The Quest of Luc Robitaille

2002

Tears were rolling down his eyes as he hugged his head coach Scotty Bowman as hard as he could.  Bowman had renewed his confidence by convincing him to join the Detroit Red Wings while he was a free agent.  It had been 9 long years since he was in the Stanley Cup Final with the Los Angeles Kings, bitterly losing to Montreal but here he was in Detroit, Michigan after defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in 5 games.  He was now finally a Stanley Cup Champion.

After the epic Cup Final run in ’93 with the Kings, they ended up missing the playoffs in 1994 and before he could blink, he was traded to Pittsburgh.  The trade hurt him deeply as he didn’t want to leave and it made him wonder if Gretzky had something to do with that decision? He wasn’t fully sure but something had gone down behind the scenes and Luc getting shipped out-of-town was the result of it.  He was still young and was going to a very talented and dangerous Penguins team so he still had many opportunities to finally win the Cup but it was killing him inside that like Marcel Dionne, he didn’t get to win the Stanley Cup with the Kings.  That quest seemed over, a failure like the original one.

Luc only played one year as a Penguin in what turned out to be a locked out shortened season.  When arriving to Pittsburgh he had an optimism that he may play alongside with Mario Lemieux but sadly that wasn’t to be as Lemieux took the whole (half) year off to deal with his cancer treatments.  Like with the Kings in the 1992-93 season when Gretzky was absent due to injury, The Penguins bonded together and made it all the way to the conference finals, only to lose to a defensively stubborn Florida Panthers team in 7 games.

He was then traded to the New York Rangers and after a year there he was even reunited again with Gretzky himself after the “Great One” signed with them as a free agent in 1996. Gretzky’s quest to win the Cup in Los Angeles had failed as well.

After Gretzky arrived to NY, Luc took the opportunity to talk to him about what happened in ’94 when Luc got traded against his wishes and Gretzky told him he had nothing to do with it.  In ’94 Kings owner Bruce McNall was looking at some hard time for his illegal business dealings and the team was going bankrupt so they couldn’t afford their top stars anymore including Gretzky himself.  Afterwards Luc felt better about the situation and he and Gretzky finally put to rest any issues they had with one another.

The Rangers with Luc Robitaille, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter played their hearts out for the 1996-97 season but Luc’s time with the Rangers was not a successful one as he suffered career lows in numbers.  He was getting older and with his well-known (and talked about) lack of skating ability and with the NHL fully in the “dead puck” era now, he was struggling with his bread and butter instinct of getting to the net and scoring key goals.  Now defensemen were getting away with grabbing or holding or pinning him down without any repercussions.

The Rangers ended up making the Eastern Conference Finals that year but they were out in 5 games against a larger and meaner Philadelphia Flyers team that had the “Legion of Doom” line of Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg.

After the last few years becoming dark and frustrating, things finally turned for the better as Luc returned home to the Los Angeles Kings.  The quest was back on!

With the help of former teammate and now head coach Larry Robinson, as well as the next coach, the uber strategic Andy Murray, Luc bounced back offensively and revived his career by flourishing with seasons of 39, 36 and 37 goals, the most he had since leaving LA.  With Luc’s passion and leadership the Kings improved in their play.

They made a serious run in the 2001 playoffs after eliminating a very dangerous Detroit Red Wings team but lost a tough 7 game series against the eventual Stanley Cup winners that year, the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. Watching the “Avs” go on to win the Cup after the Kings had come so close to getting past them was tough to swallow.  Just imagine what could have happened if LA was able to take them out in game 7 instead of the other way around? The quest would have finally been accomplished.

Now here he was, skating around Joe Louis Arena, finally lifting the coveted Stanley Cup above his head while skating around the ice.  This was the pinnacle of his career and it brought much joy and relief to him personally.  This was his dream all along since he was a child.  Like Gretzky in 1984 lifting the cherished Cup, it was the endgame of every NHL player but during that celebration, Luc couldn’t help but think of Marcel Dionne, who never got to win the Cup in his illustrious career.  He thought of the Los Angeles Kings and it’s fanbase and how they still had not had the experience and pleasure of winning the Cup.  As happy as he was,  there was still a nagging and unsatisfying feeling at the bottom of his gut.  Yes he had finally won THE Cup but he still wanted to win one with the Kings more than anything else.  LA was still the home where his heart belonged to.

In the next couple of days, many of Luc’s former Los Angeles Kings teammates and coaches called or e-mailed him a congratulations for winning the Cup.  It was well deserved they said.  Even some of the long time LA Kings fans had written him letters and admitted even though they wished they saw him win the Cup as a King, they were still happy and proud of him. He was touched and humbled by this. He still had a few years left in his career and his contract with Detriot would end at the end of next season.  Maybe, just maybe he could get another crack at the Cup with LA?  His career wasn’t over yet … the quest wasn’t over yet.