Mark Hardy Talks Five Decades of LA Kings Hockey

Long-time LA King Mark Hardy was recently honored with a Legends Night. It's been a long time coming for Hardy, who has been a part of five decades of Kings' hockey.
Originally drafted in the second round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft by George Maguire, Hardy made his NHL debut on October 10, 1979 against the Detroit Red Wings. The mobile defenseman was a fixture on the Kings' blueline until he was traded to the New York Rangers in February 1988. Five years later, New York dealt him back to Los Angeles, where he finished his NHL playing career.
In July 1999, Andy Murray hired Hardy as an assistant coach; he served in that capacity until April 2006. Hardy returned to LA in August 2008; he was an assistant coach on Terry Murray's staff until June 2010.

LAKings.com: How much of an impact did your mother, Olympian Barbara Wyatt, have on your skating? Did figure skating influence your hockey career at all?
Mark Hardy: She was a huge influence.
My mom had me out on the rink when I was two. She taught me about edges. About balance. She taught me about sitting in a chair while I was skating. Not literally, but making it look like I was [as a drill].
I was either going to be a 210-pound hockey player or 210-pound figure skater. (laughs) I think I went the right way.
LAK: What does the "sitting in a chair" drill accomplish?
MH: It keeps you low. It gives you good balance. It keeps you grounded. You're able to turn, to generate more speed, more power. It really helped with my backwards skating.
Staying down, that's where you create your power. If you're standing straight up, you wouldn't be able to create those long strides. So by "sitting in a chair," you extend your legs a lot further.
I try to teach the young players I work with the same thing.
I was just fortunate to have someone with the knowledge of skating to teach me.
LAK: In your second season, you were suspended by the team for "conduct detrimental to the club." You were reportedly late for practice and a bus. What happened? Was this suspension ultimately a positive for your career?
MH: It was definitely eye-opening. I don't remember being suspended. I don't remember missing any games.
I was a young kid at the time, probably was partying a little too much. I made sure that I fixed it.
(Note: According to the LA Times, the 22-year-old Hardy was suspended on November 27, 1981. The suspension was lifted on December 2, 1981, but he didn't dress for that night's tilt against the Rangers. He missed at least one game.)
LAK: 1984-85 was a career season for you, as you set career-highs in goals and points. The team lobbied to get you on the All-Star team, which must have felt good. You were also voted Team Outstanding Defenseman for the first time. What came together that season?
MH: We had a good team. We had one of the best power plays in the league. I know that I generated a lot of points on the power play. Dave [Taylor was always] in front of the net. Marcel [Dionne] ran the power play from the half wall. I had a great passer in Marcel setting me up for one-timers. Dave was getting the garbage. If I was able to get it by him, sometimes I would score. (laughs)
LAK: That was Pat Quinn's first year.
MH: I loved Pat. He was like a father figure to me. We had lots of talks together. He showed a lot [of faith] in me. I played a lot that year. I was in all situations. I learned a lot about the game from him. A lot about growing up. He taught me a lot about becoming a man.
LAK: In your first run with the Kings, there were constant rumors of you being moved. Over the years, according to the LA Times, you were attached to Quebec, for Anton Stastny. To Philadelphia, for Bob Froese. To Minnesota. Were any of these deals close? How stressful was that on you?
MH: I didn't know anything about those. I just used to come down, practice, and play. Those were rumors I never heard. I never read the paper.
LAK: Eventually, in February 1988, you were traded to the New York Rangers. It had been a rough season -- the booing at the Forum was so bad, you sought out a hypnotist. What did the hypnotist do?
MH: I worked with a guy named Peter Siegel. He's passed away since.
He helped me just put [the booing] out of my mind. Once I was able to do that, I started playing some of the best hockey of my career again. And the booing stopped.
He gave me confidence. He helped me shut it out.
LAK: Did he actually hypnotize you?
MH: Yeah, pretty much. I would get into a hypnotic state.
[He would just re-affirm] that I was a good player. When you start thinking bad thoughts, bad things happen. But if you think about the positive side, positive things happen.
Instead of hoping the puck wasn't going to jump over my stick, I was going towards it. If I had one-on-one's, I wasn't hoping that I wasn't going to get beat. I knew that I was going to take them out and win those battles.
LAK: So you would say that Peter had a positive impact on your entire career?
MH: He had a huge impact.
Peter wasn't really a hypnotist. He was more of a therapist. I always tried anything to improve my career.
We had Anthony Robbins when we went to the Finals [in 1993]. It was more like that.
LAK: Regardless of the booing, you left the team with club defensemen records in assists and points. You were also named Team Outstanding Defenseman in 1986-87 too. Were you happy to leave LA at that point because of the booing?
MH: I was devastated [to go]. I was devastated. I remember we had a skate with the fans that night. I was called up to the ice and up in the coaches' room and told I was being traded to the Rangers.
