Rift or No Rift, They’re Making It Interesting

If you love a mystery, you’ll want to stay tuned to the little thriller they have going on over at the Forum.

The Kings, depending on whom you believe, are either in a state of near mutiny against Coach Robbie Ftorek, or are innocent victims of an overzealous, rumor-mongering press.

I tend to go with the former theory, because it’s more fun. If there’s one element that has been missing from the Kings the last decade or so, it’s fun.

The rumors have it that Wayne Gretzky is a very unhappy skater, chafing under the Napoleonic intensity of Ftorek. The rumors also have it that if the King players ever had to take sides, it wouldn’t be pretty for Ftorek.

Despite denials and zipped lips all around, the rumors of trouble took on a tinge of reality last Wednesday in Detroit when Gretzky, in a moment of anger at himself, broke his stick over a goal post.

Ftorek sat Gretzky on the bench for the next 8 minutes. Why? To cool Wayne off? To show him who’s boss? Ftorek never says. This man would swallow a cyanide capsule before revealing team secrets to the media.

Gretzky’s dad was at the game that night. So were a lot of his friends, his Canadian hometown being nearby. He wasn’t pleased with the extended rest. It had to embarrass The Great One.

Ftorek, asked if there had been a subsequent confrontation between coach and superstar, was eloquently evasive.

“Maybe something happened,” Ftorek said, “maybe nothing happened. Nobody knows.”

Mysterious, no?

The situation conjured up local sports memories of the time when Magic Johnson announced he could no longer play for Laker Coach Paul Westhead, and in an eerie coincidence, Westhead was fired the next day.

King rookie owner Bruce McNall, the man who gave our town Gretzky, was headed from Los Angeles to New York in his private jet, on business, when the rumors hit the fan. McNall made a left turn at North Dakota and caught up with his team at Vancouver.

Was McNall swooping into Vancouver to separate the combatants? To fire the coach? To pick up fresh hors d’oeuvres?

The mystery deepened.

Tuesday night, as the Kings opened a home stand by beating the New Jersey Devils, 9-3, McNall tried to throw a wet blanket over the promising scandal.

“At the moment, I just don’t see it as a crisis,” McNall said over his pregame lobster. “I saw this prior to the deal for Gretzky, that there was going to be controversy, no matter who the coach was. If it was a coach like a Philadelphia-type coach, who coaches a holdy-grabby style, and a Wayne Gretzky showed up, either you’d have to change the style of play or change coaches.

“With us, it’s a wide-open offense, so that’s not the problem. They’ve been playing a style of hockey that Wayne likes to play. At the same time, Robbie is preaching defense, but Wayne has been pushing that, too.

“I don’t see it as a crisis yet. I believe if it was anything even approaching a crisis, I’d know about it. I think a lot more was made of this than exists.”

It’s very difficult to disbelieve McNall. He’s an open, affable guy, even when dealing with the rumor-mongering media. He has the face of a pudgy Eagle scout.

He simply doesn’t look devious. When he says he made the detour to Vancouver simply because he remembered it was an early game and he would have time to stop there and still make his scheduled appointment in New York, you tend to believe.

And McNall certainly isn’t an absentee owner who gets his information secondhand. He is at every home game and most road games. He has been known to have a postgame beer with the players, and says, “I have a very good rapport with Robbie, we talk all the time.

“I’m not denying the fact that there must have been something going on, but I went up (to Vancouver), talked to the coach, and to Wayne, they said everything’s fine.”

Of course, it could be that Ftorek and Gretzky both have too much pride to run crying to the boss, or to the press.

Asked if there was any truth to rumors of a rift between he and Ftorek, Gretzky said: “Absolutely not. It’s so unfair for both of us, the whole thing has kind of snowballed. It’s truly untrue. There was definitely no heated exchange of words at all. I was a little frustrated by it all (the press coverage). I felt almost embarrassed. I’ve had a tremendous amount of joy playing for the coach here.”

McNall said: “They both say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not a problem.’ ”

But you have to worry a little when the $20-million treasure you have imported to pump life into your new hockey team is rumored to be unhappy.

Gretzky has no apparent conflict with any teammates. On the contrary, he is enormously well-liked, as unpretentious as any superstar in sports.

So why has he forgotten how to smile the last couple of weeks? This is the Magic Johnson of hockey, remember, a man who has always enjoyed the game and the life.

McNall insists the Gretzky he knows is not a troubled man.

“In a major way, Wayne is happy,” McNall said.

In a major way, so is McNall. He is the ultimate hockey fan, still excited about owning his own team and his own Gretzky.

He doesn’t even mind a little controversy. He remembers all those seasons when the sports fans of Los Angeles not only didn’t care whether or not the King coach would keep his job, but didn’t even know whether or not the Kings had a coach.

Now the Kings are providing sports thrills for the city, as well as intrigue and mystery.

Who knows what will happen next. Gretzky can’t stay unhappy all season, something has to happen.

Although if Gretzky is suffering, his play isn’t. He had 2 goals and 2 assists against New Jersey Tuesday night.

Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing will happen. Who knows? Nobody knows who knows.