Breaking the Ice

Such an odd place to find big-time hockey, in a converted warehouse beside a sod farm, not too far from Van Nuys Airport.

Fans arrive on a muggy Southern California morning, ducking through the lobby and up a few steps to a narrow lounge that overlooks the ice.

From there, perched on chairs and bar stools, they can watch the Los Angeles Kings work through skating drills.

The Iceoplex is one of the most accessible practice rinks in the National Hockey League. Not only do the Kings train there all season, but visiting teams stop by on their way through town, giving die-hards a peek at the likes of Sergei Fedorov and Brett Hull.

“You get to see them without paying anything,” said Moses Gavia, a 15-year-old fan who made the trip from Commerce.

And the scene is surprisingly casual--players, still in their skates, trudge into the lobby to place a call from one of the pay phones or even stand in line for a burger.

“Guys in hockey, we know where we come from,” said Luc Robitaille, who recently returned to the Kings in a trade with the New York Rangers. “We just want people to come out and watch and enjoy themselves.”

The Iceoplex is not an easy place to find. Take Hayvenhurst Avenue north of the airport, turn west at the sod farm and drive through a large parking lot all the way to a cluster of corrugated metal buildings. Or just follow the flight path from Runway 16R.

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Last Monday, people arrived in twos and threes, men and women and teenagers in baggy shorts. Irene McDonald, a longtime fan from Sherman Oaks, brought her friend Mary Bryant, who was not impressed by the Kings’ off-season efforts to acquire larger, more physical players.

“They don’t look that big,” Bryant said.

“What did you expect?” McDonald shot back. “They’re not horses.”

The women sat with their faces close to the thick windows that separate the lounge from the rink below.

The windows create a surreal atmosphere. Spectators cannot feel the coolness of the ice that is only a dozen feet away. They cannot hear the chatter between players and coaches, only the muffled clacking of slap shots and pucks caroming off the boards.

The view, however, is utterly intimate. Players dart past almost close enough to touch.

So fans cried “ooh” when defenseman Jan Vopat rang a slap shot off the post. They cringed when center Ian Laperriere slammed into the boards during a heated scrimmage.

“You can see the intensity on their faces,” said Hector Marquez, a season-ticket holder who came to check on his investment. “You can see them goof around with each other.”

Moments later, defenseman Philippe Boucher tangled with goalie Stephane Fiset in a mock brawl at the blue line, the teammates swinging their sticks and wrestling each other to the ice.

Directly behind them, rink-side billboards sang the praises of the “good taste” of McDonald’s and the good doctors at the Soft Tissue Center.

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A junior hockey team, bustling into the lounge late in practice, seemed to take the hint on both counts. They brought trays of burgers from the fast-food counter in the lobby, then cheered for more scrapping in the corners.

“We practice harder than them,” one of the young players sneered.

The Kings can’t hear such carping, or anything else, from the lounge. It seems there is a limit to how accessible the team wants to be. Thus the thick windows.

“The coaches don’t want to have practice with people yelling when we’re trying to concentrate,” Robitaille said.

The left winger belongs to an investment group that in 1992 spent $1.5 million to put a regulation rink, locker rooms and offices in this 35,000-square-foot complex. Robitaille then persuaded the Kings to adopt the renovated facility as their training site.

The lounge was originally designated as a place for wives and family to stay warm while watching practice. Then, someone invited the public.

Los Angeles still had Wayne Gretzky in those days. Bewitched by hockey’s greatest playmaker and a team that contended for the Stanley Cup annually, fans paid $5 for the privilege of attending skate-arounds.

But Gretzky is long gone and the crowds, like the fortunes of the team, are down. After a string of losing seasons, the Kings have eliminated the admission price. Now, only the truly fervent show up at the Iceoplex.

They want to see Robitaille’s return. They want to see a side of the game that rarely shows itself during games at the Forum, like the time last season when Coach Scotty Bowman chewed out Fedorov at center ice during a Detroit Red Wings practice.

After the Kings’ midday workout last Monday, Marquez hung around the lobby and got a souvenir stick from Laperriere. He left smiling.

“This is the best,” he said. “You can meet the players and they don’t shy away.

“They actually talk to you.”