THE NHL : They Call This a Great Slump

What’s wrong with Wayne Gretzky?

At first, it was just a whisper.

Now, it’s being asked in newspaper headlines. Especially in Canada, where any hint that Gretzky, still the pride of his native land, might be a mere mortal is treated as a national crisis.

Mike Tyson getting knocked out?

It happens.

Wayne Gretzky becoming the Late Great One at 29?

Never!

Let’s hasten to add that there is nothing to indicate the Kings’ center is in anything more than a normal slump.

True, he has gone pointless in nine games this season, has scored just one goal in his past six games and has recorded only two assists in his past four.

He missed a crucial breakaway in Monday night’s 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs and has generally been ineffective during the past few weeks.

But to put it all in perspective, with 23 games left, Gretzky has 29 goals and 78 assists, and is second in the league in scoring with 107 points.

That would be a season worth talking about for most players.

But when you have set almost every major NHL record, have won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player nine times, have been on four Stanley Cup champions, and have signed a $30-million contract, the standards are a bit different.

After Monday’s performance, columnist Mark Harding wrote in the Toronto Star: “Until now, the dispatches from NHL boroughs across North America have been nothing more than hearsay. From near and far came bulletins that Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, No. 99, was tired, that his game wasn’t up to snuff. That he was listless, unenthused . . .

“It was all a bit much to believe. The Great One tired, not putting out 100%? Inconceivable. In a slump? When pigs fly, perhaps.”

After watching Gretzky, Harding went on to write: “He looked, dare we say it, human. An ordinary superstar.”

Voted the Player of the Decade in the 1980s, Gretzky has had a rough start in the ‘90s.

His troubles began at the All-Star game in Pittsburgh last month when he missed an optional practice on Saturday morning.

“The Great One became the Invisible One. . . . So much for his pristine image,” wrote a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter.

Another reporter suggested that Gretzky must have been watching Saturday morning cartoons.

“I guess if you don’t go to practice in the morning,” Gretzky responded, “it’s a sin. I had more trouble missing a practice than I ever had playing.”

His troubles continued in the All-Star game as he went pointless while his growing rival for the national spotlight, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins, scored four goals.

Gretzky, who once scored four goals himself in an All-Star game, was good-natured when asked about his Pittsburgh performance.

“It’s one game,” he said. “It’s not going to make or break my career. When I retire, they are not going to say, yes, he had a good career, but he had a rough night in Pittsburgh one time.”

But Gretzky admitted he was worn out, both physically and emotionally, the latter because of the trade of his closest friend on the team, Bernie Nicholls, during the All-Star weekend.

Gretzky’s troubles have continued and have paralleled a troubled period for his club. Since Jan. 1, the Kings are 5-11-2 and have fallen into fourth place in the Smythe Division.

“When Wayne Gretzky has troubles, it’s headlines across Canada and the United States,” Gretzky said. “Sure, I went through a streak where I didn’t feel 100%. I go through it every year. But because we’re losing, it’s magnified. That goes with the territory.”

Even one of Gretzky’s hallowed records seems about to fall. Lemieux has scored at least one point in 46 straight games, threatening Gretzky’s mark of 51.

Gretzky has had a problem in Los Angeles finding a right wing to complement him as well as Jari Kurri did with the Edmonton Oilers.

The last man to try, Mikko Makela, wound up on the bench Monday night. But Gretzky is hopeful that Tomas Sandstrom, obtained in the Nicholls trade with the New York Rangers, may be the one.

“It seems like we’ve tried everyone there,” Gretzky said. “It’s not easy to play with Wayne Gretzky. People get nervous playing with me.

“Tomas is not nervous. He can play. He’s an All-Star. Now teams just can’t focus on me any more. They can’t pound me night after night. Maybe (Tomas) doesn’t want the pressure, but he’s going to take it.”

One solution to ease Gretzky’s burden has been to go with four lines instead of three, and with three lines instead of two on special teams.

But that really hasn’t meant significantly less ice time for Gretzky. For example, in the Kings’ previous game against Toronto, with three lines going, Gretzky played 28 minutes.

Monday night, with four lines, he played 26 minutes 20 seconds.

Cap Raeder, one of the assistant coaches running the Kings while Tom Webster is home with an ear injury, thinks any talk of Gretzky’s game declining is ridiculous.

“He’s only human,” said Rader of Gretzky’s recent slump. “Maybe it is (a slump) for someone like him. But I don’t look at it as any big deal.”

Monday night, Gretzky took personal responsibility for his team’s losing streak, but Raeder doesn’t buy that, either.

“We look at it as all 20 guys playing together,” Raeder said, “and every one of them, along with the coaches, are to blame when we don’t do well.”

Not quite.

When you’re called the Great One, you’re not just one of 20.

No one--not Tyson, not Gretzky--can be great all the time.

But having reached a level of perfection as they did, anything less becomes failure.