THE GREAT ICE AGE

Hockey’s roots in Southern California stretch back decades before Wayne Gretzky glamorized the game or the first Mighty Duck quacked in Anaheim.

In “Hockey Night in Hollywood,” Willie Runquist traced the first organized game here to Feb. 23, 1925, when the Los Angeles Athletic Club defeated the Los Angeles Monarchs, 3-1, at the Palais de Glace, at Melrose and Vermont avenues. Artificial ice there and later in Paramount started a wave of enthusiasm for hockey.

As long ago as 1948, groups attempted to bring the NHL to Los Angeles. Travel costs were prohibitive until the NHL announced on Feb. 9, 1966, it would double in size to 12 for the 1967-68 season by adding teams in Los Angeles, Oakland, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.

The Kings’ birth doomed the minor league Western Hockey League Blades, who arrived in 1961. Except for a WHL team in San Diego and a brief World Hockey Assn. venture, the Kings had the area to themselves until 1993. That’s when the Walt Disney Co., noting the hockey boom Gretzky had sparked, put its marketing muscle behind the expansion Ducks.

Minor league hockey returned in 1995 when the International Hockey League’s San Diego Gulls moved to Los Angeles and became the Ice Dogs. They spent one season at the Sports Arena before moving to Long Beach.

IN THE BEGINNING...

The California Amateur Hockey Assn. was formed in January 1925 and consisted of the Hollywood Athletic Club, Los Angeles Monarchs and Los Angeles Athletics. A novelty to most sports fans, games drew as many as 3,000. The league was later known as the California Hockey League and the Commercial Hockey League.

The opening of a rink at Melrose and Van Ness in Hollywood--first called the Winter Garden and later the Polar Palace--led to the formation in 1926 of the California Professional Hockey League, which included the Hollywood Millionaires and Los Angeles Richfields. The league fell victim to the Depression and dissolved in 1933.

The Inter-City League appeared in 1934 with teams in Hollywood, Glendale and Los Angeles, but few records of it exist. Local college players stocked the Southern California Hockey League, which had success in the early 1940s at the Pan Pacific Auditorium, near Gilmore Field.

The amateur Pacific Coast Hockey League was born in 1945. The Hollywood Wolves were a farm team of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who sent them minor leaguers and prospects. Among the latter was Bill Barilko, who scored Toronto’s Stanley Cup-winning goal in 1951.

Although the Wolves were respectable, they folded in 1948 after the Pan Pacific Auditorium changed hands. Some teams survived by affiliating with NHL or minor league teams when the PCHL became a professional league in 1948.

The PCHL’s Los Angeles Monarchs took purple and gold as their colors and had a crown logo, later copied by the Kings. But the PCHL collapsed when the Pan Pacific was put up for sale. The league was later reborn as the Western Hockey League but had no Los Angeles presence until Ram owner Dan Reeves and Canadian industrialist Jack Piggott bankrolled the Blades at the Sports Arena.

DID ALL THOSE CANADIANS REALLY HATE HOCKEY?

As Southern California’s economy thrived after World War II, interest rose in bringing an NHL team to Los Angeles.

Jack Kent Cooke, who owned a string of radio stations and magazines in his native Canada, beat out Reeves and the Blades group, plus a group led by TV producer Tony Owens, for the right to pay $2 million for the Los Angeles franchise. Cooke had bought the Lakers for $5.175 million five months earlier. “I feel like I’m now one echelon above the President of the United States,” said Cooke, who couldn’t get good dates at the Sports Arena and built his own palace in Inglewood, the Forum.

To supplement players he would get in the expansion draft, Cooke bought the Springfield (Mass.) American Hockey League team. But the Forum wasn’t ready for the Kings’ opener, and they played at the Long Beach Arena and the Sports Arena until December 1967.

“We were nomads,” said Jiggs McDonald, the Kings’ radio and TV voice their first five years. “It was a new frontier and a new experience for everybody. When we got out there to Long Beach Arena for our first practice, there were no pucks. They had been the first 1/8equipment 3/8 to arrive and everything was piled up in boxes, and the pucks were at the bottom of a pile. 1/8Fan 3/8 Larry Mann got a puck out of the glove box of his car, and that’s how the team practiced. That puck was fired all over the arena, and people would race to get the puck back on the ice so the practice would continue.”

