Eye on the Prize: Winner of the Toilet Bowl?

[Carla Muller]

The one thing that has kept many a Kings’ fan going this year are dreams of Stamkos. While other teams eye the Stanley Cup, the lesser teams (ok, the lowly ones) battle for the #1 pick overall. Every win leads a fan to wonder why there team isn’t tanking it since the season is over anyway, right?

A recent Hockey.com blog even stated that there is now a battle for winner of the Toilet Bowl between Tampa Bay and Los Angeles. Heck, the phrase “tanking a season” potentially may have originated from Pittsburgh where some think the Penguins lost on purpose to draft Mario Lemieux. Obviously, never a bad choice to get that player, right? Some say that if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying… egad!

My workaholic tendencies got in the way of me researching if this allegation was what triggered the NHL’s draft lottery to begin with. I am sure someone with better memory than I can confirm or refute that possibility. Either way, Los Angeles and Tampa Bay might have a decision to make, should they lose their remaining games and earn the right to Stamkos.

The quandary for the Kings is beginning to reach fans who blanch at the possibility that Los Angeles would not draft Stamkos. Lombardi suggested as much recently. It is not new information that Los Angeles’ weakest position is defense. (Before anyone has a chance to scream or type goaltending, Bernier is already in the system and is considered the heir apparent for that particular brand of weakness.)

Here is what Hockey.com speculated the Kings might do to bolster the team since talent at the forward position is a team strength right now; hence making Stamkos a luxury Los Angeles cannot afford. (Kopitar, Brown, O’Sullivan, Frolov, Cammalleri, Boyle, Purcell…. You get the idea…).

Read more:

“Yes, Stamkos is the sexiest pick out there but, should the Kings come out the big winner on the NHL Draft Lottery day, you would have to think that the L.A. brain trust - now there is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one - will probably think long and hard about shoring up their abysmal defense or, in layman's terms, drafting Drew Doughty with the first overall pick. And they may make out like bandits in the process.

… An ideal time for the Kings, should they have their eye on Doughty, to play possum and take a king's ransom from the team with the second pick who may be looking to move up a peg to get Stamkos.
Conventional thinking tells you that GMs would have to move their first rounder, a blue-chip prospect, roster player and perhaps another pick or two before the Kings would even give it a second look. Next year's first might come into play as well but, with John Tavares the meal ticket in the summer of ‘09, not many will be willing to part with that shot-in-the-dark right now.”

Battle for Stamkos

In addition to the Kings’ ransom available for trading the #1 pick, consider the projected #2 guy, Guelph Storm’s Drew Doughty. Read about him here:

“Early in Drew Doughty's first training camp with the Guelph Storm I thought I was going to require the services of a chiropractor. Every time Doughty was on the ice my head snapped around as I looked for someone, anyone, to ask "Did you see that?" Here was a pimply-faced kid fresh out of minor hockey making plays with the savvy of a four-year Ontario Hockey League veteran.

It really was astonishing to see how smoothly Doughty, defensive warts and all back in 2005, made the transition to a league dominated by players four or five years his senior.

Defensemen, even first-round OHL draft picks, aren't supposed to skate into an impact role for a year, maybe two. It took 15-year-old Doughty all of about two days to make the Storm scouting staff look like a collection of Stephen Hawkings.”

Drew Doughty Impresses

As the Kings get ready to face the Stanley Cup finalist loser of last season, remember that for this season, and hopefully this season only, losing may be the best thing that ever happened to this organization.

Carla Muller

Carla.hockeygal@att.net

[fansince67]

I don't know a hockey player alive, young or old, that would intentionally tank a season. It's not what it used to be, that's for sure; hopefully, hockey hasn't sunk that low.

[gescom]

if memory serves, the draft lottery was instituted because of allegations by the San Jose Sharks that the Ottawa Senators threw their season to draft Alexandre Daigle.

[FishMonger]

I've always hated even the suggestion of this. Tanking a season to get a player? I could write an essay on why this is a bad idea, but I'll stick to a few key points.
1) It creates an environment of losing, which, no matter who you draft, will affect the players not only this season, not only the next, but potentially for years to come. Why?
2) It shows management isn't focused on winning. Now you could argue until your face is blue that Stamkos will be the Holy Grail of the draft, but that doesn't excuse a terrible attitude, and selling out a group of guys to get anybody, much less a KID in a DRAFT. That leads me to
3) There is no guarantee the kid can hack it in the NHL. Yes he's awesome now, but he could choke, or get an early injury and then what? You killed the confidence of an entire team for nothing, and since I said I'd keep it short,
4) It's simply unethical. It's unfair to fans and the players who busted their butts to get to where they are. These guys are fierce competitors. I've been a huge critic of their Heart, but nobody can deny you must have a hugely competitive nature to get this far in a career. To ask or suggest to them that they tank, even if it has crossed their minds, would be internally detrimental (sp?) to a degree we cannot measure. It will prove to them, and the fans only one thing: There is little confidence in the team, and so little, in fact, that we need put our faith in an unproven child... in a lottery.

If you think that's what we should do, then you've never played the game, and if you have, you're not a competitor. You're a whiney little... wimp... who can't go through the tough times without thinking about selling out. Shame on you. All I have for you hacks is a finger.

Disclaimer: This is not directed at Carla or anyone in particular. I understand that this thread was just exploring the idea and meant to start a conversation, not necessarily suggesting anything. Although if you argue my points, don't expect a response, since I wouldn't respect you enough to try to argue... just imagine my middle finger.

[PPharoah]

As we can see the Kings defeating the Sens 2-0 clearly illustrates the Kings are not tanking the season.

Amidst the chants of Stamkos, I have kept in mind DL talking about this draft, especially when he said "We will err on the side of defense."

I find myself rooting for the Kings to win no matter the year, or the draft. Rooting for other teams to finish ahead of the Kings so the Kings get a better pick can be fun too.

The nice thing about this draft though is that since the Kings will be near the bottom anyway, whoever we do end up getting should work out fine. The parity through the first 5-6 players or so is something NHL scouts don't see very often.

[Stemmer]

When the NY Islanders came into the NHL in 1972 they deliberately tanked(let some players skip to the Fledgling WHA). That season 1972-73 they were the laughing stock of the league. After drafting Billy Harris('72) the Islanders took future Hall Of Famer ('73)Denis Potvin. This lesson on doing whatever it took to get the player that was most sought after, was learned by Sam Pollock of the Montreal Canadiens...when Bill Torrey was GM of California Golden Seals or was Oakland Seals...

[GrinderCB]

Correct if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a scandal in the mid-90's where the Ottawa Senators' front office and coaching staff were disciplined by the league for deliberately tanking the remainder of their season to insure the #1 draft pick? Aside from the Senators' being fined by the league and whatever else was done to them, that scandal resulted in the creation of the lottery system so that the #1 pick did not automatically go to the worst team, but iin fact could go to the team that finished as high as 3rd or 4th worst.