To Kings’ Webster, Image Is Nothing : Hockey: His bookish demeanor masks a fiery determination to succeed, both in life and in sports.

Standing behind the Kings’ bench, little emotion evident behind his conservative glasses, neatly but modestly dressed, Coach Tom Webster looks like a schoolteacher who got lost on the way to his desk.

People think of a rough sport like hockey and they expect the coach to be a cross between Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and Mike Ditka. Webster resembles neither.

For years before his arrival, there was a seemingly endless stream of quickly forgotten coaches blending with a long line of mostly forgettable players. In a town where image is everything, the Kings had a definite image problem.

So when Webster came along, people kept hoping he would duck into a phone booth, rip off those glasses and somber clothes and re-emerge in tights and cape, wearing a big “S” on his chest.

He has ripped off those glasses, all right, but out of the phone booth has come not Superman but the Incredible Hulk.

Suddenly, the man, who seemed so suited for a job at the library, is punching opposing players, hurling insults and hockey sticks, and leaving stunned players, angry officials and startled sportswriters in his wake.

Is this the real Tom Webster?

“I prefer to stay in the background,” he says.

Whether it’s accurate or not, his players are in favor of the new image.

“I like to see a mean streak in the coach,” goalie Kelly Hrudey said. “It shows me he’s competitive. When he’s fiery, he really takes command and can be tough on us. But he’s also flexible. He knows when to bend and give us a day off.”

There are certainly no complaints from the front office. Not after one of the most successful seasons in King history. The club won its first divisional title, had team-record totals of 26 home victories and 46 overall, and exceeded 100 points for only the second time in its 24-year history, finishing with 102.

Perhaps more important, the Kings, under Webster, have avoided their postseason curse of recent seasons of having to face both the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

If, as expected, the Kings get by the Vancouver Canucks in Round 1 beginning Thursday at the Forum, they will have to beat the winner of the Calgary-Edmonton series to advance beyond the division for the first time. That will be no small feat, but it would be better than playing one after the other.

There are plenty of Kings who can take bows for this season, starting with owner Bruce McNall and General Manager Rogie Vachon, but perhaps the biggest move they made was none at all.

After the Kings finished another mediocre season last year, winding up with 75 points and again getting swept out of the second round, McNall and Vachon decided they would try something new--the status quo.

They didn’t fire the coach. They didn’t make a lot of trades. Instead, they decided to build a tradition on the foundation they had.

Webster took it from there.

“He was really determined last summer,” Vachon said. “He and the assistant coaches (Rick Wilson and Cap Raeder) put in many hours in the office viewing tapes.”

What Webster saw only reinforced what he already knew: Scoring would never be a problem for the Kings with their offense. Winning would always be a problem with their defense.

So he vowed to turn things around by implementing a conservative, patient, defense-oriented strategy.

He announced to both reporters and the players that the team would cut opponents’ goals by 50 this season.

Hadn’t it been said before, by nearly every other King coach.

Right from the first day of training camp, however, Webster got tough. Rather than separate the rookies and veterans as in the past, he mixed the squads to make them more competitive. And he stressed defense.

“Right away from training camp you could tell that Webby was ticked off every time we didn’t play defense,” defenseman Steve Duchesne said.

And when the season ended Sunday, Webster’s goal turned out to be modest. The Kings, after giving up a Smythe Division-high 337 goals a season ago, finished with a division-low 254, fewer by 83.

In his playing days as a wing, Webster was known for his offense.

He played for the Oakland Seals of the NHL under owner Charlie Finley until back surgery sidelined him, the first of many medical problems that seem to continually point Webster in new directions.

When Webster returned, Finley had some bad news. He could come back only if he would agree to a pay cut--from $17,000 a season to $13,000.

But Webster had a alternative. The New England Whalers of the rival World Hockey Assn. were willing to sign him for a guaranteed $50,000 for each of the next three seasons.

“So my decision was very simple,” Webster said.

He flew to see Finley at his Chicago office. The flamboyant owner used to cook his own hamburgers in his office and he made one for Webster as the forward explained his opportunity.

“I think you should take it,” Finley told him. “But remember, if this league doesn’t go, you’re coming back to me and your contract might be much less.”

Webster never looked back. He went on to get 220 goals and 205 assists in seven seasons as a Whaler. He led the team in goals for three consecutive seasons and was the club’s MVP for the 1974-75 season.

But Webster could never quite out-skate his back problems, which grew worse when a broken skate blade sent him skidding into a goal post, back in the days when they didn’t move.

Neither did Webster for quite a while. He suffered a broken back and required more surgery.

When that wasn’t successful, he was forced to make a third trip to the operating room.

