Robitaille Changes Lines and Helps Kings Beat Jets

It was not the Kings’ greatest offensive game of the year. But it beat their last one. It also helped them beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1, Friday night.

Only two nights earlier, the Kings had lost, 5-0, to Calgary at the Forum, the first time they had been shut out in 262 consecutive regular-season games.

How impotent were they?

Wayne Gretzky, the fourth-leading goal scorer of all time in the National Hockey League, did not even take a shot.

Beginning an 11-day, six-game road trip with games Friday night and Sunday night at the Winnipeg Arena, Coach Tom Webster figured the Kings needed more than a change of scenery, particularly since there is so little of that here.

So when the team arrived at the arena for its Friday morning skate, Webster revealed that left winger Luc Robitaille would join the line centered by Gretzky. The change was not made for the benefit of Gretzky, who was the league’s third-leading scorer this season before Friday night.

“We needed goals from Luc,” Webster said. “We thought we could get him in the open and let Wayne get him the puck. He’s been struggling with his confidence.”

Maybe that is the reason Webster is the coach this season instead of Robbie Ftorek, whose frequent and frequently criticized line changes did not always work as well as this one.

Robitaille scored the Kings’ first two goals against the Jets, although the first could hardly be credited to his new line considering that it came while he was playing with his old partners, Bernie Nicholls and Dave Taylor.

Before Friday night, Robitaille’s four goals had come on power plays. So did this one. Taylor made the play with a shot from the left side that bounced off Jet defender Randy Carlyle’s skate and right to Robitaille, who had no trouble slipping it past goaltender Tom Draper for the game’s first score with 12:55 remaining in the second period.

Winnipeg’s Pat Elynuik, the right winger who leads the team in points, scored the equalizer 52 seconds later. But Robitaille came through for the Kings again with 10:42 remaining in the second.

That one definitely should help his confidence. Playing on the line with Gretzky and Bob Kudelski, Robitaille received the puck at the blue line, feinted as if he might pass, then fired a slapshot past a bewildered Draper for his first even-strength goal of the season. Kudelski and Gretzky both were credited with assists.

“I don’t think I’ve been playing my best hockey,” said Robitaille, who was benched for a spell during the Kings’ 7-4 loss Sunday at Chicago.

“Things weren’t going my way, and I lost my confidence. If you’re not confident when you’ve got the puck, you’re not going to score. But it makes a difference when you play with Wayne because you know you’re going to get the puck if you’re open.”

Robitaille did not take credit for the victory. He gave that to goaltender Kelly Hrudey, which was not a bad choice considering his 35 saves.

“He was standing on his head tonight,” Robitaille said. “He was unbelievable.”

About the only mistake that Hrudey made was when he went to the wrong side of the arena while trying to find the Kings’ bench during a second-period break.

Webster almost doubled over in laughter. That proved to be a tension-breaker, which the Kings desperately needed since, at the time, they had gone four periods and then some without scoring.

“This game has to be fun,” said Hrudey, who had never played a game at Winnipeg Arena despite his more than six years of experience. “When something funny happens, laugh about it.”

Something funny did not happen with 2:52 remaining in the game, when Kings defender Steve Duchesne was called for a two-minute delay of game penalty for slapping the puck into the mezzanine level while trying to clear it.

“That was a brutal call,” Duchesne said. “The puck was bouncing, and I was just trying to get it out.”

Fortunately for the Kings, the Jets are the worst team in the league on the power play. They thought they had solved their problems with three goals in six power-play situations in Wednesday night’s 6-4 victory here over Washington. But they could not capitalize Friday night on three chances, including this one.

The Jets and most of the 15,525 fans at the arena thought otherwise with 1:25 remaining in the game, 33 seconds remaining in the power play, when defender Fredrik Olausson’s shot from the left wing hit Hrudey in the shoulder and fell in front of the goal mouth, where there was a scrum.

Some of the Jets began celebrating, while others began pleading for the goal light to go on. But it never did. Hrudey was sitting on the puck.

After killing the power play, the Kings scored the clincher with only 36 seconds remaining. Gretzky skated down the right side, took two defenders with him, and then passed to an open Kudelski, whose shot beat Draper. It was Kudelski’s team-leading eighth goal and Gretzky’s team-leading 20th point.

King Notes

It would not have been unusual for these two teams to go into overtime. In eight meetings last season, six were tied at the end of regulation. Four remained that way after the overtime.

In a 6-4 victory over Washington Wednesday night, Jet goaltender Daniel Berthiaume gave up four goals on the Capitals’ first 10 shots. He was booed by a crowd of 8,988, the smallest ever for the Jets here. Tom Draper started in his place Friday night and had 20 saves.