Life After the Kings Is Full-Speed Ahead for Hardy

Mark Hardy glances away and looks back again.

Then he smiles.

It’s true. This is roller hockey and he is into it.

Completely into it.

Yes, Mark Hardy--the former King.

Eight seasons and parts of two others with the Kings. Fourteen years overall in the NHL. Twice voted the league’s outstanding defenseman.

At 5 feet 11 and 195 pounds, he routinely had larger players backing down from him his last two seasons in the International Hockey League.

Last season, he was a steadying influence on an unsteady Ice Dogs team. Now he is the steadying influence on the Los Angeles Blades.

Hardy, who never played roller hockey, is the coach of the 4-9-1 Blades.

Tuesday, he officially retired as a player and became an assistant coach for the Long Beach Ice Dogs as well as having the top spot with the Blades.

It seemed that he had plenty of hockey left in him. Maybe not in the NHL because he has lost a step, but he was a solid IHL player.

“I was thinking about playing one more year because I wanted to concentrate solely on that,� Hardy said. “But the more I played the more I found that I was starting to slow down and that my skills were starting to diminish, so I wasn’t having as much fun. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to get into coaching and sort of learn as I went along.�

Admittedly, he has learned much more than he planned.

Roller hockey turned out to be more than merely a variation of ice hockey.

There are the lack of blue lines, the one-on-one nature of the game, players setting picks, goalies lunging for pucks instead of sliding, the need for more forward skating, the lack of stop-and-starts in skating style, the way the body hits a surface that seemingly sticks to you after a career on ice and the no-fighting rule that creates interesting little-guy against big-guy confrontations.

“I had to learn the game, and I haven’t learned it all yet,� Hardy said. “The first three weeks [when the Blades went 0-6] I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t solve things. I didn’t understand the game like I should have.�

Part of the reason is he had no time to prepare. His IHL season finished on a Saturday, he flew to Los Angeles on Monday and started coaching on a Tuesday.

“It’s definitely been a humbling experience so far,� he said. “The body can definitely get stressed out. When I go into something, I go full-speed ahead.�

He credits all-star forward Bobby McKillop with helping him along. But the losing is painful.

At the end of the IHL season, Hardy asked to be traded from the Ice Dogs to a championship contender. He was traded to Detroit, which lost in the playoffs. Whether it’s the NHL, the IHL or Roller Hockey International, Hardy burns for a championship.

“I think maybe losing can make you a better coach because you have to fix things. Obviously it’s more fun to win,� he said. “If you win, and win a championship, then all the better.

“My highest and lowest points as a player came at the same time--going to the Stanley Cup with the Kings. That was always a dream to play for the Cup. With Montreal. . . . Not everyone is going to win--not everyone can win. It sure would have been nice to drink out of that Cup. I had to wait 14 years to get there, so I’m sure glad I had the experience.�

So is Los Angeles.