The Kings, whose marquee player was goalie Terry Sawchuk, defeated the Flyers, 4-2, in their first game, drawing 7,035 fans to the Sports Arena on Oct. 14, 1967. Cooke, a showman, tried to create stars by dubbing Bill Flett “Cowboy” Bill and Eddie Joyal “Eddie the Jet.” Fans didn’t buy it.

“Cooke sold the league a bill of goods,” said Stu Nahan, who came to Los Angeles in 1948 to play goal for the Monarchs and later became a national and local sportscaster. “He used to say attendance was awful because although there were a half-million ex-Canadians living in Southern California, all of them left Canada because they hated hockey.”

The Kings finished second at 31-33-10 before losing a seven-game playoff series to Minnesota. They got to the second round in 1968-69 but didn’t make the playoffs again until 1973-74. By then they had established a pattern of trading prime draft picks for aging veterans.

“George Allen was coaching the Rams and he and Jack would have lunch every day. Allen’s philosophy was you trade an unknown commodity for a proven commodity,” McDonald said. “Sam Pollock 1/8Montreal’s general manager 3/8 really picked the Kings’ pockets.”

Among those drafted with picks the Kings traded were Ray Bourque, Steve Shutt, Dave Andreychuk, Mario Tremblay and Tom Barrasso.

The WHA appeared in 1972-73 with the Sharks, who were run by league co-founder Dennis Murphy and averaged 6,000 fans at the Sports Arena. But there wasn’t enough support for two teams, and the Sharks were sold and moved to Michigan after the 1973-74 season.

In 1972-73 the Kings, for the first time, averaged more than 10,000 fans a game (10,833). Under Coach Bob Pulford, they set a club record in 1974-75 with 105 points.

“We weren’t exciting but we won a lot of games with Bob Pulford coaching us. I’m really proud to say that,” said Rogie Vachon, who was traded to the Kings after winning three Stanley Cups with Montreal and has filled a dozen roles with the Kings. He’s now assistant to the president.

“We put hockey back on the map in California. That’s when fans started to come to see us win some games, even if the games were 2-1 or 3-2.”

On June 23, 1975, the Kings added standout center Marcel Dionne, one of the first NHL players to try free agency.

THE TRIPLE CROWN LINE

Dionne was a star and Dave Taylor was a rookie when Coach Ron Stewart put them on the same line around Christmas of 1977. They clicked: Dionne led the team with 36 goals and 79 points and Taylor had 22 goals and 43 points in 64 games. They played with several left wings until Charlie Simmer, who was unimpressive in previous callups, joined them from Springfield in January 1979.

They formed a prolific line. Dionne won the NHL scoring title in 1979-80 and Simmer tied for the goal-scoring lead with 56; they peaked in 1980-81 and played as a unit at the Forum in the All-Star game. Dionne had 58 goals and 135 points, Taylor had 47 goals and 112 points and Simmer had 56 goals and 105 points.

Cooke sold the Kings, Lakers and Forum to real estate whiz Jerry Buss for $67.5 million in 1979, but the team wasn’t drawing. The Kings had only three sellouts in 1980-81 despite amassing 99 points.

“We had a lot of bad days and a lot of good days but we could never get better,” said Dionne, a sports marketing executive in upstate New York. “There were trades after trades, stupid trades. We could have had Ray Bourque 1/8but traded the pick to Boston for Ron Grahame 3/8. A lot of people in management were not bad people, they were just not qualified to be there.”

Simmer was traded to Boston in 1985 and Dionne, who ranks third in NHL history with 731 goals and 1,771 points, was sent to the Rangers in March 1987. Taylor played for the Kings for 17 seasons before becoming their assistant general manager and general manager.

MIRACLE ON MANCHESTER

The hero of the Kings’ biggest playoff victory was diminutive winger Daryl Evans, who capped a rally from a five-goal deficit against the high-scoring Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 in a best-of-five first-round series on April 10, 1982.

The Kings trailed the opener, 4-1, but Evans--who wasn’t sure of a roster spot until the last minute--had two goals and two assists in a 10-8 comeback victory. They lost the next game and trailed, 5-0, starting the third period of Game 3. “We’re thinking, ‘We’re down, this is over. Let’s try to get some momentum in the third to carry into the next game,”’ Evans said.

