Interview With Former LA Kings All-Star Steve Duchesne

By Jeff Duarte
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Updated: September 14, 2016

If I mentioned the “Four Horsemen,” what would be the first thing that pops into your mind? Is it the biblical four horsemen of the apocalypse? The “4 Horsemen” from pro wrestling that was led by “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair? (Wooo!) Maybe it’s the four leaders of the “White Walkers” from Game of Thrones? To me, it takes me back to when I was nine years old and four young and talented hockey players, playing for the Los Angeles Kings, captured my imagination and heart. They were solely responsible for me having a passion for the Kings, a passion that I still carry proudly in my life to this very day. Those four players and my “Four Horsemen” were Luc Robitaille, Jimmy Carson, Bernie Nicholls and defenseman Steve Duchesne.

Born on June 30th, 1965 in Sept-Iles, Quebec Canada, Duchesne went undrafted in the NHL entry draft but was able to sign as a free agent with the Los Angeles Kings in 1984. Debuting in the NHL with fellow rookies Robitaille and Carson during the 1986-87 regular season, Duchesne became a physical and offensive juggernaut on the blue-line, producing strong defensive play and consistently high scoring stats every year, such as in 1988-89 with 25 goals and 75 points, back to back seasons of achieving 62 points in 1989-90 and 1990-1991, (all for Los Angeles), and 20 goals and 82 points for the Quebec Nordiques in 1992-93. Let’s just say in Los Angeles, before there was Drew Doughty and Rob Blake, there was Steve Duchesne and he is second to no one.

After playing 16 seasons in the NHL, Duchesne won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in his final playing year, finishing his playing career with 1,113 regular season games played, (plus another 121 in the playoffs) and 752 career points, (77 points in the playoffs). With him on that Cup winning Detroit team was former LA Kings’ teammate and long time friend Luc Robitaille. It is fairy tale stories like these that make the Hockey Gods the best script writers in all professional sports.

Recently I was fortunate enough to talk to the 3 time NHL all-star, World Champion, beloved member of my childhood LA Kings’ “Four Horsmen”club and the current President of Texcana Energy Inc. and we discussed his amazing NHL playing career, his time playing with the LA Kings (both times!) and what it meant to him to finally win the Stanley Cup.

Thank you so much Mr. Duchesne for doing this interview for CaliSports News today?

No problem, but call me Steve please.

Oh I don’t know if I’m worthy to do that?

*Laughs* Well thank you for reaching out to me. I don’t know if I’m worth it but thank you for asking.

Oh trust me Mr. Duch … I mean Steve, sorry, you are definitely worth it!

*Laughs* Why thank you.

Who were your hockey heroes and inspirations while growing up?

Of course growing up close to Montreal, the Montreal Canadiens have always been my team while growing up with my dad. So Larry Robinson was definitely a childhood hero of mine. It’s so funny because a few years later when I got a chance to play with Larry in LA, I was telling him that he was my hero and that I always admired him. I even wore his number playing junior and he said, “Really?” and I said, “Yeah! I would always wear your number 18 proudly!” And he said, “I always wear number 19 for crying out loud!” So I always got a lot of flak for that. *Laughs* I don’t know why somehow in junior I thought that Larry Robinson wore number 18? I wore number 18 in Drummondville for my entire junior year thinking that it was Larry’s number.

(The Legendary Larry Robinson)

Well it was close enough!

Yeah. We had a good laugh about that.

After going undrafted, which may I add was very foolish by all of the NHL teams to let you slip by like that, you signed on as a free agent with the Los Angeles Kings in 1984. How did it feel at the time to finally be linked with an NHL team and the possibility that you are going to play with Marcel Dionne and company?

