Refreshed Robinson Ready for New Role With Devils

The stress of coaching the Kings had etched so many lines into Larry Robinson’s face last spring, friends frequently asked him about his health--and he asked himself about his career choice.

He regained his enthusiasm when he rejoined the New Jersey Devils as an assistant coach, the job he held before he was hired by the Kings. And when General Manager Lou Lamoriello asked him last week to succeed Robbie Ftorek, another former King coach, as coach of the Eastern Conference leaders, Robinson didn’t look back.

“Last season was four years’ accumulated agony,” he said. “It’s a little different here. We’re sitting here with 97 points. We almost needed two years to get 97 points over there. It’s nice to know that if you’ve got some injuries, you’ve got two or three guys you can call up to step in. There, everybody I had was in the lineup.

“[The Kings] went through the same thing this year when Ziggy Palffy and Jozef Stumpel got hurt. It’s nice to have some depth to work with.”

It wasn’t a lack of material that plunged the Devils into a 5-10-2 slump and led to Ftorek’s firing last Thursday. Players groused when he benched defenseman Ken Daneyko before his 1,000th game and deprived Daneyko’s family of seeing that milestone at home; they grumbled over Ftorek’s benching of Lyle Odelein and other perceived slights. Several demanded trades. They saw Ftorek as a poor communicator and motivator.

Robinson disagrees.

“His biggest downfall is, he keeps everything to himself. He didn’t share the other side of himself,” said Robinson, who agreed only to finish this season.

“We had some great laughs and great times. When we were in Phoenix, we went fishing with a friend of his and had a blast. I think Robbie did a great job at communicating with players. Maybe guys misunderstood him. I found him great to talk to and very accessible. Guys who are traded are always going to find fault with the coach instead of looking in the mirror. . . .

“I have nothing but respect for Robbie and a lot of admiration. The only thing I was concerned about when Lou talked to me was it looked like what everybody thought in the beginning, that I came to take Robbie’s job. That’s not what I came for, and Lou and I are the two people that know that because we spoke about that when I was hired last summer.

“It’s not the way I wanted to take this job, not that I wanted to take it, but it was a good opportunity.”

The Devils, who acquired winger Alexander Mogilny to add flair to an unimaginative offense, are among the league leaders in special teams, team defense and scoring. Robinson won’t have to rebuild, just refine. That should minimize his stress.

“We’ve made great strides already,” said Robinson, who presided over an 8-2 rout of the New York Islanders last Thursday but lost his second game, Saturday at Toronto, 5-3.

“Even though the end result [at Toronto] wasn’t good, what we did can be corrected,” he said. “We made some poor decisions and had a few glitches defensively but, hopefully, we proved to ourselves against the Islanders you can play defensive hockey and score goals.”

THIS PHOENIX CAN’T RISE

The Phoenix Coyotes took no consolation from gaining a point for a regulation tie and climbing two spots in the West playoff standings Sunday with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Mighty Ducks.

“Unless we turn it around, we’re done,” goalie Sean Burke said after the loss, the team’s seventh in a row. “I’m not a negative guy, but if we don’t pick it up a couple of notches, we’re in trouble. We’re on the ropes. It’s like a heavyweight fight. [Opponents] don’t have to be at their best. They just keep hitting us, and we go down.

“The common thread is, we’re absolutely horrible night after night. There isn’t a guy in here who has played consistently well in a long time. We haven’t played a good 60 minutes for months. We’re getting what we deserve.”

They’re known for their playoff collapses--they haven’t gotten past the first round since 1987, when they were still the Winnipeg Jets--but this self-destruction is early. They haven’t defeated a team with a winning record since they won at Dallas Feb. 18, and they’re 4-13-1 since.

“We’re the one team in this conference that shouldn’t be in this position,” Burke said. “But we are, and we’ve got to find a way to pull ourselves out of it.”

Said teammate Jeremy Roenick, “If I had the answers, I wouldn’t be playing, I’d be coaching. I’m beyond answers.”

BIG FLAP OVER BIG E

The already-sour relations between Philadelphia Flyer center Eric Lindros and General Manager Bob Clarke can only get worse after Clarke on Monday took away Lindros’ captaincy while the burly center recovers from a concussion.

