Sneak preview

By Rich Hammond on September 21, 2007 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) |

Here's what Lombardi told the Globe and Mail (they sure are fascinated with Cloutier up there...)

“The reality is, he hasn’t played for three years,” said Kings’ general manager Dean Lombardi. “The only way to really get his rhythm back and to get him where he needs to be is to get him to play. You see this in baseball all the time, where established pitchers have to do a form of rehab assignments if they lose their fastballs and the only way to get it back – to get totally confident – is to go back to the minors and do it.

“Obviously, we gave this a lot of thought. The bottom line is, we thought this was the only way we could get him back to where he was comfortable. Physically, he’s totally healthy. But as we all know with goaltending, a lot of it has to do with his confidence and his state of mind. The only way he was going to get it all together was to play and to play a lot and not have to do it at this level.”

3 Comments

Kingfan27 said:

Which basically means that Dan has 9 games to get into NHL form, or he's staying in Manchester, and Bernier is Staying in L.A.

September 21, 2007 2:13 PM

Jeremy Schwartz said:

Hey Rich, thanks again for everything you've got going on. If the kings were to recall dan about a week into the season, I've got to assume no one would take him at 1.5mill then. If he clears in week one can he then go freely to and from manchester? if someone took him at 1.5 and later bought him out, what happens then?

September 21, 2007 2:24 PM

Dan said:

Thanks for all you do Rich. Just one thing to say...

na na na na...na na na na...hey hey hey...goodbye.

September 21, 2007 4:10 PM

J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey. E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra
@inlandnewspapers.com.

Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.