Lombardi, Part 3

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.
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Lombardi, Part 1

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)
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Lombardi interview

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.

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Lombardi Q&A

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.

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More news

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…
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More on Aubin

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.

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There goes the judge

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.

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Hickey article

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 youre ready, he says. Personally, I dont think Im ready. Weve 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 doesnt 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

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