Lombardi discusses the season
Here's what Dean Lombardi had to say the other day about the Kings' last-place finish in the Western Conference, and the fact that the Kings have missed the playoffs every season since 2002:
``I think we expected to be in the (playoff) hunt. I think it was realistic to think. That was a realistic expectation. The major culprit is goals against. Last year it was easy to pin it on the goaltending. It was fairly obvious. I think we started to make some adjustments in the second half of this year to tighten things up, plus Ersberg played pretty well. Even before that... I think Jason (LaBarbera) has to go to another level, but his performance was good enough to let us stay in the hunt. We had to tighten up in our own end and we didn't do it.
``I don't care how good you are. You can't win... You look at the correlation between where teams are in the conference and their goals against. Obviously we can score some goals, and look where we are. I see what we have (in terms of defensemen) in Manchester and what we have here and it's still an issue that we have to upgrade on the back, in terms of young players. We have to clarify the way we're going to play. We can't be standing here with this type of goals against. Is (the goaltending) at a Kiprusoff level? No, but it was more than respectable. I do think Jason did a good job before he got hurt. Think there are areas for him for him to improve, especially in terms of his physical condition, but he's working on that.''
Well Dean, you formed our Defence during the off season. It was you Dean who signed the players, it was you and your staff who scouted the d-men and it was you Dean who hired the coach who guided this team to last in the West, and 29th overall.
Same old story - Garon wasn't good enough - Huet wasn't good enough -
At least there's hope for the FAR future, but next year, there isn't a whole lot to look forward to.
Phoenix and Chicago have MUCH better youth. St Louis as well.
Another painful year to come.
Makes it hard to be a Kings fan.
It's the players that have to play D as well. DL & Crawford aren't on the ice. It's the whole team that has to make the effort to play defense. At times it looked good but most of the time it wasn't. I'm not defending DL & Craw but the players need to accountable on their end.
Very interesting assessment dean. "We have to clarify the way we're going to play". I think that is what crawford is supposed to do. Is there hope as long time kings fans have preached for years? Yes. The performances this year indicate that crawford did a much better job reaching the younger players than the older players. dean's comments lead one to believe that finally he is willing to promote the young talented players in the organization and forgo another disastrous and expensive foray into the unrestricted free-agent market. As long as he sticks to this and avoids using draft picks in exchange for marginal veterans, we should have a team that, at a minimum, will be fun to watch next season. Go Kings.
This is why it is a 5-year plan. So DL has a job for the next five years-very
smart on his part. There are many ways to rebuild
hell Philly did it in one year and improved by 40 points. The DL way gives him a job for the next 5 years while he keeps
drafting and developing.
DL talks out of both ends
of his a** as do most GMs.
On one hand he says he is
rebuilding with youth but on the other he was trying
to sign Briere and/or Drury.
This was an almost total
waste of a year for L.A. It
was not rebuilding but the
rebuild before the rebuild.
If DL actually thougt this
was a playoff team than MC
should be fired for under-
achieving but thhat is not the casse since DL is smart
enough to know this team is
not a playoff team in West.
If this was actually a
rebuilding year the players
like Boyle, Moulson, and
Harrold would have been up
for most of the season.
Rebuilding is not a team
that has an average of 28.1
years and a defense of Blake, Modry, Stuart, ect.
Were Preissing and Handzus
bridge players? I would say not since they got 4
year deals. Chicago is
actually rebuilding as is
Edmonton. St. Louis is much
like the Kings in that they signed a bunch of FA's
and are not giving their youth much playing time.This year I believe
Kings will actually be rebuilding since a bunch of
Manchester kids will get a
legitimate shot. If DL drafts well in two years
Kings should be where Chicago is now.
Sorry to disagree but I see a bright future for the Kings.
I see some great young talent currently on the roster and more to come from Manchester.
To say that we don't have the young talent of St. Louis, Chicago, or Phoenix I totally disagree with that. Lets see what comes from this years draft. Obviously we need help on the blue line. Do you really think that Phoenix, St.Louis, Chicago have no weaknesses? They all do...same as us.
Good luck with the draft DL. Build us a winner...please!!!!!!!!!!!!
SolutionMan, I have to disagree with you blaming Lombardi for the way the defense he picked up in the off-season played for us this year. When I saw our lineup consisting of Blake, Johnson, Lubo, Preissing, Stuart and Modry, I was pretty pumped. Based on what our d looked like the year before, these guys looked like an awesome d-core on paper, and I think most people would agree with me. Lombardi had no idea that Lubo would have his worst year ever, Preissing would play NOTHING like he did for Ottawa, and Stuart would take so long to get comfortable in our system.
