Wayne Gretzky will coach in NHL All-Star game

Wayne Gretzky was appointed coach of the Metropolitan Division team for Sunday’s NHL All-Star game in place of Columbus Coach John Tortorella, who relinquished the job earlier this week.

Tortorella told the Columbus Dispatch he needed time “to take care of something very important to my family and my son.” He later said a dog belonging to his son, an active duty U.S. Army Ranger, had fallen ill. “I needed to see this through,” said Tortorella, who also missed the Blue Jackets’ final game before the All-Star break.

Gretzky, an ambassador for the league’s centennial celebrations and one of the top 100 players honored by the NHL on Friday, got the job Saturday. It wasn’t offered to the coach of any other team. The All-Star coaches were determined by which teams had the best record at the halfway point of the schedule.

“It’s kind of last minute and getting somebody to fly in, we thought it would be fun and make the most sense,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said Saturday. “And by the way, he did coach for a while in addition to everything else.”

Gretzky coached the then-Phoenix Coyotes for four seasons, starting in 2005-06, with a record of 143-161-24. He also guided a team of celebrities—among them pop singer Justin Bieber—and former players to a 5-3 victory over a similar team coached by Mario Lemieux Saturday afternoon at Staples Center.

The highlight was Chris Pronger checking Bieber into the glass, drawing smiles from both.

NHL still undecided on Olympics

There was nothing new on the Olympics front for the NHL, Bettman said in his state-of-the-league address Saturday. Whether the NHL will participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, has been a looming question and Bettman addressed it in his opening remarks and said the league’s Board of Governors “spent 10 seconds” on it in that morning’s meeting.

Asked how long the issue can remain undecided, Bettman said, “We’re not the ones setting deadlines.”

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly reportedly said the sentiment among the Board is they don’t want to participate and something would have to change their mind.

The NHL benefited from the exposure of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics but has the same concerns about travel and other expenses and the consequences of shutting down its season for two weeks that it did for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Without a decision on its participation, the league cannot announce the site for the 2018 All-Star game were it to forgo its Olympic involvement.

“We’re looking at a few places,” Bettman said, including the new Vegas Golden Knights franchise sometime down the road.

On other topics, Bettman all but squashed thoughts of having advertisements on hockey jerseys, like the NBA will do with its jerseys as a pilot program starting with the 2017-18 season. “It would take an unusual circumstance for us to even think about it,” Bettman said.

In regards to the NHL schedule, Bettman said league executives are looking at changing the timing of the bye week that was implemented this season to give half the league a bye week and then the other half a bye on another week.

Bettman liked the buzz that helped Los Angeles secure this weekend’s All-Star festivities, the first such weekend at Staples Center since 2002. He noted the growth of hockey in California in regards to the increase of registered players in the state, from 3,400 in 1981 to 3,400 in 2002 to 28,000 currently.

Bettman denied speculation that the Carolina Hurricanes are for sale amid reports that owner Peter Karmanos is open to selling the team.

Homecoming

The All-Star festivities were a homecoming for Red Kelly, who coached the expansion Kings in 1967-68 after a playing career that earned him a spot among the NHL’s top 100 players of its first century. Kelly, 89, wasn’t able to travel to Los Angeles in October for a reunion of that first Kings team, but he and his wife, former figure skater Andra McLaughlin, were excited about being here this weekend and getting his first look at Staples Center.

“When we started out there we had to go down to Long Beach to play our first home games, so we were on the road a lot and only got into our rink around the first of the year,” Kelly said. “That was the Forum, that Jack Kent Cooke built.”

The Kings and the NHL have taken firm root in Southern California since the team’s tentative early days. “I think Jack Kent Cooke said there were 650,000 Canadians out there and the reason they were out there was because they didn’t like hockey,” he said. “I thought we had some good crowds there and a lot of the stars were there. I grew up playing hockey knee-high to a grasshopper and I thought if the fans would get out to see the game, they would enjoy it and follow it. I wasn’t surprised it caught on out there because there are a lot of sports fans in the L.A. area and so they would follow teams like that.”

Simmering

Wayne Simmonds has blossomed into one of the NHL’s premier power forwards since the Kings traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers in the Mike Richards deal in 2011. He was proud to return this weekend as a first-time All Star.

“Good pride,” he said Saturday to describe his feelings. “I got an opportunity to play there as a 20-year-old. I think I was an entirely different person. Probably did a lot of stupid things. I think it might be a little bit of validation to know that I’ve gone through all the paces. I’ve done that work and I’m here today.”

He roomed with Drew Doughty during his Kings career, but the two will be opponents Sunday, when Doughty plays for the Pacific Division. That hasn’t gotten in the way of their friendship, as they got together to catch up. “It was pretty sweet. We had fun [Friday] last night, me and Wayne,” Doughty said. “It’s good to be reunited. We had a lot of fun our first three years together in L.A. To kind of go back to old times felt pretty good and I’m happy to be here with him.”

Slap shots

Columbus forward Cam Atkinson, who ranks 11^th in the NHL scoring race, acknowledged he was miffed when he wasn’t selected for the Metropolitan team. “But you can’t let it get to you,” said Atkinson, who agreed to come as a replacement after Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin withdrew because of a lower-body injury. “I had a trip booked to New York with a bunch of my other teammates and wives because we play the Rangers the day after the break. That was the plan….To get the call, and I’m here now, it’s pretty cool.”

Fans around the NHL love to boo Ducks center Ryan Kesler, and it’s a sure bet that Kings fans at Staples Center on Sunday won’t react politely when he’s introduced. Asked who’s likely to get the loudest jeers among himself, Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler and San Jose defenseman Brent Burns, Kesler didn’t hesitate. “Cam’s definitely out of the question because everybody loves him. How can you hate that baby face?” Kesler said. “It would be between me and Burns probably. I don’t mind it. It’s all in good fun.”

Scorers’ heaven

Sunday will mark a rare chance for Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin to be teammates in a three-on-three format, assuming they will be put together at some point on the Metropolitan squad.

“Listen, I’ve seen him enough, and I see the way he shoots the puck, so you’ve got to make sure you find him anywhere over the blue line and it’s got a chance to go in,” Crosby said. “It’s tough playing against him, but you try to take advantage of playing with him.”

Doughty dreaded the prospect of having to face that dynamic duo. “We’ll have to put our shutdown pair against them,” Doughty said. “I’m expected to be made a fool at least once out there.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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