Season Without Spice : Kings Didn’t Get Offense They Expected From Kurri

Before he even put on his new uniform, there was talk of a Stanley Cup. Before he even stepped onto the ice, there was a prediction of 50 goals. And before he ever skated with his new line, there were comparisons with the greatest lines of all time.

People were waiting for big things from Jari Kurri.

Seven months after his arrival, they are still waiting.

When the Kings got Kurri from the Edmonton Oilers through the Philadelphia Flyers in a complicated, costly, three-team trade last May, owner Bruce McNall hoped he had secured the last element he needed to win the Cup.

It wasn’t cheap.

McNall had to give up two key performers from the Kings’ division-winning team--center Steve Kasper and defenseman Steve Duchesne--to get Kurri. On top of that, McNall signed his new, first-line right wing to a $3.75-million, four-year contract, beginning with $800,000 this season.

The Kings’ owner figured it was a bargain. After all, hadn’t Kurri and Wayne Gretzky passed the puck back and forth for a decade in Edmonton as they skated to four Stanley Cups and a book full of records?

Now they would be reunited in silver and black, along with Tomas Sandstrom, a 45-goal scorer the previous year, to form what was already being hailed as “the Great Line.”

Then came opening night.

Kurri looked worth every bit of the cost. He began his King career in Winnipeg with a hat trick and could easily have had four goals that night.

“It’s going to be fun,” Gretzky said.

Not exactly.

From that bright opening, it was fade to black.

Kurri struggled all season offensively, scoring only 20 more goals.

In all, he appeared in 73 regular-season games in his 11th NHL season, finishing with career-low totals in goals (23), assists (37) and points (60).

“It has been a disappointing year,” Kurri said, taking a break from preparing for the opening game of the playoffs Saturday night at the Forum against the Edmonton Oilers. “You’d better believe it. It’s been really hard. It’s just not there.”

In his salad days with the Oilers, Kurri would take a sharp pass from Gretzky and one-time it past a helpless goalie. With the Kings, the puck would squirt off Kurri’s stick or bounce over it.

His shot would be wide of the net, or, worse yet, he wouldn’t shoot at all, taking the safer route by passing off. The old fire and aggressiveness were lacking.

One thing remained unchanged.

Kurri was always known as a two-way player and he didn’t disappoint in that category, continuing to be a tough defensive forward.

But that wasn’t enough.

“We didn’t pay him that kind of money just to be a defensive forward,” King General Manager Rogie Vachon said.

Vachon was so concerned by Christmas that he called Kurri in for a chat.

“I told him to relax and not worry about scoring goals every game,” Vachon said.

But Vachon said the problem was more than merely tension. He was convinced that Kurri had become too preoccupied with his defense.

“I wanted him to start playing more offense,” Vachon said. “The coaches might not be happy to hear that, but I thought he was staying back too much as the third guy. He was not coming up where the scoring chances are.”

Coach Tom Webster concurs.

“He will try to back-check and take care of our own end,” Webster said. “But then he will get caught in between and wind up doing nothing.”

Vachon sees other problems.

“He’s not shooting as much as he used to. Before (in Edmonton), when Wayne would set him up, he was just firing. Now, he was too selective. If it was not a great angle, he would make another pass and, sometimes, we would not get a shot at all. He put fear into goaltenders for so many years. But this year, he didn’t take advantage of his reputation.”

Vachon saw a parallel with his own years on the ice. After a distinguished career as a goalie with the Kings, Vachon signed as a free agent with the Detroit Red Wings after the 1977-78 season.

“I felt the pressure,” Vachon said. “You are making so much more money, you feel you have to do that much more. You try to overachieve. If you don’t do even more than you did before, you feel you have let the team down.”

Kurri agrees.

“Maybe I put too much pressure on myself,” he said. “When the season is not going well, you find yourself doing things you shouldn’t do. You wind up not playing your own position.

“But I can’t put my head down. I’ve got to look ahead and get better. It’s as simple as that.”

It is not simple for Kurri to even talk about his problems. The native of Finland is a soft-spoken, extremely private man who tries to keep the highs and lows to himself.

“He’s a very quiet person,” Gretzky said. “The best thing to do is to leave him alone and leave him in his own space. The more you talk to him and the more you tell him what you think is wrong with him, the more you give him to worry about.”

Still, plenty of others have offered their opinions, asked for or not.

Kurri left Edmonton after winning a fifth Cup in 1989-90 to play for Milan in the Italian League. Dissatisfaction with his Oiler contract, the chance to fulfill a longtime desire to play in Europe and the opportunity to compete for his native country in hockey’s World Championships were all factors in his decision. But some wondered whether a season of European-style hockey might have severely altered Kurri’s game.

Others wondered if he could have simply lost it at 31. Still others pointed to Gretzky’s slow start, the worst of his career, as a mitigating factor in Kurri’s difficulties.

But the King right wing only shakes his head at all of the above and flatly says, “No excuses.”

Some haven’t been very subtle with their criticism.

There was the fan Kurri encountered earlier this season on a return trip to Edmonton.

“Jari! Jari!” the fan screamed when Kurri emerged from the dressing room.

When Kurri turned, the fan yelled, “What the hell is the matter with you?”

Kurri hopes to provide an answer in the playoffs, historically his time. He has scored 92 postseason goals, one short of the NHL record. And he had a lot to do with the 93 scored by the only man ahead of him--Gretzky.

“This is my second chance,” Kurri said, breaking into a smile for the first time at the thought of the playoffs.

Gretzky said: “I don’t worry about Jari Kurri. The bigger the game, the better he plays. That’s the way it’s been for 10 or 11 years.”

It hasn’t been the way it was for the last seven months, but if Kurri can really turn it around, starting Saturday, all will be forgiven.