THE NHL / HELENE ELLIOTT : Pals Robinson, Van Boxmeer Face Off on L.A.’s Hockey Scene

They met 25 years ago, probably in the corners or along the boards of a junior hockey rink in Canada. Anointed for stardom when the Montreal Canadiens made them top-20 draft picks, Larry Robinson and John Van Boxmeer were a couple of tall, hulking kids whose hockey future seemed limitless.

They played together in the minor leagues and were paired occasionally in the NHL. But after a little more than three seasons as teammates, their paths separated. Robinson blossomed into one of the best defensemen of his era--or any other--and played on six Stanley Cup-winning teams in 20 seasons. Van Boxmeer became a steady but unspectacular player, dividing his 11 NHL seasons among four teams before becoming a minor league coach.

Neither could have expected they would be side by side again this weekend, this time as the new coaches in a place where hockey used to be an afterthought, but is now home to a hat trick’s worth of teams.

Van Boxmeer arrives in Southern California as coach and general manager of the Ice Dogs of the International Hockey League, a vigorous minor league whose teams blend prospects on the rise with veterans on the decline. Robinson is returning to Los Angeles, where he finished his playing career, to coach the Kings. They have played like a minor league team the past two seasons, so his job is similar to Van Boxmeer’s in at least one regard.

The teams will train on adjacent rinks at Iceoplex, the Ice Dogs beginning Sunday and the Kings on Monday. That will bring Van Boxmeer and Robinson together again to marvel at their new positions and renew old acquaintances.

“Larry was able to go right into the Montreal organization and play. You never thought of him as a rookie,” Van Boxmeer said. “He went in and was another [Serge] Savard and [Guy] Lapointe immediately. He made that type of impact.

“When you look at candidates for coaching the Kings, guys who would command immediate respect, you couldn’t find anybody better. Dave Taylor, maybe, but Larry had the added advantage of coaching experience [as an assistant with the New Jersey Devils] and having played on Cup winners in Montreal.”

Robinson laughed when asked if he had advice for Van Boxmeer as a rookie on the local hockey scene.

“I’m new at this. He’s got more coaching experience as a head coach than I do,” Robinson said. “I just know I’m not going to do anything differently than I did as a player. You come to work, you work hard and you try to have a good line of communication with your players. It’s got to be fun. It’s a long season and you have to enjoy it.”

Once they finish retelling stories of their old glories, they can commiserate over their new burdens.

Van Boxmeer’s mission is to establish a niche for the Ice Dogs, a minor league team in a major league city. With the Kings a few miles away in Inglewood and the Mighty Ducks a quick freeway hop down to Anaheim, the Ice Dogs face stiff competition for the dollars and affections of hockey fans. They may also face resistance from fans who are reluctant to venture to the Sports Arena, where the Ice Dogs will play their 41 home games.

They can’t do much to gussy up the Sports Arena, but to attract families who don’t want to spend the equivalent of a month’s rent to see an NHL game, they scaled their prices from $5 to $16. Half their seats will cost $10 or less. They will also present the gimmicks that are routine in the NHL and NBA, following the theory that games alone are no longer enough to satisfy customers who pay big bucks for a night out.

“I don’t think the product we’re trying to sell is minor league,” said Van Boxmeer, who has only four players back from last season, when the team played in San Diego as the Gulls. “For anybody who has seen our league a lot, the difference between the IHL and the NHL is our stars are maybe a half-step too slow or an inch smaller than NHL stars. . . . Our product is first class, something fans can identify with. And the prices are right. We’re going to try to have a lot of fan entertainment, not on the scope of Disney, of course, but we’ll have it. Hockey today is not like it was 20 years ago. It’s almost a side show. People go and want to be constantly entertained. As a coach, you have to say, ‘We’re playing hockey,’ but you know we’re competing for the entertainment dollar.

“From a fan’s standpoint, I really don’t think we’re competing with the Ducks and Kings. We’re aiming for a different audience. People who would go to our games wouldn’t spend the kind of money you have to spend to see NHL games. We may introduce people to professional hockey who haven’t seen it and want to know what it’s all about.”

Robinson’s task is to impose defensive order on a team that routinely exposes its goaltenders to appalling barrages of shots--a habit he politely called “organized confusion”--and coax offensive sparks out of forwards who are either over the hill or incapable of reaching the summit.

“I tried to look through all the tapes from last year,” he said, “and I can’t say I got through them all. I got discouraged after a couple of periods.”

He knows better than to promise an instant turnaround, especially with the Colorado Avalanche (formerly the Quebec Nordiques) newly relocated to the Western Conference. But he did declare his players will give diligent and consistent efforts, a declaration Van Boxmeer also made. Twenty years after they played together, they’re still in sync.

“We’re going to have the type of team that’s going to be exciting to watch,” Van Boxmeer said. “It’s going to be a skating team, aggressive. Certainly, there are some obstacles we have to overcome, like the building and being a new team, and I’m certain some people are going to be skeptical. But once they get into the building and see us, I think they’ll keep coming back.”

Said Robinson: “[Fans] are going to get a team that comes to play every night. Anybody who takes a night off is going to have the next night off--probably not in the same position. I don’t expect everybody to be like me [as a player] but I can create an atmosphere where you play and work hard.”