Gretzky’s Back on the Road : Kings: In latest step of his comeback, he is still a hit with the fans. More important, he feels fine after first game.

The Wayne Gretzky show was on the road again for another first--the first time he will be playing away from Los Angeles since his return from a herniated disk in his back.

“I always get these first times around,” he said of tonight’s game against the Winnipeg Jets. “I’ve been around about 15 years and I keep getting these first-time-around things about every three years.”

There was, of course, his first game as a King in 1988. Gretzky’s first game back in Edmonton after the trade . . . and on and on.

Now that Gretzky is back in Canada the attention is magnified.

“He’s amazing,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “He’ll be sitting there in a group with (Paul) Coffey, Jari (Kurri) and Tony (Granato)--all great players--and people will only ask for one autograph--his. It’s very funny. It’s like people don’t even recognize the others.”

It happened again when Gretzky was sitting with Coffey and Granato on Thursday in the Calgary airport on the way to Winnipeg. Several people approached only Gretzky for an autograph.

For Gretzky, his first road game will be another step in the comeback. He played almost 18 minutes against Tampa Bay on Wednesday, taking shifts of 30 to 35 seconds. Thursday, Gretzky woke up and his back felt fine.

“I was a little more apprehensive when I went to bed after the game,” he said. “The last time I got the pain was when I was lying in bed and I got up in the middle of the night. I was more worried last night. My back is fine, I don’t feel any pain.”

Gretzky will try to talk the doctors into letting him play against Chicago on Sunday. Melrose, too, said he will give it a shot but doubts that Gretzky will be allowed to play in the confines of Chicago Stadium.

There had been talk that Gretzky was going to wear a specially designed protective flak jacket, but instead he wore some form of light padding.

“I can’t bend over with it (the jacket),” Gretzky said. “I bend over so far when I skate. What I’m wearing now is good and it’s protection.”

King Notes

The Kings recalled goaltender David Goverde from Phoenix and he will start against Winnipeg tonight. Goverde is 14-11-0 and has a 3.73 goals-against average in 27 games. Last season, he appeared in two games with the Kings. “We need just a good, solid game in net,” Coach Barry Melrose said. “That’s what we need more than anything else. If he (Goverde) comes up and plays great, he stays. That’s the way the system works.” Kelly Hrudey will be the backup against Winnipeg and Robb Stauber will sit out. . . . Melrose was not pleased with Warren Rychel, who made a brief return on Wednesday before receiving a five-minute major for spearing John Tucker and an automatic game-misconduct late in the first period. Tampa Bay scored on the ensuing power play to take a 4-0 lead. “His body was ready, but his mind is still on holiday,” Melrose said. . . . Forward Jim Thomson is suspended for one game because he received his third game misconduct of the season, on Wednesday against the Lightning. . . . Center Guy Leveque has been sent down to Phoenix.