For Kings: New Faces and Places

Every year about this time, the Kings have headed up the coast to Canada for a couple of weeks of training camp in Victoria, B.C., followed by about 10 exhibition games. And nobody has gotten too excited about either.

It’s just practice, just ice time, eh?

Not this time.

This time, camp has been moved to Hull, Quebec, home of the Olympiques, the major junior hockey team owned by Mr. Wayne Gretzky. (Even Montreal Coach Pat Burns, who got his big break with the Olympiques, called him Mr. Gretzky when referring to him as an owner, not a player.)

The move, itself, has folks in the province of Quebec pretty excited. They’re expected to pack the house daily to see the Great One practice. And to see Larry Robinson, the All-Star defensemen who left the Montreal Canadiens after 17 years to join the Kings as a free agent this summer.

Then, there’s the new coach, Tom Webster. He’ll be worth watching as he gets to know his players and they get to know him.

Then, too, there’s the 11-game exhibition schedule, which will take the Kings to some familiar ice in Canada but also on a barnstorming sweep across the United States, where they will cash in on Gretzky’s popularity. Sellout crowds are expected in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Phoenix and San Diego.

The Kings used to spend about $500,000 on camp and exhibition travel. This year, they’ll make about $1 million.

For added interest, several of those cities have long been waiting to get a National Hockey League team and will be out to impress King owner Bruce McNall, who is on the NHL’s expansion committee.

It promises to be quite an interesting training season.

And a short one.

As Webster was explaining just the other day: “Because we’re playing so many games and doing so much traveling, our practice time is going to be limited.”

“Oh, shoot!” Bernie Nicholls said under his breath, unable to hold back the smile that followed.

After Webster had explained that, with the veteran team the Kings have, all that practice really isn’t necessary, Nicholls further explained that, as excited as he is about the season and the prospect of having another like his last, when he scored a record 70 goals for the Kings, practice skating is tedious.

Nicholls has been getting in shape by working out on roller skates on the sidewalks of Whittier. And he has been at the Kings’ practice facility in Culver City every time it has been made available for the players who stayed in the Southland to skate on their own over the last couple of weeks. Still, there’s some getting in shape to do at those early practices, and that hurts.

“It will be a lot more fun to play more games, especially in those cities that don’t usually have hockey,” Nicholls said. “There should be a lot of enthusiasm. Actually, I’m looking forward to that. . . .

“I’m looking forward to the season more. I think we’re going to have a very good team. We have the best offense in the league, and now we have one of the best goaltenders in the league. Our defense has really improved. It will be interesting to see it all coming together.”

The Kings will have 65 players in camp when they take to the ice for the first time today, including veteran defenseman Barry Beck, 32, who has agreed to a contract. The Kings obtained the rights to Beck, who has not played since 1986 because of a shoulder injury, from the New York Rangers. Missing however, will be wing John Tonelli, who is a holdout.