By the 1986-87 season, Dave “Tiger” Williams was nearing the end of his wild NHL ride. But even in his twilight, Tiger was still making noise, racking up a career-high 358 penalty minutes while potting 16 goals. It’s not the PIM that etched his name into the Kings’ record book that year, but one of those rare goals.
On February 14, 1987, the Kings hosted the Hartford Whalers at the Forum. Tiger, never one for sentiment, wasted no time spoiling Valentine’s Day for Hartford goalie Mike Liut, scoring just seven seconds into the game. It was his 12th goal of the season, set up by Bernie Nicholls and Dean Kennedy.
That lightning strike still stands as the fastest goal from the start of a game in L.A. Kings history.
That was Tiger’s only point of the night. He wasn’t even assessed a penalty. The Kings cruised to a 5-2 win, boosted by three-point performances from Marcel Dionne and Luc Robitaille.
As for those 358 penalty minutes? That was a Kings single-season record at the time, until Marty McSorley took it up a notch with 399 in 1992-93.
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