The 1992–93 Los Angeles Kings season was the team's 26th season in the National Hockey League (NHL). It saw the Kings finish in third place in the Smythe Division with a record of 39 wins, 35 losses, and 10 ties for 88 points. The Kings played their home games at the Great Western Forum.
In 1992–93, the Kings reached new levels of success, reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in their history. They defeated the Calgary Flames in six games in the Division Semifinals before besting the regular-season division champion Vancouver Canucks in six games in the Division Finals. In the Campbell Conference Finals, the Kings triumphed over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a hard-fought seven-game series, sending them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Final, where they met the Montreal Canadiens. The Kings took game one of the Final, but then lost four straight games as the Canadiens took the series 4–1 and won their 24th Stanley Cup championship. The Kings finished with 93 playoff goals, the most playoff goals scored by a team that did not win the Stanley Cup and the seventh-most overall by any team in the playoffs.
Offseason In the 1992 NHL entry draft, the Kings chose Justin Hocking with their first pick, 39th overall, in the second round.
Regular season 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.
On March 13, the Kings road game against the Philadelphia Flyers was postponed after one period after high winds from the 1993 Storm of the Century smashed a large window at the Spectrum. It was the first in-progress game in NHL history to be postponed due to weather. The game was restarted from the beginning on April 1.
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.
Final standings
Playoffs
Division Semifinals The Kings qualified for the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs by virtue of their third-place finish in the Smythe Division. In the Smythe Division Semifinals, the third-seeded Kings met the Calgary Flames, who had finished second in the Smythe Division during the regular season. Although Los Angeles was missing its best defenceman, Rob Blake, for Game 1 and team captain Wayne Gretzky suffered a charley horse and left midway through the contest, the Kings fired on all cylinders in a 6–3 win at the Olympic Saddledome. Defenceman Darryl Sydor scored on a pass from behind the net by Gretzky only 16 seconds into the game, and Jimmy Carson netted two power play goals. However, Calgary stormed back in Game 2, with their ace defensive centre Joel Otto scoring twice, once at even-strength and once short-handed, as part of an unanswered five-goal outburst in the second period en route to a 9–4 Flames victory. The series shifted to California for Game 3, where undisciplined play by the Kings and two goals by the Flames' Theoren Fleury, one on the power play and one shorthanded, allowed Calgary to claim a 5–2 win. Feeling he needed to shake up his team, Kings head coach Barry Melrose opted to start backup goaltender Robb Stauber, a playoff rookie, over usual starter Kelly Hrudey for Game 4. Stauber responded, stopping 28 of 29 Calgary shots, while Alexei Zhitnik, Warren Rychel, and Pat Conacher scored to give Los Angeles a 3–1 victory and a 2–2 series tie. After being held to five goals over the previous two games, the Kings' offense burst forth in Game 5, with Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Tomas Sandström, and Tony Granato, all heretofore dormant, erupting for a combined five goals and six assists in a 9–4 rout of the Flames, putting Los Angeles one win away from the second round. Not to be denied, the Kings' onslaught continued in Game 6, as Sandström's two goals, Jari Kurri's goal and three assists, and Gretzky's goal and two assists led to a decisive 9–6 victory and a 4–2 series win, the team's first playoff series triumph since 1991. Los Angeles set a club playoff record by scoring 33 goals in six games, surpassing their previous mark of 29 goals in a series.
Division Finals In the Smythe Division Finals, the Kings' opponents were the Vancouver Canucks, who had finished in first place in the Smythe Division during the regular season and upended the fourth-place Winnipeg Jets in six games in the other Smythe Division Semifinal series. The Canucks, who had won seven of nine regular-season games against Los Angeles, continued their success with a 5–2 victory in Game 1, as Dana Murzyn, Gerald Diduck, and Dave Babych – three defencemen not known for their offensive prowess – all scored for Vancouver. Game 5 in Vancouver was the first in the series to not be a blowout; instead, it was a close, tense affair that proved to be the longest playoff game in team history to that point. The Kings had a 2–1 lead after one period on goals by Gretzky and Kurri, but the Canucks tied the score at 3–3 after two periods thanks to markers by Petr Nedved and Trevor Linden. After a scoreless third period, the game went to double overtime where, after two failed wraparound attempts by Robitaille, the puck went to Gary Shuchuk at the crease, who flicked it past Vancouver goaltender Kirk McLean at 6:31 to win the game for the Kings, 4–3, and put them one victory away from the Conference Finals.
Conference Finals In the Campbell Conference Finals, the Kings faced the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had finished in third place in the Norris Division during the regular season and defeated the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues, both in seven games, in the Division Semifinals and Division Finals, respectively. The Maple Leafs had last won the Stanley Cup in 1967 and had not even reached the Stanley Cup Final since that year. Their 1993 Conference Finals appearance was the furthest the franchise had advanced in the playoffs since 1978. There had been some animosity between the clubs heading into the series, as Toronto centre Doug Gilmour had been suspended for eight days for slashing and breaking the arm of the Kings' Tomas Sandström during a regular-season game on November 21.
