Gretzky Honors Marine : Hockey: He wears his cousin’s initials on his helmet during Kings’ 4-3 loss to Whalers.

The letters K.H. were on Wayne Gretzky’s helmet Wednesday night.

And on his mind.

The letters stand for Ken Hopper, a cousin of Gretzky’s and a U.S. Marine pilot from North Carolina on duty in the Persian Gulf.

It was Hopper and people like him who occupied the thoughts of Gretzky and his teammates Wednesday after the Kings had lost to the Hartford Whalers, 4-3, at the Hartford Civic Center.

That ended a seven-game King winning streak, one short of the club record, but the somber feeling in the clubhouse had a lot more to do with events halfway around the world.

“It was kind of an eerie feeling for both teams,” Gretzky said. “This game was kind of secondary. We were more concerned with what was going on over there.”

Gretzky heard that the U.S.-led attack had begun just before taking the ice, but he wasn’t surprised.

“My cousin had called me Sunday night,” Gretzky said, “to tell me (he thought) it was going to happen.”

With games scheduled for today and the All-Star game on Saturday, the NHL, through a spokesman, has said it will be business as usual.

Gretzky thinks that’s wrong.

“If I had any say, I’d cancel the game on Saturday,” Gretzky said, “and send everybody home to reevaluate. That’s just my opinion. The game is great for Chicago. It’s great for hockey, but this is all secondary.”

“It was tough for everybody in the stadium tonight. It was tough for everybody in the country, and around the world.”

Although a crowd of 14,893, one of Hartford’s largest of the season, showed up, it was unusually quiet at the start of the game.

Down on the ice, King goalie Kelly Hrudey felt it.

“I thought about it for the first three minutes,” Hrudey said. “It’s hard to get out of your mind. You’re definitely thinking about a major crisis more than a hockey game. But the game does pay the bills.”

King wing Tony Granato expressed similar sentiments.

“It gets you thinking about things that are more important,” he said. “You’re just thinking, we’re out here playing a hockey game and those guys are going off to battle. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

The scene in the Civic Center was almost surreal at times.

When President Bush addressed the nation, half the monitors in the open press box were showing the President, and the other half the game.

In the middle of the speech, the Whalers scored. Those people closest to the ice stood and cheered.

But some of those in the upper sections end were turned around toward the press box, straining to hear the presidential address.

The crowd cheered for the Whalers, but it also chanted, “USA! USA!”

There was plenty to cheer about for a team that began play fourth in the Adams Division at 19-22-5, had only a 9-10-3 record at home, had scored a division-low 133 goals and had lost both previous games to the Kings this season.

All those numbers meant nothing as the Whalers capitalized on the power play, the area that had been most dominating of late for the Kings, who are still Smythe Division leaders although their record dropped to 26-15-5 as they suffered their first defeat since Jan. 2.

After Luc Robitaille opened the scoring with his 23rd goal, Hartford scored twice on power plays.

The Kings had stopped all 20 power plays attempted against them in the three previous games and 50 of 53 over the last nine games before Wednesday.

Pat Verbeek’s team-high 24th goal and Ron Francis’ 15th both came on the power play and both came in the second period after the Whalers had managed only four shots on goal in the first.

Paul Cyr added his seventh goal in the period to move Hartford into a 3-1 lead.

After Tomas Sandstrom scored his 26th goal and fourth in two games, Chris Govedaris responded with his first of the season.

King defenseman Rob Blake, who had been scoreless for 38 games before breaking through with a goal in the Kings’ last game Monday night, made it two for two with his fourth goal to cut the margin to 4-3 with a bit more than 16 minutes to play.

The Kings never got closer on the scoreboard, although they got awfully close on the ice.

Outshooting the Whalers, 33-24, the Kings made one last furious charge in the final minute, Coach Tom Webster pulling Hrudey to add an additional skater.

With just four seconds to play, and Whaler goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz out in front of the net, King center Bob Kudelski saw an opening and fired from about 10 feet out in the slot.

The puck seemed headed for the net, but, at the last instant, hit the left post, bouncing away.

And taking the Kings’ winning streak with it.

It was a disappointing result, but Gretzky was more concerned with the results in the Persian Gulf.

And the fate of a pilot named Hopper.