FERRARO HAS HEART OF A KING.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

The phone rang just as the Ferraros, in most ways a typical New York family of four, sat down to supper one evening last March. The younger boy, Landon, picked it up.

Four-year-olds love to answer the phone. They haven't learned it's never good news when the boss calls at dinner time.

``Daddy,'' Landon said, ``it's Colin.''

Ray Ferraro had been one of several New York Rangers rumored for weeks to be heading to the Kings in a trade for Wayne Gretzky. But Gretzky had just been sent to the St. Louis Blues. Ferraro thought he could relax. He liked being a Ranger. The playoffs were coming up.

Then Rangers coach Colin Campbell phoned to say Ferraro and three teammates had been traded to Los Angeles for three Kings players.

Early the next morning, Ray had to board a plane to the West Coast. Dinner at home would have to wait - about two months.

``I was not a happy man,'' he says now.

Ferraro didn't care as much about that dinner he never got to eat as he worried about the drink he had never taken - the drink from the Stanley Cup.

In a decade in the NHL, mostly with the Hartford Whalers and New York Islanders, he had never gone further than the conference finals. After his Islanders contract ran out following the 1994-95 season, he was close to signing with the Dallas Stars but wound up accepting an offer from the Rangers because they looked like title contenders.

Ray's wife, Tracey, would have preferred Dallas. Taking into account taxes and the cost of living, the money would have been better in Dallas. But Ray, at 31, had a goal to chase.

``I've had a long career,'' he says flatly. ``And I want to win.''

So you can understand why he wasn't thrilled to be a King. Gretzky and the other Kings stars were gone. The team was on the way to its worst season in 10 years.

Ferraro grilled a Kings executive: ``If you're rebuilding your team, what do you want me here for? I'm 31 years old. I don't get it.''

He was told the team wanted him because he was ``a tryer.''

Which is why any team should want Ray Ferraro, a 5-foot-10 (if that), 185-pound bundle of sinew and heart.

``He pisses you off all the time,'' said Eddie Johnson, the Pittsburgh Penguins coach. ``But if he's on your team, you love him.''

The Kings do love him. The little center leads the team with 11 goals this season and is a candidate to make his second NHL All-Star Game.

The funny thing is, he has come to love the Kings back.

``I don't see how anybody can't (like what the new management is doing),'' Ferraro said following a practice session at the Iceoplex in North Hills. ``They're a hell of a lot more organized than they were when I got here, and they're trying to bring in the right kind of players.''

Ferraro is one of those. He's the sort of player who never backs down, who scraps for loose pucks, who mouths off to the opponents.

It's a style he says he got from his late father, Ed, a Depression kid who never played hockey but did build a concrete business from scratch in British Columbia.

``I'd be embarrassed to do anything but (try hard),'' Ray said.

If the Kings were looking for an engaging, articulate spokesman for their new era of ``Serious Hockey,'' they have found one in Ferraro.

But he is serious about more than hockey. He and Tracey have been active in charity work throughout his career, and on this week they settled on an L.A. cause.

For each point he records this year, Ferraro said Tuesday, he and Tracey will donate $100 to Tuesday's Child, a Culver City-based organization that offers support for the families of HIV-infected children. In addition, Tree Top Beverages, Toyota and Kings co-owner Philip Anschutz each have pledged $100 a point. And a fan who heard Ferraro talk about the charity in a between-periods TV interview has promised $25 a point.

Based on Ferraro's 21 points this year - including 10 assists - the donations already approach $9,000.

``The organization His kind of a like a secondary level of support for families that have an HIV- or AIDS-infected person,'' Ferraro said. ``When a person first finds out they're positive, they can go to the state (government) and get financial help with medical costs. But these people help more with day-to-day items that the state wouldn't deal with. A lot of families don't have money for diapers, cribs and clothing.''

Tuesday's Child is named for a line in a nursery rhyme: ``Tuesday's child is full of grace.''

``The organization is trying to provide some grace and dignity for these families,'' Ferraro said, noting that 1,000 children are being helped. ``We can make a significant contribution.''

That's Ray Ferraro. Never backing down from a challenge.

``Ray,'' said Kings assistant coach Jay Leach, who has watched Ferraro since both were in Hartford, ``is one of those guys who you tell him he can't do something, and he's going to try that much harder. I don't think you can have enough guys like Ray on your team.''

Or in your city. Let's hope Ferraro is here when the Kings make it back to the Stanley Cup finals.

His experience last March has taught him not to think too far ahead.

``My dream remains to win a Stanley Cup,'' he said. ``But things can change quickly. Who knows what the future will bring?''