Yeah, obviously you know, Marcel Dionne, to be able to meet him, that was a dream come true. I was disappointed in my second year at junior. I had a coach that decided he wanted me to be a defensive defenseman, so I would just kill penalties and I still had a pretty good year but not scoring wise. And Ron Lapointe at the time in junior said, “Steve, stay by the phone. Washington is really interested in drafting you,” so I did. I stood through the whole draft there in my hometown and I never got the call. So it went from one of my biggest disappointments to a week later, when I got a letter from the Kings, wanting to know if I wanted to attend their camp? It was kind of a roller coaster of emotions. It was great to be able to go to camp to meet and see Marcel for the first time. I didn’t know him, well obviously I knew him as a player, but I’m glad he was the man he was. I was with Luc Robitaille and Jimmy Carson and he really took care of the three of us and that made it a lot easier, especially if you don’t speak a word of English. It was great for a guy like Marcel to help us out.

(photo credit to kings.nhl.com)

Speaking of Luc Robitaille and Jimmy Carson, who along with you were rookies that all made their NHL debut with the Kings in the 1986-87 season. All three of you had such incredible starts to your career, that you all made the 1987 NHL rookie all-star team! I have to confess sir, I mean Steve, that it was that season’s playoffs where I became a die-hard Los Angeles Kings fan, which I am to this very day and it was all because of players like you, Luc, Carson and Bernie Nicholls, who I loved to call the “Four Horsemen” at the time. Could you take us back to that successful rookie season and please tell us about your experience and what you remember most about that year?

Well I’ll tell ya, you know when they asked me to come to LA, the coach at the time was Pat Quinn. I don’t know if you remember Pat Quinn being my first coach?

Of course! As a Kings’ fan, he was also my first coach!

*Laughs* Yeah. You know I didn’t play the first game of the season and I decided to sit in the stands and I remember we lost 7 something. It was a high score and after the game Pat came to me and said, “Be ready. You’re playing the next game,” and I ended up playing the whole season without missing a game. I was glad, two years ago, maybe three years ago to see Pat Quinn again in Detroit for the alumni game. I finally had the chance to thank him for playing the crap out of me. He played me a lot even though I was making mistakes, he really started my career. I told him I was so grateful and I couldn’t thank him enough for giving me that chance. It was fun. It was fun to be able to come in from Sept-Iles with a twenty thousand population, to LA without knowing a word of English. And Luc was my roommate in LA and we made the playoffs and it build a lot of confidence in me. Pat Quinn playing me like that just developed my confidence and I had a very good offensive season in LA, and of course I was grateful to be a part of that all-rookie team with these guys. It was my first team and I will never forget that, and being able to play there.

Los Angeles Kings’ coach Pat Quinn is shown in a 1984 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP

You mentioned that Marcel Dionne was a big help to you, Luc and Carson and during that first season you played, at the trade deadline that year, he was traded to the New York Rangers. What were your thoughts and feelings about Marcel getting traded away and so soon, and what was the vibe and feelings in the Kings locker room about it?

It was hard. Marcel really took care of us, where he found us families to stay with, well Luc was “lucky” to stay with Marcel. I’m not jealous or anything you know. *Laughs*

Right, right.

But he did really find us some nice families to stay with, but it was hard. He was like a second dad and for him to leave after having so much history there, it wasn’t easy. I realized a few years later when I got traded that man, it’s brutal. Especially when you have a family and kids. It wasn’t easy for all of us.

During those 1987 playoffs, you and the Kings squared off against Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. After winning game one 5-2 and losing game two 13-3, the Kings ended up losing in 5 games, but what impressed me so much as a child that led me to become a Kings fan, was the way that you, Luc, Carson and the Kings never backed down to the “mighty” Oilers. You never gave up and you gave it right back to them with full force in the remaining 3 games of the series! If I remember correctly, two of those games were 1 goal games, and the other was close until the Oilers pulled away in the third period. I mean, you guys went toe to toe right to the end. Could you take us back to that series, your first ever NHL playoff experience and tell us what you remember and learned the most from it?

I have to tell you, you have a really good memory because some of these scores I don’t even remember! I don’t even remember what happened to me yesterday. *Laughs* I do remember Edmonton and I remember the excitement of the playoffs, especially in LA. During that year, we didn’t have too many fans coming out to see us, but obviously when you go into the playoffs, it was packed. It just was an unbelievable feeling to be able to see that people cared about watching us play. Edmonton had such an unbelievable team. They were so hard to play against, so I was glad that we never gave up and kept going.

