Dionne, at 33, Is Still King of the Kings

Center Marcel Dionne of the Kings is having one of the best seasons of his 14-year career.

Dionne, 33, is on a pace that would give him his eighth 100-point season and his seventh 50-goal season.

He is the fifth-leading scorer in the National Hockey League this season with 30 goals and 52 assists in 50 games.

He has scored 24 points in his last nine games.

“I feel like I want the puck every time we’re on the ice,” Dionne said. “Just give me the puck.

“Dick Clark doesn’t look any older does he? Time goes by and he still looks the same. Well, I feel the same way--terrific.”

Dionne struggled earlier this season, scoring just one goal in his first eight games.

“I always get off to a slow start,” he said. “A couple of years ago, a guy wrote that I was washed up, but he had to retract that later in the season.

“I look at the whole 80-game schedule and concentrate on steady improvement.”

Dionne’s slow start coincided with the Kings’ 0-6-3 start, worst in the team’s history. He said, though, that there were two reasons for it: He had to adjust to a new coach, Pat Quinn, and a new left wing, Brian MacLellan.

Quinn, the seventh coach Dionne has had since he came to the Kings from Detroit in 1975, said he had heard that Dionne was a one-way player.

“I never said he was a one-way player,” Quinn said. “The conception around the league was that he was a player who played solely for offense.”

Said Dionne: “Pat wasn’t sure about me. He’d heard a lot of rumors that I was a one-way player. I haven’t changed. I don’t feel any different.”

Whatever his earlier misgivings might have been, Quinn thinks highly of Dionne now. “I’ve come to see him on a daily basis and learned what a total player he is. . . . Marcel is playing like a young man. He has that bounce in his legs.”

Dionne played with Dave Taylor at right wing and Charlie Simmer on the left side on the Kings’ Triple Crown line, but the Kings traded Simmer to Boston last October and replaced him with MacLellan.

Dionne, Taylor and Simmer had fine-tuned their line to the point where many of the things they did on the ice were automatic. It took a while for Dionne and Taylor to get used to playing with MacLellan.

“It’s been a real adjustment every night,” Dionne said. “Charlie created a lot of chances.”

After breaking in his new linemate, however, Dionne went on a scoring streak, getting seven goals and six assists as the Kings put together a seven-game winning streak.

After a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins during the middle of the streak, Dionne joked: “Order the (Stanley Cup) rings--size 6 for me.”

The Kings have since leveled off to a pace that is two games above .500, but that’s not bad for a team picked by many to finish last in the Smythe Division. The last time the Kings finished above .500 was in 1980-81.

“We’re not the Hollywood Bums anymore. This team is completely different,” Dionne said earlier this season. “We’re not great, but we’re much more disciplined and we have much more depth. I think they know that we are for real. I feel Los Angeles and Jerry Buss deserve a winning team.

“I’ve had my share of goals and 100-point seasons. But I have to admit that now it’s fun to come to the rink. It’s much easier for me to get up in the mornings.”

Dionne credits General Manager Rogie Vachon, who succeeded George Maguire last January, for turning the Kings into a winning team.

“Things have improved right from training camp,” Dionne said last week in St. Louis. “There is more discipline on and off the ice.

“There’s so much more trust now among people. If you’re looking for answers, it comes from Pat and Rogie. We’re building.”

But is it too late for Dionne to win a Stanley Cup?

“I’m still hoping,” he said. “I can never remember when everything in this organization was so good. It’s easier for me to have more confidence. The mental part of the game is so much easier.”

A four-time All-Star, Dionne finished third at his position in voting for this season’s Campbell Conference All-Star team, behind Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers, a unanimous selection with 150 votes, and Dale Hawerchuk of the Winnipeg Jets.

As the top vote-getters, Gretzky and Hawerchuk are on the team for the game, which will be played Feb. 12 at Calgary. There is a possibility, though, that Dionne will be named to the team by Coach Glen Sather, who must select at least one player from every team.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Dionne said of finishing third in the voting. “There are so many good centers in our conference. I’ve scored a lot of points in the last couple of weeks, but it’s based on the first 40 games. It doesn’t surprise me.”

Whether he plays or not, Dionne is likely to be at Calgary for the game.

He is vice-president of the NHL Players Assn., which has scheduled a meeting in conjunction with the All-Star Game to discuss the NHL’s plan to expand the first round of the playoffs from a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven.

Dionne’s six-year contract, worth a reported $600,000-plus a season, will expire at the end of next season. Because of good real-estate investments he has made in Northern California, Dionne could probably retire.

He has no plans to do so, however.

“My motivation is to keep going for as long as I can,” he said. “I’d like to see how far I can go. I’m taking it one year at a time. Who knows, I might play forever.

“I want to change a few things. I want to lose weight. Right now, I weigh 190 pounds (he is 5 feet 8 inches). I’d like to lose five or six pounds and see if it helps me.”

Dionne reached a milestone last week when scored his 611th goal in an 8-7 loss to the Oilers, passing Bobby Hull and moving into third place on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list.

Gordie Howe is the all-time leader with 801 goals and Phil Esposito is second with 717. Howe played for 26 seasons and Esposito played 18.

Dionne is fourth in total points with 1,461. Stan Mikita had 1,467, Esposito 1,590, and Howe 1,850.

Dionne’s 611th goal came on a night when the Kings reached a season-low, squandering a 7-2 lead in the loss to Edmonton.

After the game, reporters gathered outside the Kings’ locker room could hear Dionne, in his distinctive French-Canadian accent, screaming at his teammates.

“If you want to play in this league you’ve got to pay the price and go out and (bleeping) do it!” he said.

Asked about his outburst later, Dionne said: “Somebody had to say it. I was just very disappointed. It was the fourth time in recent weeks that we’ve blown a lead. I haven’t seen a game like that in a long time. What can you say?”

Dionne and the Kings reached one of their high points just two days later, though, beating the Philadelphia Flyers at the Forum for the first time in 11 years, 3 months and 3 days.

Dionne was in a good mood afterward. “This is a champagne night,” he said.

Asked to reflect on the roller coaster the team has been riding, Dionne said: “We’re in the twilight zone. We’re unpredictable. We lost a little confidence, but it’s going to come back. We’ve got to play for 60 minutes, not 40.”

Coaches and players around the NHL say that Dionne doesn’t coast. Said Joe Mullen of the St. Louis Blues: “He’s an unbelievable hockey player. It doesn’t look like he’s lost anything.”

Said New Jersey Coach Doug Carpenter: “I think the biggest thing about Marcel is his consistency. He’s certainly a sound hockey player and a leader.”

As highly regarded as he is in the NHL, though, Dionne is not exactly a household name in Los Angeles.

When Dionne stepped off the plane from Edmonton at Los Angeles International Airport last week, a reporter asked how it felt to become the third-leading scorer in hockey.

Dionne squinted into the bright TV lights and someone pushed a microphone into his face. A crowd gathered.

“Who is he?” someone asked.

“That’s Marcel Dionne,” a reporter said.

“Who?” asked the bystander.

“You know, the hockey player,” said the reporter.

“Oh yeah.”