I can remember driving home along the ocean, going to see my wife, I had tears in my eyes. It was hard to drive, actually.
But once I got to New York, I knew it was time to perform again. I had some really good years there.
When you're drafted by a team, you bleed the crest. And I've always bled the crest of the Kings. It was the team that I was drafted by. I grew up with so many players there. I had so many friendships. It was absolutely devastating.
LAK: In 1993, you returned to the Kings and helped them to the Finals. Of course, everybody remembers your big hit on Mike Keane in Game 3 of the Finals. You wore No. 24 during this stint with the Kings, after donning Nos. 26, 20, and 5 in your previous stay. Was No. 24 a nod to your friend Jay Wells?
MH: You know what, they just gave me [No. 24]. Like when I went to New York, they just gave me No. 14.
5 was always my favorite number. I always wanted 5. But first, they gave it to Larry Murphy. I was wearing 20 at the time. I should've got 55. But those numbers weren't around, I don't think.
(Note: Hardy was the second-to-last King to wear No. 20 before Luc Robitaille. Larry Playfair wore it briefly in 1986.)
LAK: You could've just lied and said that No. 24 was for Jay. He would like that.
MH: You could write that. (laughs) He would like it. He was one of my best friends. We had so many great times together.
LAK: The next year, your last in the NHL, was a tumultuous one. You were shuttled between LA and Phoenix. At a certain point, you were called up along with Tim Watters to bring stability to a young blueline which wasn't living up to expectations. From your perspective, what went wrong with the 1993-94 Kings, the post-Finals team?
MH: We made so many significant changes. We lost Marty [McSorley]. Marty went to Pittsburgh.
They went younger and bigger. I don't know all the ins and outs of why they did that. But they brought in six or seven new guys.
Why [did Tim Watters and I] got sent to Phoenix? That's a management decision.
But when I went to Phoenix, I really enjoyed myself. I went from sitting in the stands to playing 25 minutes a game again. It was just like being re-born.
When we did go up [to LA], we played pretty well for them.
I thought when we went to the Finals, we all played very hard [together]. I was so happy to be back in LA [that year]. All my friends again. I just wanted to win the Stanley Cup for them and the fans, for sure.
LAK: After this season, your immediate post-playing career was quite colorful. You once coached four games in four consecutive days as an assistant for the IHL's Long Beach Ice Dogs and as head coach of the RHI's LA Blades in 1997. Then, as a 39-year-old, you came back to pro hockey with the Ice Dogs.
Eventually though, Andy Murray hired you to run the PK and work with Kings defensemen in 1999. Your first stint as a Kings assistant coach was highlighted by a 2001-02 campaign where LA finished third in the league on the PK. What came together that season for you guys?
MH: We just had a really good team. Great goaltending. We had a strong defensive core. We had penalty killers who would block everything. It was a privilege to coach those guys.
They took it upon themselves to respect [their time out there]. It was a privilege for them to be killing penalties. Those were the type of players which we had.
LAK: Speaking of some of those defensemen, a lot of those guys revived their careers working with you. Phillipe Boucher and Jaroslav Modry would eventually become All-Stars after almost being out of the league. Mathieu Schneider rebounded in Los Angeles. How did you impact those guys?
MH: As a coach, I just tried to be myself. I was never a yeller or a screamer. I just tried to give them positive stuff, probably, that I got from Peter Siegel. Why yell at them when you could just teach them? I just tried to be a mentor, as much as I could, to those guys.
They had their ups and downs too. It's a mental game. When you're feeling positive about yourself, you're feeling good about your game, it's a lot easily to play the game. I tried to be a positive influence.
LAK: And what about Boucher and Modry was special? Because they weren't that far from being out of the league when they got to you.
MH: [Boucher and Modry] were good players. They just had to believe in themselves. They had to know that they belonged in the NHL.
Hopefully, I was a positive influence on them sustaining NHL careers.
You try and build relationships. When you can build that relationship with a player, they don't just take you as a coach. They take you as a friend.
I think I did that with Garry Galley as well, when Galley came back. He was another guy who was maybe thinking that he was at the end of his career. But I started playing him 21-22 minutes a game. Mathieu Schneider, same thing. I tried to instill confidence. I tried to create a positive atmosphere.
You have to be with good players too. We were a good team. You have to give Andy Murray credit as well. When Dave Tippett was there at the beginning as well, he was a heck of a coach and still is.
LAK: Your first coaching stint in Los Angeles ended in April 2006. In the last days, you got into an argument with Sean Avery over a drill. Reportedly, he refused to do a drill, you guys got into a yelling match, he was kicked off the team. Avery addressed the incident in his recent autobiography, saying he never refused to do the drill. What is your memory of this incident?
MH: We were just doing simple breakouts. We wanted everybody to go back hard, to the end.
He didn't want to do it the first time. So I just said, "Let's try it again. Let's do it like everybody else. Let's break out hard."