The Kings were losing, 5-2, with 9:56 left in the third period when a fight erupted and Evans received a 10-minute misconduct. He and three teammates listened to the rest of the third period in the locker room. “I remember saying to Jerry Korab, ‘I’d like to get just one shot in overtime.’ He laughed at me,” Evans said. “It was 5-4 and we heard Dionne had the puck and all of a sudden it’s a tie game. We could sense the crowd was going crazy. When the team came in 1/8before overtime 3/8 we were ecstatic. I said, ‘Maybe we’ll get that shot.’ ”

He got his chance after Grant Fuhr made a save and froze the puck for a faceoff in Edmonton’s end. “Doug Smith did what every winger dreams his centerman will do: He drew the puck between his feet and eliminated the Oilers’ center,” Evans said. “I drew my stick as high as I could and I caught it as good as I could catch it. It went under the crossbar. Grant Fuhr never had a chance.” The Kings lost the next game, at home, but won the series at Edmonton. They lost to Vancouver in the next round.

Evans’ 13 playoff points were the only ones he recorded. But King fans won’t forget him. “It’s nice to be remembered for something so great,” said Evans, the team’s radio analyst.

MCNALL: NEW HEIGHTS....

Local boy who loves ancient coins parlays his hobby into a fortune while a teenager. He studies ancient history at UCLA and Oxford and carries his Midas touch to a horse-racing syndicate and movie production company.

He meets Buss, who’s also interested in coins. He buys a 49% stake in the Kings from Buss in 1986 and buys the rest late in the 1987-88 season for $20 million. But Bruce McNall’s biggest purchase set the hockey world abuzz: He acquired Gretzky, Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski from the Oilers for Jimmy Carson, three first-round draft picks and $15 million on Aug. 9, 1988.

“To me, Wayne Gretzky isn’t only the best player in hockey, but he’s also the ambassador of hockey,” he said in 1989. “It was never a question of whether to do it. I had to do it.”

McNall gave Gretzky an eight-year, $20-million contract, changed the team’s colors and logo and ushered in a star-spangled era. McNall became a powerful figure in the NHL and was elected chairman of the Board of Governors. What had been an NHL backwater became a mecca because of Gretzky.

“He put hockey on the front burner in L.A.,” said Barry Melrose, the Kings’ coach for nearly three seasons. “There were movie stars in the building every night. It was electric. The Forum was the place to be . . . It was a wild ride.”

Said Gretzky: “When I got here, people didn’t understand the game of hockey and the image of our sport wasn’t very good. One of the things we worked hard on was getting out into the communities and getting kids to try and play hockey. . . When kids started to play, more parents started appreciating the game. As time went on people realized what a great sport it is.”

Gretzky became McNall’s partner in purchasing a rare Honus Wagner baseball card for $451,000 in 1991, race horses and the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts. Everything McNall did was on a grand scale, from the private plane he bought for the team to the lavish hotels they visited.

“I remember a night in Chicago. Gretzky was in the locker room and I wanted to come in and he said, ‘You don’t want to go in there,’ ” said Roy Mlakar, then a King executive and now president of the Ottawa Senators. “Bruce had just given the team an exorbitant amount of money for beating Chicago, because we never won there. That was against the 1/8NHL 3/8 bylaws. He gave them $1 million to win a regular-season game.

“One time we were coming back from a playoff game in Vancouver and I was walking back with Kelly 1/8Hrudey 3/8 and Tony Granato, and they were looking at some Versace clothes. I got on the plane later and found out Bruce had bought them $5,000 worth of clothes and a $1,000 pair of shoes for me. I’m still wearing them.”

The Kings sold out every home game in 1991-92, unprecedented in Los Angeles. They reached a high point in 1993, when they made it to the Stanley Cup finals after Gretzky missed almost half the season because of a back injury.

With Gretzky out, Luc Robitaille, Jari Kurri and Granato carried the Kings. They trailed Calgary, 2-1, in the first playoff round but rallied to win in six games and then upset division winner Vancouver in six games. Gretzky was spectacular in the seventh game of the Campbell Conference finals against Toronto, scoring three goals and adding an assist in a performance he has called his best in the NHL.

“For two months L.A. was the greatest hockey city in the world, better than Montreal and Toronto,” Melrose said.

The Kings defeated the Canadiens in Game 1 of the Cup finals and led Game 2 at Montreal until McSorley was caught with an illegal stick, giving the Canadiens a two-man power play. They tied the game late, won in overtime, and won the next three games.

Tension between Melrose and General Manager Nick Beverly began to overheat. Melrose favored grinders over skill players, and defenseman Paul Coffey was traded to Detroit for pluggers Gary Shuchuk and Marc Potvin. The Kings missed the playoffs in 1994.

