August 2007 Archives

Here's the third and last part of the Lombardi interview.

Sometimes you never know what you're going to get. I threw in the last question, just thinking he would toss a quick name or two out there, but he ended up giving a highly insightful answer, one that I think will frame the entire season for the Kings.

This is it for now. I'll wish a fun and safe weekend to everyone, and on Monday I'll try to give an in-depth report on the first day of the rookie camp.

Here's the second part, dealing with injuries and defensemen.

Since there's been some talk about video interviews... If I do go that route, the video won't replace the transcript. It will just be an added feature. So for those who prefer to read rather than watch, that would still be there.

And speaking of which, here are more words...

Here's the first part of the Lombardi interview. This part is all about the goalies, so hopefully it will provide the answers everyone is seeking, in terms of Bernier and Aubin and the rest of the gang. As always, Dean isn't afraid to explain his thought process, and I think that's appreciated by both reporters and fans.

So here you go. This is probably about one-quarter of the total interview, so I'll try to get the rest of it posted throughout the day. Here's Part 1:

(P.S.: The Sharks just signed Marleau to a two-year extension)

I just got about a half-hour of Q&A time with Dean Lombardi, so I'll do my best to transcribe that tonight and start putting up the answers tonight or tomorrow morning. Thanks for all the good questions...I got answers from Dean about Bernier, the goaltending situation in general, the defense, Dave Lewis, his expectations for this season, which players he's looking to step up, the health of Blake and Handzus (short answer: they're fine) and what his biggest regret of the summer might have been. That's what I can remember off the top of my head. So stay tuned...

Someone asked about the possibility of video interviews during the rookie camp. That's something I'm seriously looking into. My company doesn't give me a video camera, and if they did it would probably be something that records onto BETA tapes. But I'm looking into buying one of those little Flip video cameras, so the rookie camp might be a perfect time to try that out.

There's a better-than-average chance that I'll be getting a phone interview with Dean Lombardi sometime in the next couple days. So, as always, I'll open it up here for some questions. I have a couple questions I need to ask myself, but otherwise I'll take the most popular questions from here, or at least the most pertinent ones in terms of the start of training camp. Fire away...

In response to a couple questions in other posts...I think it would be pretty extraordinary for Bernier to make the team out of camp. He would have to be incredible, and even then I think the Kings would want to pair him with a steady, solid, veteran goalie. With all respect to Cloutier and LaBarbera, I'm not sure either one of them would fill that specific role at the moment. But we'll see.

Most productive summer ever? Wow... I guess you'd have to exclude the Summer Of Gretzky, since that trade alone probably made for the Kings' most productive summer ever. Other than that? I think you could make a strong argument for this summer. It's definitely been the most active summer in a while. I suppose in April we'll be able to better determine how productive it was.

I'll do my best to provide coverage from the rookie camp next week. I have other work assignments in the afternoon all next week, but I should be able to make it to the morning sessions and grab some interviews.

A handful of offerings, in the few minutes I have before heading down to the Dodger clubhouse:

-- Dave Lewis has been hired as an assistant coach and promoted Jamie Kompon into a different role. I'll attach the full press release below.

-- Richard Petiot has been re-signed to a one-year contract. It's safe to assume he will be part of that group contending for one or two spots on the NHL roster.

-- The Kings will hold their rookie camp in El Segundo from Sept. 3-8. I'll also attach the players and schedule below.

Sorry for the brevity! Just wanted to get all this out there...

As I understand it, Aubin's signing is pretty much what you would expect, pure insurance for training camp, considering that Quick and Ersberg have zero NHL experience, LaBarbera has yet to play a full NHL season and Cloutier is...well, Cloutier. So it's basically a half-million-dollar insurance policy.

In a little while I expect to have details on next week's rookie camp plus, potentially, news of a hiring in the organization.

Looks like a one-year, $525,000 deal for goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Why? I'm not exactly sure, but I'll try to get an answer on that before the end of the day.

Starting this season, NHL teams no longer will be required to position a goal judge directly behind the net. It seems the days of the grim-looking guys with the lights over their heads are finished. Goal judges can now be located elsewhere in the arena, such as the press box or the corner of the rink. It seems that with video review and the ``instant review'' in Toronto, the NHL can do without a set of eyes behind the goal.

