THE NHL : Taylor, Nickson Take Kings’ Fans Back to the Future

Had enough of those never-ending pregame, postgame, halftime or between-periods interviews?

Ready to scream if you hear one more athlete talk about taking them one at a time, playing with his back to the wall or giving 110%?

What’s a sportscaster to do?

Well, Nick Nickson and his Prime Ticket producer, Bob Borgen, devised a unique alternative that deserves mention before it fades away.

Their problem was acute. Faced with long breaks between periods every game, they needed to do more than ask Wayne Gretzky for the 99th time how it felt to score a goal.

So, Borgen came up with Dave Taylor’s lost interview.

Supposedly discovered by Nickson while cleaning out the garage, it is presented as a 1977 interview between the sportscaster and Taylor, then a King rookie.

The tape is scratchy. Both Nickson and Taylor have enough hair to join a rock group.

But, in reality, the pair donned wigs recently and cut a tape that was doctored to give it that aged appearance.

The result is a skit “Saturday Night Live” would be proud of.

Some excerpts:

Taylor, wearing an old purple and gold King uniform: “Hockey players are so tough and rough, we should actually be wearing black uniforms, like the Los Angeles Raiders.”

Nickson, realizing that the Raiders hadn’t moved yet in ‘77: “You mean the Oakland Raiders, don’t you? Oh well, you’re new to the area.”

Taylor: “One of the best players ever to play in the juniors will be coming out in the next year, I understand, a guy named Wayne Gretzky.”

Nickson: “I hear he’s not that big, not that strong. Do you think a guy like that could actually make an impact?”

Taylor: “From what I hear, he seems to have eyes in the back of his head. I think he’s the type of guy who may break all the records. Maybe one day score 80 or 90 goals and, who knows, 200 points.”

Nickson: “Sounds like quite a lot for a small-town kid.”

Taylor: “He’s always played in a small town, but I think he belongs in a big city. Maybe one day in Los Angeles.”

Nickson: “Well, that’d be something. You seem to be very opinionated for a first-year player. Your thoughts on the future of the game.”

Taylor: “A lot of players I played with in college are looking forward to playing on the Olympic team. I think three years from now in Lake Placid, the U.S. team, having home-ice advantage and just playing a one-game shot, has a real good chance for a gold medal.”

Nickson: “Have you had an opportunity to meet any of the fans out here in Los Angeles?”

Taylor: “As a matter of fact, I have. I met an interesting fellow the other day. His name is Bruce and he gave me a coin as a souvenir.”

(Bruce, of course, is Bruce McNall, who started out as a coin collector and became rich enough to add the Kings to his collection two years ago.)

Trading places, Part II: Bernie Nicholls might have left the Kings, but controversy has followed him to New York.

The Kings were the target of heavy criticism, some of it thrown by Nicholls himself, when they traded their high-scoring center to the New York Rangers for Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato.

But now, the criticism comes from one of Nicholls’ new teammates, center Carey Wilson, who has seen his playing time diminished by Nicholls’ arrival.

“It’s frustrating to . . . have so much ice time taken away, because of the circumstances, not because of your play,” Wilson told Newsday. “What can I do? I don’t want to rock the boat. What is good is what I had before. What is not good is what I have now. It’s like I’m the odd man out.”

Through 50 games this season, Nicholls had 30 goals and 48 assists for 78 points. In the same period, Wilson played 22 games, had five goals and 12 assists for 17 points.

Name game: With a new arena about to go up in San Jose, and hopes of landing an NHL expansion franchise, a local contest is being run to name the new structure.

The best entry has to be the one that took into consideration San Jose’s struggle to escape the imposing shadows of big-city neighbors San Francisco and Oakland.

The name suggested is the San Jose Inferiority Complex.