Fox Hoping to Make Successful Return : After Working in Front Office, King Right Wing Eager for Ice Time

Jim Fox hobbles out of the dressing room with huge ice bags taped to both knees, limiting him to the kind of stiff-legged gait that the Frankenstein monster made popular.

But unlike the monster, Fox is smiling his way through this camp d’entrainement as they say around here.

The long year, the tough year, is behind him. The knees have been mended. It’s going to be like old times.

At least, that’s what he’s hoping for. It’s up to him to make good use of every minute of ice time this fall to persuade the coaches that he can still do it.

It’s risky business sitting out a whole season. People tend to think you’re finished.

After undergoing arthroscopic surgery on both knees, Fox spent all of last season in the Kings’ front office. Not just sitting there, but working.

He’d show up every day in his suit and tie, carrying his leather appointment book. He would busy himself setting up appearances and luncheon speeches for the players, seeing that they showed up, seeing that they had all the materials they needed, then filing reports on how it went and how he thought the Kings’ organization had benefited.

Now, is that any way for a jock to act? That’s how you launch a second career. Jocks on the injured list hang around the bench in sweat clothes, looking wistful and pathetic and saying how bored they are.

So when, at the end of July, the Kings signed Larry Robinson and Fox came forward and voluntarily gave up his No. 19, there was some reason to think that he could give it up because he had no further need for it.

Oh, how he cringed at those suggestions. And how he cringed when he was introduced as a “former King.” And how he cringed when he even had to be introduced.

How soon they forget.

Fox played for the Kings for eight seasons. In three of those seasons, he scored 30 goals. He still ranks fifth on the Kings’ all-time scoring list with 477 points on 185 goals and 292 assists.

He was a pretty darned good right wing for a lot of years. Unfortunately for his fame factor, all those years pre-dated the trade for Wayne Gretzky, and a lot of L.A. fans hadn’t yet tuned in.

While on the speaking circuit, Fox could always get a laugh by asking if everyone noticed the marked improvement of the team during the 1988-’89 season, trying to take credit because “it was the year I sat out, that made a big difference.”

The Rodney Dangerfield approach is a twist for Fox, who is remembered in these parts as a superstar.

Fox had been the 1979-80 player of the year and the leading scorer in the Ontario Junior Hockey Assn., playing with the Ottawa 67s.

Fox was hailed in Hull as the hometown boy, seeing as how Ottawa is just across the river.

The Kings drafted him out of Ottawa, made him a first-round draft selection after that season and signed him in August of 1980.

He came in with record numbers, a reputation as a “scoring machine,” and with comparisons to King star Marcel Dionne, another small but productive scorer.

Fox jumped right into NHL action, playing in 71 games his rookie season.

Even with his 1985-’86 season shortened to 39 games because of injury, he has averaged 71 games for his career.

“After carrying the team for eight years, something was bound to go,” he joked.

His knees went. First one, then the other.

At the end of 1987-’88, he started getting a sharp pain in his right knee and missed the last 10 games of the season. He had surgery to correct the arthritic condition, the wearing away inside the knee. He has had arthroscopic surgery twice on each knee to smooth out the surface and make them glide more easily.

“My left knee is 100%, but it’s the one that is more sore now,” Fox said. “When I’m on the ice I feel good, and it doesn’t feel like I’m favoring either leg, but the next morning, my left knee is more sore, so I guess I am putting more on it.

“When I’m on the ice, I feel 100%.”

If he can skate like that throughout the exhibition season, Fox could get back on the team in time to bask in some of the new-found glory.

“It’s tough, mentally, to lose for eight years,” Fox said. “All of a sudden, we make the acquisitions we need to make the team that much stronger, and I’m not there. I would like to have been part of it.

“I’m working to get back into the NHL. You know the old song--’You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone? I used to think I wanted to play two more years in the NHL. Retire after 10 years. When you’re out, and you’re missing the game you say, ‘hey, I want to play as long as I can.’ ”

If only the knees hold up.

“I really think my legs are fine,” Fox said. “I’ve worked awfully hard on them. They just get a little bit achy at times.

“I hope that working 16 months in therapy wasn’t a waste of time.”

King Notes

Tickets for the Kings’ only exhibition game at the Forum, against the Edmonton Oilers Sept. 30, will go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. along with the individual game tickets available for the 40 regular-season home games. Fans will be allowed to line up no earlier than 9 a.m., at which time random numbers will be distributed. Tickets are available at $18 and $10. . . . Keith Crowder will be out for about four days after suffering a cervical strain and sprained rib cartilage during Wednesday night’s scrimmage. . . . Dave Taylor will be out for two to three days because of a strained back muscle. . . . The Kings will play their second exhibition game tonight against the New York Rangers at Cincinnati.