Taylor Stays Even in an Odd Series : Hockey: Veteran provides steadying influence for younger Kings. With playoff tied, Game 5 is tonight at Forum.

Step right up, folks. No waiting necessary. Just grab a ticket, hop aboard and buckle up. The thrill ride of playoff series departs daily for King players and fans alike.

It has been a wild tour through Round 1 with surprises at every turn. A roller coaster on ice.

Before the series opener, the Kings were riding high. They were division champions facing the Vancouver Canucks, a fourth-place team that had finished 37 points behind them. For the Kings, it was the best of times.

Game 1: The Kings hit rock bottom, blowing a two-goal lead in the final period and losing, 6-5. It was the worst of times.

Game 2: The Kings are soaring again, winning in overtime on Wayne Gretzky’s goal.

Game 3: The Kings’ fortunes are back on the downswing as they lose in overtime.

Game 4: Flying high, the Kings get the first blowout of the series, blasting the Canucks, 6-1.

Up and down, back and forth, it’s now a best-of-three series beginning with Game 5 tonight at the Forum (7:30, Prime Ticket and XTRA Radio, 690).

Although the Kings appear to be back in control, with two of the three remaining games on home ice, it’s still reassuring in such an unsettling series to have an emotional anchor around, like Dave Taylor.

“I try to be a steadying influence,” he said. “You can never get too high or too low. When we lost the first game and the third, it was depressing. Even now, you know there is a long ways to go. This is far from over.”

At 35, finishing his 14th season, all with the Kings, Taylor knows about good times and bad.

Mostly bad.

He has never before been on a division champion, never been past the second round of the playoffs.

But he has had his share of personal glory. This season, he got his 1,000th point, 400th goal and 600th assist. He is in the top two in every major all-time category for the Kings.

Taylor’s goal in Game 4 Wednesday was his 21st in postseason play, making him the Kings’ leader in that department.

But what remains for him now is team glory.

Is this his best shot at a Stanley Cup? Is this the greatest team he has been on?

“Oh yeah,” Taylor said. “Certainly as far as depth and amount of talent. It’s amazing when you look around here. We had good players in the past, people like Butch Goring, Rogie Vachon, Marcel (Dionne) and Bernie Nicholls. But they were spread out over time. They were not here at one time, like these guys. This is more balanced than we’ve ever been.”

Yet, it is Taylor and his linemates, Luc Robitaille and Todd Elik, who have struggled in this series, upsetting the offensive balance shown earlier.

The trio has a total of three goals and six points in the four games.

Taylor, like everyone else, credits the arrival of Gretzky for the start of the Kings’ recent success.

“It’s been a real turnaround in this town,” Taylor said. “Wayne Gretzky is the big key. He opened the door. But winning has to follow.

“People have asked me, wouldn’t you like to play in a hockey city, like say Boston? I say no. I was drafted here and I want to stay here. But I would like to help make this team a winner.”

And he figures he might never get a better chance than right now.

A day after having his sticks temporarily stolen, Gretzky was feeling pity rather than anger.

Two 20-year-olds broke into the dressing room at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum Wednesday before Game 4 and stole four of Gretzky’s specially made aluminum sticks.

However, a couple of scalpers spotted the escaping thieves and alertly jotted down their license plate number, allowing police to apprehend the burglars and recover the sticks before game time.

“I feel bad that they were not able to keep the sticks,” Gretzky said. “I give so many sticks away, I would have let them go. But I didn’t have any other sticks.”

Before he learned the sticks had been returned, Gretzky began thinking of ways he could get replacements with the distinctive pattern he requires.

“It was too late to get any from L.A.,” he said. “We were thinking we would call Edmonton because (the Calgary Flames’ Doug) Gilmour uses the same pattern as I do.”

Turns out Gretzky was worrying needlessly. The Kings did indeed have some extra Gretzky sticks put away in Vancouver, just in case.

Late Wednesday, Vancouver police said there was a question whether they had enough evidence to prosecute the stick thieves.

Police also seemed to have run into a dead-end over a complaint by a Vancouver fan that he was hit with a stick by an unidentified King player at the end of the second period.

The fan showed no visible sign of injury and no one had yet determined the identity of the King allegedly involved.

There was no question, however, that a confrontation had occurred behind the Kings’ bench. Fans threw everything from golf balls to air horns at the players. Trainer Peter Millar got hit in the chest with a tennis ball.

One fan was ejected and peace was restored for the final period.

Gretzky also responded Thursday to all the talk by the Vancouver media that he has been off his game, even though he has four goals and a total of six points in the four games.

He was referred to in one paper as a “fading superstar.”

Said Gretzky, “A lot of it is silly. Not to sound like an idiot, but a lot of Vancouver writers picked us to win in four straight. They may be pointing their finger at me now because they’re not very happy.”