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Luc Robitaille got lucky in Los Angeles. Pretty fast, too.
Happened on his first NHL shift for the Kings back in 1986 as a matter of fact, when the rookie Los Angeles passed over in his draft year for some scrawny baseball player scored a goal and quickly got pegged by teammates for his new nickname.
"Tiger Williams started calling me that after that game," recalled "Lucky Luc," who will have his No. 20 retired by the Kings on Saturday. "I was a kid, living in the biggest house at Marcel's (Dionne), driving his Mercedes and then I score a goal right away, so he thought I was lucky."
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Luc Robitaille was Rookie of the Year after scoring 45 goals in 1986-87. (Getty Images) |
Williams might have known he was good too, though Robitaille arrived in Los Angeles with little fanfare and even less knowledge of the English language.
But instead of getting lost in the shuffle or dazzled by the bright lights of Hollywood, Robitaille earned a spot on the top line alongside franchise icon Dionne and scored 45 times to become Rookie of the Year. That launched a remarkable 19-year career -- 14 of them with the Kings -- that saw Robitaille call it quits after last season with 668 goals and 1,394 points, the highest-scoring left wing in NHL history.
The next step is the Hockey Hall of Fame, which isn't bad for someone who was considered such a poor skater, the Kings took him with their throwaway pick in the draft's final round and only as a favor to one of their longtime scouts. Robitaille was taken 171st overall in 1984, more than 100 choices after Los Angeles used its fourth-round pick on someone they thought had real potential, a Boston-area kid named Tom Glavine.
"I still find it funny because Glavine was going to play baseball and I had to introduce myself to the guy who drafted me," Robitaille laughed about his first meeting with then-assistant GM John Wolf.
"By the time they got to the ninth round, teams would usually call players they draft by phone because there was no one left in the building, but I stayed in the (Montreal) Forum until the end, waiting to hear my name. I just wanted to go to the table, shake hands, and say here I come. But the guy didn't know who I was."
The Kings figured it out when Robitaille got to his first training camp a couple of years later. Dionne expedited the process by taking him under his wing, but the veteran was traded to the New York Rangers that February, although only after it was clear Robitaille had a knack for getting to the net and scoring goals.
That ability quickly made Robitaille a fan favorite in his adopted home. He nurtured that relationship even when he was playing for other teams.
"Luc's been involved in a lot of charitable endeavors over the years and he is a real part of this community who is genuinely well-liked," said Bob Miller, who has broadcast Kings games for 34 seasons. "When he won the Stanley Cup with Detroit, he brought it here for his day and took it to places like the Hollywood sign and Dodger Stadium and people were happy for him even though he didn't win it with the Kings.
"Really, there's never been another player who had the closeness and association with L.A. fans that Luc had right from the time he came here. Luc always had time for the fans. He just enjoyed meeting and talking to them and that accessibility to him just built over the years."
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That made it easy for the Kings to keep bringing him back.
Los Angeles wasn't a very good team in Robitaille's early years, but began improving when Wayne Gretzky arrived in a trade in 1988. The Kings made the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, losing in five games to Montreal. Robitaille was a big reason they got that far, scoring 63 goals to set a regular-season record for his position and then adding nine more in the playoffs.
"It was an incredible time in those years," said Robitaille.
Just too good to last. The Kings faltered the following season and Robitaille was traded to Pittsburgh in 1995, spending one season there before going on to the Rangers for two years and returning to the Kings in 1997. Robitaille left again in 2001, this time as a free agent, joining the Red Wings and winning his only Stanley Cup before re-signing with Los Angeles in 2003 to finish out his career.
Robitaille's playing days ended unceremoniously last season. The 40-year-old was in former coach Andy Murray's doghouse, kept there by late-season interim replacement John Torchetti and was scratched from the lineup several times by both. But that didn't prevent the Kings from adding Robitaille to the front office when he hung up his skates and giving him the ultimate team kudos by taking his number out of circulation.
"It's really a great honor, one you don't think of because I never played for accolades," said Robitaille, whose number will join Dionne's, Gretzky's, Dave Taylor's and Rogie Vachon's in retirement. "I just wanted a chance to play in the NHL, to prove I could do it and live out my dream.
"I was lucky to be able to do that."