Robinson Thought About Quitting, but Old Habits Are Hard to Break

There was time spent in Canada, in idyllic Peterborough, contemplating the future.

But the idyllic distorts the process. Time spent at the other summer place, his 35 acres near Plant City, Fla., brought Larry Robinson back to the Canadian dairy-farmer roots that fostered his work ethic.

The job wasn’t complete. The Kings had made the playoffs, and that is success of a sort, but not the sort that got Robinson into the Hall of Fame.

He didn’t know if he wanted to coach the Kings for the fourth and final year of his contract.

Or a fifth year. Or sixth.

“I’ve been in this game now for pretty darn close to 30 years, and I think we all question whether we’re doing a good job or whether we’re doing what we’re capable of doing,” he says. “Or, on the other hand, when is enough enough?

“Cal Ripken had that [consecutive-games] record going for so long and then decided enough was enough. He finally just said, ‘Hey, I’m going to sit this game out.’

“In my case . . . there’s going to come a time when enough is enough. That was playing on my mind. I didn’t know how much of a commitment I wanted to make to myself and to the organization as to my longevity.”

He got his answer in the full-throated roar of machinery, which reminded him that he had a contract to fulfill. You don’t half-mow a field. You don’t half-milk a cow. You don’t ride a horse to a lather, then leave him standing.

“I do a lot of thinking when I get on my tractor down in Florida,” he says. “It’s just you and machine and the wide-open spaces of a field and you can do a lot of thinking there.

“There have been a lot of sacrifices made by this organization to build a good team. They made a big commitment to me when I first came here because I had never coached before. They saw enough in me to make a commitment to hire me for four years to work with the young kids for the future, and I thought I owed it to them to also make that commitment. That’s why I kind of changed my mind and decided to stick it out.”

For this season. And then, Robinson probably will accept the Kings’ offer of an extension, perhaps for two more seasons. It’s his response to a mid-life crisis.

He had never wanted to coach. Playing as a defenseman for the Canadiens for 17 years--and for the Kings for three--brought him enjoyment, fame and a good living. Escapes to the farm and the polo fields of Quebec--he plays--and, later, Florida brought a lifestyle balance.

Two seasons at New Jersey, coaching defensemen for former Montreal teammate Jacques Lemaire, offered insight.

Robinson was a hot commodity when New Jersey won the Stanley Cup in 1995, largely on the basis of the defense he had schooled, and he wanted to coach the Florida Panthers, near the farm. Or at Calgary, where he has a sister.

The Kings were willing to pay $3 million to get a trophy coach for four years. Robinson had won six Stanley Cups as a player, one as an assistant, and those were seven more than the Kings had won.

“Larry had the respect of veterans,” says Sam McMaster, then the Kings’ general manager, now a scout for the Carolina Hurricanes. “He had the patience to work with young players, of which we were going to have many.

“He brought a tremendous tradition in with him.”

To a place that had none. The Kings were going places, but none of them were the playoffs.

Former owner Bruce McNall was on his way to jail, then-owner Peter Cohen was on his way to becoming a former owner and then on his way to New York. Philip Anschutz and Ed Roski were on their way to owning the Kings, but nobody knew it yet.

All but the hardest-core fans were on the way to other diversions, only a season after the Kings had made the Stanley Cup finals.

Shortly after Robinson took over, Wayne Gretzky was on his way to St. Louis.

“I think the players and, obviously, management realized that we were in for a long haul after a period in which coaches came and went, management came and went, all in a year,” says defenseman Rob Blake, a former Robinson teammate, now the Kings’ captain. “Larry was the first step. You knew he was going to stay with the team for a while and be part of the team. That passes on down to the players.”

It was hard.

Season I: 24-40-18.

Season II: 28-43-11.

“It’s tough losing,” Robinson says. “My first two years were my toughest years because we weren’t successful and with reason, because we weren’t very good. We didn’t have half of the depth we have now. It wasn’t a case of wondering who you were going to put on waivers. It was a case of who you weren’t going to put on waivers.”

Turnabout occurred slowly.

“When you look back, it’s kind of nice to say, ‘Hey, we did the right thing,’ ” Robinson says. “We had to take a stand. You never want to trade the best player ever to lace on skates [Gretzky], but with the direction we were going in, that was the only way we were going to be able to build a future for ourselves.

“We traded Marty [McSorley] and we traded Jari [Kurri] and we traded Wayne [Gretzky], and they were very popular players and great players. But from that we were able to build a nucleus. Now we have Ray Ferraro . . . and we also have Matty Norstrom and Craig Johnson and Ian Laperriere and Roman Vopat, youngsters who are going to be the future of this club.”

And they have a coach to deal with them.

“I think that’s one maybe virtue that I have,” says Robinson of his patience. “If you’re building . . . you’re going to need a lot of patience because you’re going to have young kids there and young kids are going to make mistakes.”

Lessons have come with a price. Robinson’s hair is grayer, and his face has lines that never came from a puck or a high stick. Those lines reflect some of the reasons he pondered becoming a full-time farmer, spending more time with his polo ponies.

“I never realized how demanding coaching was,” he says. “It was great as a player because you did your 25 or 30 minutes and then you went home and relaxed and forgot about the game. As a coach, it’s 24 hours a day for 10 straight months and that’s all you do: think about the game and think about players and think about the other team and how you’re going to defense them or make your power play better. How are you going to get a guy to move his butt and play better defense or get more involved? It’s very demanding, physically and mentally.”

And he looks around and sees others enjoying life, and others with no life left to enjoy.

“I’m pretty hard on myself and I hate losing, but I certainly don’t want to let the game affect me so much that my health and well-being are affected,” he says. “I think I have a better grasp on what’s going on now than I did before. I let it bother me. You look at it, I’ve had four guys that I played with who are no longer with us. They all died at a young age.

” . . . And I’ve had a couple of other close friends who died of cancer, and there are so many things I haven’t done in my life and my wife and I haven’t done in our lives. We haven’t been to Europe. We still have a trip to Hawaii that we haven’t taken yet that was given to me when I got in the Hall of Fame.

“People say, ‘Well, you’re still young, you’ve got lots of time,’ but you see all of these things and you see Florence Griffith Joyner not waking up, and sometimes you say, ‘When’s enough enough? If I haven’t done these things, when am I going to do them?’ ”

The thoughts collide with those of replacing the storage room that has been converted to an office with new digs in El Segundo; and with those of moving from the Forum to the Staples Center.

“That’s also why I want to stick it out, because it’s going to be a much better atmosphere, both at the practice facility and downtown,” he says.

So the answer to questions of travel is, sometime in the future, because a trip to Edmonton is ahead on Friday. There’s a job to do now. Robinson coached the Kings into the playoffs last season, with a 38-33-11 record. Once there, though, they faltered.

And weeks later, he decided to come back to take the Kings to that next step. The job wasn’t finished. There was still work to do.

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* HELENE ELLIOTT

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Larry Robinson’s Coaching Record

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Year, Team W-L-T Pct Division Finish (Playoffs) 1995-96, Kings 24-40-18 .402 6th (did not qualify) 1996-97, Kings 28-43-11 .409 6th (did not qualify) 1997-98, Kings 38-33-11 .530 2nd (lost in first round Totals 90-116-40 0-4 in playoffs

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