Cheap Shots Fuel a Hairy Situation

War has been declared. A well-played game of playoff hockey here Monday night degenerated into a frontal assault on Toronto’s top player and a verbal attack on the visiting Kings that covered everything from their character to their hair.

Cheap shots and childish name-calling made Maple Leaf Gardens look more like Madison Square Garden, with players punching one another bloody and threatening future retaliation after Doug Gilmour of the Maple Leafs was knocked flat at full speed by the raised elbows of an onrushing Marty McSorley.

Toronto Coach Pat Burns gestured angrily as he rushed toward the Kings’ Barry Melrose, who apparently had provoked Burns by making faces at him from his rinkside seat.

“I lost a lot of respect for the Los Angeles Kings tonight,” said Burns, whose team won the game, 4-1.

According to players from both sides, Burns called Melrose “bush” and shouted profane insults regarding the King coach’s shaggy hair, including: “Why don’t you go get a . . . haircut?”

Melrose apparently had needled Burns by puffing out his cheeks in what was perceived to be a reference to the Toronto coach’s weight.

Later, when asked what Burns had been screaming at him, Melrose said: “He was ordering a hot dog.”

Blowing bubblegum bubbles in silence while Burns railed away at him, Melrose remained motionless on the bench. Burns then rushed toward him, shaking his fist. Asked why, Melrose practically giggled as he replied: “He went wild, that’s why.”

The hit on Gilmour was the obvious motive, but speculation also centered on a hit by Gilmour earlier in the season that left the Kings’ Tomas Sandstrom with a broken arm and resulted in Gilmour’s suspension. Said left wing Mark Osborne of the Maple Leafs: “It could be the Kings were looking for a little payback.”

Gilmour did not have the puck when McSorley came at him like a train late in the game, with the final score already on the scoreboard. Even with a three-goal lead, the Toronto star was still on the ice and had dropped the puck behind him for a trailing player when McSorley made his charge, elbows high.

“I’ve never seen that, never,” said Burns, who said he believed it to be a deliberate attack on Gilmour, the leading scorer in the playoffs. “At that point in the game, I certainly think it was (deliberate). Whether or not it was a directive from the bench, I don’t know,” Burns said.

“I can’t believe they ran that . . . Marty McSorley at our best player at that late point in a hockey game. If Ken Baumgartner would have done something like that to Wayne Gretzky, we would have been hung from Parliament Hill and all across Canada.

“But the hell with it. We’re not scared of these guys. It won’t bother Doug a bit. Who else is going to run at him now that Marty McSorley is gone? You tell me. Who else has the damn nerve?”

Toronto players felt their coach’s anger was a rallying cry, even though they were the winners of the game.

“They’d better watch themselves,” Todd Gill said of the Kings. “Everything evens out in the end.”

Mike Foligno said of Burns’ remarks about Melrose: “You can’t print them in your paper. They were pretty strong. They were more than strong. They were nasty, man.”

Added Osborne: “Let’s face it. The guy behind the bench controls the way a team plays. You just saw our best player get hit like that. Dougie also took a knee from (Dave) Taylor early in the game. I don’t know if anybody on our side would take liberties with Wayne Gretzky or slam his head into the boards, so I don’t know what the Kings are trying to prove, going after Dougie that way. Who do they think they are?”

Until the mayhem, the players confined themselves to hockey. Felix (the Cat) Potvin, perhaps the hottest goalie in the game--having given up three goals in his last nine periods--denied the Kings from point-blank range during the first two periods and then could have napped through the third, when Los Angeles forgot to bring its offense back from the locker room.

Something Gilmour did--either his two goals, two assists or wicked check that turned King rookie Alexei Zhitnik into a Russian acrobat--resulted in the Kings’ most vicious enforcer searching for some McSorley-needed revenge. Laid flat, Gilmour recovered while two separate fights broke out around him--McSorley vs. Wendel Clark and Taylor vs. Gill.

Gilmour did not get involved, other than to point fingers at the faces of players on the Kings’ bench. Debris was hurled onto the ice from the Maple Leaf crowd of 15,720, someone even throwing a crutch.

That’s when Burns and Melrose got into it, prompting one high-ranking King official to say later: “Maybe he’s still unhappy about us not hiring him.” In several recent interviews, Burns has suggested strongly that he rejected an offer a year ago to become the Kings’ general manager.

Now he wants no part of them. “I’ve lost all respect for McSorley, for all of them guys,” Burns said.

McSorley’s reply was: “Yeah? Well, they know where to find me.”