“It was the Yankees. There was always something happening,” Melrose said. “A lot of the focus got moved away from what was happening on the ice. We weren’t all pulling in the same direction, like we did in ’93.”

McNall’s finances were crumbling too. The day before the Cup finals began, his main company defaulted on an interest payment to Bank of America. Five weeks earlier, he needed an emergency $2.8-million loan to meet payroll and pay suppliers.

Players were paid but some staffers’ checks bounced. Unable to afford McSorley after he got a five-year, $10-million free agent offer sheet from St. Louis, the Kings traded him to Pittsburgh for Shawn McEachern. The Kings missed McSorley and traded winger Tomas Sandstrom to get him back.

McNall was desperate for cash. Sony was interested in buying the club but moved slowly, so he instead agreed to sell 72% of the team to telecommunications executives Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joseph Cohen for $60 million in late 1993. They paid several payrolls before completing their purchase in May 1994, but they didn’t have deep enough pockets to keep going.

Mlakar left, Beverly was fired and Melrose was dismissed with seven games left in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season. The lockout hurt the new owners and drove the Kings to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 20, 1995, a move intended to expedite the club’s sale to Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz and Los Angeles real estate mogul Ed Roski Jr.

In 1994 McNall pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud for defrauding banks and other financial institutions of $236 million over 10 years. He began a 70-month jail sentence in February 1997.

ALIVE AND QUACKING

Although Gretzky demurs, the Ducks say they wouldn’t exist if not for the hockey boom he started here. They also owe McNall, however impure his motives.

McNall anticipated the Kings would need a new arena and hired industry veteran Tony Tavares as a consultant. Meanwhile, Disney boss Michael Eisner, who often traveled to Disneyland by helicopter, was curious about the arena he saw rising in Anaheim. Eisner was a hockey fan and two of his sons played the game.

“At one point, Michael inquired, ‘Who’s going to play in this building?’ ” Tavares said. “And Bruce said, ‘That’s my territory but I’d be happy to talk to you about it.”’

For $50 million--half paid to McNall as indemnification--Disney was granted an NHL franchise in December 1992. The Ducks made their debut in October 1993.

Under brash coach Ron Wilson and General Manager Jack Ferreira, the Ducks were scrappy and gained respect. They made the playoffs in their fourth season and upset Phoenix before losing to Detroit. In 1996 they acquired Finnish winger Teemu Selanne from Winnipeg to complement Paul Kariya.

Wilson was fired in 1997 and replaced by Pierre Page, who missed the playoffs; Ferreira was reassigned and replaced by Pierre Gauthier, the Ducks’ assistant general manager from 1993-1995. Craig Hartsburg succeeded Page last season.

Although some purists feared Disney would taint the game, the Ducks have been innovative and fiscally prudent.

KINGS: NEW ERA

While the Kings struggled, Gretzky grew frustrated, and Sudikoff and Cohen’s effort to sell the club to Anschutz and Roski for $114 million was stalling. The lack of depth tried the patience of Coach Larry Robinson. Gretzky urged the club to acquire a 50-goal scorer, but General Manager Sam McMaster wanted to rebuild with youth.

Unable to persuade Gretzky to stay, the Kings traded him to St. Louis on Feb. 27, 1996 for Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif, Roman Vopat and two draft picks.

“I don’t have any hard feelings or regrets,” Gretzky said. “When Larry came in he had to get the team on the right track and they had to make some decisions. I understand they needed to make a youth movement and they said they’d move me to a situation they felt was good for me yet would help them.

“I wish I could have stayed a King, but I’m thrilled I got to play three years in New York 1/8where he went as a free agent in July 1996 3/8.”

Anschutz and Roski stabilized the Kings’ finances and hired sports executive Tim Leiweke as the club’s president and pointman on a downtown arena project.

Robinson’s contract wasn’t renewed after the Kings missed the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons. He was replaced by Andy Murray, who had been an NHL assistant coach and coached the Canadian national team.

Taylor made his boldest trade last June by acquiring high-scoring right wing Ziggy Palffy, center Bryan Smolinski and goalie Marcel Cousineau from the Islanders. The Kings prized Palffy’s flair, hoping a marquee player will draw fans to the $400-million Staples Center, which opened Oct. 20. It’s too soon to judge the success of the trade or the arena, but it’s clear a new era has dawned for the Kings.