DL in the booth with Bob & Jim

[RockPile]

For those who didn't get to hear Lombardi's segment in the booth with Jim & Bob, here are a few notes I took. Nothing you probably haven't heard before. There is some paraphrasing and some skipped parts but here goes.

Thoughts on the last day of the season- The positives were Brown, Sully, and no sophmore jinx for Kopitar. The improvement, especially in the second half tells us that we may have a bonafide gem in Johnson. We allowed too many goals against. Importance of bring up your own group of defensemen and goaltending. Didn't expect to be out of the playoffs by January.

Balance between bringing up players to help team vs their long term development- Firm believer in development. Spent 6 days with Monarchs, they were 5 games out of the playoffs and got on a roll. Youngest team in AHL. Very proud of how they came together as team but also as people, playing for the right reason. Boyle, Purcell on AHL rookie team. You have to balance bringing up prospects with their need to develop. Expect to get 4-5 players out of that group next year. That's a pretty good haul.

Who's representing in lottery- Sending Luc. We expect him to bring back the #1 pick.

Compiling info on players- The next stage is to teach the scouting staff how to move players. In San Jose, had a methodical process in place on how to move players up and down. Haven't been able yet to put together that type of graphic here. Scouts are like a team, they have to be able to read each other and get along.

Patrick O'Sullivan- Most improved players I've ever seen. Last year was not good, not where he needed to be. He's improved as a man off the ice, able to look you in the eye. Very good hockey mind. If we get another level out of him one half as much as the level he jumped last year, we just might really have something here.

We really made a mistake handing him the job last year. I'm notorious for not doing that. I probably violated my own policy. We gave him a low number and a job on the first line and I'm not sure that was the way to go..

Is there a player (from the draft) who can step up an play at this level? - Yes it is conceivable but dangerous to make predictions like that. Let the kid go through their summer, come to camp and earn the job the right way and let the chips fall where they may. Making predictions like that may put unrealistic expectation on the kid. Like Bernier maybe he was the best goalie but it wasn't the best for him to be the best he could be and thats a danger when you're not a good team. With Colorado and (player x), those players came up and they were winning so all the expectations weren't on their back.

Erik Ersberg - He did a good job this year and gives us hope for next year. The next test for him is physically. People are going to start going after him, start crowding his area, start to wear him down. He has a cockiness to him, the right kind and is very competative. He won't go away quietly.

Thornton- pound for pound one of the toughest I've ever seen. He and Ricci were among my favorite players.


Thats it. Like I said, nothing new for the most part. I was a little surprised that he didn't have his scouting system completely in place though.

[KingsPride]

Where's the part where he says he thought he heard god talking to him in his headset?

[RockPile]

Yeah, that was pretty funnny. He was about to finish a thought on Ersberg and the producers were speaking into his earpiece that they had to cut to commercial. There was also a joke about Bob & Jim not having to worry about him retiring to the booth.

Jim prodded him into talking OHL and he had very high praise for the level of the players he saw there and a token comment about the WHL being good as well. I skipped a few things.

[Kings-night]

Thanks none the less. Missed the game. Good read.

[KOPISTAR]

You could tell he was very excited that the Kings were a lock for the top 3 picks.

[paki4]

and he also said "idear"

[lakings173]

I can't wait until September.

[NastiMarvasti]

I absolutely love listening to DL speak. He never BS's his answers and you can tell he knows what he's doing.

[Jawa Ambush]

Thanks for the effort

[AlleyAlBee]

There were a lot of softies thrown (not unexpected, I guess).

I guess Bob and Jim aren't going to throw around questions about Handzus' 4 years/$16 million contract or Cloutier's ripping team management.

[backofthenet]

Originally Posted by AlleyAlBee

There were a lot of softies thrown (not unexpected, I guess).

I guess Bob and Jim aren't going to throw around questions about Handzus' 4 years/$16 million contract or Cloutier's ripping team management.

Yes, because we already would not know the answer to those questions, right?

[AlleyAlBee]

Nothing wrong with a pointed question or two.

I mean, we all knew the answers to, "What do you think about Ersberg?" "He did a good job." So maybe he shouldn't have asked those questions - instead, we should get questions about DL's favorite ice cream flavor, b/c that we don't know the answer to.

But seriously, at the very least, it might give us an idea as to what he expected from Handzus next year. Is he still that 2nd line center that he was forecast to be?

As for Cloutier - is he going to buy him out? Seems obvious, but then why is he playing in the last game in the season, when you could see what Ersberg could do, with him being a RFA and all.

I would have been a little happier with something a little more informative, and not softies, as I said before. Let's face it - this team was not supposed to be 2nd to last this year. I would've liked to see DL take some responsibility for it.