A Hit and a Near Miss

Luc Robitaille was popped by Kelly Buchberger. He was massaged by Andrei Kovalenko. He was hammered by former teammate Marty McSorley.

He was hit so many times that he got mad as hell and Russ Courtnall decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore.

And then Robitaille got the last word, taking a faceoff from Yanic Perreault that was tipped by Vladimir Tsyplakov--who was not awarded an assist--and firing it past Mikhail Shtalenkov at 15:25 of the third period Saturday to give the Kings a 2-1 win over Edmonton in the season opener for both teams.

The shot, in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,100, came from 18 feet out and was the product of Robitaille’s being in the right place at the right time and Edmonton’s defense perhaps sleeping.

“I had seen that Perreault was winning most of his faceoffs, and Tsyplakov just tipped it over to me,” said Robitaille, who assisted on the first King goal.

Said Shtalenkov, a former Mighty Duck who was traded to Edmonton 10 days ago from expansion Nashville: “I have to see it on TV. It’s hard to tell what happened. Maybe I wasn’t in perfect position. I want it back, of course.”

Edmonton hospitality was lost on Robitaille, who dismissed the rude treatment of his hosts by saying, “I don’t want to get into penalties.”

Courtnall got into one for him, hammering Buchberger and drawing a boarding call in the second period.

“We’re a close team, and we take up for each other,” said Courtnall, who spent most of the night on the third line with Glen Murray, offering the Kings a chance to match up with Edmonton’s speed.

That speed prompted stout Oiler forechecking, and the Kings spent enough time in their own end of the ice to be assessed both city and provincial property taxes. Pressured all over the ice, they also lost the puck at the blue line on several occasions.

“Stephane Fiset [who had 23 saves] saved our butts tonight,” said King Coach Larry Robinson, who liked the result but didn’t find the evening an artistic success.

“We tried to be too fancy with the puck,” he said. “I’ve been talking about that during the exhibition games, but we’re still doing it. [Jozef] Stumpel and [Glen] Murray didn’t have very good games for us tonight.

“Stumpy was trying to do things with the puck he shouldn’t have been doing, too many fancy plays.”

As to Robitaille’s game, Robinson cited it as an example.

“Lucky gets hit as much as he does because he goes into traffic to get the puck,” Robinson said. “He shoots in the traffic, and we need to get a few other guys in that traffic too.”

Perhaps the best way to beat the traffic involves the new NHL rules.

Call the newly enlarged area behind the goal the office, no, make that the production office because the two extra feet the goal has been moved out from the end boards has added 170 square feet to a room that seems to have as broad a vista as a corner suite in a skyscraper.

“It’s so big back there, I can lay down and not touch the lines,” said the Kings’ Steve McKenna, who at 6 feet 8 is the second tallest player in the NHL. “The finesse guys have to love it.”

Edmonton’s Boyd Devereaux was not exactly lying down. Actually, he had a scenic view of Kevin Brown, firing a pass to him from behind and just to the left of Fiset.

Brown, once and briefly a King and just into town after signing as a free agent over the summer, zipped the puck past Fiset at 2:31 of the first period.

Liking what he saw from Devereaux, the Kings’ Robitaille went into the office on a power play later in the period. His view of Perreault also was unobstructed, and Perreault took Robitaille’s pass and fired over the left shoulder of Edmonton’s Bob Essensa at 11:07, who was replaced by Shtalenkov after the first period when he suffered an ankle injury.

In the end, it was a win and two points on the road for the Kings, who travel to Vancouver for a Canadian Thanksgiving afternoon game on Monday.

* SORELY MISSED: When Marty McSorley was playing for the Edmonton Oilers, they won two Stanley Cups. After a 10-year absence, he’s back. Page 11