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About This Page: This is a discussion on News within the LetsGoKings.com forums, at Los Angeles Kings Hockey Fan Forum. While I was off in jury duty, it appears the world has ended, the Kings will never be the same, and no one wants to come to Los Angeles and
While I was off in jury duty, it appears the world has ended, the Kings will never be the same, and no one wants to come to Los Angeles and Tavares here we come…. *ugh* Let’s get the basics down, I wanted Blake gone. I never thought he earned his last contract. I was resigned to him returning but prayed for the love of sanity that if he returned that at least his salary would be correlated to what he can really offer now. Another retirement contact might just make me heave. With that out of the way, time to talk turkey.
From reading some of the threads over the last few days, I almost wish it was worth the energy to copy and paste comments over the last season or two. First, Lombardi signs a bunch of bridge and filler players who never earn their deals. Then, Lombardi thinks, overpaying role players and guys who are best known for what they used to be than what they are has failed. Why not give the team and the room to the young core that has earned the right to put the team on their backs and see where they can take it. I demand this of them then I handicap their right to achieve it.
Frankly, just the thought of watching this thing play out has me far more excited then signing more generation gap players. The team tried it. It was a colossal failure, did anyone really want to watch a bunch of unmotivated over-the-hill players who left their game on their prior team weigh the kids down. Really? Are you freaking kidding me? For those who say, think or want to blame the team’s inactivity to the Kings going cheap, I am sorry but I just do not buy that. Not at all. Does anyone really want Los Angeles to be the Ducks or the Penguins or the Flyers who find themselves in cap troubles and unable to re-sign their own players at an alarming rate? Again, really? Really?
By the Kings focusing more on the cap floor than the cap ceiling, the organization is now both planning and budgeting to have enough $$ left to keep the kids when their entry level contracts expire. I promise to eat all of these words if the Kopitars, Johnsons, and O’Sullivans and Bernier, Hickey and Doughty walk or leave the way of offer sheets and trades. Until or unless that occurs, I am sticking to this premise.
It has taken me until my 40’s to really appreciate the value of a dollar, living within my means and thinking about how what I spend today effects what I do tomorrow. Better late than never, no doubt. So lo and behold, Lombardi learns from his past choices and those of his peers. He is trying another tack.
I am anything but a gambler but I have recently come to appreciate the meaning of going “all in”. Lombardi had two choices this off-season. Patch a team together of kids, bridge and filler players waiting to give the team to its real future or have the future start right now. (A concept it took Billy Crystal to get until the end of ‘When Harry Met Sally’… Don’t we all want the rest of our lives to start right now once we figure out where we want the rest of our life to go…? Think about that.)
In theory to some apparently, this is a train wreck because right now the most seasoned defenseman is Preissing and he is penciled in per Hextall as a 5th or 6th defenseman and no more. The most seasoned guy between the pipes is LaBarbera and well… he hasn’t won the job or proven to be consistent yet. Right now, the most seasoned forwards are Handzus and Armstrong. These two guys often seem to be (next to Blake) the greatest lightning rod of fan discontent.
Lombardi’s plan is to finally commit to his master plan … right now. No more expensive band-aids. No more waiting. He claimed last summer that what he most wanted to see is if the kids would take responsibility for winning. Those were great words but he hardly lived them. The team leadership went to Blake, Thornton, Visnovsky and Cammalleri. The year before, the designated leaders were Norstrom, Miller, Conroy and admittedly I forget the last “A” of that season. Noticing a trend? Yeah, hard to ignore that every one of these players is elsewhere.
It turns out it was a bit of an oxymoron to ask Kopitar, Brown, Frolov, O’Sullivan and Johnson to be responsible for winning and then designate others to lead. Lombardi hedged his bets with that dichotomy. On the one hand, young core, it is your team. On the other hand, it is not your turn yet. This is the veterans’ room. In my best Tim Gunn impression, “Make it Work”. Only it didn’t and the Kings did more than lose, they lost ugly too many times.
Consider this. Manchester’s veteran leadership of Giuliano and Klemm, amongst others, ended up with the big club. That disposition became a real positive. Adversity can either breed character or reveal a very real lack of character. Someone had to lead that room and the likes of Boyle and Gauthier stepped up. They took over that Manchester room and against all odds found ways to win and make the play-offs.
