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History Lesson: Wayne Gretzky high-sticks Doug Gilmour on the path to victory.

Since the Kings are playing the Leafs for pretty much the first time since their victory over them in the 1993 conference finals, let’s take a moment to remember what sparked the Los Angeles Kingslong and wonderful tradition of getting away with cheating in the NHL.

Heading into game 6 of the Campbell Conference finals, Toronto was up 3-2 on Los Angeles. One step away from Canada devolving into terror and chaos at the prospect of a Toronto versus Montreal Stanley Cup final.

In game 6, the Kings were up 4-1 through two periods and little me probably had long since turned off the game and fired up Battletoads on my Sega Genesis. Being a dumb child, I had no idea that the game was far from over because…well, it’s the Kings we’re talking about here.

Obviously, Toronto came back to tie it up 4-4 and the game headed into overtime. That’s when America took things into their own hands:

America has a long and flawless track record of stepping in and saving other countries in spite of themselves. And that’s what happened here. The US-controlled NHL obviously feared for what might happen to our brothers up North if Montreal and Toronto actually met in the finals and made sure that the Kings got away with everything– including Wayne Gretzky trying to swat Doug Gilmour’s big dumb head off his gross little body.

WATCH: Don Cherry takes it well.

Soon after, Gretzky buried it for the game winner. The Kings then took an easy one in game 7 (I think it was easy, I don’t know…I was busy playing Streets of Rage 2) and the rest was history:

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