For those who question the passion, loyalty and knowledge of Kings’ fans, Saturday mornings standing room only crowd should dethrone the doubters. Here is my first installment from the Breakfast with the GM.
Kings’ Measuring Stick:
Lombardi talked tough turkey Saturday starting with the gauge he uses when grading the Kings. Los Angeles is worlds away from Detroit, Dallas, San Jose and Anaheim. Dean defined the middle tier teams as Calgary and Chicago. The measure he uses are Phoenix and St. Louis and that the Kings better be ahead of those franchises. This was due to the fact that it is these two teams that are using the same formula as Lombardi but who started executing this plan after him. In fact, without naming which franchise, Lombardi took a phone call from one of these rival measuring stick teams where the GM called him and said,
“You SOB, you are ahead of us.”
Lombardi explained he is following the Dallas, not the Detroit model of building the team’s defense. He sees Detroit as a puck possession smaller defense puck moving model. He sees Dallas as a combination of skill/puck movers and tough to play against defense and it is this example he is working to duplicate.
Carla Muller
Kings State of the Union: The Players Taking Ownership 