Thomas Hickey, the Kings' first-round draft pick in June, is playing in the Canada-Russia SuperSeries that begins Monday in Russia. NHL.com did a piece on Hickey that chronicles his last couple months, starting with the draft and heading into the SuperSeries. Here's the quote that might interest most Kings fans, from Hickey about his chances of making the Kings out of training camp this year:

“For a prospect, you are ready when you’re ready,” he says. “Personally, I don’t think I’m ready. We’ve both expressed that I need to get bigger and stronger and those are things that take time. I understand that. I think both sides are on the same track. But, that doesn’t mean I am not going to go into camp with the goal of making the team; but I also realize that might not be too realistic.”

Hickey is scheduled to spend one more season with Seattle of the WHL. The entire story is available HERE

The Kings today signed defenseman Drew Bagnall to an entry-level contract. Bagnall, who turns 24 in October, spent four years at St. Lawrence University (he was a teammate of John Zeiler). At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, he's known as a bruising defenseman with some offensive skill. Bagnall spent four years at St. Lawrence and scored a career-best 25 points last season, when he was the only defenseman to be named as a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. He was a sixth-round pick by Dallas in 2003 and his rights (and a draft pick) were traded to Florida in 2004 for...Valeri Bure! Bagnall recently became a free agent when he couldn't reach terms with Florida.

You can check out a Hockey's Future analysis of Bagnall right HERE

There was some question about when tickets might be available for the Kings' first preseason game against the Ducks, Sept. 13 at Honda Center. The answer is...Saturday, at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster, at the arena box office or at anaheimducks.com.

Still no word as to whether FSN will be televising the first two games. Apparently even the FSN people don't know.

Free-agent defenseman Jon Klemm is expected to sign a one-year, two-way contract with the Kings, as a couple astute readers already found on the NHLPA Web site this morning. (EDIT: It's now official. The release is attached below.) It's a $500,000/$100,000 split deal, depending on whether Klemm makes the Kings' roster.

Klemm, 37, had one goal and two assists in 38 games last season. Klemm broke in with Quebec in 1991-92 and he scored a career-high nine goals in 1996-97 with Colorado. His hometown is listed as Cranbrook, B.C., which is also the hometown of Scott and Rob Niedermayer.

Tickets for the Kings' two preseason games at Staples Center will go on sale Monday. Here's the release from the Kings:

KINGS PRESEASON GAME TICKETS

TO GO ON SALE AUGUST 20

LOS ANGELES – Individual game tickets for the two preseason Kings games at STAPLES Center go on sale this Monday, August 20, at 10 a.m., the club announced today.

Tickets for the Kings-Anaheim game on September 15 and the Kings-San Jose game on September 18, which range in price from $29 to $126, will be available for purchase at all participating TicketMaster outlets (including www.ticketmaster.com) and by phone (213-365-3600).

Tickets for Kings-Colorado preseason “Frozen Fury 10” game on September 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas are currently on sale and are available for purchase at the MGM Grand Garden Arena box office or by calling the Kings at 1-888-KINGS-LA. Tickets will also be sold at select Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (Tower Records/WOW!, Smith’s Food and Drug Centers, Ritmo Latino and Robinson’s May Stores) and ticket sales are limited to eight per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (702) 474-4000. Tickets are also available for purchase at Mgmgrand.com and Ticketmaster.com.

Just to tie up a loose end from yesterday, I'm not aware of any complications as far as Rob Blake's recovery from hip surgery. He had the surgery in early April and faced about three months of recovery, so I don't believe there will be any issues entering training camp. I haven't heard about any complications, so he should be fine. I saw Rob at the draft party in June and he didn't seem to be in any discomfort.

Now, on to Cammalleri. Oh, and just to tie up another loose end, Mike's agent never returned a call. I made a request, through Kings PR, to talk to Mike and it was respectfully declined. No surprise there, given the circumstances. He will certainly be one of the first players I talk to when training camp opens.

I think everyone is curious to see what type of season Cammalleri will have. I don't think anyone has to worry about Mike sulking and taking any frustrations from the arbitration process into the season. If anything, as Dean Lombardi said this month, Mike would probably use it as motivation, as he is one of the most fiery competitors on the team.