After having to battle against Gretzky regularly during your first two seasons in the NHL, in 1988 “The Great One” was traded to the Kings. What were your initial thoughts and feelings when you learned that Wayne was coming to Los Angeles?

We had a feeling that something was going on, so everybody was excited. It was amazing because everybody was talking about it on TV all the time and talking about the Kings, which made things completely different. You know, growing up in Montreal, you see how everybody loves hockey and you get to LA for the first few years, not as much. Then you get the Gretzky deal and it was just unreal. I was really excited. I knew it was going to help my game and help everybody’s game. I mean to have a guy like that. The next thing you know we have sold out crowds and you have the movie stars coming into the locker room and that. We went from being a nobody to everybody knowing who the LA Kings are. Having him there, we had a memorable season and what was really amazing about “Gretz” was he would score 2 or 3 goals and he would still keep pushing for more, so you couldn’t just sit down and be like, “Okay guys, we scored two goals and we’re gonna win.” He wanted to keep on going and it was something that was amazing to see. To see a “superstar” play a game that goes 60 minutes and then still practiced, always being on that ice and always working so hard was when I realized that was why they were so good! It was never enough. They wanted to keep getting better and better, in practice and in games. I loved every minute of it, I tell ya.

In the 1989 playoffs, you and the Kings faced off and defeated the defending Stanley Cup Champions, and Gretzky’s former team, the Edmonton Oilers in an epic seven game series that saw you and the Kings come back to win after being down 3 games to 1. Could you take us back to that exciting and memorable playoff victory and comeback and what your experience was like in it?

It was so emotional. I remember just, you know, everything with Wayne and all the attention, it was unbelievable. We get to the rink and the crowd that was around the bus was incredible. Going down 3-1, that’s when a guy like Wayne can take over and decided that we were going to win. I had no doubt after that sixth game that we won, that after that we were gonna win. He was playing so good and you know, there was so much pride to try to help him beat his former team. So that was the kind of experience that would be hard to forget because of the emotion. At the time it felt like we won the Cup, so it was so exciting to be able to get that feeling. Later on obviously after winning the Cup with Detroit, I learned that the feeling was very similar, but we didn’t get to carry a trophy in LA , so we just carried Wayne around the ice instead! *Laughs*

*Laughs* I remember I was in the sixth grade during that series and I was being constantly and heavily chirped at by the Oiler fans at my school because I was the only Kings fan in my school, actually probably in my whole town too, but they were on me non-stop. So after you guys came back and took out the Oilers, it did feel like as if you guys had just won the Stanley Cup and it gave me some serious bragging rights over them for the rest of that summer, it was amazing! Thank you for that!

*Laughs* No problem, I’m glad!

In the 1990 playoffs, you and the Kings took on the reigning Stanley Cup Champions again, but this time it was the Calgary Flames and you won in 6 games after Mike Krushelnyski scored that slow motion, curve ball, floater of an overtime goal, while laying on his stomach on the ice. It was an epic series winning goal and you assisted on it. Could you take us back and tell us your experience in that tough series against the Flames and what you remember most about that “goal?”

Yeah, it was the same thing. Just unbelievable. I still see that goal sometimes on the NHL network. It seemed to me that we got better and better after beating Edmonton the other year and Calgary had such a good team. They had Al MacInnis and Mike Vernon and they were so good and tough. They played really hard so it was kind of fun for me to be on the ice for that goal. I remember that amazing slap at the puck. Again to be able to be in the playoffs and experiencing winning, it was contagious. Unfortunately, we seemed to always have a hard time in the next round and we couldn’t get past that next round, but being able to beat the champions was fun. Fortunately, I didn’t miss too many playoffs in my career. I’m trying to think about how many times I missed it? I may have missed it during my time in Ottawa, but being able to be in the playoffs is so much fun and there’s so much intensity. The year was so long. In those days before Gretzky, we would fly commercial flights so being in LA was very exhausting to play all over the place. So when Gretzky came on with the team, [Kings’ owner] Bruce McNall bought a jet so we would be able to fly private. That made it a lot easier, but the playoffs was an experience and its fun to win, I tell ya.