That finally ended Webster’s back trouble, and his playing career with it. After an unsuccessful comeback attempt with the Detroit Red Wings, he retired at 31.

Webster moved right into coaching, as an assistant with Adirondack of the American Hockey League.

It wasn’t easy at first.

“I was still in a player’s mold,” he said. “I still came and went as a player. I didn’t really do enough of the work I realize now is needed as a coach.”

But Webster learned while kicking around the minors for seven seasons.

He got his big break in November of 1986 when he was hired to replace Ted Sator as coach of the New York Rangers.

But Webster’s moment in the Big Apple quickly turned sour.

After only a few games, he was flying with the team into Washington when he started to feel sick. The lower the plane went, the lower he felt. He was experiencing nausea, dizziness and general lack of balance.

It turned out he had an ear infection that required surgery.

After a period of recovery, Webster came west to resume control of the team. But on a flight into Edmonton, it all came back.

All the symptoms. All the inherent frustrations.

This time, Webster was forbidden to fly. He was told by his doctors to leave the team and return to New York by train.

Phil Esposito finished the season as the Rangers’ coach. When the season was over, he asked Webster to stay on, but Webster didn’t believe his condition would allow it.

Instead, he went back to his old job, coaching the Windsor Spitfires, a junior hockey team. He also coached the Canadian national junior team in early 1989.

Then came the call from Vachon.

The two knew each other when they were briefly together with Detroit and the King general manager was impressed byWebster’s communicative skills and toughness.

Webster was impressed by the call, even though he also was called for interviews by the Rangers and the Whalers.

“I really felt this was the place for me,” he said of the Kings. “My family wanted to come. I had the chance to work for Mr. McNall and the chance to coach Wayne Gretzky.”

Indeed, Webster seemed to have put all his struggles behind him on that January day in 1990 as he again sat on a plane heading into Edmonton.

It turned out to be a tough night against the Oilers, the Kings blowing a three-goal lead and losing, 7-6.

Perhaps it was the pressure he put on himself that night. As Webster spoke to reporters, he ground a hockey stick into the concrete outside the locker room, splinters flying as he simmered.

Or perhaps it was the call.

All he knows is that he leaped out of the shower the next morning to answer the phone, slipped, and the next thing he knew he was standing in front of the mirror with a razor in hand, unsure how he got there.

When Webster got back to the doctor, he learned to his horror that the old ear problem was back, fluid again leaking out.

“You have to deal with it and worry about the things you can control. I had a whole lot of support from my family and my (assistant) coaches, Mr. McNall and the whole organization who felt we could get this done and I could be back in two to three weeks.”

And that’s the way it went, Raeder and Wilson running the show until Webster returned after missing only 15 games.

Maybe his luck was changing.

Webster’s image this season turned when he was ejected from three games.

On one occasion, he was understandably asked to leave after telling an official he thought made a bad call that perhaps his “helmet was squeezing your brain too tightly.”

Another time, Webster was ejected when, partially to protest a call and partially to fire up his team, he hurled a hockey stick, javelin style, onto the ice.

Then came his celebrated punch-out with Calgary’s Doug Gilmour 10 days ago.

The two reportedly exchanged insults, Gilmour threw a punch and Webster responded with one of his own. Two other Flames, Tim Hunter and Joel Otto, also allegedly struck Webster during the ensuing brawl, sending the coach’s glasses flying.

Webster was suspended for four games, including the first two playoff games, and fined $5,000.

Reporters first saw the other side of Webster last spring, after the Kings lost the first two games of the division finals to the Oilers en route to a sweep.

During practice at a Culver City rink, two reporters asked to speak to Webster.

Instead, the coach stormed out of a meeting, incensed at where his season was heading.

The reporters followed Webster up an alley to his car, still hoping to talk with him.

But Webster floored the accelerator and roared down the alley, sending one of the reporters diving for cover and hitting the street with tires screeching.

Contacted at home that night, Webster seemed fine.

“Oh, I just went for a drive to the beach,” he said. “I just needed to let some steam off.”

Webster’s wife, Carole, says the steam is always gone by the time he gets home.

“I’ve never seen him mad like I hear he is sometimes in the locker room,” she said.

Now the world has seen it, but Webster isn’t worried about his new image.

“You know what’s so funny about all this?” he said. “I get letters from people saying, ‘Geez, you should show more emotion. All you do is just stand at the back of the bench. You don’t do anything. How do you expect your team to play?’

“As far as my image goes, I don’t know what my image is. All I know is that I play every shift for every player in my mind. I care for every player and I’ll do anything as a coach that I can for them.”