Taylor’s Big Night Not Deserving of Scorn

It was yet another ringing example of your paper’s dislike of hockey, but this slap in the face was an insult to Dave Taylor. Thank goodness for Helene Elliott’s consistently excellent work, salvaging some respect for The Times.

A great player and, more important, a great person, had the honor of having his jersey retired. This is a man who should be remembered as a Los Angeles sports legend, spoken in the same breath with Bill Russell of the Dodgers and Jackie Slater of the Rams. No one else--not Steve Garvey, Magic Johnson, Howie Long, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Fernando Valenzuela or Wayne Gretzky--will have played so hard for us for so long.

And when his jersey was retired, all you ran in Viewpoint was a single letter doing nothing more than ripping the Kings for scheduling the ceremony opposite the NCAA basketball finals.

Dave Taylor deserved better from you.

MEL POWELL

Los Angeles

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Regarding the Kings’ pathetic performance against the Mighty Ducks last Sunday:

How many pucks would a Shuchuk shoot if a Shuchuk could shoot pucks?

RICHARD HIBBARD

Upland