After the 1991 season, you were traded to the Philadelphia Flyers which bummed the hell out of me. What was your initial thoughts and feelings when you learned you were being traded out of Los Angeles?

I was bummed out too! Oh I was really mad because I was playing well so I couldn’t understand it to tell you the truth. It was my first trade and I was glad that I was going to a very good team but I wanted to stay so bad. I got traded with Steve Kasper and Jari Kurri then came in the exchange of that trade, so I know Wayne wanted to have him on the team, so it was hard. I didn’t want to go, so that was kind of my first trade where I was sour the most. When I went to “Philly” it was great. They had a really good team in “Philly” as well but it was a totally different experience. You know, you’d been with the same team for so long and then to be moved, it’s tough.

I bet. I know as a fan, that trade was really tough for me as you were and still are one of my favorite players and defenseman of all time …

Oh really? Thank you!

Oh it’s true and I have talked with so many people over the years who also followed the Kings at that time and they also admitted that losing you in that trade was a tough pill to take. You were such an offensive force on that blue line.

Yeah it didn’t feel good and I was really close to Robitaille so leaving the team, it was hard, but hey, that’s the game and believe me, it gave me a chance to experience some other teams and some other players.

Speaking of trades, later on you were involved in one of the biggest trades in NHL history, if the not the biggest trade in NHL history when you, Mike Ricci, Rod Brind’amour, Mark Recchi, Ron Hextal, Dominic Roussel and some draft picks, which one of them turned out to be Peter Forsberg, were traded to the Quebec Nordiques for the highly touted Eric Lindros. Lindros of course, was drafted first overall by Quebec but he refused to play for them and held out until a trade was made. What was your opinion when you learned about the trade and that you were involved in it?

Well I’ll tell you what. I was very excited because I was going back close to my home in Quebec. At first I thought it was just me that got traded for Lindros so I was really flattered! When I found out that there was all those other guys and $15 million too, I didn’t feel the same. *Laughs* I’m kidding. You know with Hextall and those guys, I knew we were going to be a good team so I was really excited to go back close to where my parents were. That was exciting for me. When we got there, we already knew Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin and Owen Nolan, so they had a really good team already. That year, I thought for sure that we were going to win the Cup. We were that good and I don’t know if you remember the playoffs where Montreal ended up winning the Cup that year?

Oh I remember.

The only team that beat them in overtime was us. We were up 2-0 in the series and somebody said, “Oh we figured out Patrick Roy and how to beat him,” and then after that we lost four straight. Then Montreal ended up breaking the record for winning the most playoffs games in overtime and … I think they went to beat LA didn’t they?

Yeah, they did. That was in 1993 and Montreal beat the Kings in 5 games in the final and three of those games that the Kings lost were in overtime. Including the next few seasons, Montreal ended up having the NHL record of 11 straight playoff overtime wins.

That’s right, that’s right. And there was the illegal stick, the Marty McSorley stick as well. I remember watching that. I was so mad because I thought our team in Quebec was so good, but we lost and you know, that’s the game. It would have been fun to play LA in the finals.

Oh man, I don’t know if my nerves would have been able to handle that but it definitely would have been an entertaining series. In 1994, you were reunited with Luc Robitaille, Rob Blake and Darryl Sydor of the LA Kings on the Canadian National Team for the 1994 IIHF World Championships. You guys then went all the way and won the final in an epic shootout that won Canada the World Championship Gold Medal for the first time since 1961. That team also included Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan and current LA Kings’ goaltending coach Bill Ranford. Could you take us back to that championship international experience and how you felt personally about winning the Gold Medal and playing for your country?

Yeah it was great, it was unbelievable. We had such a good team and it was in Italy that year so obviously the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. I remember clearly that we wanted to win and everybody talked about the pride of representing Canada. It was my first international experience and I absolutely loved being able to represent my country and then obviously, you’re right as it had been so long at that time, like I think it was what, 30 years since we last won it?

