Here’s to You, Mr. Robinson, Things Have to Get Better

Knowledge of hockey, success as a player and a winning personality make Larry Robinson an agreeable appointment as coach of the Kings, each being a mitigating factor that lessens the drawback of his never having coached an NHL team.

The Larry the King show will begin as a summer replacement, with Robinson anticipated today at the old Inglewood icebox. Robinson scored his first NHL goal on Feb. 3, 1973, against Rogie Vachon and the Kings, and now here he is, relieving Vachon of an unwanted role as temporary coach.

Robinson is far more familiar with the King organization than Barry Melrose was upon Melrose’s first stab at coaching. The culture shock of coming to Los Angeles as a player in 1989 after a glorious 17 years with Montreal must have been amazing to Robinson, who probably felt like someone who had left Buckingham Palace for a Taco Bell.

Too classy to complain, he endured a 1989-90 season here that might have been comical had it not been so pitiful. Before that season began, the dyspeptic Robbie Ftorek was fired as coach, the erstwhile all-stars Robinson and Barry Beck were brought in to provide beef and the bubbly Bruce McNall said that “anything less” than a Stanley Cup would be unacceptable.

Then the puck dropped. Twenty-four Kings missed games because of injuries. Dave Taylor missed 19. Tom Laidlaw missed 23. Bob Kudelski missed 15. Wayne Gretzky’s back acted up and he missed 10. Kelly Hrudey caught something called cytomegalovirus, a form of mononucleosis. He missed 14 games and probably should have sat out more.

Jim Fox retired. Bernie Nicholls squabbled with the new coach, Tom Webster, and got tradedone day before playing in the All-Star game, coming off a 70-goal season. One of the guys Nicholls was traded for, Tony Granato, promptly got hurt. He missed 14 games.

Even the coach got hurt. Webster became dizzy from an inner-ear infection and fell in the bathroom. He missed 15 games. The day Webster came back, Beck, who had just joined the team with Robinson, announced his retirement.

That was one wacky, tacky season. Robinson must have felt like calling the Canadiens and saying, “Get me out of here!” or its French equivalent.

The player whom teammates fondly referred to as “Big Bird” hung in there, best he could. He scored his 200th career goal. He passed Bobby Orr in career points scored by defensemen. But playing for the Kings that season must have been a drag.

Robinson was glad to be up on skates, having missed 27 games in 1987 after breaking his leg playing his second favorite sport, polo. He knew then that he had to get back up on that horse. He also knew he wouldn’t quit on the Kings.

They rallied in the playoffs to upset Calgary in six games. I still remember Robinson’s funny observation when the Flames kept their season alive by winning Game 5, after a Calgary newspaper had already blistered the players’ performance and called for the head of Coach Terry Crisp. Robinson said, “Those guys have a lot of pride . . . and they’re not illiterate.”

He probably suspects the same about the Kings. Robinson knows that the L.A. franchise has taken some rips. He recently expressed uncertainty at wanting to join such a disorganized organization.

Something persuaded him to give it a go. Let’s hope all the Kings’ horses and all the Kings’ men don’t make Larry sorry that he isn’t off playing polo.