Oilers Appear Ready to Face Kings Tonight

The Edmonton Oilers, beset by injuries, suffered through their worst slump of the season in its late stages, limping out with a 9-10-5 record after the All-Star break.

Ready or not, though, the now healthy Oilers will open defense of their Stanley Cup championship tonight when they play the Kings in the first game of a best-of-five playoff series (Channel 9, 6:30).

“I think (the Kings are) a better hockey club than the one that beat us three years ago,” said Oiler center Wayne Gretzky, who won his fifth straight National Hockey League scoring title with 208 points on 73 goals and 135 assists.

The Kings stunned the Oilers three years ago, eliminating them in the first round of the playoffs.

“We’re anticipating a very tough playoff series,” Gretzky said. “This is really the first time you can sit down and say any one of the teams in our division has a shot at winning it all. We have to make sure we’re on top of our game or else it will be like three years ago. We’re not taking them lightly.”

Said Edmonton Coach Glen Sather: “Anything can happen. Look at Villanova and Georgetown (in the final of the NCAA basketball tournament). That’s why they play the games. The Kings have a good team. Pat Quinn should be coach of the year and Marcel Dionne should be the comeback player of the year.”

Said King right wing Steve Shutt: “Stranger things have happened. We had good success against Edmonton. We’re not going to go in in awe of them. We’re going to give them a battle.”

Although the Oilers had their injury problems in the last month of the season, they apparently are healthy now.

They expect to have right wing Jari Kurri back for the playoffs. Kurri, who was the leading goal scorer in the league until he broke the little finger on his left hand late last month, has been fitted with a special cast that will enable him to play.

Also back are goalie Grant Fuhr, who has recovered from a separated shoulder that kept him out for nine games, and goalie Andy Moog, who jammed both knees in a game against the Kings March 1.

The Kings played their worst game of the season against the Oilers here last January, blowing a 7-2 lead and losing, 8-7, as the Oilers scored six straight goals.

The Kings beat Edmonton twice but then lost the last time they met, eight days ago at the Forum. The Oilers won the season series, 4-3-1.

“I think L.A. has got their work cut out for them,” said Harry Neal, coach and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks. “I don’t think it’s impossible, but it’s improbable. They’ve got to win a game in Edmonton.”

The Kings also slumped late in the season, compiling a 4-6-0 record, including five consecutive losses, in the last 10 games.

“We’re going to have to be lucky to win,” first-year King Coach Pat Quinn said. “They’re an awesome team when they roll their machinery out.

“We’re not going to surprise them like we did three years ago. We did as well as anyone can expect to do against them in the regular season, and they still won it. And they’ve gone on record as saying that they want to teach us a lesson for what we did to them.

“We’ve got to give our best effort every night and hope that we get exceptional goaltending and a couple of breaks.”

The Kings, with three players who scored 40 or more goals this season, have the firepower to beat the Oilers. Marcel Dionne finished fourth in league scoring with 126 points on 46 goals and 80 assists. Center Bernie Nicholls had his first 100-point season with 46 goals and 54 assists. Right wing Dave Taylor, who had been bothered by wrist injuries the last couple of years, remained healthy this season and scored 92 points on 41 goals and 51 assists.

Left wing Brian MacLellan had 85 on 31 goals and 54 assists, and right wing Jim Fox had 83 points on 30 and 53.

“We’ve got a very good shot at beating them,” Nichols said. “We play well against them. We’ve got to have every guy going for a full 60 minutes. A lot of people didn’t expect us to do what we did, but I personally felt we had a good team and would make the playoffs.”

MacLellan said: “We played well against them all year. If we play up to our potential, we have a chance of beating them.”

Rookie goalie Bob Janecyk, who was 3-2-1 against the Oilers this season, figures to start tonight’s game.

“I think we’ve got as good a chance as they do,” Janecyk said.