The NHL / Tracy Dodds : Gretzky Hard-Pressed to Keep Up With Demands on His Time

Owner Bruce McNall of the Kings had a limousine waiting to take Wayne Gretzky from the Met Center to the Bloomington (Minn.) airport, where McNall’s private plane and pilots were standing by to jet him home to Los Angeles for the birth of his first baby.

Paulina was born Monday morning.

A couple of days earlier, the plane and pilots were assigned to get Gretzky from New York to his home in Ontario for his grandmother’s funeral. His family needed him. And then from Canada to Detroit, where his team awaited him. The team needed him, too.

But getting through the Met Center and out to the limo was no small task.

The car was waiting on the ramp right outside the players’ exit Saturday night after the Kings’ game against the Minnesota North Stars. It was just a few steps from the door, but they were impossible steps, what with the horde of autograph seekers pressing in. The fans wanted him, too.

Gretzky signed autographs, posed for pictures and chatted with fans every step of the route between the locker room and the door. But there was no way he would be able to satisfy the crush of fans outside that door and still get to the car.

So the car had to come to Gretzky. An automatic garage door was raised, and while guards kept the fans back, the limo drove into the Met Center. The garage door was closed. Only then could Gretzky, his mother, his sister, his aunt, McNall and a couple of other team representatives get into the car.

By the time the door opened again, the limo had been turned around and was able to inch forward, through the crowd, up the ramp and on to the airport.

It’s like this everywhere he goes. There is no end to the demand for this 27-year-old hockey player.

Gretzky’s wedding last summer was treated as a royal event in Canada. The smiling faces of Wayne and his bride, Janet Jones, were on every newspaper, magazine and TV screen in the country for weeks.

Then there was the press conference to announce that he had been traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles. The pictures of Gretzky in tears, full color pictures, made every front page.

His debut in Los Angeles was an emotional night. When he skated onto the ice he was, literally, in the spotlight.

When he walked back into the Edmonton arena for the first time as a King, it was a happening of major proportion, as if the Queen herself had arrived. And he was still being asked to explain those “99 Tears.”

It has been quite a time. A wedding, a trade, a funeral, a birth. . . . Throw in some uncomfortable controversy with his new coach and more victories than anyone had expected.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” Gretzky said. “A lot of ups and downs. But I’ve had my friends and my family sticking with me. I have to give a lot of credit to my wife. She has stuck behind me and kept me sane the last 6 months. It’s been an emotional time for both my wife and me.”

Incredibly, Gretzky has maintained his cool, calm, professional demeanor through the ups and the downs. He’s unshakeable.

Before he faced the fans Saturday night, he first went through his daily ritual of facing a crush of reporters in the locker room. The media expected time with him, too, for his daily dose of notebooks, microphones and TV lights.

He answered questions about the game just lost, the goal just denied, as equably as he answered the never-ending questions about how he has adjusted to the trade made last August. How he feels about being with the Kings.

“I’ve enjoyed it,” Gretzky said. “When I look back to the press conference, when people were expecting us to finish fourth this season, maybe third, and I realize we’re battling Calgary and Edmonton for the lead, that’s a good feeling.”

Detroit Coach Jacques Demers registers another vote for Gretzky in the never-ending Gretzky-Lemieux debate.

In a column in the Detroit News last Friday, Demers listed Gretzky as the greatest player in the game, followed by Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He noted: “(Lemieux) will pass Gretzky, but only when Gretzky gets older. But he will pass him. The advantage Mario has over other players is his size. You have to consider, though, that Gretzky has won four Stanley Cups and Lemieux hasn’t been in the playoffs yet.”

