The Quest of Luc Robitaille

1993

He had just received the bad news from head Coach Barry Melrose that the team Captain and main superstar Wayne Gretzky wasn’t going to return anytime soon due to a serious back injury.  So serious that it might end up being career threatening.  Even though he and Gretzky seemed to butt heads at time, they played well together on the ice (when they were allowed to play on the same line of course) and he was worried for his friend and teammate.

Gretzky being traded to the Kings in 1988 had turned the whole franchise around for the better.  Instantly the Los Angeles Kings became Stanley Cup contenders and hockey fever was spreading far into California.  In their first 2 seasons with Gretzky they eliminated the Stanley Cup defending Champion (and Gretzky’s former team) Edmonton Oilers in 1989 and then the Calgary Flames in 1990, both in the first round but were eliminated in the second round.

The team really found their stride in the 90-91 season and won the Smythe division title with 46 wins and 102 points for the first time ever! This was the highest and best record in franchise history.  The Kings looked primed to finally win their first Stanley Cup but after a promising start by eliminating the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, the Kings faced off again against their mortal enemy, the Edmonton Oilers.

The series was a tight battle but in the end the Oilers eliminated them in 6 agonizingly close games for the second season in a row and a year that seemed so promising had ended bitterly.

What helped simmer down the bitterness somewhat was that a few months later, he and Gretzky were selected to play for Team Canada at the 1991 Canada Cup.  The team also had Mark Messier, Eric Lindros, Dale Hawerchuck, Paul Coffey, Larry Murphy and Bill Ranford and they dominated the competition and defeated team USA in 2 straight games to win it all! The experience was amazing to him but the one downside was that in Game 1 of the finals, USA defenseman Gary Suter blind sighted Gretzky by boarding him from behind and injuring his back so badly that the “Great One” was finished for the tournament.  This of course motivated everyone on the Canadian team to avenge Gretzky by winning the game, series and the Canada Cup, which they did but it was a tad bittersweet.  It was possible that it was that same back injury suffered by the illegal cross check of Suter that was now sidelining Gretzky in the present, possibly forever.

Another piece of news delivered to him by Coach Melrose was that he was selected to be the Captain of the team in Gretzky’s absence.  With the help of his teammates like Jari Kurri, Tomas Sandstrom, Tony Granato,  Dave Taylor, Rob Blake, Marty McSorley and Kelly Hrudy, the Kings banded together and marched forward without the greatest player that ever played the game.

Miraculously, Gretzky and his doctors were able to solve what was ailing his back which turned out to have saved his career. He returned for the second half of the season and found the Kings playing as a solid unit.  Luc returned the Captain’s duty back to Gretzky because he felt that was where it truly belonged and they all got back to business.  With the team bonding in Gretzky’s absence and the return of Gretzky’s talent and genius, the Los Angeles Kings became a powerful threat and disposed of the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks, both in 6 games to qualify for the Conference Final for the first time in King’s history.

And what a battle that Campbell Conference was as the Kings faced a resurgent, hardworking and confident Toronto Maple Leafs team led by Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Glenn Anderson, Mike Gartner and Felix Potvin and hardboiled coach Pat Burns.  In an epic and controversial 7 game series that is still spoke of to this day, the Kings got their golden ticket to the Stanley Cup Final where Luc’s hometown team, the Montreal Canadiens were waiting for them.

The Final started well when the Kings won 4-1 to take a 1-0 lead in the series and had a 2-1 lead in the score during the 3rd period of game 2 when “it” happened.  A stop in play was whistled and the referee called a penalty after measuring teammate Marty McSorley’s stick after finding it having an illegal curved blade.  The rest was history as Montreal came back to win that game and the next 3 to win the Stanley Cup in 5 games.  Even though he finished the playoffs with 9 goals and 22 points and had the best regular season of his career by scoring a record-breaking 63 goals, the most ever by a left winger in the NHL, the bitter taste of defeat, especially in the manner that it happened left Luc angry and with a broken heart.  It also didn’t help matters that the series ending game 5 was played at the Montreal forum either.

Luc and the Kings were within a fingers reach of finally winning that Cup. It angered Luc that there seemed to be some sort of conspiracy to how Montreal’s head coach Jaques Demers had attained the information about McSorley’s stick being illegal? Many players in the entire NHL, probably even on Montreal’s roster were playing with illegal sticks and a call for a penalty is never taken but now all of a sudden it is? Talking to Gretzky about it, Wayne downplayed the whole scenario because even if they found out the whys, the who’s and the whats of the situation, in the end it doesn’t matter.  The real truth is about the Stanley Cup and they had just lost a chance at winning it.  That’s what mattered and that’s what hurts.  No buts or excuses.

Luc thought about this.  Here is Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player that ever played the sport.  A 9 time league MVP, 2 time playoff MVP and a 4 time Stanley Cup Champion and all he cared about was winning that Stanley Cup.  How you lost wasn’t important because in the end you still lost and nothing could change that.  Gretzky wanted to bring the people of Los Angeles a Cup as bad as Marcel and he did and not being able to do that was eating at him as well. Whatever issues they had with one another personally wasn’t important either, they both loved the team and they both wanted to win badly.  They were on the exact same quest.

Despite the painful defeat, they did have one hell of a run and the same core of the team would still return for the next season.  Now with all this playoff experience and coming oh so close to tasting all the Cup’s glory, they can do again next year … but this time they’re going all the way!