“It’s fair to say when a guy like Lindros comes out and criticizes the doctors and trainers he’s thinking of himself and not the team,” Clarke said. “We are trying to do what’s right for the team.”

Lindros’ concussion March 4 was his second this season and fourth of his career. However, he didn’t tell doctors he was vomiting and had yellow-tinged vision and memory loss, and played four more games, hoping trainers would pull him out of the lineup. But was his thinking clouded by the injury, or by hockey’s traditional macho attitude?

He later criticized the medical staff for not realizing the extent of his injury.

“The last time I had a concussion, I didn’t talk to Clarke for three weeks. Then he said off the record that my agent was a fool and disruptive for insisting the team follow return-to-play guidelines [for concussions].”

Lindros’ agent is his father, Carl, whose younger son, Brett, retired because of the cumulative effects of several concussions.

Before examining Lindros, team doctor Jeff Hartzell said Lindros had migraines, then later amended his diagnosis to a Grade I concussion. Tests conducted by concussion specialist James Kelly found more problems, and Kelly told Carl Lindros the injury “should have been identified as a Grade II concussion at the time.” Carl Lindros said the family won’t sue the Flyers, who have backed their medical staff.

Clarke said he will make a qualifying offer to retain the club’s rights to Lindros, whose contract expires July 1. It’s difficult to imagine them mending this breach, but it’s also tough to imagine anyone signing Lindros to a free-agent offer sheet or trading for him because of his medical history.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

The Detroit Red Wings appear locked into fourth place in the West, and defenseman Larry Murphy fears that may hurt them in the final weeks of the season.

“You’re stuck in a spot and you don’t have the ability to move and all of a sudden, your games don’t mean as much to you as to your opponent,” he said. “We’re worried about getting into some sort of tailspin, because what are we likely to achieve?

“The biggest challenge we have is playing as well as we can every night. That’s probably what we’re facing now.”

The Red Wings seem to be meeting the challenge, having outscored the New York Rangers, 14-2, in a home-and-home series Sunday and Monday.

Murphy, who began his career with the Kings in 1980, last week played his 1,550th game, second to Gordie Howe’s 1,767. And Murphy, whose career revived when Detroit acquired him from Toronto in March 1997, isn’t done yet.

“I feel like I can play another five years,” he said. “I’m 39 and I feel as good now as I ever have. There’s going to be a time when I can’t play, but I enjoy it as much as I ever have.”

SLAP SHOTS

The Hockey News asked scouts to rate the top 10 prospects and players 21 or under on the NHL roster of each team. San Jose, the New York Islanders and Calgary were the top three, but the Kings were ranked 28th. The Mighty Ducks were 18th. . . . Detroit’s Pat Verbeek last week became the only player with 500 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes.

Responding to throat-slashing gestures made by Florida’s Peter Worrell after he was hit over the head by New Jersey’s Scott Niedermayer last week, the NHL sent a memo to clubs saying throat-slashing violates a rule against obscene or unsportsmanlike gestures and can result in suspension. . . . Craig Ramsay, the Flyers’ interim coach, is honoring Coach Roger Neilson in an unusual way: He’s wearing the same kind of loud ties Neilson loves. Neilson was released from a Philadelphia hospital after undergoing a stem-cell transplant to treat his bone marrow cancer, and doctors said he’s doing well.

Actors Scott Bakula, D.B. Sweeney and Alan Thicke, soccer star Alexi Lalas and goalie Manon Rheaume are scheduled to play in an exhibition game to benefit SCORE (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment) Saturday at 7 p.m. at Disney Ice in Anaheim. Admission is $5 to see celebrities skate with players from Disney GOALS and UCLA’s hockey club. Proceeds will benefit SCORE, a nonprofit organization that supports spinal-cord injury victims and their families. Disney items and hockey memorabilia will be auctioned. Details: (714) 956-4625.

Joe Sakic became the Quebec-Colorado franchise scoring leader last week with his 1,049th point, passing Peter Stastny. . . . Ranger goalie Mike Richter has been bothered by a sore left knee, which he injured during the All-Star skills competition, but that doesn’t explain his team’s ugly record. The Rangers’ back-to-back losses to Detroit were an embarrassment, regardless of their payroll. The failure of their free-agent shopping spree is sure to put a damper on this summer’s market.