STANELY CUP FINALS : COMMENTARY : Gretzky’s Bombshell Is Felt by Both Teams

How best to take the fizz out of the Montreal Canadiens’ champagne, the sparkle off their 24th Stanley Cup?

Late Wednesday night, in the catacombs of an otherwise tipsy Montreal Forum, Wayne Gretzky came up with a great one.

With the international hockey media as his witness, Gretzky said he was thinking about retiring.

I’m not sure are the words that could live in King infamy if Gretzky isn’t just blowing smoke--angling for that much-rumored, more-super-than-Mario contract--and decides to blow this puck stand next week.

As in:

“Wayne, after taking the Kings this far, are you hungry to come back next season?”

“I’m not sure.”

Not sure?

Not sure about what?

What’s not to be sure about?

“I’m not trying to create a bunch of controversy. . . . “ Gretzky continued, and immediately, the interview room fell so quiet, you could hear Bruce McNall drop.

” . . . But I said to my wife before the start of the playoffs that I always wanted to go out on a high. I think I played as well as I can in this playoff. I’m going to sit back over the next few days, talk with my wife and decide what my future is.”

Gallons of oxygen had just been sucked out of the room. A few seconds of stunned silence passed before a hand rose from the audience, wanting to know if this meant Gretzky was leaning toward retirement.

“I’m not leaning toward retirement, but I do have to weigh my cards,” Gretkzy replied.

“When I came here, I didn’t come here just as a hockey player. There was a lot more than that to it. One of the things I came for was to help sell the game and help sell L.A. on the game of hockey--to help turn the organization around.

“When they went out and hired Barry (Melrose), they found a great man. The things I used to worry about--Bruce making his money back, filling the rink, the organization being successful--I really don’t have to worry about that anymore. I think I fulfilled all my obligations.”

Gretzky scanned the room the same way he scopes the ice on a three-on-two break, seeing all, anticipating everything that could possibly unfold next.

Such as the money question.

“I don’t want people to read more into this,” he said before anyone could ask. “If I was worried about my contract, I would have gone in during January. And if I was trying to negotiate through the press . . . Bruce has already put a piece of paper in front of me and said, ‘Whatever you want, fill it in.’

“The problem is, I have to decide now if I need a new challenge. I always said I didn’t want to go out of this game with someone pushing me out.”

Yet if this was not a negotiating ploy, what were McNall and Gretzky’s agent, Michael Barnett, doing in a corner, 30 minutes after Gretzky’s bombshell, arguing contract?

Writers standing within earshot could hear Barnett telling McNall, “We wanted to get this done in December” and “Let’s sit down this week.”

“Whatever it takes,” McNall kept saying. “Whatever it takes.”

After his press conference, Gretzky made a halfhearted break down the hallway leading to the Kings’ dressing room. He pulled up for another round of questions, among them, a shot on goal:

“Don’t you feel you’re taking away from the Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup?”

Gretzky tried to suppress a smirk, and failed.

“I don’t care,” he said.

If this was to be Gretzky’s final game as a King, it will be remembered as a whimper. Gretzky’s team lost by three goals, and Gretzky failed to unleash a single shot at Montreal’s Patrick Roy.

Gretzky admitted he was feeling fatigued. “We’ve had a lot of travel in these playoffs, played a lot of tough games,” he said. “Maybe it caught up to me.

“If I was 22 years old and you asked me if I was tired in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, maybe I wouldn’t have been. But I’m not 22. That’s one of the things I have to ask myself.”

Gretzky said he would inform the Kings of his decision before the NHL’s amateur draft, a magnanimous gesture of the highest degree.

Now the Kings have two weeks to forge a new accord with the greatest point producer in the history of hockey rinks . . . or merely draft the next one.