King of the Kings

If the Montreal Canadiens were looking over their shoulders in disbelief last week, they could hardly be blamed. With an undefeated streak stretching through 21 games--longest in the team's proud history--the Canadiens had every reason to assume that the nearest challenger in their N.H.L. division was far behind in a shower of ice chips. Not so. The upstart Los Angeles Kings, previously one of the league's most feckless losers, were within a thin one point of the streaking Canadiens.

Much of the credit for the Kings' elevation from ice follies clown to league tough guy belongs to Goaltender Rogatien Vachon, 29. With the eight-year veteran finally in his prime, the Kings have limited opponents to 85 goals this season, by far the fewest in the N.H.L. Vachon has appeared in two-thirds of the Kings' games, allowing one goal or less 19 times.

Vachon does not look as if he could get in the way of a cream puff, let alone a rock-hard slab of rubber rocketing toward him at 100 m.p.h. or more. At 5 ft. 7 in., 160 Ibs., he is one of the smallest goalies in the league; he has neither the reach nor the muscle that helps such players as Montreal's Ken Dryden deflect shots with shoulders and legs. But Vachon makes up for his lack of size with one of the surest, fastest gloves in the game--and an extra dose of daring that gets him to the puck no matter how heavy the hitting around the goal.

Slow Start. Indeed, Vachon is an irrepressible roamer around the net. Unsatisfied with merely blocking shots, he constantly sweeps alongside the goal --and even behind it--to clear the puck or start breakaways up the ice. "I like moving around," he says. "If I stayed in the net, I wouldn't be involved in the game and the opposition could score some easy goals."

Such scores used to come often. In fact, Vachon's career started with what for him was agonizing slowness. After learning to play goalie as a farm boy in rural Quebec (his peers would not let him play offense because of his size), he was invited to a Montreal Canadien junior team tryout at age 16. He was immediately sent to the second-rank junior squad. Four years later, when his junior stint was ending, Vachon was once again farmed out, this time to a minor league team. When he finally got a chance to play for Montreal eight years ago, he initially performed in the shadow of Gump Worsley. Eventually, as he was becoming recognized as a respected goaltender, Vachon was displaced by Dryden and traded to the Kings in November 1971.

The expansion club needed a leader as well as a good goalie, and Vachon has filled both roles. He constantly hollers instructions to teammates during play. He has also blended easily into Coach Bob Pulford's style--a minimum of rowdy brawls and fancy maneuvers, a maximum of basic, methodical play. Vachon gets plenty of help from two N.H.L. veterans, Defenseman Terry Harper and Right Wing Bob Nevin, who leads the King attack. Before this season started, Vachon made an extra effort to get in shape, running three to four miles as well as playing tennis for up to four hours every day. He also worked full time building a new house for his wife and son in Montreal. When the season opened with a victory against the Stanley Cup Champion Flyers in Philadelphia, Vachon and the Kings felt that this might be their year. "That win gave us a lot of confidence," says Vachon. "We realized we could beat anyone." Pulford may be more realistic when he says, "I cannot tell my players they'll stay abreast of Montreal because I don't believe it myself." Then he adds with a grin, "Mind you, we'll give them a helluva run for the money." The Kings have already done that.

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