To avoid problems, he left out all his Red Wings. His list of the best continued, in order: Jari Kurri of Edmonton, Mark Messier of Edmonton, Bernie Nicholls of the Kings, Ray Bourque of Boston, Luc Robitaille of the Kings, Denis Savard of Chicago, Dale Hawerchuk of Winnipeg, Jimmy Carson of Edmonton, Ed Olczyk of Toronto, Cam Neely of Boston, Rick Tocchet of Philadelphia, Doug Gilmour of Calgary and Pat LaFontaine of the Islanders.

Quebec named Jean Perron its new coach after Ron Lapointe resigned because of a tumor in his kidney.

Perron, the Nordiques’ assistant general manager, coached the Montreal Canadiens until last spring.

Lapointe, 39, went to a Quebec City hospital for tests last Thursday morning and then was told of his illness. That night he was behind the bench, but not coaching, as the Nordiques beat the Canadiens, 6-4.

Lapointe said at the news conference to announce the change: “It’s a day I’ll never forget. I got a slap in the face in the morning and a win at night. . . . Nothing is over, that’s for sure.”

It was reported last Thursday that John Ferguson, former general manager of the Winnipeg Jets, was offered the jobs of coach and general manager with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Montreal News reported that Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard made Ferguson a 3-year offer through an associate.

But Ballard had yet to dismiss Coach John Brophy or General Manager Gord Stellick at the time of that report.

When Brophy was fired Monday, George Armstrong, a scout within the organization, was named interim coach and was behind the bench when the Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues that night, 4-3. But he doesn’t take the credit for ending the team’s 10-game winless streak.

Armstrong said: “You can get me for standing behind the bench, but you can’t really get me for coaching. . . . I walked up and down the bench and I guess you might say I’m the best cheerleader in the league.”

Armstrong played for the Maple Leafs when they won the Stanley Cup in 1967. He retired in 1971 and coached juniors until becoming an NHL scout.

Ballard said that if a coaching change were going to be made, it wouldn’t happen before Christmas.

Dino Ciccarelli keeps saying that he wants the Minnesota North Stars to trade him. Don’t expect any argument from columnist Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, who wrote after a game last week:

“Ciccarelli’s adolescent behavior has become an embarrassment. . . . I saw yapping, whining, pouting and diving, all for no worthwhile purpose. I saw the same old Dino--28, soon to be 29, showing maturity that would make him look right at home in a between-periods peewee scrimmage.”

And to think that the North Stars asked, before this season started, if the Kings would like to trade Bernie Nicholls, currently leading the NHL in goals, for Ciccarelli.

Hockey Notes

Hockey fans in Pittsburgh have missed out on Wayne Gretzky 2 years in a row. Last season, when he was with Edmonton, he missed the Oilers’ only game in Pittsburgh because of an injury, and this season he missed the Kings’ only game in Pittsburgh because of his grandmother’s funeral. . . . Gretzky said that his grandmother, Mary Gretzky, used to sit in a chair and play goalie for him when he practiced his shooting. . . . Petr Klima has been going through some extreme highs and lows lately. Last Thursday night, he went to the airport to meet his parents, Josef and Kveta Klima, for a happy reunion. He had not seen them since he defected from Czechoslovakia in August, 1985. The next day he was in court, pleading guilty to a drunken driving charge and leaving an accident scene. It was his second conviction.

Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers got off to a slow start this season but has now led his team to three straight victories while extending his personal unbeaten streak to seven. . . . Troy Gamble, who was in goal for the Vancouver Canucks’ 5-1 victory over Minnesota Monday night, was playing just his second NHL game. He was called up from the Milwaukee Admirals of the International Hockey League because Kirk McLean was ill. Gamble lost his first NHL game for Vancouver 2 years ago, giving up 4 goals in a loss to Edmonton. But since then the Canucks have sent him to the Soviet Union to work with Vladislav Tretiak. After the victory, Gamble said: “I’d like to thank the parent organization for its patience with me.” And Vancouver Coach Bob McCammon said: “Credit the win to the goaltender. I’ve got a ticket back to Milwaukee in my pocket, but I think we’ll keep him around for a few more days.”