One more thing

Well its about time for Lombardi to pull out Phil Anschutz's check-book.
I hear Sandis Ozolinch & Alexader Mogilny are looking for jobs.
In his mind, they may be worth $6 Million each.

Their at 16.6% then. Below average for a season, but it's early yet. Certainly not a good trend, but I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Now thats just beautiful! Can they go back to London and send Blake, Modry, Willsie, Thorton, Cloutier, Dallman, Zeiler, Ivanans, Calder and Armstong.....somewhere else? Wow im already fed-up 4 games into the season. Thank god the Dodgers are in the playof...Oops never mind. Shit!

Serious hockey.

Cute tony. And you call yourself a kings fan? For the one millionth time, why do you care how much money anchutz spends? I mean really? What, are you his accountant or something?

Martyr, you forgot to mention Crawford & Lombardi.

Alright, Crawford and maybe not Lombardi. After all it is Crawfords job to get these guys to play. Cammy for Captain! Not that it will change anything but it would look better on someone who is actually doing something. Kopi for "A"! Again it might not change a thing but it would look good.

I'll post this again because it needs to be said more than once.

Random thoughts:

- Crawford is a major problem. He juggles lines like a bad circus clown. He does not allow lines to get used to each other. He did this last year...ALL YEAR....and it drove me nuts. If guys were allowed to skate together for a long period of time, relationships would develop, chemistry would form, they could learn together. IMHO, he is not the right coach for this team and I don't want to wait 5 years for management to figure that out. We need a coach that can give our players some grit and let them earn character by playing through their mistakes and build chemistry with some longterm linemates. We are a team of p*ss*es. Sorry Crow..fly east.

- The D needs to start hitting, period! They circle around an attacker instead of attacking him. What happened to 'KILL JACK, KILL!'?

- Barbs is a #2 at best. Sorry. I like the guy. He's got heart, but he overplays everything. Bernie is a rock of composure. Who flippin' cares if he's 19. Give him the job and let's get on with it. He'll give us the best chance to make a playoff spot. So we lose a year of contract. I think we'll resign him. Be done with this worthless melodrama already. We have enough to worry about.

-Handzus looks like a sloth. Is he still injured? We know he's got mad skills, works out like a beast, so where's the wheels? Let him skate w/ Nagy. Chemistry, remember? Add Zeiler on their line for energy ala Dustin Brown and I'll bet you results will come. You mirror your top line:

Kopitar-->Handzus (Big, strong center, good hands, protects puck)

Cammi-->Nagy (Sniper, good shot, great wheels)

Brown-->Zeiler (Hits like a mother, goes to the nets, distracts, lots of speed)

2 lines that play the same and can have mad chemistry.

The Ducks did things in one year folks. Why? Lots of hard coaching, consistent line combinations, Constant focus on the team and its goals, spent the money to get winners. They had a plan from ownership to equipment managers and it was consistent from the top down. WE DO NOT HAVE THIS AND IT SHOWS.

Lombardi is the guy. I have no doubt. He's honest and knows how to draft. We have talent up the wazoo. We need someone to mold that talent. Crow isn't the guy.

I'm not ranting, I'm posting. 28 years of watching this team make mistakes, you get pretty good at forecasting the future by what is on the ice. Get an old school coach that instills the heart of what hockey means to the team and it's players and this team will flourish. The talent is there, the heart and team unity on the ice is not.

That is the coaches fault.

DITTO

I know someone's gonna take issue with what Pain said up here but hell man... he's got a point.

I mean I don't want to spend my life always looking to that next game or that NEXT SEASON always saying "well we're rebuilding" and "it's a transition"

It sickens me to say this but the Ducks.... two cup appearances in (what was it) four years? and only FOUR of the same players?!?!

Somebody down south is a little more dedicated and it shows.... so keep making all the excuses you want... we need a great coach with TOP talent...right now we don't have either. And I'm growing tired of AEG's "milk the fans" plan.

Pain, I agree with some of your analysis, but your main premise is false. A coach can only do so much. Do you remember a guy by the name of Larry Robinson? Sucked in LA, got tossed, then won a few cups in NJ? A coach can't "give players grit." Come’ on! That's just silly. As the old saying goes, players play, coaches coach. Crawford actually has it right; he said the team is not EXECUTING. This is correct. They aren't! They need to. He can't do it for them. Line changes will be critiqued no matter what when a team is losing. That’s the easy way out… if so and so played with him, we’d gel and be better, blah blah blah. I can go out on a court and play with someone I’ve never met and instantly gel if I’m having a good day. A pro should have many more good days than bad.

Well Army, I used to think that way with Crow, but when you change lines like he does during a game, as a player, I would be frustrated. You can't execute if the game plan changes constantly.

I don't know this for a fact, but I'll venture that the lines are NOT switched up in practice like they are during the game. If you don't practice the 'billions' of line combos Crow comes up with during the games, how will you as a player, execute properly???

...and I have to disagree. A coach CAN give players grit. Keenan with Olli Jokinen is a perfect example. He was soft with the Kings and a captain with the Panthers. Randy Carlyle is a former hard-nosed player that teaches grit in your play. Watch the way his D- ATTACKS the puck. Sorry to disagree, but I have to.

There's a guy coaching for St. Louis right now that got more out of warmed dung than any coach I've seen in LA. He had the worst injury problems in league history and still, minus Avery, he got the respect of players and fans and the guys PLAYED HARD. He's doing it in St. Louis as well. I know it's easier to fire the coach than the team, but he was the wrong guy to take the heat for what he was given.

Then you start doaling out some one-way passes to Manchester, period. I agree with one of the other bloggers, I'd rather watch our kids grow together at this level then watch a bunch of overpaid, uninspired primadonna's just going through the motions. I got to live in Seattle and watch the Thunderbirds play for a few years. It always amazed me the level of play these kids worked on both sides of the puck, you were always guaranteed a solid effort night after night. The kids in juniors and at the minor league level work to get to the next level. Our players are already there and seem to just be sitting back and reaping the benefits of their contracts. It's sad to watch and totally sickens me to see this kind of wasted effort. By the way, throughly enjoyed Armstrong heading to the penalty box early in the 1st, it set the tone for the evening. Does he have anywhere else to sit in the arena or does he just feel unconfortable sitting on his own team bench? Same for Scott Thornton, he had no reason to be frowning at the home opener, he's not skating. And not a very good example of someone who should be wearing the "A". Again, a total lack of inspiration that begins in the lockeroom with the guys that are in positions of leadership.

PS - Right on Dan H! Love the comment about the guy in St. Louis right now. I'd forgotten about how beat-up his teams were when he was here, boy could he motivate a team. I'll never forget the shock I had when I read he had been fired. That was the last time the Kings were in playoff contention; they haven't been close since. Wish I could have been as eloquent as you were.

Andy was the best coach in Kings History period. I wish he was still here. Did you see what he did with the Blues last year? They were in like dead last when he came and finished at 500 by the time the season was over. I too was very shocked when they fired him and felt very betrayed.

Chazz - Betrayed is an excellent word for it....I'm sure he felt the same way too....