He didn't want to do it again. I said, "Sean, I'll give you one more time. Otherwise, you're going to have to leave the ice."
I thought I was being very fair with him.
Sean Avery and I got along. That was the first time we didn't get along. I'm sorry that incident happened. Because I really liked Sean Avery.
He lived across the street from me in Manhattan Beach. I used to go over there.
He was probably just having a bad day. I don't really know why he wouldn't do what the rest of his team was doing.
LAK: And it became a yelling match as reported?
MH: Yeah, we yelled a couple things back and forth at each other. Then the players jumped in and escorted him off the ice. I think the players knew who was right.
LAK: After the Kings let you go in 2006, you were on the ground floor of the Blackhawks' championship teams -- you were on Denis Savard's staff for both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews's rookie seasons -- before you returned to the Kings and Terry Murray's staff for the 2008-09 season.
There, you laid the groundwork for LA's championship teams, helping to instill a defensive foundation for guys like Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown. What are your memories of teaching the guys about "home plate" and the principles that Terry wanted instilled?
MH: I really liked Terry Murray, he was such a great coach to work for. I remember one of my first experiences with him, he went out on the ice and drew five circles in the defensive zone, where he wanted to guys to come back and stop. That's something that I've never let go of.
It's something that's so important in hockey, to take care of that little area. You can go from there, as long as you take care of the house first.
LAK: Have you seen a coach do that before, paint those circles on the ice?
MH: I had never seen that before. I don't know if that was his own thing or if he had gotten it from somebody else.
I just thought it was good. Until they all started melting. (laughs) Because in LA, it gets pretty hot at training camp.
I just thought it was a genius thing, a great way to learn the game.
We'd work on our forecheck at the other end, everybody would come back into the defensive zone, stop in the house, go into defensive zone coverage.
LAK: Can you talk about some of the kids that you coached in those years, who would grow up to become two-time Stanley Cup champions? You coached Drew Doughty during his rookie season.
MH: I was very close to Drew Doughty. I worked with him a lot. On defense and the power play.
Dustin Brown. Alec Martinez a little bit. Kopi and Quicker.
I have an interesting story about Drew Doughty.
When Drew was 18 years old, I asked him to shut down Alex Ovechkin [in November 2008]. I said, "I'm going to put you on the ice -- they won't expect it, because you're 18." I don't think Ovechkin had a [quality] shot that night.
That's how good Drew Doughty was defensively as an 18-year-old. He shut down Alex Ovechkin.
I was totally amazed. With Drew, everybody thinks about his offensive ability, but defensively, he is unbelievable.
Along with young guys I coached like Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith, Drew was one of my favorites. He was so hungry -- Drew played with no fear. No fear whatsoever.
As an 18-year-old, to shut down Ovechkin -- to this day, it's mind-boggling.
When you ask him to absolutely shut down somebody, he can do that. Not too many guys can do that.
I also worked with Kopi on his defense.
When I first got there, it was more about offense for Anze Kopitar. But he turned into the best two-way centerman probably in the league.
He had to recognize that he had to come back -- we talked about Terry Murray painting the dots -- that was a big part of it. Him coming back into his own end and stopping instead of turning all over the place. Obviously, he caught on.
LAK: Now you're coaching in the ECHL with the Jacksonville Icemen. You're working with former Ontario Reign coach Jason Christie. How's it going down there?
MH: Really good. My family, we're happy, we're healthy, we're all together. That's the thing that I'm blessed with.
I'm just helping out here [in Jacksonville].
We haven't had the year that we thought we were going to have, but we're a very young team here.
But I would love to get back to the NHL. We'll see what happens.
LAK: To wrap up, a few days after you arrived in New York in 1988, you told Newsday, "Junior hockey in Montreal is a lot bigger than NHL hockey in Los Angeles."
With that quote in mind, and considering you came to LA in 1979, can you talk about how much hockey has grown in Los Angeles since the first time you came here? You've been a part of the Kings organization for five decades!
MH: Oh, it's huge. It's huge.
You see all the kids who are being drafted into the NHL [from here]. When I first got there, Culver City was one of the only facilities you could practice at.
I remember the young kids couldn't skate very well. There weren't that many of them playing hockey at the time. But I've seen how big it's gotten out there. Even when my kids played there, my son Kevin, how good the hockey has gotten...
You know, I was probably pissed off at the time because I'd been traded from somewhere that I loved. (laughs) I don't remember saying that.
But I always loved being a King. And I loved seeing how it's become a hockey town. It really is a hockey town.
When I came back in '93, it was a completely different town. The people were going absolutely crazy. You could definitely see it was a hockey town, even seeing the young kids skating out at the little rinks and stuff like that. They were so much better. And everybody was wearing Kings jerseys.
It was one of the happiest times of my life, going to the Stanley Cup Finals. Probably one of my biggest disappointments too.
But to see how far hockey had come...
LAK: Well, you were a huge part of making Los Angeles a hockey town.
MH: Thank you.