Interview With Los Angeles Kings Legend Kelly Hrudey

After those ’93 playoffs, the Kings didn’t make the playoffs for the rest of your time there.  With many of the team’s star players like Luc Robitaille and Tomas Sandstrom now traded away, how was your experience as a King in your last 3 seasons there post ’93?

My memories from that time were still fantastic but you’re kind of in denial that your team is in decline. I thought that we were still going to be a Cup contender every year and unfortunately for us, that didn’t turn out to be the case. For me, my memories are all of my great teammates that I played with and many of whom I am still in touch with so the hockey experience wasn’t certainly what we were hoping for or expecting but my friendship memories are invaluable.

Late in your playing career and after your retirement, you started working for Hockey Night in Canada as a hockey analyst.  Did you always see yourself doing that post playing career and how did that come about?

Oh I was hopeful yeah.  When I was in New York there was a lot of interview opportunities and I really enjoyed it. The other thing was, all through my playing career I loved watching hockey which a lot of guys don’t, that might surprise some people but I always loved it. As much as I enjoyed watching the games, I loved the intermissions and I loved to watch the other broadcasters and the interaction they had with the players and so I took a real interest in it in the sense that I really wanted to separate myself from some of the guys and give a really great interview and without throwing anybody under the bus and by being as truthful as you possibly can be in that situation and luckily for me that was noticed by some TV executives including John Shannon. Much to my surprise in 1995, I was with the Kings and we missed the playoffs by one point. We played in Chicago that night and we ended up flying home on a Monday and my wife said, “Hey, a guy by the name of John Shannon called and he’d like you to call him back.” I didn’t know what to expect so I had a nice chat with John and he said, “Hey, we’re gonna start this new show for this year’s playoffs and we’re gonna see if we can hire a player to come in and do some guest analysis work. He said, “You are not our first choice, you are our second choice.” He wanted to be honest and he asked Wayne first and luckily for me Wayne declined and so that was my foot into Hockey Night in Canada and I have been there ever since.

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The Kings finally won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and you were covering it for Hockey Night in Canada. In a moment that many American LA Kings’ fans may not even know about but I was fortunate enough to witness it on the broadcast is that you were visibly touched, yet still professional but there was some emotion there over what the Kings had just accomplished. Could you please tell us the thoughts and feelings that you had about the Kings winning that Cup and what it meant for you to see them do it, especially while covering them on live television?

Well you’re right.  It was very emotional for me. There was lots of different emotions and I was extremely happy for those guys. I was envious though that they were the team that won for the first time in L.A. with the King’s organization because I wished it would’ve been us. One of the things that really stood out to me and I had been texting with some of my teammates all throughout that run and in fact I had been talking to Dean Lombardi too and he said that if they did win, he wanted me to come into their celebration and be a part of it as well. I originally declined but then I thankfully changed my mind and I did experience that celebration and it was magical.  Getting back to texting with a lot of my teammates during that run, all of us were just so proud where Hockey had gone to in terms of popularity from when all of us were playing there. Wayne and Marty and Jari Kurri, Tomas Sandstrom, Tony Granato, Charlie Huddy, Pat Conacher, the list is endless for guys that did so much community work to try to grow the game and see now where hockey is on the map in California and in L.A. specifically made us incredibly proud.

Wow that is beautiful! What were your thoughts and feelings about the Kings winning the Cup again in 2014, especially after taking the most difficult route in Stanley Cup history to achieve it?

It just tells you how determined that group is. I mean that was a phenomenal accomplishment, as you said the most difficult route in getting there and winning the entire thing it just really tells you about that group and how special they are.  The work that Dean Lombardi put in to not only accessing talent, but accessing people. I’m a big Dean Lombardi fan and for him to have that success makes me very, very happy for him.  The other thing that I kind of want to bring up is an odd thought but one I really found to be true playing in Los Angeles is that, especially in our time playing with Wayne and I’m sure it’s the same now because they are so successful but you have to be an unbelievably dedicated and focused athlete to play in Los Angeles because there are so many different distractions. Whether it’s the theme parks and taking your own kids there when family members come or the beach, the social events that you are invited to, the golfing, all these sort of things that I saw distracted some pretty good players and they didn’t play as well as they could’ve because they were so busy enjoying life away from the rink and ultimately they didn’t last there. That needs saying as well that is a huge task by them to stay so focused in a really vibrant environment.