Cammalleri had a breakout season in 2006-07. He had 34 goals, eight more than his previous high, and 46 assists, 17 more than his previous high. Almost half of his goals (16) came on the power play and he managed a plus-5 rating on an awful team. By almost every measure, it was a successful season. The question is, can he do it again? And beyond that, can he get better?

Cammalleri turned 25 in June and should be entering his prime years. He went through some rough spots early in his career, when he frequently landed in the doghouse of former coach Andy Murray, who took Cammalleri to task for a perceived lack of toughness and consistency. Cammalleri seems to have overcome that, and based on his physical talents there's no reason why he can't be a consistently high scorer in the NHL going forward. An 80-point season is nothing to sneeze at, but Cammalleri can stamp himself as an top-level scorer if he improves.

The issue with Cammalleri, as raised by Lombardi and many readers here, is leadership. Can Cammalleri take that next step and become a team leader? It wasn't so much an issue in the past couple seasons, when guys such as Norstrom, Miller and Conroy were around. Now, it's time for some of the younger guys to step forward, and Cammalleri's name is at the top of that list. Lombardi said it himself, in so many words. Goals are nice, but a guy like Cammalleri also has to take responsibility for winning and losing, and now's the time for that.

Based on what I've seen, it's coming. Under Murray, Cammalleri was a bit bland in public, most likely because he was afraid to say the wrong thing. Last year he seemed to become a bit more confident and is always available in the dressing room to be a team spokesman. That's important, as far as team leadership. At the end of last season, Mike was very vocal about his optimism for the future and his belief in the young players. That's the kind of leadership the Kings will need from him, even if this turns out to be another challenging season.

Your thoughts?

For more info on the Kings' national TV appearances this season (or lack thereof), check out the blog posting from our TV/radio/Internet guru, Tom Hoffarth.

TV scoreboard: Ducks 5, Kings 1, East Coast (can't count that high)

There's been a lot of focus on the Kings' young players, and rightfully so, but I wonder about what this season will bring for Rob Blake. Blake turns 38 in December and he's coming off a season in which he had 34 points and a minus-26 rating, his worst numbers in a decade. Yet, he's still a valued member of the defensive corps, a presumed tutor for Jack Johnson and a probable team captain. Should be an interesting season for Blake.

In purely hockey terms, Blake is still a contributor. Not a $6-million contributor, but an imposing body on the blue line with a strong shot who can contribute on the power play. Plus, even though his assist totals dipped last season, he has scored at least 13 goals in each of his last eight seasons, and no more than 19 goals. So the consistency is there, in terms of goal production.

Is he going to improve at this point? No. Is he a Norris Trophy candidate? No. Blake isn't going to get any faster, even if he is healthier this season, and as he gets older, the number of mistakes will only increase. Is he overpaid? Yes, although Blake can ``earn'' a good portion of that big salary this season if he comes through for the Kings in other ways.

A lot has been made of the Blake-Johnson connection, but I'm not sure too much can be made of it. With the possible exception of Kopitar, no player means more to the Kings' future than Jack Johnson. Coaching will play a big part in Johnson's development, but he could also benefit greatly from the type of ``big brother'' support that Blake could lend. Johnson has talent, but he's also young and needs to learn the lay of the land, in terms of what it means to be a NHL player. Blake, who has seen it all, can help guide Johnson through his first full season.

Is a Blake-Johnson on-ice pairing the best for the Kings? I'm not certain, and that's why I don't have Marc Crawford's salary... But I think it's an interesting topic to think about.

Will Blake be captain? It's an interesting question. One would certainly assume so, since he preceded Norstrom in that role. Blake isn't a rah-rah guy, but then again, neither was Norstrom. It's fair to say he provides the same type of leadership, and anyone with a Norris Trophy on his resume commands respect. I believe Derek Armstrong is underrated as a team leader, but other than him I can't think of another viable candidate other than Blake.

Your thoughts?

The Kings' two-games series against the Ducks in London will have TV coverage. The first game will be televised in the U.S. on HDNet and the second game will be televised by Versus. The first game is also being done by CBC, so I imagine it might be available to those who have the ``Center Ice'' package, but I can't be certain of that. Still no word as to whether FSN will be making the trip to London.

There's no better place to start than with Anze Kopitar, right? After all, he was one of the few bright spots for the Kings last season, as he broke through with 20 goals and 41 assists as a 19-year-old rookie.

