Amid Trade Winds, Kings Lose Another

In Toronto, a columnist greeted Wayne Gretzky with a hug.

Here, a local radio reporter at the Friday morning skate gave him a jersey with No. 99 on it--only it was a Red Wing jersey.

What’s next? An audience with Michael Jordan in Chicago? A cut of the Rams’ lucrative deal in St. Louis?

Thus, the courtship of Gretzky continued. And on the ice, the Kings continue to falter, losing, 3-2, to the Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. They dropped two games below .500, at 16-18-10, and are winless in their last three games.

During the game, King General Manager Sam McMaster was busily conducting interviews in the press box, denouncing Canadian reports of Gretzky to St. Louis as “fiction,” and saying he had not had any trade talks with any team regarding Gretzky.

Which makes sense because Gretzky’s agent has yet to have a first meeting with the team’s owners to determine whether they want to win now or embark on a youth movement.

But his remarks hardly quieted the din in St. Louis and Canada. One Toronto columnist called it virtually a done deal and another report there had Gretzky eventually owning a piece of the Blues’ hockey team.

Gretzky was not quick to call any of this fiction.

“You can’t control what is being said. All I can say is that we’re meeting with the Kings owners,” he said. “Quite honestly, we don’t know what will be said and we don’t know what the new owners are thinking.”

Clearly, the Kings are in need of a talent infusion, having been hit with a series of recent injuries to Jari Kurri, Pat Conacher, Marty McSorley and Aki Berg. Friday, they once again appeared capable of playing well against a quality team and fell short mainly because of a stellar performance by Red Wing rookie goaltender Kevin Hodson, who stopped Gretzky with a glove save with eight seconds remaining and later stymied Philippe Boucher with a skate save just before the final buzzer.

Dimitri Khristich, who scored twice, pulled the Kings within a goal by recording his 15th of the season, with 35 seconds to play. The Kings, on the power play, were able to get a six-on-four advantage by pulling goaltender Kelly Hrudey for an extra attacker.

Gretzky set up Khristich, who smacked a shot past Hodson on the glove side from the right circle.

“It could have gone either way,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “I’m not upset with the effort. Everybody played well and we had chances right at the end.”

What turned out to be the eventual game-winner came on a fluke goal by Red Wing center Keith Primeau with 3:32 left. Primeau, skating down the left wing, was being checked by King defenseman Darryl Sydor. Hrudey managed to get his glove on the puck but Sydor went crashing into him and pushed Hrudey and the puck over the line.

Referee Paul Stewart consulted the video replay judge and it was quickly ruled a goal.

“Those things are unfortunate, they happen about five, seven times a year,” Hrudey said. “You just prefer to have it when you’re losing, 10-1.”

Said Sydor: “I guess I’ve got to be stronger. No, not guess, I know I’ve got to be stronger. It’s my job to keep him [Primeau] away. Obviously you don’t like it to happen in a close game. It’s a bad break, a tough break. I just have to go on.

“We played really well against a good team and had a good effort. It just seems when we make mental mistakes, the other teams capitalize.”