When it's time to change...
With all the Vancouver reporters in town yesterday, of course Marc Crawford, their former coach, was a popular man. He faced some questions about the present and future of the Kings, particularly in regards to the trades the Kings have made to become younger. I thought he gave one interesting answer, in particular.
``Trading away guys like Conroy, Avery and Norstrom, that was to signify that we're changing,'' Crawford said. ``We knows if we're right or wrong. Only time will tell, but we thought it was right to just tear things down and build in the right way.''
When Dean Lombardi got hired, he had a couple different plans for the direction of the team. Privately, I'm told that Lombardi wanted to go with the burn-and-rebuild strategy immediately, but some in the organization were nervous because it would all but assure a rough season, and the Kings didn't know how fans would respond to that. Well, as it turns out, the season was rough anyway, and now Lombardi is free to do what he wanted to do from the start, which is build around his young players and acquire a small army of draft picks. The same strategy worked well for him in San Jose, so we'll see if he can pull it off again with the Kings.
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About Rich Hammond
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
In Deano we trust. I thought that was the way to go also, and with the team struggling all year I'm glad they went in that direction. I am a Kings fan and I know patience, so I am willing to wait and see what Deano can do. So far so good I think. Young talent and compiling draft picks will work eventually.
I was thinking about the same thing. He wanted to do a complete rebuild but AEG didnt want that. I had a feeling that had decided to do it when the trade deadline came and we were getting draft picks and babies in return.
I personally am glad. It has been many many years of misery... whats a little more. The band-aid approach has not worked well in our history. Lets do this thing right. I am excited about the future.
I don't know...it sure looked like the Kings were in full rebuild mode since the draft last June. That's what started it all, IMHO.
the last comment is absolutely right. getting rid of demitra was the first straw, and it shocked alot of kings fans. but shoot im loving it right now.