The way Boyle and Gauthier grew plain does not happen with the Klemms and Giulianos of the world there. Well, time to take the training wheels off the youth and find out whether Lombardi’s master plan and players can walk the walk Lombardi has talked and talked about. I envision two possibilities: losing and growth or chaos. Either way, I am far more excited about next season than last season. Wouldn’t everyone prefer to see if these players are worth their next contract by seeing where they take the Kings with all of the excuses and place holders out of the way?
Win or lose, Lombardi has no further place to hide. He has to prove he can pick the right coach, traded for the right players and his draft choices have to be more right than wrong or … the Kings will truly be a ship without a paddle and with only passengers on board. Sink or swim, next season or two will define his legacy or not.
It's a little difficult to be generally positive at this point while faced with so many looming negatives. No coach, no #1 goalie, no #1 d'man, no #2 d'man, no second line center, no deal with Sully, no deal with Ersberg... etc. DL seems to be intent on making fans forget the recent successes of the draft. Unless he pulls a herd of rabbits out of his hat, this is going to be a tough season to watch.
No coach, no #1 goalie, no #1 d'man, no #2 d'man, no second line center, no deal with Sully, no deal with Ersberg... etc.
First, here feels like what you need now...
No coach? ..... Lombardi chose to see who his team was before he hired his coach. Would you hire a head chef for a restaurant before you created the menu?
No ## 1 and 2 D-Men? .... Johnson has the shackles off. Fans get to see how he earned his nickname. Massive competition for every spot. Fans get to see what the kids potential are with no veterans guaranteed top minutes. Everybody gets to earn their minutes. The best guys will play, period.
No second line center? .... Richardson, Stoll and Boyle get to fight it out and Armstrong and Handzus have to earn their minutes and who knows what Moller has to offer.
No deal for O'Sullivan? .... It is July 3rd and there was that pesky thing called the draft and unrestricted free agency and hiring a coach on the "To Do List". We know one thing, we can AFFORD him and match any offer sheet. Both good indicators of what jersey he will wear next season.
I get the uneasiness because bar none personally, silence and the unknown, are big triggers for me. I just throw out the possibility that when the dust settles, perhaps this is a far better predicament then trying to make Nagy, Handzus, Stuart and Calder be the answer to the Kings' immediate future.
No coach? ..... Lombardi chose to see who his team was before he hired his coach. Would you hire a head chef for a restaurant before you created the menu?
No ## 1 and 2 D-Men? .... Johnson has the shackles off. Fans get to see how he earned his nickname. Massive competition for every spot. Fans get to see what the kids potential are with no veterans guaranteed top minutes. Everybody gets to earn their minutes. The best guys will play, period.
No second line center? .... Richardson, Stoll and Boyle get to fight it out and Armstrong and Handzus have to earn their minutes and who knows what Moller has to offer.
No deal for O'Sullivan? .... It is July 3rd and there was that pesky thing called the draft and unrestricted free agency and hiring a coach on the "To Do List". We know one thing, we can AFFORD him and match any offer sheet. Both good indicators of what jersey he will wear next season.
I get the uneasiness because bar none personally, silence and the unknown, are big triggers for me. I just throw out the possibility that when the dust settles, perhaps this is a far better predicament then trying to make Nagy, Handzus, Stuart and Calder be the answer to the Kings' immediate future.
I do admire your optimism but the fact remains that this team, as presently constructed, is a last place team. No organization that seriously expects to sign top talent goes into the UFA period with no coach. That absurd situation clearly demonstrates that the yard sale and rebuild mentality is the only mind set in the Kings' front office right, and, I guess, that is as it should be. While this resignation to futility is ultimately not a bad thing, it is going to be difficult to watch just the same.
No organization that seriously expects to sign top talent goes into the UFA period with no coach.
This may be the disconnect. The Kings had no intention of signing the 'top talent' going into this UFA period. Also, by all accounts, this was a weak unrestricted group to begin with. I would have even less confidence if the Kings signed Campbell for the deal he got. A #1 defenseman who is not known for his defense. Redden gets a 6 year deal for 6.5 million per annum, the same ##s from his last deal and Ottawa repeatedly tried to trade him. Finger gets 3.75 million and has 94 NHL games. Blake at $5 million. No thanks across the board.
