Gretzky Contributes on Night of Surprises

The Kings used a handful of surprises as well as four power-play goals to end their 10-game winless streak here with a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.

Wayne Gretzky was in. Jari Kurri was out.

Goaltender Robb Stauber was in. Charlie Huddy was out.

Originally, Gretzky and Stauber weren’t going to play against the Blackhawks. But Gretzky used his powers of persuasion with his doctors. And King Coach Barry Melrose listened to his assistant, Cap Raeder, and started Stauber instead of his original choice, David Goverde.

Kurri hasn’t scored in 12 games and has one goal in the last 19. Huddy, for his part, has been costing the Kings goals with some questionable defensive decisions. Both players were surprised at being scratched and obviously weren’t pleased. Kurri said he was scratched once during his final season in Edmonton and it happened to Huddy several years ago with the Oilers.

“I’m not happy about it,” Kurri said. “I’d rather be out there right now.”

Said Huddy: “He (Melrose) said I was playing like (bleep). He said he wasn’t pleased with the way I was playing.”

Sunday, all of Melrose’s moves seemed to work out for the Kings (21-16-5). Still, Melrose was saying this victory hasn’t solved all the Kings’ problems.

“Nope, it’s (just) a win,” he said. “When you win the Stanley Cup, then it’s a big load off your mind. . . . It’s going to help take a lot of pressure off the guys.”

His players were noticeably relieved. It had been almost a month since the Kings won a game as they went 0-8-2. Their last victory had been Dec. 12 against St. Louis.

For them, it meant a lot.

“Big time,” said forward Tony Granato, who scored twice and added an assist in front of a Chicago Stadium crowd of 17,705, which included about 30 of his friends and and relatives from his hometown of Downers Grove, Ill.

“This was the perfect building for us. There’s nowhere to hide, if you don’t show up.”

Said defenseman Paul Coffey: “We’re going through a bad slump. But by no means are we out of it. It’d be ludicrous for this to keep going--we’re too good a team. It’s great, but it doesn’t mean we can go into Ottawa and just put our sticks on the ice. I think we played tonight the way we played the first 20 games of the season.”

Gretzky, who was a spectator during that first stretch of the season because of an injured back, agreed with Coffey’s assessment. When he first returned to the lineup last week, Gretzky said he was going to play the first two games and sit out against Chicago.

He wanted to play but didn’t want to push his luck. After the first two games, Gretzky decided to persuade the doctors to let him play.

“I love playing here,” said Gretzky, who had two assists on Sunday. “The last thing I wanted to do is bail out on the guys. I really wanted to be a part of it.”

So did Stauber. Melrose first said he was going to give rookie David Goverde his second consecutive start based on his decent performance against Winnipeg on Friday. Raeder spoke to Melrose and said he thought Stauber deserved the chance to pull the Kings out of their long slump.

Stauber, who was 0-3-0 in his last three starts, hadn’t played since relieving Kelly Hrudey at the start of the second period in a 10-2 loss against Philadelphia on Dec. 29. He gave up six goals to the Flyers and allowed seven against the Sharks in his last starting assignment on Dec. 26.

Against the Blackhawks, Stauber faced 34 shots.

Granato scored the game-winner at 12:01 of the third, breaking the 4-4 tie when Gretzky chipped a pass from center-ice and sent him in on a breakaway. Granato then beat Chicago goaltender Ed Belfour between the pads for his second of the night and 16th of the season.