Melrose Loses Place With Kings : Hockey: Raeder also ousted amid desperation as Vachon takes over in bid “to salvage the year.”

The Kings, unable to end their long, hard fall from the NHL’s top echelon, on Friday fired Coach Barry Melrose and his assistant, Cap Raeder.

Under Melrose, the coach for almost three seasons, the Kings reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1993. But his record was 79-101-29 and the team is on the verge of missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season after losing six games in a row.

Behind the bench in the interim for the final seven games of this season will be a most interesting trio--club President Rogie Vachon, former star right wing Dave Taylor and assistant coach John Perpich. They have a combined three games of NHL head coaching experience, all by Vachon.

The catalyst behind the move was desperation, a word used many times at an afternoon news conference at the Forum, which was not attended by co-owner and chairman Joe Cohen.

Scoring only eight goals in their six consecutive losses, the Kings (13-21-7) had fallen two points out of a playoff spot before Friday night’s game at the Forum against the Edmonton Oilers.

But the move can also be viewed as an attempt at fan appeasement as two of the organization’s most popular former players, Vachon and Taylor, have been called upon to coach.

“What do we have to lose?” Vachon said. “There are seven games to go and we’ve lost six in a row. If we lose another five, it’s not going to be any different. We felt there was still time to salvage the year.”

Said General Manager Sam McMaster: “It all comes down to winning and losing. It has not been an easy decision to make, but we made it to see if we can win five of the last seven games or whatever it takes to get into the playoffs.”

McMaster said the move had been discussed since Thursday and that the two coaches were summoned to his office after Friday’s morning skate. Several players, including Wayne Gretzky, had left the building by then, but Melrose and Raeder spoke with a handful of Kings.

It was an especially trying time because the coaches’ two young sons were at practice. Tears were shed by the children when they heard the news.

Melrose was agitated because Raeder, an assistant for three head coaches since 1988, was not retained and said he received no explanation.

As for Melrose, his mood was mixed between anger and relief that the end had come. And he also hinted that this might be Gretzky’s last season.

“I expected they wanted to do this a month ago, but we sort of screwed them up by winning,” he said. “Actually, I knew that probably a year ago. It was easy to see.”

He claimed he was pushed out just before jumping, saying a berth in the playoffs would not have prevented him from resigning at season’s end. He had one season plus an option year remaining on his contract. Raeder had one season remaining. The rest of the contracts will cost the Kings $860,000.

“I felt it was time for me to go,” Melrose said. “You get those feelings as a coach. You just know when it’s time. If we had won, it would have been the right time for me to go.”

Said Raeder, who was behind the bench for two division championships: “For 21 years, they never had a banner up and now there’s a couple. I was glad to be a small part of it. I’m proud of the job we did here. Ironically, we may have our worst results, but we may have done some of our best coaching this year. I have no regrets. Seven years is a long time anywhere. I almost spent that much time getting through college.”

Melrose admitted some regrets, namely in the area of player acquisitions. He wanted a big, tough team, one difficult to play against. But it turned out the Kings have been only difficult to watch. He soured on several skilled players and his two general managers, Nick Beverley and McMaster, had severe problems getting value for value.

“The trades we made, we made some terrible trades that have been written about,” Melrose said, adding he shared in the responsibility. “Trading (Paul) Coffey. Giving Mike Donnelly away for nothing. Corey Millen for nothing. Giving (Warren) Rychel away for nothing. Those are the things that killed us.

“We drafted poorly for the last six, seven years and we had no depth. Those are my regrets.”

Other new concerns have developed in the post-Bruce McNall era, which had been a high-flying, free-spending time. Money or lack of it has become a major factor in the team’s dealings, Melrose said.

At the trading deadline, Melrose said the scoring-starved team could have acquired Tampa Bay’s Petr Klima for a middle-round draft pick as well as another offensive-minded player. Instead the Kings did nothing, even though Rick Tocchet’s back was becoming a major problem and Tony Granato suffered a broken foot the night before the deadline.

Every other team in the Western Conference made some sort of move. Vachon contended that the injured players prevented the Kings from making a deal because they couldn’t send anyone to the other team in a potential trade.

“I’m not here to dis the organization, but things happen with this team that no one can think of,” Melrose said. “We had deals we wanted to make, two players we wanted to get, but we still couldn’t do it because of their salaries. They would have helped us very much. Things are different with us.”

That said, it has become clear the Kings are desperate for playoff revenue. Last season, the team had to refund a substantial amount of playoff money to its season-ticket holders. “We missed the playoffs last year,” Vachon said. “It’s crucial for any team to make the playoffs to get extra money.”

Of the new times, Melrose said, laughing: “We used to eat at Spago and now we can’t even get into a Sizzler.”