Vachon Has First Coaching Interview : Kings: More than a month after the firing of Webster, he meets with Melrose, who won the American Hockey League championship.

On the 38th day of his search, General Manager Rogie Vachon conducted his first real interview of a candidate to become the Kings’ new coach.

That’s how long it took after the firing of Tom Webster to bring in Barry Melrose.

Melrose, the coach of Detroit’s top minor league team at Adirondack, N.Y., was delayed by the American Hockey League playoffs, which the Adirondacks won.

And the Kings waited until the end of the Stanley Cup finals to even think about bringing in candidates.

At the top of the list was Montreal’s Pat Burns, who clearly was ready to leave the Canadiens, as he proved by taking a job with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Vachon called his counterpart in Montreal, Serge Savard, and asked for permission to talk to Burns. Burns happened to be in the room when Vachon called Savard, according to King owner Bruce McNall.

“Pat Burns was well aware he was a candidate as a coach or as a coach and GM here,” McNall said. “There were other clubs interested and, much to Serge Savard’s surprise, (Burns) accepted the job in Toronto without talking to anyone else.”

McNall says he understands why Burns chose the Maple Leafs.

“He is Canadian, and the Toronto job is a hell of a job,” McNall said. “He was offered the opportunity, and he grabbed the job.”

Darryl Sutter did the same thing in Chicago this week. Sutter, an associate coach last season, was given the head coaching job when Blackhawk General Manager Mike Keenan decided to relinquish one of his two positions.

Keenan had given Vachon permission to talk to Sutter, but it was rescinded two days later, once the Blackhawk hierarchy realized that losing the heir apparent to Keenan would mean a costly renegotiation of Keenan’s current contract.

McNall defended his club against criticism that the Kings have been dragging their feet while seven other NHL clubs have filled coaching vacancies.

“What they don’t realize is that everyone who has come and gone wasn’t someone we necessarily wanted,” McNall said. “We either rejected them for whatever reason or weren’t given permission to talk to them. . . .

“It’s easy to hire a coach (quickly), but we want to do it the right way. We have not missed anybody with the possible exceptions of (Darryl) Sutter and Pat Burns.”

Vachon and McNall say they are impressed by Melrose’s youth and his successful, aggressive style. Melrose, 35, has won at the minor league and junior levels.

The Kings are trying to steer away from Webster’s approach, which consisted largely of giving star players plenty of ice time.

The adjective used most often to describe Melrose is “hard-nosed,” which sounds a lot like a certain sweater-clad coach the Kings once had.

Another Robbie Ftorek?

“Maybe we should have had Robbie continue,” McNall said. “We had 91 points that year. (Robbie) does things differently--he was his own man.”