Also, Turris was selected before we got our chance to make a pick so not sure why you brought his name up??? Maybe you were thinking about Sam Gagner, but I'm pretty sure we were all thinking we didn't need another 5'11, 190 lb forward on our roster....
nykingfan
We always disagree and that is fine. I look at the standings and rest my case. Where is the young
talent on defense compared
to the 3 teams you named?I
never said those teams did not have weaknesses because
they would all be in the playoffs otherwise. All I am saying is that they are
farther along than than LA Kings. Western conference
is loaded with elite teams
that are going to be good for the next few years and
that will be a challenge
for Kings to catch up.
wow, I don't think there has been a post so far off as this one. A little clarity:
We have as much young talent if not more than Phoenix, Chicago, and St. Louis, who were also non playoff teams
DL clearly stated when he took over the GM spot with the Kings that we have a big hole when it comes to young talent in our D Department and he started drafting right away, but D takes longer to develop then O.
PHI made a vast improvement this year, but many felt they would make a quick turnaround, they only needed a couple guys. They also signed a guy we tried to get, Briere and that helped a ton. He's very talented and a good leader, something we are lacking at the moment.
DL didn't say our goaltending "wasn't good enough" he thought that Erberg and Labs played well, just JL needs to step it up a notch. I would agree with that...and he didn't trade Huet away and Garon was good, but often injured, signing him only to get injured would have been $5 mil in wasted goalie salary (I'm including Beachball aka Cloutier)
Clearly D was our problem, DL signed Stuart and Preissing who were considered good free agents, but I agree they didn't perform to the level we needed, my question to all the DL haters is, who else would you have signed on D from last season's free agent list? Who would you have traded for on D? At what cost? Take a good look at the NHL talent when it comes to D, there is a shortage and its going to cost you a lot to pick up a quality D man. What's our trade bait? Kopi, Brown, Sully, JJ, Bernier, or Frolov. Trading these guys is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Fact is, we need to develop our talent on D to make it work, that will take time.
This season sucked and I'm as disappointed as all of you, but I'm not ready to rip DL for trying to fix the train wreck of a team he inherited in 2 years. I've been a fan for 20 years and for the first time, I actually see us rebuilding for the long haul.
MC should be on a short leash next season, hopefully we get the number one today, and lets pray we get a quality D man in free agency.
Go Kings Go
I believe we would have made the playoffs if Boyle,Purcell/Moulson would have remained with the club and sat down Willsie and Thornton. However, it was a business and somewhat political decision and although, I don't agree with it, I understand it.
On a sidenote, we have one of the deepest minor league talents in the league so, I have no idea what the other poster is talking about.
great post, DellaNooch. That is one of the things that was very enlightening about the GM Breakfast this last time. When he talked about free agents, Dean put up lists of all the available free agents last offseason and went through all of them, explaining why they were either unobtainable, a bad or redundant fit or lesser than the guys we got. when you look at the actual names available, you quickly see what he was up against.
I agree we have a shortage on d when it comes to young promising d men. we have jack and hickey, harrold is a no 5-7 d man. Then u have lubo and preissing but no one in between in the age 22-25. If you look at the rooster in manchester I cant see a no 2-4 d man. You have piskula who maybe will become a no 4-6 d man and petiot is not in the kings plans for the future. We must get a d man thats between 22-26 years old with a 3-4 years in the nhl on his back who we can sign to a long term deal. Maybe commodore or tollefsen in columbus. Hopefully we get the no 1 pick and pick stamkos and trade cammy to either vancouver or toronto for their first round pick.
Metalmaster
Looking at the standings is too easy. Obviously we were dead last but why? we had an awful stretch that buried us for the season. Our d was brutal and so was the goaltending during that time. One thing that always comes to mind was watching the games and listening to the opposing teams announcers. None of them could understand how we were the worst team. they all said the Kings were a much better team then their record indicated. I think in the 2nd half the D improved. I thought Preissing had a good 2nd half...same as Blake. It was during the 1st half of the season that the D was absolutely brutal. Blake was hurt. Preissing and Stuart weren't playing well at all. JJ was playing like the rookie that he was..and Lubo was gross...Add the goaltending that we were getting and what can you expect?
I agree with Quattro