Playoff-Bound Kings Have an Old Coach Reminiscing

Barry Melrose recently watched a tape of the seventh game of the 1993 Western Conference finals and wondered who that boyish-looking fellow behind the Kings’ bench was.

“Five years. That’s a long time in dog years,” he said. “My hair wasn’t even gray in ’93. The gray came during the last two years.”

The victim of his own blind preference for grinders over skill players, Melrose was fired by the Kings on April 21, 1995, less than two years after he coached them to their only appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. The Kings’ playoff game Thursday at St. Louis will be their first since their Cup run under Melrose, who has had ample time to reflect on what went wrong.

“Every time I saw [the 1993 team] play, I was impressed with how hard we played, how smart we played and how aggressive we played. We lost all that,” said Melrose, now a studio host and analyst on ESPN telecasts.

“We forgot why we won. We thought we were better than anyone else and forgot that we got as far as we did because we outworked everybody. And the [1995 groin] injury to Rob Blake really hurt. You see what a difference he’s made this year, when he plays the whole year, like he did in ’93.

“We were all at fault. We didn’t put in the work ethic that it takes to win. I’m totally unsatisfied with myself. To take a team that went to the Stanley Cup finals and then not make the playoffs, I was the leader of that team and it’s my fault.”

Melrose, neither shy about expressing himself nor able to get along with General Manager Nick Beverley, hasn’t coached since then except to work with his sons’ teams in Glens Falls, N.Y. He said he has talked to half a dozen NHL teams but hasn’t found the right situation.

“I’m not your run-of-the-mill, normal guy. Some people might be scared to hire me,” he said. “I miss coaching. You miss your players. . . . I think I’ll coach again, but I don’t know when.”

He picked the Red Wings to win the Cup but is impressed with the Kings.

“I said on the air, jokingly, that they went out and did what I wanted: They built a big team that can withstand the travel and the other differences that Eastern teams don’t have to face,” he said. “Dave [Taylor] and Larry [Robinson] have done that, and if that team scores enough goals, with the players they’ve got, when they’re in the right mood they can be tough to play against.”

Win or lose, Melrose can always rewind the tape of the 1993 Game 7 victory over Toronto. “I’m still nervous when I watch it,” he said. “I still thought we’d find a way to lose it.”

AND THE WINNERS SHOULD BE . . .

Two NHL trophies are automatic: the Ross, given to the leading scorer, and the Jennings, awarded to the goalies on the team with the lowest goals-against average. The Adams is voted on by broadcasters. The rest are selected by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Assn. Two votes are cast for each award from each of the 26 cities before the playoffs begin.

Hart Trophy (most valuable player): Dominik Hasek, Buffalo. Without him, the Sabres are a bunch of pluggers. He proved at the Olympics how far a hot goalie can carry a team when he led the Czech Republic to the gold medal.

Honorable mention--Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh, and Teemu Selanne, Mighty Ducks.

Calder Trophy (rookie of the year): Sergei Samsonov, Boston. He had a strong second half and was an impact player. He led rookies with 22 goals and tied Toronto’s Mike Johnson for the most points at 47.

Honorable mention--Johnson and Mattias Ohlund, Vancouver.

Norris Trophy (best defenseman): Chris Pronger, St. Louis. He’s physical, skilled offensively and poised at both ends of the ice. His league-leading plus-47 was no fluke.

Honorable mention--Rob Blake, Kings, and Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit. Blake is also a good pick, too, but his minus-3 is a drawback.

Vezina Trophy (best goalie): Hasek. New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur is worthy, but Hasek had a better save percentage (.932 to .917) and had 13 shutouts despite facing more shots than any goalie, 2,149, an average of 30 a game.

Honorable mention--Brodeur, for his 1.89 goals-against average and league-leading 43 victories.

Selke Trophy (best defensive forward): Jere Lehtinen, Dallas. This speedy right wing stifles opponents’ top lines and contributes offensively. He had 23 goals and was plus-19.

Honorable mention--Steve Yzerman, Detroit, and Peter Forsberg, Colorado.

Lady Byng (gentlemanly play): Ron Francis, Pittsburgh. A class act and most under-appreciated player in the NHL.

Honorable mention--Wayne Gretzky, New York Rangers.

Adams Award (best coach): Kevin Constantine, Pittsburgh. He took a team that lost six-time scoring champion Mario Lemieux and changed its focus from run-and-gun offense to defense, a minor miracle.

Honorable mention: Pat Burns, Boston; Joel Quenneville, St. Louis, and Larry Robinson, Kings.

THE LOSERS WERE . . .

The Chicago Blackhawks, who think the 1970s haven’t ended. They must take advantage of free agency and rebuild quickly. Chris Chelios can’t carry them forever.

The Rangers, who must get younger, bigger and faster and re-sign free agents Mike Richter and Brian Leetch. If Gretzky intends to play until he wins one more Cup, he should be prepared to be skating at 45.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, which was awful. Disperse the players--if anyone would want any--and replace them with the IHL’s champion.

The Florida Panthers, who couldn’t decide if they wanted to be grinders or finesse players and got caught in between. Ed Jovanovski regressed, but he can be saved by the right coach, which Bryan Murray wasn’t.

Without depth or a banger on defense, the Mighty Ducks were done before Paul Kariya’s season-ending concussion. They wasted a splendid season by Selanne. Time to stop talking about signing top-notch free agents and do it.

PAUSE THAT REFRESHES

We interrupt this season for a rare but welcome moment of sanity.

Center Mike Modano, who last week signed a six-year, $43.5-million contract with the Dallas Stars, told the Dallas Morning News that Bob Goodenow, head of the NHL Players Assn., urged him to wait until he became a restricted free agent because bidding might have driven his price up. He signed, anyway.

“He was trying to protect the other players, saying you never know what might be out there this summer,” Modano said. “But how can you say this is not enough money?”

SLAP SHOTS

Jagr (102 points) was the NHL’s only 100-point scorer. That’s the fewest since 1969-70, when Boston’s Bobby Orr was the lone player to hit 100. . . . Four players scored 50 or more goals, matching last season’s total. Selanne and Washington’s Peter Bondra each had 52, and John LeClair of Philadelphia and Vancouver’s Pavel Bure each scored 51. . . . Joe Thornton, the NHL’s top draft pick last June, had a rough season. Thornton, who couldn’t crack the Bruins’ lineup, had a broken arm and cellulitis and recently battled a virus that resembled mononucleosis. He finished with three goals and seven points in 54 games.

With three teams due to share the Staples Center, maintaining good ice for the Kings will be a challenge. Let’s hope the arena’s state-of-the-art features include ice-making. . . . Chicago defenseman Gary Suter was assigned a security guard by the NHL after getting death threats related to his cross-check of Kariya, which gave Kariya a concussion and left Kariya unable to play for Canada in the Olympics. . . . There’s an award for the best plus/minus rating--won by Pronger at plus-47--but we’d like to see one for the worst rating. The first Mr. Minus award goes to Paul Ysebaert of Tampa Bay, who was minus-43. That’s tough to do.

The Toronto Globe and Mail, a national newspaper in Canada, published a 12-part series examining why Canada isn’t producing dominant players. Good timing: Of the NHL’s top 26 scorers, 11 are Canadian, five are American and 10 were European-trained. Some theories: Winning is emphasized over teaching skills and kids don’t practice enough. . . . Fans at the final game at Miami Arena showered the ice with plastic rats, which were the Panthers’ good-luck charm during their 1996 trip to the Cup finals. Rat-tossing had been banned by the NHL, but what’s a few rodents for old times’ sake? The Panthers will move to a new, rat-free arena in suburban Broward County next season.