced to stay in the hospital for a week. The injury was diagnosed as a herniated
thoracic disk. It was a condition that had permanently sidelined other athletes.

For two months he endured the pain. When treatments began to reduce the disk swelling, he made an announcement: he was determined
to beat the odds and play again.

Wayne’s whole life had been hockey. In the end, the thought of not playing frightened him more than the threat of further
injury.

Wayne made his triumphant return to a sold-out Great Western Forum on January 6, 1993. He had missed 39 games, but the painful
injury was finally
a memory. In his first game back he picked up 2 assists. In the second, he scored 2 goals. The Great One had indeed returned.

Playing in the season’s remaining 45 games, Wayne tallied an amazing 65 points with 16 goals and 49 assists. Forty-six of
his points came in his last 27 matches. With Wayne back in the lineup, the Kings won 11 games, tied 6, and lost only 3. They
finished the regular season third in the Smythe Division with 84 points. Playoff expectations were low — but the Kings weren’t
about to give up yet.

In the opening round Los Angeles dispatched second-place Calgary 4 games to 2. Then they treated the Vancouver Canucks to
a similar defeat in the Smythe Division final, winning in six games. Suddenly the success-starved city of Los Angeles was
excited about hockey again.

Advancing to the conference finals for the first time since 1989, Wayne could see the second of his two long-term goals in
focus. When traded to L.A. in 1988 he first wanted to sell southern California on hockey. That he had accomplished. The second
goal was to bring the Stanley Cup to Los Angeles. Now that too had become a possibility.

The playoffs had revitalized Wayne Gretzky. He was playing his best hockey since the September 1991 Canada Cup. The entire
hockey world breathed a sigh of relief. The Great One would skate on.

Averaging close to 2 points per game, Wayne looked forward to the Campbell Conference finals. The opponent would be the Toronto
Maple Leafs.

An exhilarating seven-game series followed. Trailing 3 games to 2, Wayne’s power play goal in the sixth-game overtime sent
the Great Western Forum crowd into a frenzy.

Game Seven was to be played in Toronto. Number 99 had saved his best for last.

Wayne dominated the game, leading the Kings to a 5–4 victory with 3 goals and 1 assist. The last goal was a crucial all-or-nothing
tiebreaker. The Great One carried the puck deep into the Toronto zone with defenseman Todd Gill covering him the entire way.
Wayne swung to his favorite place behind the net, managed to free his stick from Gill’s tight defense, and directed the puck
to the front of the net. It skipped off the back of a Toronto defender’s skate and slipped into the goal. Score! Though the
Maple
Leafs would score again before the game ended, victory went to L.A.