“Thoughts.”

You come from a law background, so does Lombardi. Why don’t you take your obviously extensive hockey knowledge and see if you can parlay it into a position interning or co-managing a local pee-wee team. You could learn the ins and outs of Zamboni maintenance, styrofoam cup rationing, and parental interference, all while being ridiculed and second guessed. Perhaps you have what it takes to work your way all the way up to the National Hockey League. Perhaps not. But at the very least it would keep you focused on things that are within your control as well as your grasp. These are my thoughts. Oh, and maybe some yoga or green tea? A re-reading of “The Secret”, or just a good porn flick. Because pal, you are in the MINORITY in believing that a 17th place finish would have been better than 29th, or in thinking that a 17th place finish would have magically happened by throwing the entire Monarchs team on the ice or by paying 1 Billion Dollars to Chris Drury.

The important thing to remember here is that there are a number of Motel 6 locations within a 10 mile radius of the arena in Ontario.

Speaking of buyouts, does Anthony have a figure in mind to join the Ducks blog??

I’m not your parent, nor do I want to be. But cut the crap. All of you. I appreciate the readership, greatly, but the immaturity is boring.

I appreciate all you do Rich..maybe the ban stick would be good for a few of the letsgokings people that snuck in.

Anyway I hope they buy out Cloutier. I don’t know how he thinks he proved he can play in the NHL. He was AWFUL last year and he wasn’t any better save 2 games this year that he played. I hope he can afford better than motel 6 on his vacation this summer.

Well, as far as scapegoats go, the idea of a scapegoat is to find a blameless somebody to take the blame for a problem, rather than acknowledging the real problem. Cloutier is obviously ineligible as a scapegoat in 07-08 since he didn’t play for the Kings this year but for a handful of meaningless games. Modry, another perennial favorite goat candidate, simply excelled this year by all measures and is now in the playoffs somewhere else. I actually think the King’s team defense was so obviously bad all year that LaBarbera more or less escaped scapegoating, even though there is a lot more talk about his rebound-up-giving than there ever was before. None of the forwards (save, maybe sort of a little bit #13) ever really got blamed for the Kings “direction” this year. That leaves, really, three people to receive the brunt of the blame. Blake, the superstar future-hall-of-famer stanley -cup winning elite defenseman whose jersey will eventually be retired; Crawford and Lombardi.

I happen to think Blake is not an inspiring leader. And now he’s too old to be the go-to guy on D. He might be well-cast as an elder-statesman, a la MacGuiness (sp!) when Pronger was young, provided that we have a Pronger (JMFJ, I guess…). But to expect him to play like he’s 29 is not smart. But that’s not really his fault. It’s management’s fault.

I think (and I don’t think I’m saying anything many on this blog haven’t said before), the blame is threefold:

1) the Kings ARE in fact rebuilding. And this is what it feels like.

2) Lombardi’s free agent signings all sucked.

3) Crawford’s coaching style is that oft-discussed “activated D” style, or at least it was at the beginning of the season, and has been throughout his career. For whatever reason, maybe the youth of the team, or maybe the youth of the forwards combined with the slow-foot-speed of some of the d, the Kings were not able to pull it off. They scored a lot of goals, obviously, but allowed in a lot more.

Maybe the Kings will grow into this style. That would be great, of course, since it’s a lot more fun to watch a winning team that plays that style. So I’m all for Crawford succeeding.

Also, re Lombardi: just because his signings didn’t pan out doesn’t mean he could have done better. It’s possible that’s just the lot you draw when you are rebuilding and (1) the best players would rather go somewhere else, and (2) you can’t combat that by throwing obscene money at them, as you could before the cap. You have to play the numbers game, or else you end up not being able to sign your own core players in just a couple of years.

It’s not as simple as “man, Lombardi is an idiot,” or “he just doesn’t want to win.”

And, as for Crawford…I do think his style contributed to the Kings final resting place in the standings. But on the other hand, his style (activated D) helped get Brown and O’Sullivan to another level of scoring, and if they take strides next year, becoming 40 and 30 goal scorers, Crawford will have had a lot to do with that.

So, in other words, to the degree they are to blame, they must also be credited with future success. It seems to be the jury is still very much out.

I’ll never say that I think Cloutier is your Above Average goalie who deserves the #1. Not at this point. I do, however, think that as far as fan appreciation goes he was ice skating up hill the day he signed that contract. Unless he was going to come in and match his 3-30 win seasons it was going to be a loss.

I think the last two years he had a mountain of issues stacked against him. Had he been healthy, he could have shown us something more. Had the fans actually given him a chance they could have seen that he played OK. I mean his nickname on a few message boards is “Beachball”. Not exactly the name given to someone you’re being open minded about. Im not myopic. I know he was guilty of the soft goal. Sometimes the INOPPORTUNE soft goal. He’s not the only one and he was stupid to play injured under ANY circumstance. However, when there are so many holes in a team… a team in the midst of a neverending ‘rebuild’, that I think several fans did lean a little too far into the crease to place their blame. (See the first several posts on any Cloutier themed blog.)

Ersberg is a 26 year old goalie with International experience. He’s not a Quick or a Bernier. We should expect more out of him because he has the time logged and is reaching his prime, but if you say he didn’t give up a few crap goals during his games I suggest you lower your pedistal and check again.

Bottom line for me, I am just totally sick of seeing the snide comments from fans who barely if ever gave the guy a chance and choose to be hateful rather than constructive with their opinions.

No doubt Ersberg let in some soft goals. I don’t recall any of them costing a game though. Really I just love the head Ersberg has on his shoulders compared to Labarbera or Cloutier.

