Last summer Lombardi met with season ticket holders and provided some of the most candid, in depth nuts and bolts of a team and the Kings I have ever been privileged to hear. At that time, he and Hextall answered fans' questions and shared their plan for this organization.
With eight holes to fill
then, and a team to rebuild, one of the things Lombardi discussed is how he characterizes players: stars, superstars and winners. Specific examples were of Modano and Yzerman. Go back to when Yzerman was a superstar with individual accolades but no ring or team accomplishments. Enter Scottie Bowman who brought in the left wing lock system he perfected in Detroit and borrowed from Sweden.
Steve Yzerman
Before Bowman makes a difference, bar none, Yzerman has to buy in or this is a non-starter. I suspect it was a short discussion – but something to the effect of what do you want your legacy to be? First in class, top 10 or champion.
Check your statistics individually at the door but be a winner. Less is more. The best offense is a good defense … as clichés go. With Yzerman on board, the Wings follow and then they only have three rings to show for it. “Stevie Y” went from being a superstar to a winner. He got it and he passed it along until an organization was transformed.
Mike Modano
Then consider Mike Modano before the Hitchcock tenure. Individual statistics then, now the highest scoring U.S. born player, again a superstar… he had game, good lucks and an ability to finish as an individual. I remember reading an article then where Hitchcock said that he had a vision of another level Modano could reach, a better player than perhaps he even knew was possible. As I understand it, they had a lot of talks, and I mean … a lot. Over time, Modano only went from being a superstar to a champion when he helped bring the Stars a championship and he did this while playing with a surgical wrist.
Patrick O’Sullivan
Some Kings’ fans consider this last season as doomed and a major step backwards. They cry for mass firings and short-sightedly ask how could Lombardi be the answer? Heck, under his watch, the team is going backwards. *ugh*
Enter one of the best and first moves made by Lombardi. Trade Demitra to the Wild for their #1 pick in 2006 (enter Trevor Lewis) and an AHL stand-out, Patrick O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan’s abusive father made him drop from a sure fire 1st round pick that fell to 56th overall in the 2nd round. At that time and through his rookie AHL season, he excelled offensively – defensively not so much. Most of this is not news to those who follow the team.
Heck, he came to camp and started out the 2006-2007 season with the Kings. He had an auspicious beginning that would be fair to characterize as invisible/forgettable. Hextall called O’Sullivan out last summer and spoke about his personal involvement with O’Sullivan’s development.
At first, this NHL rookie thought he could have a career without effort and on sheer talent alone. That is such an illusionary and misperception of the NHL’s best. It takes a lot, and I mean a lot of work. This lack of professionalism and effort earned him a year essentially in Manchester.
Enter the AHL playoffs last season. In what I believe was Hextall’s first complete year as the GM of the Monarchs, he got back on the bus, literally. He spent the play-offs with the team, game to game, bus ride to bus ride. I will be bold and suggest that perhaps the biggest difference between every other season where Manchester never got past the first round and last year when they got to the Eastern Conference Finals just might be Hextall.
He invested time in O’Sullivan like Bowman did with Yzerman and Hitchcock did with Modano. He explained that games are won – especially in the play-offs – often by the goals that are prevented,
not the ones that are scored.
Each post-game, the tutorials continued between the two. In fact, one game O’Sullivan scored in one zone and disappeared in the other. That must have been a long lecture after that one. In fairness, Hextall mentioned they spoke and O’Sullivan acknowledged that he knew he left his best game
off the ice. Hextall thought,
now we are getting somewhere.
Another game, O’Sullivan stood out in the defensive end and not so much on the scoreboard. Patrick expected a negative critique. To his surprise, that game, Hextall saw what he wanted from him. He began to execute the little things that make a player a winner.
Enter O’Sullivan’s first full NHL season and I promise you, O’Sullivan is more surprised he earned his spot by defensive play since he saw himself as an offensive specialist (really). In my end of season poll, fans saw him as anything from best defensive player (an award he got by the local media) to my own award, “Mr. Everything”.
With this new found experience, responsibility and two-way play under his belt, this was an O’Sullivan quote that should define future Kings’ teams.
“We cannot be satisfied with individual success.”
That statement he made makes him my pick to lead Los Angeles. I will be content with him getting either the “A” or the “C”. I predict that foresight, that evolution he made and made quickly, leads me to believe he will be better than a superstar, he will be a winner.
This is also a notion that is catching legs since he and Brown have been named to Team USA and got him a shout-out with the 4th best goal of the week.
O’Sullivan’s 4th Best Goal of the Week O’Sullivan on the Play-Offs O’Sullivan and Brown Named to Team USA Carla Muller Carla.hockeygal@att.net
Carla Muller
Stars, Superstars and Winners: Patrick O’Sullivan and the Evolution of a Player 
