A King Sellout Sees a Blowout by Oilers, 8-1

Like schoolchildren who drag their messy but well-intended finger paintings home for parental inspection and approval, the Kings had relished returning home to show their long-suffering fans what they had accomplished.

The product of their labor Saturday night was much less likely to be magnetized on refrigerators than stowed under the sink, out of view and ready for quick removal.

“I know the guys are disappointed,” Coach Pat Quinn said after his team’s 8-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at the Forum. “We had a chance to show a good crowd how we had improved.”

The Kings’ defeat, by their largest losing margin this season, came before the club’s largest crowd of the season, a sellout of 16,005.

As the Kings slipped further away from the Oilers, their erstwhile fans slipped out of the Forum, booing as they fled.

What they left was a game apparently out of control.

Edmonton had a 5-1 lead going into the third period, but it was no reason for the Kings to panic. They’d been there before. In fact, they were down by four goals with 10 minutes left the last time the teams played, Dec. 20 at Edmonton, and came back for an 8-8 tie.

This time, however, at about the time of the game when the Kings had made their move in Edmonton, it was the Oilers who made a move at the Forum. Raimo Summanen scored on a 60-foot shot that went in untouched at 10:08 of the third period for the first of the Oilers’ final three goals.

It was, as Quinn suggested, a “nightmare” for King goaltender Bob Janecyk.

Janecyk already had to face the best offensive team in the league. What made his job doubly difficult were the number of two-on-one and three-on-two rushes he faced. The Kings (17-19-4) were not checking at their own blue line, allowing the Oilers to enter the King zone at full blast.

Jarri Kurri had one goal and three assists; Wayne Gretzky had one goal and two assists, and Paul Coffey and Kevin McClelland each scored twice for the Oilers, who in winning for the 10th time in 11 games and improving their record to 25-12-2 solidified their lead in the Smythe Division.

“They (Edmonton’s line rushes with a man advantage) were the result of misplays on our part,” Quinn said. “That club can create anything. As a defenseman, you have to be careful of your position. We weren’t a good team at giving him (Janecyk) much help tonight.”

Rollie Melanson was scheduled to start in goal but was ill. Janecyk said he was told at noon Saturday that he would play.

Janecyk had not started for the Kings in 51 days and had been a kind of walking symptom for more than a month. First, he was out of action with stiffness in his neck. Then an outbreak of warts appeared on his left hand. The warts were removed but developed into a rash that spread up his entire arm.

Janecyk’s hand and wrist are still an ugly red and the ends of the warts remain. The condition causes him no pain, Janecyk said.

The booing of the crowd might have been painful, however. King fans blamed Janecyk for breakdowns that occured in front of him and the resultant errors that were left for him to deal with.

The Kings collapsed in the second period, allowing four goals as they watched a 1-1 first-period tie--and the hopes it brought--recede with each spectacular Oiler goal.

“After about 25 minutes of play, they seemed to take over,” Quinn said.

The Oilers scored on a power play with only 34 seconds gone in the second period.

The next goal was a skating show by Mark Messier. He swiftly carried the puck on a breakaway and quickly drew the attention of Janecyk.

With Messier closing fast, Janecyk committed to defending against Messier, which was what Messier was waiting for. Messier passed off to McClelland, who was trailing on the play, and McClelland’s goal gave the Oilers a 3-1 lead at 5:22.

At that point, Edmonton had taken two shots in the period and both had resulted in goals.

Meanwhile, the Kings were bumbling power play opportunities, jumping offsides three times on one power play and twice on another. Such mistakes brought to an abrupt halt any momentum the Kings might have created.

The last two Oiler goals of the period were scored against a cowed and cowering King team.

Gretzky gave Edmonton a 4-1 lead on a short-handed goal at 13:59, his 40th goal of the season. Then, the fourth goal of the period came as Janecyk ventured away from the goal, tumbled to the ice and floundered while defenseman Jay Wells was forced to play goaltender. Jarri Kurri had little trouble scoring at 18:45.

The Kings, who at one point in the second period held a 19-10 shooting advantage, were outshot, 14-4, after that.

It was Edmonton goaltender Grant Fuhr who faced the most shots in the first period--in which the Oilers’ Craig MacTavish and the Kings’ Steve Duchesne scored--but it was the Kings who panicked in front of their goal after showing signs of shedding that tendency in previous games.

Fuhr, who stopped 37 shots in the game, was also brilliant in an earlier appearance here, a game the Oilers won, 4-2. He made 36 saves in that game.

However, in his last start, against Philadelphia Dec. 28, he was pathetic in the first period, giving up three goals on six shots, and was replaced by Andy Moog at the start of the second period.

All of which indicates that Fuhr is perhaps the best goaltender in the league but is not impervious to fatigue and mental lapses. He did not show either of those drawbacks Saturday night.