Where Is This Team Going?

Now that they have done their best but failed to earn the urn, the Mighty Kings of Los Angeles must look to tomorrow.

For starters, there is the question of whether tomorrow’s weather report will be: “Game called on account of Wayne.” Nobody yet seems certain whether Gretzky needs a rest, needs a raise, needs a trade, needs more personal attention or needs to be left alone.

Because trying to read Wayne Gretzky has always been about as difficult for me as trying to read Prince Charles, all I will say for the moment is that I hope that he stays and plays, that I hope his back never quits on him that way again.

Also, I trust his public will understand that if it does become necessary to trade someone as great as Gretzky, at least now the Kings in return could get a few good men. That wasn’t the case back in November.

Like the Lone Ranger, maybe his work here is done. The Kings might not care to play without Wayne, but they could.

Another obvious question is: “Why did they lose to Montreal?”

A simple answer would be that Montreal was better--or, at least, played better. There was also a fatigue factor--the Kings in Game 5 looked too pooped to pop--but it was L.A.’s own coach who kept promoting the theory that the Canadiens were the ones who weren’t accustomed to this kind of travel.

After several weeks of all-out hustle, I personally think the Kings phoned in the third period Wednesday. They would have needed to score three times to defeat a team that began clogging the middle with five men between the blue line and the goal. The Kings were mighty dead ducks and they knew it. Their third-period skating should have been scored by judges.

This series ended with Game 4, not Game 5.

OK, before we move on, here’s one last intriguing theory--not an alibi, by any means--from King goalie Kelly Hrudey on a funny thing that happened on the way to the two Forums:

The “We Didn’t Hate Them Enough” theory.

“Wayne said something recently that interested me,” Hrudey said after Game 5, in which he again played splendidly. “Wayne said that what many people still don’t understand is that an athlete needs to learn to hate his opponents. That no matter how much you like them or respect them before or after the match, you have to put that aside and hate them if you’re going to defeat them.

“Well, for various reasons, we all found ways to hate the Calgary players, Vancouver’s and Toronto’s, but for some reason we just never worked up any real hatred for Montreal’s. We tried to get angry at them over a couple of things, but in the end I think we just couldn’t deny how highly we regarded them as a team.

“I guess that probably sounds pretty strange, doesn’t it?”

No, as a matter of fact, it sounds pretty sportsmanlike in a world that could use a little more sportsmanship these days.

And now, one more very important, final-jeopardy question about the Kings’ future.

Where will they play?

Bruce McNall and Jerry Buss--and maybe Donald Sterling?--are still actively discussing whether to demolish the Forum and rebuild on the present site or to stake out new locations and boldly go where no L.A. team has gone before.

McNall says: “We’ll definitely be having more to say about that later this summer.”

Montreal is building a new Forum.

We need one worse.

Our Forum isn’t falling apart, exactly, but it is decidedly inferior to many of the new athletic arenas around North America and is a shack compared to the new Anaheim Arena. Its locker rooms are cramped, its seats are frayed and still gruesomely upholstered in shades of yellow and orange, its press working conditions are primitive and its parking lot is so unsafe that even luminaries among the Lakers have been victimized.

The Forum also stands as a constant reminder that Los Angeles--cosmetic-conscious, comfort-loving Los Angeles--does not have a sports facility aside from Dodger Stadium worth saving. The Coliseum’s only principal value is as a historical landmark and the Sports Arena has about as much character and charm as a YMCA.

I exclude the lovely Rose Bowl from this discussion because the Rose Bowl is host to only six or seven major sporting events per year more than I am host to over at my house.

With the new Boston Garden (to be named after a bank) and new Chicago Stadium (to be named after an airline) being built, the L.A. Sports Arena will become, I believe, the oldest building occupied by any NBA team.

Sterling, who owns the Clippers, needs a better place to play and often answers questions about where the Clippers should play with: “Where do you think?” I have answered this question of his many, many times with a single word: “Burbank.” But I also wouldn’t mind Sterling going halfsies with McNall on a new state-of-the-art place in Inglewood.

The landlord at the Forum is still Buss, with a bank’s name prominently appearing on the stationery and hardwood floor, if not on the actual mortgage. It is still my theory--and perhaps only mine--that the Lakers, not the Clippers, will be the ones to first contemplate co-habitation with the newborn Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, no matter how many wonderful memories we all have of their golden era at the Forum.

One way or another, what we do need is a new Forum.

Montreal is building one.

And the Kings are supposed to be building for the future, aren’t they?