Bill Ranford on the Kings Crease Competition

[Carla Muller]

On Saturday, Bill Ranford provided some insight to the new Kings' luxury of depth in the crease. Having a fight for goaltending jobs is a nice problem to have and perhaps a first for the Kings' organization. Finally.

We discussed which goaltenders fall into Dryden's two categories in his book "The Game": (1) The netminder that is equally responsible for wins and losses with his teammates; and (2) The netminder who wants to put the team on his back and be the difference between wins and losses personally. It turns out it is not that simple.

It depends what type of team you have in front of you. If you have a run and gun team, you are going to face a lot of shots. It's important to have that type of goalie. There's kind of two mental aspects. There's the mental aspect of the goalie that will win an 8-7 hockey game and not let it bother him, facing a lot more shots. There's also the attitude of a guy winning a 2-1 hockey game and having had had that mental capacity. From a goaltending standpoint, you want to be able to adapt to both. I think sometimes you get a mindset if you face a lot of shots that it's okay to let in the odd bad one. But the reality of it, that's what we probably want to remove from (their) game. As soon as you go into a tight-scoring game you can't afford to let in that bad one. There's stages of guys' careers. I guess it comes down to a mindset, and the bottom line is you've got to be mentally strong in both aspects.

On applying the mental strength required of a netminder for high and low scoring games to the Kings’ goaltenders:

For our young guys, (we are) trying to teach them to regroup after a goal, whether it's a good goal or a bad goal, and be able to block it out right away so they're not thinking about it as the next shot is coming down. With your veteran guys, I guess it's no different than all your veterans that's been with the organization for a few years now. For them, they just have to realize that they have more experience and to rely on that experience.

On last season’s goaltending surprise, Jonathan Quick, Ranford had this to say about him:

Jonathan Quick is a very, very dynamic goalie. I think he has an extreme amount of athletic ability to his game and will make this out-of-this-world, spectacular saves. What we're trying to do with him is just kind of bring him back a notch; bring a little bit more control to his game. But if he has to pull that save out of his toolbox, then it's there. Right now we're just trying to get a little bit more control in his game so that he's not all over the place. He'll be an exciting guy to watch in the years to come because he's as competitive as they come.

The riddle of last year may just have been Ersberg. Hextall deemed him unproven in this summer’s Town Hall Meetings. Ranford next discussed whether Ersberg had his own John Druce moment in the spring, or whether there is more to his game:

I think there's more to him. I think the part that you have to realize he's somebody coming over from Europe playing maybe a 30 to 40 game season, having to adjust to close to an 80-game season; (then also) adapting to the North American lifestyle. All that happened in his first year. There's times, and I'm not making any excuses for him, there were some up and down times. I think we've seen how he's grown from a technical standpoint from where we had him in training camp to where he finished at the end of the year. He's got a huge upside. And what we saw with the work we did with him this summer. He's a guy that's here to compete for a job with the Kings.

LaBarbera recently discussed with the Daily News’ Rich Hammond, that this was the first summer he hired a nutritionist. What does not show with Ranford’s response is the grimacing facial expression he made when I asked him to address this change in LaBarbera’s off-season regime. He had this to say:

Jason has always been a very hardworking guy on the ice and he needed to be working harder off the ice. That's not as far as his training goes, just working harder at making sure that he was eating properly. That's something that would always get away from him. He'd start the year off at sometimes the 230 range. We would like to have him at 220; but he'd start at 230 and finish the season at 240 to 244. That just comes down to eating habits. He hired a nutritionist and they had his meals made for him and (he) learned how to eat properly. You know the combination of eating properly, being able to train harder and feeling stronger, you've seen this new body on Jason. You see a guy when you talk to him now, feels much better about himself. He always thought that he needed to be bigger because he wanted to feel big and strong on the ice. But now he realized that even though he's dropped the weight, now he's actually stronger and quicker on the ice because of it. It's easier on his body. The wear and tear on his back, his knees, his hips at a lighter weight, I think he's enjoying that right now in having a little bit more physical freedom.

Ranford’s response on the challenge of rebound control which appeared to be one of the biggest differences between LaBarbera and Ersberg:

Yep! It's something that was the focus of our whole summer with all seven of our goalies. I think it really opened up everybody's eyes on Ersberg's innate ability to just suck rebounds into his body. We really focused on that all summer - working on rebounds, controlling rebounds with our sticks, and then controlling rebounds to our body were the two areas that we hit on every single day in our development programs this summer.

Ranford on Zatkoff and the tandem he shared at Miami of Ohio vs. Bernier who played as a starter at Lewiston:

I think the best way to explain that we had two individuals. We had Jeff Zatkoff and Jonathon Bernier; one playing junior as a starter and one flip-flopping in Miami. Over a two-year process, Zatkoff might get maybe 50 starts and then Bernier would probably get close to 100 to 120 starts. As far as a development process, we were concerned. We talked with the school and they felt strongly that Jeff would move into the No. 1 role. He was handed that role last year and it was a real learning experience for him being able to play the bulk of the load. I think he grew as a goalie. The way you grow as a goalie is by playing games.