The Maple Leafs opened the series with a 4–1 victory at home in Game 1, with Gilmour, the playoffs' leading scorer, recording two goals and two assists. However, the contest was marred by a hit on Gilmour by Kings defenceman Marty McSorley late in the game. Leaf captain Wendel Clark immediately fought McSorley, while Toronto defenceman Todd Gill brawled with Los Angeles forward Dave Taylor. Leafs head coach Pat Burns, who believed McSorley's hit on Gilmour was a deliberate attack ordered by the Los Angeles coaching staff, angrily confronted Kings head coach Barry Melrose, while Toronto fans threw debris on the ice. McSorley estimated that over 100 threats were called into his hotel room after the game. Sandström's goal off a Wayne Gretzky pass with 7:40 remaining allowed Los Angeles to tie the series with a 3–2 win in Game 2 before the teams headed to the Great Western Forum for Games 3 and 4. The Kings took Game 3 by a 4–2 score aided by short-handed goals from Taylor and Jari Kurri, but Toronto displayed a dominant defensive effort in Game 4, as goals by Bob Rouse and rookie Mike Eastwood in the first 6:30 sparked the Maple Leafs to a 4–2 win of their own to tie the series at 2–2. In Game 5, Glenn Anderson scored the winning goal in overtime off his own rebound to give Toronto a 3–2 victory, putting them one win away from their first Finals appearance in 26 years. In the aftermath of the game, Bob McKenzie, writing in the Toronto Star, angered Gretzky by opining that the Kings' captain looked "as though he were skating with a piano on his back." Before Game 6 in Los Angeles, Gretzky told his agent, Mike Barnett, "The piano man still has a tune to play."
Game 6, a back-and-forth affair, would prove the most controversial of the series. Clark gave Toronto a 2–1 lead early in the second period, but the Kings went ahead 4–2 on three power play goals by McSorley, Darryl Sydor, and Luc Robitaille. The Leafs stormed back in the third period, with Clark scoring two more goals to complete a hat trick and tie the game at 4–4; the tying goal came with just 81 seconds left, sending the contest into overtime. With 13 seconds left in regulation, Anderson received a boarding penalty, allowing Los Angeles to begin overtime on a power play. During the overtime period, with the Kings in the Toronto end, Gretzky's stick caught Gilmour on the chin, drawing blood. Under the rules in place at the time, the play would have resulted in a five-minute major penalty. However, after consulting with linesmen Ron Finn and Kevin Collins, referee Kerry Fraser decided against penalizing Gretzky, reasoning he did not see the play. Gretzky scored the overtime winner off the very next faceoff, handing Los Angeles a 5–4 win and tying the series at three games apiece.
The winner of the deciding seventh game in Toronto would determine the Campbell Conference representative in the 1993 Stanley Cup Final. At 9:48 of the first period, Gretzky opened the scoring with a short-handed goal off a 2-on-1 rush with McSorley, then picked up an assist when Sandström scored off a Gretzky pass in the slot to give the Kings a 2–0 lead. The Maple Leafs tied the game in the second period on goals by Clark and Anderson, but just past the midway point of the period, Gretzky scored his second goal of the contest when he took a backhand pass from Sandström and, after Toronto defenceman Kent Manderville went for the puck but missed, moved to the high slot and slapped the puck past Leaf goaltender Felix Potvin for a 3–2 Los Angeles lead. The Maple Leafs clawed back to tie the game at 3–3 early in the third period on Clark's second goal of the night. However, with 3:51 left, the Kings' Alexei Zhitnik took a shot that Rouse partially blocked and redirected to Mike Donnelly, who scored into an empty net to give Los Angeles a 4–3 advantage. Only 37 seconds later, Gretzky completed a hat trick and capped a four-point effort when, chased by Gill, he circled behind Potvin and banked the puck off the skate of Leafs defenceman Dave Ellett and into the net; the goal, which Gretzky called a "fluke", gave the Kings a 5–3 lead. Though Ellett scored with 1:07 remaining to cut the Kings' lead to one goal, Los Angeles held on for a 5–4 victory and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in team history. Gretzky later called Game 7 the greatest game he had ever played.
Stanley Cup Final
The Kings' opponents in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, the Montreal Canadiens, had finished third in the Prince of Wales Conference's Adams Division during the regular season. They had defeated their provincial rivals, the Quebec Nordiques, in six games in the Division Semifinals and swept the Buffalo Sabres four straight in the Division Finals before besting the New York Islanders in five games in the Wales Conference Finals. Prior to the series, Los Angeles coach Barry Melrose suggested that the Canadiens were a team that "hasn't been tested," although Montreal had lost the first two games of their first-round series to the Nordiques before rebounding to win 11 consecutive games, tying an NHL record.
Still, the Canadiens had had eight days off since eliminating the Islanders, and the Kings took advantage of their lethargy in a 4–1 victory in Game 1 at the Montreal Forum. Montreal native Luc Robitaille scored twice on the power play, and Wayne Gretzky had a hand in all four Los Angeles goals, scoring one himself and assisting on the other three. The lone Canadiens goal came at 18:09 of the first period when Gretzky scored on his own net trying to break up a pass by Montreal's Ed Ronan, who received credit for the goal.