It’s Just a Glimmer but It’s Also Hope

Until now, Craig Johnson has been known primarily as one of the guys the Kings got for Wayne Gretzky. His speed and scoring touch seemed like all the other promises the Kings have made in recent years, the still unrealized visions of a new arena and a return to respectability for a team that has missed the playoffs the last four seasons.

Six games into the new season, it’s premature to nominate Johnson for the NHL all-star team. But the 25-year-old winger, finally free of the abdominal and groin injuries that hobbled him last season, is showing he may turn out to be more than an answer to a trivia question.

Using his exceptional speed to its best advantage, Johnson contributed a goal and an assist to the Kings’ 7-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators Sunday in their home opener. More than that, he combined with Jozef Stumpel and rookie Donald MacLean to give the Kings the potent first line they have lacked since they traded Gretzky to St. Louis on Feb. 27, 1996.

“This is the first year in a while where he’s been able to go full out,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “He’s been one of our steadiest guys from the start. He’s played solid at both ends and has used his speed and he has a great shot.”

This may be too much good news for King fans to take. Only last week there were indications some of the political red tape delaying the new arena is lifting. Genuine hope for a new arena, the first victory of the season, a legitimate first line--heady stuff for fans long starved for the slightest bit of hope.

The 16,005 at the Forum Sunday went home happy for a change, with the first reason for optimism since the Kings won the first game of the 1993 Stanley Cup finals.

“We really, really appreciate the crowd coming out and basically believing in us,” Johnson said. “It was frustrating for us last year to play in front of crowds of four or five thousand.”

No one was as frustrated last season as Johnson, who played only 31 games after suffering an abdominal injury that required surgery and a late-season groin injury. He had four goals and seven points, hardly the kinds of numbers the Kings had hoped for when they acquired him, Roman Vopat and Patrice Tardif and a first-round draft pick from St. Louis for Gretzky.

They weren’t the numbers Johnson expected, either. Not that he’s pushing himself to produce Gretzky-like statistics.

“I don’t feel any pressure at all because I was traded for Wayne Gretzky. It’s an honor to be one of the players in that deal,” Johnson said. “It happened two years ago and it’s pretty much over with. If Wayne were still with St. Louis, maybe it’s a situation where you can compare things but he left a couple of months later.”

Since Gretzky left for St. Louis and later New York, the Kings have lacked a true playmaking center. They have one in Stumpel, who was acquired from Boston during the off-season. “He’s so patient with the puck,” Johnson said. “He can get it to you so well.”

The third member of the trio, MacLean, is the only home-grown player of the three and the youngest at 20; it wasn’t long ago that he was the size of the two boys who adoringly shook his hand in the locker room after the game.

“Donald has size and speed. It’s fun to play with those guys,” Johnson said. “Once you play with guys for a while, you’re able to read off them and see tendencies.”

That line was together most of the game. Robinson had previously played Glen Murray with Stumpel and MacLean until it became obvious that Murray’s stone hands were incapable of finishing Stumpel’s deft setups. On Sunday, Robinson left all four lines basically intact until the last 10 minutes, when he went with three lines.

Let’s see. First time he didn’t change line combinations, first time the Kings won. There might be a connection there.

But before Johnson worries about who his linemates will be in the next game, he wanted to savor Sunday’s victory and the hope it sparked in the stands and in the locker room.

“Our goal is to make the playoffs,” he said. “The last couple of years we’ve been able to use excuses. We were young last year and banged up, and the year before it was the Gretzky thing. This year, there are no distractions and we have to prove to ourselves and the organization that we can compete.”