Ranford on Zatkoff’s continued development if he finds himself in a tandem for the net in Manchester:

There's going to be a four-way battle for it. You never know; injuries come into play. You never know what's going to happen after the two spots are taken here in L.A. It's going to be a four-way battle down in Manchester until we decide which way the guys go. So right now the way our organization works, we've got two guys here in L.A. There's going to be two guys battling in Manchester; and then probably one guy in Ontario down the road here, and one in Reading. Our hope is that it's a good goalie battle right to the bitter end and they make it tough for us to make a decision on who goes where.

Ranford on the difference between when he came into the league and his first year where he went on emotions and the game today where he discussed both Bernier and Teubert’s pre-NHL development and experience:

They're given more opportunity to play on the big stage than when I started playing. For example, Jonathon has had the experience of playing for his province, playing the Under 18, playing World Junior, playing in the Memorial Cup; and having all those experiences and having to learn all for that. It wasn't quite as accessible, or the system wasn't structured that way when I grew up. There wasn't a lot of provincial stuff going on. It was basically play, period. Whatever hometown you lived from and you were born in or you lived and you worked your way up. Your next big stage was Junior Hockey or a college, whichever route you went, and then the next stage was minors and pro. Now, these kids, I mean Colten Teubert, he's gone through the whole development program out of British Columbia. He's gone into the program playing Junior Eight Hockey in Regina and he's already experienced the Under 18. Now the next stage probably for him is going to be experiencing World Junior again. So, it's amazing how often you get put on front and center. We didn't have those types of experience when I grew up.

Ranford on who might surprise everyone this season between the pipes and why:

You now what, I have no idea. I wish I could narrow it. If you looked last year, John Quick was the big surprise. He started in the East Coast League and had a little bit of a taste of both American Hockey League and the ECHL. I think the way he developed from where we started him to where he is now . . . . It's tough because I've worked with all these guys for going on close to two to three years now. They're kind of at where I want them to be. So, the gap as far as what these guys are going to do individually have now started to shrink. They're kind of getting to the way of what the expectations of an L.A. King goalie are. So to answer that question, I don't have my crystal ball out here to be able to -- to be able to give you that answer. But there will be -- I'm guessing there will be a surprise out of somebody. Who it is? I hope it's one of our guys here in L.A.

Ranford on what is the expectation of an L.A. King goalie:

The expectation of an L.A. King goalie is. . . . I don't want you to be able to walk in the building and say that's a Bill Ranford goaltender. I want you to look at his habits, his attention to detail, and that's what I consider an L.A. Kings' goaltender.

Bottom Line:

To date, the Kings have a well-earned reputation of never having developed their own goaltender ever. Fast forward to the post-lockout Kings and there is not only seven developing goaltenders but eight in camp. These eight goalies now benefit from working with a credentialed Goaltending coach with a rich resume that includes membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame and also having earned M.V.P. honors in the Stanley Cup, World Cup and World Championship who has now spent the last two to three years developing these players into what a L.A. Kings goalie should develop to become.

One of my favorite part of the interviews I did this fall with Terry Murray first and now Bill Ranford is that this is the first time I have heard ever anyone speak of an L. A. Kings' anything. Maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of the Kings creation of its own culture and identity. Finally.

Carla Muller

Carla.hockeygal@att.net

[King Henrik]

awseome read as a goalie myself i find this blog very intresting to read and helpfull to my own game thank you carla

[Exodus1045]

Originally Posted by Carla Muller

One of my favorite part of the interviews I did this fall with Terry Murray first and now Bill Ranford is that this is the first time I have heard ever anyone speak of an L. A. Kings' anything. Maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of the Kings creation of its own culture and identity. Finally.

Carla Muller

Carla.hockeygal@att.net

the kings have a culture....surfing

(ok bad joke, im better after a 2 drink min.)

[Carla Muller]

Originally Posted by Exodus1045

The Kings have a culture....surfing!

(ok bad joke, im better after a 2 drink min.)

That was mad funny, thanks.

[Unruely35]

Originally Posted by Exodus1045

the kings have a culture....surfing

(ok bad joke, im better after a 2 drink min.)

No no.... That was the Blake and his experience teaching the young defense! Don't blame the goalies for that one.

[jofa6000]

8 goalies? its a good problem to have.

[stick2danuts]

Originally Posted by jofa6000

8 goalies? its a good problem to have.

I think we will eventually end up with 2 #1 goalie like Lombardi had in San Jose. The Nabokov and Toskala tandem was a very nice setup.

[Spin 'o' Rama]

Great read!
Thanks!

[yankeeking]

Another great interview that helps us deal with the impatience that comes with losing, I think we can have a good year without the playoffs if we can get a number 1 guy and a number 1a going into 09/10 and some of the d-men and forwards continue their development...............don't get me wrong playoffs would be freaking awesome