Don’t Start Calling Them Great Just Yet

To the skeptics who said acquiring Wayne Gretzky wouldn’t make the St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup favorites, Mike Keenan has two words:

You’re right.

Three weeks after making one of the NHL’s most controversial trades, the Blues’ general manager-coach is wearing out his dialing finger, hoping to plug some holes before the NHL trading deadline of noon (Pacific Time) Wednesday.

Keenan used his best bargaining chips when he sent Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif and Roman Vopat to the Kings for Gretzky. He spent his last chips last week by sending Dave Roberts to Edmonton for future considerations and Dale Hawerchuk to Philadelphia for Craig MacTavish. The Blues are far from great, especially defensively, but Gretzky and Brett Hull form a sensational duo.

“This was a very emotional day for everybody, especially for myself,” Gretzky said. “Emotions run high in professional sports.”

Despite being booed each time he touched the puck in his first visit to the Forum since the trade, Gretzky scored a goal, set up another, and hit the post, and Hull had a goal and two assists Monday night in the Blues’ 3-1 victory over the Kings. However, Gretzky, Hull and Adam Creighton were on the ice for the King goal.

“I like a lot of the components of the team, yet we’re short in a couple of areas,” Keenan said. “I don’t know if I can acquire one more defenseman and skilled winger. Our defense is not good enough at this point. The six players we have [now] will not do it. I’m talking about winning the Cup. If I could shore the defense up and acquire a skilled winger, which I don’t anticipate doing, it would give us a good run.”

Was that an honest assessment, or criticism calculated to spur his players to increase their efforts? Knowing Keenan, it was probably a bit of both, but this mix is of his own making.

With an experienced team and a playoff berth in hand, Keenan decided to forsake the future and go for the Cup now, an approach the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers are also taking. The Blues’ strength is that Gretzky and Hull can compensate for the team’s deficiencies and win a playoff series.

“They’re in the playoffs and they’ve got one kick at the can. They’ve got a legitimate chance to be a contender and they’re doing what they can to get veteran players to fit that,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “Yes, we want to make the playoffs, but I’m not of the thinking, and Sam [McMaster, the Kings’ general manager] is not of the thinking that you give up your future for the present. I’d like to see their team in two years.”

Maybe the Blues will be on the decline by then, but they might have won the Cup. The Kings could still be looking for a playoff berth. The fans who booed Gretzky on Monday night should remember his worst move is better than the best Barry Potomski or Nathan LaFayette will ever make--and that Gretzky led the Kings to the 1993 Cup finals, closer than anyone else ever came.

Gretzky said he ignored the booing and the fanfare over his return.

“We got ourselves into a situation where we’re in a battle with Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto for home-ice advantage, so I was able to focus more on the importance of the game itself,” he said. “That took some of the pressure off.”

According to Robinson, the Leafs, Blues and Rangers have an advantage because they sell out their home games and won’t suffer at the box office if their win-it-now plan fails. The Kings will lose support while they work new players into the lineup, and that will test management’s resolve.

“Sooner or later you get a base of talent and then you bring in a couple of players here or there that will make a difference. We are not in that situation,” Robinson said. “We have made a lot of changes in the past that have not been to our betterment, for one reason or another.”

It’s too early to say if the Gretzky trade will be added to that list of bad deals, but Gretzky and the Blues carried the night on Monday.

Roger Neilson, one of the Blues’ associate coaches, said, “You can see the team has great confidence. He gives us a chance to win now and I don’t think we had one before.”