Of course Cloutier got a hard time, and I certainly came down on him hard myself last season. I was hopeful when we signed him, as I typically always am with the team I’ve loved so dearly for so long, but he didn’t pan out, so my hope and any respect be stricken.

To agree with you, overly cynical people never cease to annoy. I had a girlfriend whose parents have season tickets, and every year they would tell me they were going to stop getting them, and every time I run in to them I get greeted with “How bad are YOUR kings?” or something like that. I still see them at every game, and they never have a positive thing to say.
It fascinates me how many people have this connection either to the kings, or maybe some just the sport of hockey, yet remain so pessimistic and never seem to enjoy a game unless it is won. These are the same people who can not appreciate a good game when they see one, even if we lose by a goal.
Which brings me back to the kings goaltenders. Take the last San Jose game, right off the bat Ersberg lets in a horrible goal. Now, I’ve seen this happen to Cloutier and Labarbera several times over the last few seasons, and virtually every time I can remember, they crumbled from there. Their confidence immediately shaken and never found until a game (or two or three or four) later. Ersberg followed up with a strong performance, and only let in one more goal which was by no means ‘soft’.

Ersberg is no phenom, but he does have the right look in his eye. Call me stupid, shallow or whatever, I judge many goaltenders on what look they have in their eye. The ones you want on your team have the same intense, nervous but confident glare no matter where they are or whether they are playing or not. Labarbera looks like a deer in headlights, and Cloutier like a sad puppy putting on a mean face so he doesn’t cry.

Granted, he by no means can be directly blamed for this season’s mess. However, I, like most hockey fans, am superstiscious as hell when it comes to this game. So I can not help but feel his presense in the club falls on the side of bad joojoo. I’ll be happy to see him go.

Best of luck to him whatever he does, so long as it has nothing to do with us.

Good Riddance to bad rubbish, Clouts was crap before he arrived here, and as usual playled like crap while he was here. His name “Beachball” will haunt him the rest of his days.

As for fault, i need only to ask one question? What kind of responsible GM Signs a unproven goalie to an Extension in pre-season without having seen him play in said teams uniform for even one season game??

The original deal was
7-05-06 Dan Cloutier traded to La for 2007 second round pick (#33-Taylor Ellington), future considerations (2009 conditional third round pick

Then 9-27-06 re-signed to a 2-year contract extension through 08-09***I assume the phone was ringing off the hook days before that season start to see if the “hot” cloutier was available, Deano must have panic to lock up his golden Goalie! LOL

Of all the self-aggrandizing self-congratulatory cliches of sports fans, I find “we pay his salary” to be simultaneously the most revealing, pathetic and insulting. It reflects an absurd sense of entitlement that frankly would be laughable if practiced in one’s normal non-sports-related every day life. I mean, really, whose salary don’t I pay, if by paying your salary I mean that I contribute some infinitesimally small fraction of the overall budget of some immensely huge global enterprise?

Anyway, technically, I think people who say those kinds of things really pay the popcorn’s salary (fill in your concession or advertiser of choice). The popcorn, in turn, pays for Cloutier. Now, if the popcorn company were to call AEG about Cloutier, I’m pretty sure they would take the call.

Christa
I saw enough of his play in
the past in Vancouver to
know that he was not going to be a good fit for the Kings especially with what
they had playing in front of him. He basically got run out of Vancouver after
getting pulled in a bunch of playoff games. Some
things in sports are just
common sense you don’t need to be a genius to
figure them out. A big part
of the reason that he was
even brought here has to do
with Mark Crawford being his coach in Vancouver. I
have questioned all of DL’s free agent signings
with the exception of Handzus, who I have always
liked. I never liked Stuart
but he was playing very well when he was traded.If
I were Gm I would have just brought up Boyle and
Moulson and never signed
Nagy and Calder. How much
worse of a season would that have made it?

I guess since I don’t take who plays and who doesnt as a personal afront and I am not under the dilusion that paying for tickets gives me the right to tear someone down so thoroughly Im not a real fan. Cloutier is just the latest in a long line of Goaltenders who have been hung out to wash by fans who are looking for the darn near unattainable. Maybe it’s wrong of me, but I call myself a fan because I support EVERYONE wearing the Kings sweater and hope for the best out of every one of them every night and I dont make a habit of driving busses over them if they dont live up to expectations.

As for the ever popular Cechmanek argument, he was a slightly under .500 goalie (18-21-6) with a 2.51 GAA and .906 SV%. Granted, the game has changed since 03-04, but those still arent numbers to sniff at… especially on your perenially underachieving Kings team (at the end of the Andy Murray era). I get earning respect from fans, but the guy was never given an inkling of credit even when he DID have a good game. How do you go about earning respect from fans who have no desire to be open minded toward you? Jack Johnson came in with all the pomp circumstance and hype that fans could muster. (Kill Jack Kill chants in his firs shift, anyone??) Exactly what had he done in his first NHL game to deserve the respect he got?

I get it. There is no changing the minds of those who are convinced. I agreed that Cloutier wasnt the saviour. Ive described already exactly what I think about his play and future potential. I dont have to agree with you that it’s ok to spew such hateful commentary just because you’re a ‘fan’ sitting behind a keyboard and it’s clear that until the Kings bring in one of the very very VERY few goaltenders that are considered “Elite” none of you will be happy.

(PS: I concede to agree to mildly agree but still disagree with all the haters. All these posts must have RHammond throwing fits and hoping I start my own blog with all the space I eat up so I bid you Adieu, gentlemen. May next season bring you the Keeper you all desire to see… or enough noose rope to hang whoever shows up! )

There is obviously a lot to know about this.