The Kings pretty much got what they expected from Kopitar last season. During training camp in 2005, general manager Dave Taylor talked to Kopitar and tried to convince him to stay, but Kopitar had committed to one more season in Sweden and didn't want to break his promise. If he had stayed, Kopitar would have been in the NHL that season. That's how impressive he was in his first training camp.

Kopitar's talents are clear. He's 6-foot-4 with great hands and vision. He can power to the net but also knows what to do with the puck when he gets there. He's never going to be the fastest skater, but he can create chances for himself and he had a handful of memorable one-on-one moves as a rookie.

Still, there is room for improvement. He will need to improve upon that 20-goal total now that he is clearly the Kings' No. 1 center, and he must prove that his body, although physically strong, can hold up for 82 games. (Kopitar missed 10 games near the end of last season.)

Leadership also will be an issue. The Kings' future is with its youth, and as the No. 1 center, Kopitar bears some of the responsibility for molding the Kings into winners. This shouldn't be a problem. Kopitar is well-liked in the dressing room. His English skills are good and he managed to turn in an impressive season without being cocky. He's polite and respectful but also knows how to joke around, and that's impressive for someone his age. There's also a desire to learn on Kopitar's part, and not a sense that he already knows everything.

The biggest challenge might be for the Kings, to find Kopitar a pair of regular linemates -- both 5-on-5 and on the power play -- with whom he can thrive. Crawford loves to juggle lines but it might be in Kopitar's best interests to remain with regular linemates and grow with them.

2007-08 potential: No. 1 center.

Your thoughts?

My apologies for some of the comments left on the board, and for the names that were used improperly. Just FYI, it's one person, who apparently is nostalgic for ninth grade, who finds fun in causing trouble. It's always interesting when men post under women's names. No issues there, I'm sure. Anywho, it won't happen again. It would help if people registered their names on the site, but I know people are sometimes sketchy about that and frankly I don't blame you.

Anyway, back to work. We're roughly four weeks from the start of training camp. I figured maybe we could spent one day discussing players who are likely to make the Kings' roster this season. Pick one player, look back at the last couple years and look forward to next season, with some analysis from myself and all of you.

We can get it going later today, with everyone's favorite: Oleg Tverdovsky. Just kidding, we'll start with Kopitar.

The Kings' first on-ice session for training camp will be held Monday, Sept. 10. I'm told that some sort of rookie camp will be held prior to that, although not the usual rookie tournament that has been held the last couple years. The specific training camp schedule should be released soon, and when it does I'll let everyone know.

I actually thought camp would open sooner, given the trip to Europe, but camp will start on the 10th and the first preseason game will be held just three days later in Anaheim. The North American portion of the preseason concludes with the Sept. 22 game in Las Vegas and then the Kings fly to Europe.

Since there was a question about cap space, I thought I would try to do the numbers myself. I come up with a team cap hit of just over $48.01 million, if you take into account the 23 players who are likely to make the opening-game roster. (plus McCauley's buyout, which I forgot the first time I added it up!) There are two problems with that. One, we don't know exactly what the 23-man roster will be and two, I'm not completely certain about how the bonuses figure in. The actual cap number could be slightly higher if I miscalculated the bonuses for guys such as Johnson and Kopitar.

Anyway, I compiled that using Armstrong, Brown, Calder, Cammalleri, Frolov, Handzus, Kopitar, Murray, Nagy, O'Sullivan, Thornton, Willsie, Blake, Johnson, Modry, Preissing, Stuart, Visnovsky, Cloutier and LaBarbera. (Plus McCauley's buyout)

Kyle...I think the Kings have been counting on losing that $2.5 million all along. I don't believe there were ever any plans to have Tverdovsky in a Kings uniform this year. But I don't think any more money will be spent this summer.

Whothepuck...Selling ad space on a page that's getting great numbers, in a newspaper industry that's struggling financially? Wow, what a concept! But yet...

Francis...If you, or anyone else, has any comments about the Daily News sports section or its blogs, I would recommend contacting sports editor Kevin Modesti.

Finally, the Kings haven't heard anything official about Tverdovsky yet. I think we all know where this is headed, but it has yet to become official. I'm told that the Kings would need to ``assign'' Tverdovsky to the Russian team, which they will do if he really has signed/does sign a contract over there. So hopefully we'll hear something soon.