This sounds like an expectations thing to me. Anyone who thought the Kings were going to be signing anyone now for inflated dollars weren't reading Lombardi's quotes going into this in the first place. I have no idea where this team ranks next year; but at least the excuses are gone. Time to find out if DL is the guy or not. I see no other way to find this out. And if the team is in last place, then another lottery pick and I bet next year's team plays harder than last year's team did. That alone would make it worth it. (alcohol may be required more than usual next season)
It's DL's master plan to get Tavares. 3 years of hellish rebuilding and then we make drastic improvements over the next 2 years means he gets an extra 3-5 years to stay the course (sound failure?)...
If not, then maybe we wake up tomorrow and DL just signed multiple free agents and made a trade or two. Either way this year is going to be a tough one. What else is new!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.... Johnson has the shackles off. Fans get to see how he earned his nickname. Massive competition for every spot. Fans get to see what the kids potential are with no veterans guaranteed top minutes. Everybody gets to earn their minutes. The best guys will play, period.
That's the only real positive I see here. All indicators point to a very long painful arduous year, full of growing pains. But hey, they sometimes say that you have to lose before you win.
...I just hope it's not like watching a trainwreck over and over again... :x
hornman
__________________ Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.
Carla,
Reading what you wrote reminded me of DL talking about Detroit and Kenny Holland's theory that the way for kids to learn is to have them play with great players. I wonder what was going through DL's mind when it became obvious that Blake would go to San Jose. What is Plan B? I am as in favor of playing the kids as anybody on this board but I'd like Blake, Hickey, Martinez, et al learning from at least one veteran who has done something in this league. Now if DL was as quick to walk away as it seems I can only assume that he has something else in mind. I look forward to seeing what that is...
__________________ "I told them that I'm a punishing defenseman, a player that forwards don't like to play against.''
Colten Teubert, when asked by Kings amateur scouts about his style at the NHL Combine...
I totally agree...its time for the kids to rise to the occasion. Yes there will be some challenges next year, but these kids have the opportunity of a lifetime!! This is now THEIR team..
There has been a lot of talk about who the next captain and alternates should be etc...I say it goes to the first leader in the room that stands up in camp and states "this is our team and there are no excuses etc......" Especially if there tends to be talk in the room about all the trades and Blake leaving etc. Kopi, Brownie or JMFJ will need to stand up and claim the team and get the team to move on and take on this challenge.
I say it will be an exciting year...not one with 40+ wins, but exciting in the sense that we will see who's the real deal etc. If they don't get locked up long term this summer, then Kopi, JMFJ, Boyle and Greene are playing for contracts...you just never know what could happen.
This will be fun and as you said in another post, it may take some booze to make it through, but I think it will be something to see!
There's one thing that has not been mentioned relative to the leadership roles that Boyle and Gauthier assumed in Manchester. It really was natural for these two guys to step up since they are two of the oldest guys in the room and Boyle had been the captain of his college team and Gauthier, I think, was the assistant captain on his. It was good to see that the team came together under their leadership. It will be interesting to see if the new coach makes better decisions when he choses the captains than the stupid choices Crawford made.
__________________ "Of course , that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." -Dennis Miller
Some posters around here just like to make up things to suit their personal opinions and then others use them as facts in the future.
Great article. I am looking forward to this season, not because I think we are going to win the stanley cup, but because I want to see these kids play and watch them grow up. It can be painful, but it could also be exciting.
This sounds like an expectations thing to me. Anyone who thought the Kings were going to be signing anyone now for inflated dollars weren't reading Lombardi's quotes going into this in the first place. I have no idea where this team ranks next year; but at least the excuses are gone. Time to find out if DL is the guy or not. I see no other way to find this out. And if the team is in last place, then another lottery pick and I bet next year's team plays harder than last year's team did. That alone would make it worth it. (alcohol may be required more than usual next season) Carla thank you for another well thought out post. I know there are alot of kings fans who think we should have went out and grabbed an ufa but, I am glad that we did not. I am tired of losing our young talent to grab rfa's whose game has left them. You do not have to look very hard to find KING draft picks filling vital nhl roster spots. I'm with you, Deano put up or shut up.
Last edited by davidc1968; July 4th, 2008 at 10:07 AM.
Carla Muller
Blake Gone – What Does His Departure Really Mean? 
(alcohol may be required more than usual next season) 
Carla thank you for another well thought out post. I know there are alot of kings fans who think we should have went out and grabbed an ufa but, I am glad that we did not. I am tired of losing our young talent to grab rfa's whose game has left them. You do not have to look very hard to find KING draft picks filling vital nhl roster spots. I'm with you, Deano put up or shut up.