[backofthenet]

Yesterday was a tough day. I have read these boards and stayed quite, despite wanting to whine and pout.

To those that did post on the subject and did whine and do feel bad and have the "pity me's", I feel ya. I really do. It is tough being a King's fan. We have never won a Championship. We have never drafted first overall. Add to that the fact that we are having to play second fiddle to our arch rivals down the street and their future still looks brighter and it just can take the wind out of a fan.

But, I took a long shower. I rested. I took a deep breath. And then I looked some things up.

James vanRiemsdyk, Jordan Staal, Bobby Ryan, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Staal, Kari Lehtonen, Jason Spezza, Dany Heatly, Daniel Sedin, David Legwand.

Those are the last 10 number two picks in the NHL. 6 of those players would be in our top 6. Hell, it could be argued that they would be our best players. 1 of them would be our number one goalie. 2 of them would be on our third line and one of those two would be looking at top 6 next season. JVR would be our top prospect and probable be slated for the NHL next season.

Most of them were making impacts within two seasons, or less.

Are the 1st overalls better as a group? Yes. Crosby, Nash, AO, Vinny, and so on are a better group, but some would argue that they are not better by much.

It would be hard for even the Kings to screw up this pick. We will end up with a very good player. He will be with the Kings in two seasons or less and there is a very good chance he will be making an impact right away. He will be an important piece to the organization.

As far as the UFA signings, they are stop gaps. Wilsie, Nagy, Thornton, Modry are all gone. Cloutier is as good as gone. Calder and Handzues had off seasons. But so did the rest of the team. Worse case scenario is they come back next season and play the same way. Big deal. It is not like we wer4e looking to them to win us a Cup. And, in reality, the Kings are fine with the cap for a few more seasons.

Blake. Man I cannot stand him. But, he will be resigned. And I will be ok with it. He did step it up toward the end of the season and if he can mentor our youth, even a little, then I suppose it could help. The positives are that he does want to be here. That is rare and it should hold a little value. I know his motives are selfish, but what are you going to do?

Goaltending. Labs has another year under his belt. Ersberg now has a taste. Bernier is out of the juniors and in the organization. Zatkoff looked good in college. Maybe we'll catch lightning in a bottle with one of them. Maybe.

So, next season we will be looking at two different scenarios. Maybe we get lucky and we battle for the playoffs, which is unlikely, or, we are lottery bound again.

Either way, our future will be a bit brighter and we will have some more experienced young players to build with.