Ex-King Hardy, 39, Teaches Ice Dogs Some New Tricks as Player, Coach

Two summers ago, Kristina Hardy had reason to believe her life as the wife of an itinerant hockey player was over.

Her husband, Mark Hardy, finally had decided to retire after a 17-year professional career, which included 616 games with the Kings, and had accepted an assistant coaching position with the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the International Hockey League.

“I really thought that was it,” Kristina Hardy said about her husband’s playing career after he completed the 1995-96 season with the Detroit Vipers of the IHL. In the previous three seasons, Hardy had bounced around with five teams.

“Our kids [Jessica and Kevin] were getting older and we had such a big retirement party for him,” Kristina said. “About 75 people or so came, and Mark was given some nice gifts like a color portrait and a framed collection of his hockey cards.”

Kristina Hardy’s life as a full-time coach’s wife, however, lasted only one season.

That’s because Mark Hardy took a page from boxing’s retirement handbook, exchanged his whistle for a mouthpiece and returned as a defenseman for the Ice Dogs. At least his decision to become a player again didn’t involve another move for the family, which has a home in Manhattan Beach.

“It really started out as a joke,” Long Beach Coach John Van Boxmeer said. “Even as a coach, Mark always participated in our practice drills. He would strap on pads and stuff under his sweatsuit. We fell short a defenseman because of injury, and we were going to call up a player from San Diego. Then one of our players said that ‘Harpo’ should take the spot.

“After practice, I asked Mark if he wanted to and he said, ‘I’ll play, but I’ll need a few days to get ready.’ A couple of days later, he came back and played.”

Hardy, 39, became the oldest active player in the IHL when he played in a couple of games between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once the Ice Dogs’ injured players began to recover, Hardy returned to coaching--for a while.

During the final weeks of the regular season, Van Boxmeer put him back in the lineup.

Hardy played 25 regular-season games, scoring thre goals and nine points, and he has played in 10 playoff games, scoring one goal. The Ice Dogs will play Game 7 of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series against Kansas City at Long Beach tonight at 7.

“It was a tough grind at the start, but I’m feeling much better now,” Hardy said. “I only feel my age once in a while now.”

Born in Switzerland and raised in Montreal, Hardy has spent most of his life around ice rinks. His father played hockey in Europe, and his mother was seventh in the 1952 Olympic figure skating competition while skating for Great Britain.

Selected by the Kings in the second round (30th overall) of the 1979 draft, Hardy played 15 seasons in the NHL, including eight full seasons and parts of two others with the Kings.

Hardy, who still holds King records for defensemen with 303 points and 250 assists, had his finest season in 1984-85, when he scored 14 goals and had 53 points. He was traded to the New York Rangers in 1988, but the Kings reacquired him during their run to the Stanley Cup finals in 1993.

Hardy began the next season with the Kings but ended it as a player-coach with Phoenix in the IHL.

“Near the end of my NHL career, I started thinking about having a career in coaching,” Hardy said. “It was in Phoenix when Rick Dudley started to give me some coaching responsibility.”

Hardy got to do some more coaching two seasons later when Dudley--who had become general manager and coach for Detroit in the IHL--allowed him to coach 21 games with the Vipers.

“I learned then that there is a lot to coaching,” Hardy said. “As a player, I knew what everyone basically did on the ice, but I was only in charge of my own job. I learned that I had to know a lot more of what was happening on the ice. I think the coaching part helped me as a player.”

When he decided to retire in July 1996, Hardy figured he was on the right track for a coaching career.

Not only did he sign a multiyear contract to work under Van Boxmeer with the Ice Dogs, he became coach of the Los Angeles Blades--a now-defunct Roller Hockey International team that played in the Great Western Forum during the summer.

In his first full year as a coach, Hardy helped the Ice Dogs reach the Turner Cup finals and then was named roller hockey’s coach of the year after leading the Blades to the playoffs.

“I didn’t know anything about roller hockey when I started,” Hardy said. “I’ll miss [roller hockey] a little bit. It was great to have your own team and to be in charge. I learned a lot in how to run a practice and getting your players to play your system. It doesn’t matter what level it is, the key to coaching is to get the most out of your team.”

Hardy began this season with the Ice Dogs with more coaching responsibility than the year before. He worked with the team’s defensemen, and one of his players, Dan Lambert, won the IHL’s Governor’s Trophy as outstanding defenseman.

Since rejoining the team as a player, Hardy has used his coaching background to his advantage.

“I’ve been there [as a player] and I know how they feel,” said Hardy, who has averaged nearly 20 minutes a game in the playoffs. “I know when to ease up and when to give a kick in the butt.”

Hardy says this will be his final season as a player, but he’s not planning on an another retirement party.

“I wish I was 18 again, but I’m not,” he said. “You can tell when your skills have diminished. I’m having a great time [playing] but I know my career is in coaching.”