NHL PREVIEW: KINGS ‘96-97

The Kings fans once spoke of by their first names--Marty, Kelly, Tony and Wayne--have been replaced by . . . Jaroslav? Stephane? Eddie?

If you’re a King fan and don’t know many of current players, the ones taking the ice tonight in the season opener against the New York Islanders, don’t feel bad. They are still breaking the ice too.

“I know all the French guys, that’s for sure,” goaltender Stephane Fiset said. “And a couple of other guys, but not too many. I’m still learning all their names right now.”

In the old days, the Kings were hardly trend-setters in bringing in players from Europe. Once in a while there was an experiment--Czech defenseman Petr Prajsler was supposed to have world-class skills, remember?

But for the old King scouting staff, going east meant making a trip to Hull, Quebec. Now, the Kings have a Swede, Mattias Norstrom; two Finns, Aki Berg and Kai Nurminen; three Czechs, Petr Klima, Jan Vopat and Jaroslav Modry; two Russians, Vladimir Tsyplakov and Vitali Yachmenev; a Ukrainian, Dimitri Khristich, five players from the United States and five French Canadians.

“It’s kind of weird how our team has Russians, Czechs--there’s a lot of them,” left wing Kevin Stevens said. “In Pittsburgh, all we had was Czechs and Swedes. We never had any Russians, I don’t know why. Most of those guys, when they come here, they’re stuck together. They don’t move away from each other.

“[Swedes and Finns] are big rivals. But here they don’t know any better. They’re all too young.”

Stevens was joking, of course. But cultural sensitivity knows no bounds in the sanctuary of the dressing room.

“It doesn’t matter in the locker room, you can say anything you want,” he said. “Anything you say in here is no big deal.”

The new Kings are more talkative before games, according to Coach Larry Robinson. Robinson points out that with Stevens, Ray Ferraro and Eddie Olczyk, it can be hard to get a word in.

The new Kings are also less expensive than the old Kings. Five millionaires who were in Los Angeles a year ago have moved on--Wayne Gretzky, Tony Granato, Marty McSorley, Rick Tocchet and Jari Kurri. King General Manager Sam McMaster said his payroll is about $6 million lighter than last season’s.

“It gives us the ability to move on somebody later in the season,” McMaster said. “We’re not at the top [of the payroll scale] anymore and not at the bottom. We’re right around the middle with a lot of other teams. It’s not utopia. That’s our situation. Salary is not going to stop the L.A. Kings from making a trade.”

The Kings have missed the playoffs the last three seasons, so management is jumping into the rebuilding process with both feet, figuring a new approach can’t hurt. Accordingly, the business side is reacting to the team on the ice, promoting star-free hockey.

An advertising blitz has been deployed to win back disgruntled season-ticket holders and attract new fans. Team president Tim Leiweke said Thursday that the season-ticket base is just under 8,000. The number last season was 8,400, Leiweke said.

The jettisoning of a star system seems to work with Robinson’s philosophies. Robinson was asked what the return of defenseman Rob Blake would mean to the Kings. (Blake’s status for tonight’s season opener will be determined after the morning skate.)

“It’s like asking Boston what it is like to have Ray Bourque on their team,” Robinson. “He is your leader back there. Fortunately for us, with Norstrom, Modry and [Steven] Finn, we don’t have to put all the onus on one person.

“We did that before and we paid the price for it. We put all the onus on having Wayne Gretzky and Rob Blake on our team. And when they’re gone, all of a sudden, panic sets in. We’ve been trying to build toward not having to rely on a single person to perform for us night in and night out.”

Actually, Robinson has a lot in common with one of his predecessors, Robbie Ftorek, who preached the virtues of socialism, hockey-style, that no single player was more important than the team. But Robinson is more diplomatic.

“Individuals, yes, they’re fine and they bring people into the stands and they probably win awards,” he said. “Fortunately, teams are the ones that bring championships. And that’s what we want to do is bring a championship here.”

The players caution against reading too much into the 4-2-1 exhibition record. And, long forgotten, is last season’s impressive start. The Kings went 4-0-3 and 10-5-5, stirring a great deal of excitement, then started to unravel even before the Gretzky controversy and ultimate trade.

“It’s going to be an interesting year,” Blake said. “I think we’ll surprise a lot more people than we think. If we wanted to read everything, I think we’re picked to finish last in our division, no doubt about that. Three years ago, we went to the [Stanley Cup] final and at midseason we were awful. There’s 25 guys in here that know we can change that around.”

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All the Kings’ Men

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Player Salary Rob Blake $3.075 million Kevin Stevens $2.997 million Ray Ferraro $1.5 million Ed Olczyk $1.05 million Dimitri Khristich $1 million Jamie Storr $1 million Stephane Fiset $900,000 Petr Klima $835,000 Aki Berg $825,000 Steven Finn $725,000 Doug Zmolek $700,000 Mattias Norstrom $600,000 Yanic Perreault $525,000 Philippe Boucher $480,000 Byron Dafoe $450,000 John Slaney $450,000 Craig Johnson $400,000 Roman Vopat $400,000 Matt Johnson $400,000 Vladimir Tsyplakov $375,000 Mark Astley $350,000 Kai Nurminen $350,000 Nathan LaFayette $325,000 Jaroslav Modry $325,000 Jan Vopat $325,000 Vitali Yachmenev $310,000 Sean O’Donnell $300,000 Barry Potomski $300,000 Ian Laperriere $250,000 Patrice Tardif $250,000 Dan Bylsma $200,000

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Note: Some player salaries include signing bonuses. Storr, for instance, has a $700,000 base salary and $300,000 signing bonus and earns the same whether he is playing in Los Angeles or Phoenix.

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EASTERN CONFERENCE: C4