A couple things that I don't want to slip through the cracks:

-- As already noted in comments here, Russian publications are reporting that Oleg Tverdovsky has signed to play in Russia. One publication said it was a five-year contract. Of course, that's the same publication that, in a previous story, referred to Oleg's current team as the ``Los Angeles Clippers.'' So...yeah. I asked Lombardi about this at the end of the Cammalleri conference call, and today I'm waiting to see if I'll receive official word about this. If it's true (and I believe it is, or at least will be), it will save the Kings $2.5 million next season.

-- Mike Weaver has signed a two-way, one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

-- Jamie Lundmark has signed a one-year deal to play in Russia. This actually happened a couple weeks ago when I was on vacation, so I wasn't around to see if it made news then or not!

-- And to answer a question I saw in the comments, yes, the Kings can negotiate an extension with Cammalleri starting next July 1. It's the same situation as with Visnovsky this summer.

From the Canadian Press' story on the signing, in reference to Mike Gillis, Cammalleri's agent:

``Contacted Tuesday, Gillis had no comment on the decision.''

I'm a words guy, not a numbers guy, so in terms of arbitration I leave it to others to analyze stats and contract figures. In the case of Cammalleri, I'm going to leave it to Daniel Tolensky, who did an interesting breakdown of Cammalleri's case and offered some conclusions as to why he thinks it wasn't a shocking decision.

Cammalleri arbitration analysis

The Kings have put out a press release this morning, so the saga is officially over.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and support yesterday. They were much appreciated. Hopefully today will be less stressful for everyone!

Here's the transcript of the conference call we had tonight with Dean Lombardi. I think it's pretty much self-explanatory, but if there are any questions I'll be happy to try to answer them.

For the record, as I said before I've been trying to contact Cammalleri's agent for a week and he never returned a call. Mike gave me a number last year but it has since been changed, so hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up with him sometime soon and get his feelings on the whole situation.

Oh, and there's a Tverdovsky question at the bottom, following reports that he might soon sign in Russia.

Thanks for your patience today everyone...

Dean Lombardi has confirmed the contract numbers, at $3.1 million and $3.6 million. The Kings will accept the award, finalize the paperwork tomorrow and send it in. Only reason it didn't happen tonight is that they got the figures late in the day...as we all well know.

As for the range, the Kings came in at $2.6 million and Cammalleri came in at $6 million.

I have a conference call to transcribe tonight, so look for that in a couple hours. For now, I asked Lombardi about the possibility of a trade, and he said (I'm paraphrasing) that they would have looked at it had the arbitration award been high. He indicated that this award is well within the budget, so I think the trade talk can calm down.

That's $3.1 million next season and $3.6 million in '08-'09 for Cammalleri. Those are the numbers I have, and I have them from a very good source who is confident that they are correct.

There's a conference call with Lombardi scheduled in about 30 minutes.

The contract numbers for Cammalleri should be released soon. I have dollar amounts that I believe to be correct, but I'm going to keep them to myself for now. I'll say this much...if they're correct, they're lower than most expected.

I'm not trying to tease anyone...I will get the official information out as soon as possible.

Tampa Bay's Ryan Craig just had his arbitration award announced, and that hearing was on Friday.

Here's the rundown. The Kings say they don't know anything. If they do, they're doing a very good job of keeping it under wraps. Cammalleri's agent hasn't returned calls for a week. A NHL representative says he does not have any idea about the timetable. Nobody answers the phone at the NHLPA office and their representative has yet to return a cell-phone call.

If anyone wonders why the NHL struggles to be seen as a ``major'' pro sports league, the above paragraph is a relatively minor, but highly effective, example.

The saga never ends. I just got word from the Kings that they don't expect a decision today, in which case it will be a Monday announcement. I guess that would have been a good thing for the NHL to mention when it issued its ``48-hour'' decree. But then again, that's why it's the NHL, right? Regardless, I think we've already hit the 48-hour mark, so we're most likely looking at Monday morning.

So go walk the dog, head to the beach or find some other way to enjoy the afternoon. By the time this thing is resolved, Cammalleri will already be a UFA...