Yeah, 33 years.

Yeah, so it was fun and we really had a good time. Being able to win and it was my first time to ever win anything, I just adored it.

During the 1998 playoffs, you were playing with the St. Louis Blues and ended up facing and beating your old team, the Los Angeles Kings in a four game sweep. During game 3 of that series, when the Kings were leading 3-0 in the 3^rd period, your teammate Geoff Courtnall controversially ran over Kings goalie Jamie Storr. That led to Kings’ defenseman Sean O’ Donnell to retaliate and attack Courtnall, which led to a 5 minute major penalty against the Kings and allowed you and the Blues to come back and score 4 power-play goals in 3 minutes and seven seconds to win that game. What do you remember the most about that series against Los Angeles and that controversial hit?

You know what, it’s amazing you are telling me all this. It’s bringing back memories. I do remember that hit and I remember after the second period we were all like, “Man, we got to shake them out. We need to figure out something to be in [Storr’s] face,” but I didn’t think that he was going to hit him, but it happened that way. Being on that power-play, obviously was one of those things where again, you feel so good and you feel like you won it all. You know, playing against my former team as well, I really had a great series. I was playing well at that time and it was fun to be able to come back and you know, show the Kings that I could still play.

(Warning Kings’ fans. These videos are tough to watch but if it’s any consolation, Steve Duchesne is playing great in them!)

And you did. You did for sure because after that season, you came back to Los Angeles as a free agent. Why did you choose to return to LA after all of these years and how was that return experience like?

I had a really great year with St. Louis and the Kings were interested in me as well and I always wanted to come back to LA. For me it went from one of the most happiest times in my life to sign that big contract with LA, to one of the biggest disappointments to not be able to perform well. To not have the chance to prove to my team, my teammates and the fans that I still had it in me so it was hard. It was really hard that year. I got bought out after what, 60 games? They kind of gave up on me. I had a hard time. Larry Robinson was the coach at that time and believe me, I wanted it so bad that I started to overdo it and tried to overdo everything and it was just a collapse, it really was. And the more I would do it, it was like quicksand, the more I couldn’t get out. I started thinking too much.

It really got in your head.

Yeah, I just couldn’t play. I was so disappointed because I knew the fans were upset and I wanted to do well so that was hard and I ended up that year finishing it in Philadelphia again. It’s something that I think a lot about. I wish I would have been able to play better. I wish I would have been given the chance to prove that I was worth that money that they paid me that year. I didn’t have the chance so it’s a bit of a sour taste. I know I wanted to do so well coming back to LA.

Seeing you leave LA again, and after you had such a tough season too was also tough to witness, but one thing that still gets me choked up and emotional to this day, was when during the 2001-02 season when you played with Detroit, which ironically reunited you again with Luc Robitaille after he signed on as a free agent that year, you and the Wings went on to dominate that season and playoffs, ending it with you and Luc, finally winning the Stanley Cup after all of these years. Even though, you know as Kings’ fans, we would have preferred to have seen you and Luc lifting that Cup as LA Kings, but to see you two up there together and raising that Cup was still a very beautiful thing to see. You guys started together, and won the World Championship together and now have won the Stanley Cup together, it was really touching. It was probably the only time in my life that I cheered for a team to win the Cup that wasn’t Los Angeles. Could you take us back to that dominating season and playoff run and tell us how it felt personally to you to finally be able to win and lift up the Stanley Cup?

We knew on paper that we had one heck of a team. I remember the first practice looking around and thinking, “Oh my gosh, there’s so many stars here.” You know, it wasn’t even funny.

Yeah, that team was definitely an all-star team for sure.

Like the practices were intense and it was fun. It was the best experience for me as a hockey player. That year, I don’t know how many games we lost, but we were dominating. Coming from that experience in LA, struggling so much to being able to win and not having any pressure was unbelievable. We knew that year. We didn’t want to say much, but we knew we had a good team and we didn’t want to jinx it. I got to tell you, the series against Colorado was something that I had never seen before.

