Los Angeles Kings - Franchise snapshot

Hockey Digest, Jan, 2003 by Alex Gordon

* With the retirement of Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 at this season's home-opener, the Kings have now retired four numbers. The other players to be so honored are Dave Taylor, Rogie Vachon, and Marcel Dionne.

* In his first game with the Kings, Gretzky scored a goal on his first shot. He finished the game with a goal and an assist, passing 83 other Kings on the franchise's all-time scoring list.

* Dionne is the Kings' all-time leader in goals (550), assists (757), and points (1,307). He is third all time in games played (921), trailing Dave Taylor (1,111) and Luc Robitaille (932).

* Vachon similarly dominates the Kings' all-time goalie records, pacing the franchise in games (389), shutouts (32), and wins (171). At 2.86, he has the fourth-best goals-against average in club history (2,400 minutes minimum).

* Current Kings' goalies Felix Potvin and Jamie Storr are first and second on the list of the club's all-time GAA leaders.

* Over the summer, center Jason Allison lives on his own island, Reef Island, with his wife and kids outside of Mactier, Ontario.

* Right wing Adam Deadmarsh originally had his name wrongly engraved on the Stanley Cup as "Deadmarch." It was later corrected, making shim the first player to have a typo fixed.

* Defenseman Aaron Miller was a college teammate at the University of Vermont of Philadelphia Flyers' left wing John LeClair. Miller earned his degree in business from the school.

* Opposing teams frown when they find out they are traveling to Los Angeles for the Kings' home opener. Over the last 15 years, the Kings are 11-1-3 on opening night.

* In the Kings only trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, the team took the first game of the 1993 series against the Montreal Canadiens, but then lost three consecutive overtime games, before dropping the series 4-1.

* Right wing Ziggy Palffy was the leading scorer at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Representing Slovakia in the country's first Olympics (it had recently split from the Czech Republic), he notched three goals and seven assists for 10 points.

* The Kings missed the playoffs for four consecutive seasons following their trip to the Cup. The franchise also missed the playoffs for four straight seasons from 1969-70 to 1972-73. Outside of those two streaks, the team has only missed the postseason four other times.

* A Kings player has led the league in scoring four times: Dionne in 1980 with 137 points, and Gretzky three times (1990, '91, and '94, with 142, 163, and 130 points, respectively).

* Gretzky is the only Kings player to capture the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP, winning the honor in 1989. He won eight straight MVP awards while with Edmonton.

* Perhaps the most famous game in the Kings' pre-Gretzky era game was the "Miracle on Manchester." Trailing 5-0 in the third period to the Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers on August 10, 1982, the Kings stormed back, tying the game on a goal by Steve Bozek with five seconds left on the dock. At 2:35 of overtime, Daryl Evans put one past Edmonton's Grant Fuhr to cap off the stirring comeback.

* Bernie Nicholls holds the club's single-season record for goals with 70 in 1988-89.

* The Kings were first owned by the iconic Jack Kent Cooke, who also owned the Los Angeles Lakers at the time. Cooke, who later would buy the Washington Redskins, sold the Kings, the Lakers, and the teams' former stadium, the Forum, to Dr. Jerry Buss in 1979.

* In 1987, the Kings placed three players on the All-Rookie Team: left wing Luc Robitaille, center Jimmy Carson, and defenseman Steve Duchesne.

* Kings scouts Garnet "Ace" Bailey and Mark Bavis were among those who lost their lives in the September 11th tragedy. Bailey and Bavis were on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.