Since we're rapidly approaching 7 p.m. Eastern time, it's safe to assume that we won't hear anything today about Cammalleri's arbitration award. The assumption, from the Kings, is that the decision will come down tomorrow, rather than putting it off until the next business day, but nobody is 100 percent certain on that. And let me take this opportunity to thank the arbitrator for the extra work on Saturday. It's SO appreciated!

First, just to clarify, some facts:

-- When Cammalleri elected to file for arbitration, the Kings got to choose whether they wanted a one- or two-year contract. They opted for a two-year contract, so that's what Cammalleri will get. It's up to the arbitrator to determine what that contract is worth. Then it's up to the Kings to decide if they want to accept it or make Cammalleri a UFA.

-- If the Kings accept the contract, they will have Cammalleri under contract through 2008-09, after which he would become an unrestricted free agent. As for the question of trading him, I don't know why they would request a two-year contract if they had any thoughts of trading him. Plus, I didn't get the feeling that it was even a possibility.

-- The arbitrator has up to 48 hours to announce his decision. Since the weekend is coming up, I'm not certain if that would push it to Monday if a decision isn't reached Friday.

-- The hearing lasted roughly five hours, according to Lombardi, and as expected, both sides were armed with attorneys. Cammalleri attended the hearing.

Now, on to Lombardi. He was nice enough to give me a quick call, even though we were both struggling with cell-phone reception. Once the situation is settled, I'll be able to get more questions answered. Understandably, he didn't want to talk too much about what the contract size might be. I first asked him, generally, what the hearing was like from his perspective.

``It's a grueling process,'' Lombardi said. ``You meet with the lawyers and try to negotiate. It's five hours and when you get out, it feels like you ran 100 miles. You're trying to get something resolved but you have to be careful about how you present your argument because it's still your player and you don't want to damage the relationship. I've been through this before and it hasn't changed much. It's the same process and the same attorneys. It's really taxing and not a lot of fun.''

I asked Lombardi about the arguments that went back and forth, and the balance between making his point and not offending the player (such as the Sean Avery situation).

``These younger players are getting a lot bigger share of the pie than in the past,'' Lombardi said. ``It's just part of the market right now. You look at what happened with Vanek and Penner and they're trying to take that into account when they negotiate. Most of the hearing was... obviously you critique the player a bit, but most of it was spent talking about how much the market has changed for young players. These things for young players are different than they used to be. We're trying to put a rein on it. I think seniority matters and I think a guy who has done it four times is worth more than a guy who did it once.''

Lombardi said he didn't fear any lingering bitterness between Cammalleri and the team.

``I don't like going through the process but at least you know you'll have the player in training camp,'' Lombardi said. ``Hopefully it will be a situation like Lubo and we can get something done (before 2009). Hopefully (Cammalleri) is going to the next level as a player. There are things in his game that hopefully he can upgrade. Hopefully he can do that this year.''

Lombardi gave a little insight as to what it was like in the room.

``It gets a little intense at times,'' Lombardi said. ``I don't deny that a little emotion showed on both sides. I met with Cammy afterward and I said, `Hey, when this is over we have to go back and be a team.' You just have to keep it from getting personal, and that's not easy sometimes.''

Lombardi declined to speculate as to how much the contract will be worth.

``I don't even want to get into projections,'' Lombardi said. ``I really have no idea.''

I just talked to Lombardi, so I'll have some quotes up in a little bit. (I'm also stalking Barry Bonds tonight. Good fun.) The only real news of the day is that Cammalleri will get a two-year contract, regardless of how much it's worth. I got some insight from Lombardi about what the hearing was like. I'll post it ASAP.

And please stop with the Raycroft stuff. I'm thinking of banning the term ``E3'' unless we're talking about an error committed by Dodgers first baseman James Loney.

Well, you guys were correct. At this point, it's highly unlikely that any word will come from Toronto today. Dean Lombardi has informed the Kings' media-relations staff that he will wait until tomorrow to talk, so that's another indication that we're unlikely to hear anything today. I expect to talk to Lombardi sometime late tomorrow morning.

As soon as I hear something about Cammalleri's arbitration hearing, I'll have it up here. His agent would not return phone calls over the last two days, so I don't have a lot of hope for getting a comment out of his camp, but we'll see how it goes. Remember that technically, the decision might not come until tomorrow, but I'd be surprised if that happened.