Dean Lombardi is president/general manager of the Los Angeles Kings. This is his second season in that job, taking over for Dave Taylor.
I talked to him Tuesday night just before the Kings' game with the Nashville Predators, a game the Kings would lose, 7-0.
The conversation took place in a little lounge area next to the Kings locker room. Lombardi sat in a chair in the corner, and I was on the leather couch along the wall. Across the way was a television tuned to a sports station; the sound was muted.
When we entered the room, he said, "OK, what do you need?" In a weary way, as if I were going to ask him for money, perhaps.
I asked only a handful of questions because Lombardi answered at great length, sometimes circling back on the points he was trying to make, sometimes losing me. I just let him go, rarely interrupting him ... and if I hadn't once or twice, he might have gone on without me asking anything else.
