STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : All Great Things Must Come to an End : Ftorek’s Future in Doubt as Kings Show Little Clout

The Kings were swept right out the door, eliminated from the Smythe Division final playoff series by the Calgary Flames in four consecutive games.

Is Robbie Ftorek next?

“I’m not concerned about my status for next year, one way or the other,” the Kings’ coach said after Monday night’s 5-3 loss to the Flames in Game 4.

Owner Bruce McNall wouldn’t commit to Ftorek.

Will he replace him?

“Not necessarily,” McNall said. “We’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk to Robbie and see what he wants to do, and talk to Rogie (Vachon, the Kings’ general manager).

“I have no (definite) plans in that regard.”

Vachon, too, was noncommittal.

“In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be having a lot of meetings with the owner and we’ll re-evaluate our entire organization,” Vachon said. “We’ll make a decision at that time.”

And Ftorek’s feelings?

“I’d like to coach here,” he said in a post-game news conference. “That’s what I do. That’s what I enjoy. (But) Whether I’ll be here or not is up to the people who are in charge.

“We discussed that in New Jersey when I took the job and they told me, ‘If there’s somebody better than you, we’ll hire that person.’ ”

Ftorek, who formerly coached the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate at New Haven, Conn., replaced Mike Murphy on Dec. 9, 1987, guiding the Kings to a 23-25-4 record in the last 3 1/2 months of the 1987-88 regular season, including a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils at East Rutherford, N.J., on the night that he was offered a contract that ran through this season.

The Kings lost to the Flames in the first round of the playoffs.

Then, last Aug. 9, the team acquired Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers and the Kings’ fortunes improved dramatically.

Their 42-31-6 record in the regular season was the third-best in their history and a 23-point improvement over last season, when they were 30-42-8, finished a distant fourth in the Smythe Division and made the playoffs only because of the ineptitude of the Vancouver Canucks.

Still, there were rough times, including Ftorek’s much-publicized benching of Gretzky in a game last November at Detroit.

Some players talked privately of their dislike for Ftorek and others, after being traded, talked more openly.

McNall and Vachon, having revamped the roster, talked of winning the Stanley Cup, especially after the Kings acquired highly regarded goaltender Kelly Hrudey in a February trade with the New York Islanders.

The Kings unseated the defending champion Oilers in a dramatic first-round playoff series, rallying from a 3-1 deficit, but then they were squashed by the deeper and more talented Flames.

After all their moves and all the excitement they generated around town in the last eight months, the Kings still have never advanced beyond the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs.

For that reason, Ftorek said he was dissatisfied.

“We didn’t fulfill our objective,” he said. “If you don’t fulfill your objective, then you shouldn’t be pleased.”

McNall, though, said he was satisfied with Ftorek.

In almost every way, he said, it was a great season.

“Certainly from a business standpoint, our goals were far exceeded,” McNall said. “Certainly from an excitement-in-this-town standpoint, it exceeded everything we ever dreamed of. And I think beating Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs gave us a certain credibility.

“But we want to win the Cup, and I think we’re credible enough that the league knows we’re not miles away from that.

“We’ll do some things and we’ll win the Cup next year.”

One thing he might do is hire a new coach.

But he wasn’t prepared to say.

Neither was he ready to give Ftorek a vote of confidence.

He left the door open.

“I don’t shut the door on anything,” McNall said.