1992–93 Los Angeles Kings season

The 1992–93 Los Angeles Kings season was the Kings' 26th season. The highlight of the season involved appearing in the Stanley Cup Finals. During their playoff run, the Los Angeles Kings played against Canadian teams all throughout the playoffs (Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens).

In the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, the Kings chose Justin Hocking with their first pick, 39th overall, in the second round.

On Sunday, November 8, 1992, three Los Angeles Kings (Mike Donnelly, Jari Kurri and Luc Robitaille) scored a hat trick in an 11-4 win at San Jose.

The Kings were the most penalized team during the regular season, being shorthanded 529 times.

Los Angeles finished with 2,855 shots on goal during the regular season, second only to the Boston Bruins.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

This exciting and very heated seven-game series has long been remembered by hockey fans. The Toronto Maple Leafs iced a highly competitive team for the first time in years and were hoping to break their 26—year Stanley Cup drought; they had not even been to the Final since their last Cup win in 1967. The Los Angeles Kings, led by captain Wayne Gretzky, also had high ambitions. During Game 1 (a dominating victory for the Leafs) Los Angeles blue-liner Marty McSorley delivered a serious open ice hit on Toronto's Doug Gilmour. Leafs captain Wendel Clark took exception to the hit and went after McSorley for striking their star player. Toronto coach Pat Burns tried scaling the bench to get at Los Angeles coach Barry Melrose because he thought he ordered the hit on Gilmour (McSorley later remarked in interviews that he received dozens of death threat messages on his hotel phone from angry fans). Toronto would take a 3–2 series lead after five games. Game 6 went back west to the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles; it too was not without controversy and was also decided on an overtime goal. During the 1992–93 season, there was a league-wide crackdown on high-sticking infractions, whether they were accidental or not. In Game 6, Gilmour was part of controversy once again. With the game tied at 4 in overtime, Wayne Gretzky accidentally clipped him in the face with the blade of his stick, while shooting a slap shot from the right face-off circle. Many thought that referee Kerry Fraser should have called a penalty on the play, but Gretzky was not penalized, and he went on to score the overtime goal moments later, evening the series at 3–3. He would score three goals in the deciding game to give Los Angeles a berth in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in franchise history and a win a playoff series against an Original Six team for the first time in franchise history as well. Gretzky has been quoted as saying that his performance in Game 7 was the best NHL game of his career. [1]