A Longshot Finally Gets a Shot

He was the 210th player taken in the NHL draft of 1975 and was personally welcomed to the club at a practice by new teammate Dave Hutchison, who flattened him like Canadian bacon. He got back up on his skates, frosted himself off and began a career that has lasted so long, he is now older than the team’s coach.

Dave.

A good-natured guy who tells you how lucky he has been and then says “knock wood” while rapping his temple with his knuckles, Dave Taylor gives the Kings additional incentive to win their first Stanley Cup. He is the Ernie Banks of California hockey. He is the one whose illustrious career lacks one thing--a championship ring.

Dave.

Win one for Dave, they say.

“Get a ring for Dave,” teammate Charlie Huddy says.

“Be nice to see us win one for Dave’s sake,” Jari Kurri says.

“Aren’t we the only ones who haven’t won one--me and Dave?” asks Luc Robitaille, laughing.

Inside a locker room occupied by a number of Stanley Cup winners, there are considerably more players who have never won one. Yet no one has hung around as long as Taylor, the King right wing who, while playing in nearly 1,100 games, has scored enough points to be ranked among the NHL’s top 30 of all time, has accumulated more penalty minutes than any King ever and has been sutured together by so much needlepoint that some of his teammates call him “Stitch.”

What he hasn’t sewn up is a title.

At 37, Taylor might retire this summer. He says the outcome of these playoffs won’t be the determining factor. He says he will see how he feels.

“Who knows?” Taylor asks with Banks-like enthusiasm. “It might be nice to go for two championships.”

Having sat out 34 games of this season because of a concussion, about all Taylor can do at this point is knock wood.

But why not?

“My whole career’s been a longshot,” he says.

Even this last season was. It began on the bench, beside a new coach who was yet to be convinced that Taylor was anything more than a relic who was kept around by the Kings for sentimental reasons. It was heart-wrenching for some to come to the rink when the season was beginning and discover that Taylor would not even be dressing for the game. After all, he was commencing his club-record 16th season, and still had sufficient pep that he had appeared in 77 of the previous season’s games.

Barry Melrose, the 36-year-old coach, respected his elder but was reluctant to play him. He willingly concedes he had to be persuaded.

“I never knew how good Dave Taylor was,” Melrose says.

“The more the second half of the season went along, the more I could see how useful he could be. Today he takes every tough defensive draw on our end. He’s out there on every key penalty-killing assignment. I respect Dave Taylor and what he’s done immensely. I can’t express it any better than that.”

It wasn’t until after his 37th birthday last December that the season came into focus for Taylor, who had suffered a concussion in mid-November that cost him 18 games. He returned for 17 games, then had a relapse and sat out the next 16. Not until March 16 did he return to the lineup.

Two months later, he and the Kings were heading for Round 3 of the playoffs.

“What a great feeling,” Taylor says. “To be honest, I was getting pretty tired of reading about our disappointments. This is a relief. Everybody’s in a good mood. The fans are cranked up, they’re rocking the house. I’ve been waiting 16 years for something like this. I’d like to make this one count.

“I look back at a couple of years ago when we scored 100-plus points during the season and got by Vancouver in the first round and then got bounced out by Edmonton in six games. I thought that was going to be our year. That one made me wonder if it was ever going to happen for the Kings while I was still around.”

Dave is still around. He has outlasted all the other Daves--Hutchison, Morrison, Schultz, Lewis, Amadio, Gans, Langevin, Pasin, (Tiger) Williams. This is the genuine Dave; accept no imitations.

No one has played more seasons for a pro team bearing Los Angeles’ name except Bill Russell of the Dodgers and Jackie Slater of the Rams.

“I might like to play one more after this,” Taylor says. “I’d like it to be here.”

To be a King once more.

Defending the crown.