Oh that Detroit-Colorado feud at that time was so heated and brutal.

I’ll tell you, I hurt my shoulder and tore my rotator cuff so they would numb me during that series so I could move my arm up and down and I found out after that series that my rotator cuff was torn. But it was just amazing to be able to win game 7 and win 7-1 against Colorado and Patrick Roy and those guys, we all knew right then that there was no way that we were gonna let Carolina beat us in the finals. You know, that Colorado series took a lot out of us and then obviously we didn’t know what the order was going to be of passing around the Cup, but it was great for these guys and be so classy to give Luc and I the Cup as one the first few guys and to have the Cup be passed to me and to skate around with it, I will never forget it. I have some great pictures of that and of me and Luc together and that. In that series I lost seven teeth. I got hit by a puck in the teeth, so in all of my pictures with the Cup I have no teeth! *Laughs* I got to tell you Jeff, it was perfect. I would love to do that again. I would lose my teeth for the Cup in a heartbeat to get that experience of winning the Cup again. And to win it with Luc was great.

I wanted to come back the next year but I had a bunch of surgeries and I ended up not coming back, but to be able to finish up my career winning the Cup makes me very grateful. I know how hard that is. When I was able to get the Cup that summer, I’m lying on the bed and you look at all the names that are on it, you can’t help but pinch yourself because my name is on there as well. You know, we played last year at the alumni game with Detroit against Colorado at the outdoor stadium in Colorado and they had the Cup there and I had my son with me so I was able to show him my name on there and it was fun for him to experience that, my 19-year-old. It’s amazing that was 14 years ago, I can’t believe how quick that goes.

Looking back at the end of your playing career, who were your favorite people to play with?

Yzerman, Robitaille, same thing with “Gretz,” playing with those guys and you look at their work ethic on and off the ice and they’re classy people, it was such fun for me. I really enjoyed playing with those guys and I played with a lot of guys for a few different teams. I got to tell you, the Ottawa days were fun too. I remember scoring the goal in the last game of the season against Buffalo that put Ottawa into the playoffs! That was a great feeling as well. You start thinking about the good times and the bad, you just count your blessings that you were able to play that many years and that many games with some very talented players. You know from being undrafted, I don’t think anybody thought that I was going to make it and then to being able to play in All-Star games, I am very grateful. The only thing I would have loved was to have the chance to play in the Olympics. I came close that one year when I was in St. Louis but I didn’t make the team. That was kind of a disappointment, but other than that and it’s such an emotional game, when you go so low after a bad year and then to the highs when you win it all, it was just worth it. It’s worth going through the hard times so you appreciate the good times even better and the great people you played with.

In 2012 and then again in 2014, the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup for the first time, and then second time in franchise history. Being a former LA Kings’ player who had so much rich history with the team, how did you feel when you saw the Kings finally win the Stanley Cup?

I was so proud! I remember texting Luc and Jim Fox and those guys and congratulating them. It was such a proud day and to see them on the ice, I was choked up. I watched the game and to see these guys crying and I knew the feeling. You worked so hard and then when you get a chance to win it, it’s so emotional. I am still to this day, close to my teammates that I won the Cup with. You know, Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, Kris Draper, we still talk quite a bit because there’s a bond with the guys you win the Cup with. You look at them in the locker room and everybody is hurt and bleeding and you know they would do anything for you and vice versa because I would do anything for these guys. There is a special bond when you win the Cup with these players.

Well Steve, on behalf of CaliSports News and myself, a long time Los Angeles Kings’ fan who idolized you and still does, thank you so much for this interview today and thank you for being one of the major reasons why the 9-year-old me ended up falling in love with the Kings to begin with and for the rest of my life. Thank you so much Steve.

You know Jeff, I really appreciate the nice words. You really brought me back with some great memories and I’m really gonna have to start studying more details about every moment in my career. *Laughs* But I really appreciate you reaching out and doing this. You know it means a lot to me so thank you as well.

*Special thanks to Steve Duchesne, Theresa Walsh Duarte, Mario Hicks and Ryan Cowley for helping out with this article.

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, all the time!