Coaching update

I don't get the feeling Johnston can last if he becomes coach. He comes across as a little fragile and I think the pressure would be too great. I'd definately look at Hunter or Dineen instead and let either one of them choose whether Johnston remains as an assistant coach, a role he is probably better suited for in the NHL. Just my personal opinion.

Most teams have a coach in place before draft season. Nothing wrong with getting advice from a person who is invevidably gonna coach the player the team drafts.
But not here.
Not this GM.
This man is clearly a hands off control freak.

I don't even know why he's taking his scouting team along.
He's not gonna listen to any of them.
He should just go alone and have that table all to himself.

BTW,
Almost forgot.
Happy Fathers Day.

Mike Johnston has been an Associate Coach for two years now and Lombardi spent three hours "talking about his philoophies?" I guess DL hasn't spent enough time in L.A. getting to know him before now. Is anybody else slightly perplexed about this?

Hey Rich,

If DL goes for a coach other than Mike Johnston, would that mean he and Dave Lewis are expendible when another coach is hired? Most of the time the new hire brings in their own staff....

Not in all cases but typically an associate/assistant coach that wants to become a head coach, has to leave the organization to achieve this.

The reasoning for this is the type of relationship the associate/assistant coach develops with the players. In layman terms (yes a little more complicated than this but essentially this is what the process is), think of your assistant coach as your buddy and the head coach as your mentor disciplinary "father figure".

When your buddy becomes Head coach, can he really be your mentor the next day? Will your buddy be able to get the performance out of you that the organization needs?

If you think about it in those terms you will see how difficult this decision is for DL to permanently assign Johnston as head coach. But as DL said, never say never.

Cheers.

I just don't get why they would want a guy who's been Crawford's assistant coach for like the last 9 years. Wouldn't you try to move away from that connection?

Anthony- give it a rest already. You have no clue what you're talking about.

We should send internet GM Anthony to the draft instead,seeing that he KNOWS EVERYTHING and while were at it, hire him as our coach too.

we don't have enough money to pay Anthony, his big mouth itself is just a couple hundred million. The Yankees should buy him.

Lombardi is a control freak and shows at times for every great move he has made he follows it up with 10 dumb ones. Jack Johnson great move. Kyle Calder Michael Handezus Nagy Wilsie McCaley Stewart Clouts. Not so great, You have one thing correct in that he no longer listens to his scouts. Al Murray who ran the draft for the Kings for years and was given a contract extension from Dean and was fired 4 months later for using his voice. Al Murray ran the 06 Draft not Dean. Even though Dean will get all the credit. All the good players the Kings have. None were drafted by Lombardi. All the bad players the Kings have. All brought in by Lombardi

Crawford was a terrible hire from day one. Yes people on lets go Kings.com will say oh well he had won a cup. Wow I could have coached that much talent and a hall of fame keeper to that cup.

Hiring Mike Johnston will be a mistake. If your going to get rid of a coach CLEAN HOUSE.

The players tuned out Crawford. Johnston will have no respect at all from day one in the room.

Joel Quinvelle is the perfect hire. But Dean's Ego will not allow that to happen

Rich, did you read too much into Dean's comments about Morris and misunderstand him or did Dean flat out come out and say that Morris was not even a consideration because he was the Monarchs' coach. I ask because with a comment like that, if Morris has aspirations of coaching in the NHL anytime soon, Dean is all but telling him he should look elsewhere.

I hate to go along with Anthony on this one, but I do see his point with Lombardi.
Lately, there's been a lot of things going wrong with this organization.

Check this out, Rich.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/10418/kings2008_draft_preview/

TALK ABOUT GOING OFF THE BOARD!!!

True Kings Fan - Your math is little off, I only counted 7 bad moves relative to the JMFJ move, can you put 3 more in? Also, I'll need 10 for O'Sullivan, 10 for Ersberg, and 10 Purcells. You probably have to take Stuart off the list, as he went to Det. and started playing so well, that they want to re-sign him, it's clear something on our team wasn't working for Stuart, which isn't something our supposed "control freak" GM could do something about...anyway, back to the topic, I share the same concerns as Zad, that message from DL about Morris is un-nerving. Its seems he is doing a good job in Manchester, so why not consider him now. Do you know Rich?

How about Dale Hunter. The man was all guts and he seems to have brains that go with it. This is exactly what this team needs is guts. Perhaps some of Dales carachter can rub off on the players. Who I think all qualified for the Lady Bing trophy for last season.
PS. Exception--Dustin Brown
Roger

Blaming the goaltending in Los Angeles is alot like blaming the duck at a shooting gallery. Cloutier was a joke, but he was one of many. Handzuis better look great this year, his knee has had the time it needs, and Cammy better become something other than a-rush-the-blue-line-and-fake-the-slapper,-go-wide-and-get-drilled-into-the-boards-puck-hog.
But the whole thing and the most important thing is the defensive system. Crawfish had our guys adopt the penalty kill look when five-on-five, and when you have the 27th rated penalty kill that is stupid. Scrap the passive defense and contest for possession, that is the new NHL. Hire Dave Lewis, he was 96-41-21-6 in Detroit. And don't sign any more charity cases, like McAuley, Valeri Bure, Roenick, Nagy, etc. etc. etc.

3 more bad moves. Jamie Lundmark. Botching the Cammy arbration and getting rid of Al Murray.

Not taking Karl Alzner.
Tom Prissing
Sending Brian Boyle back to Manchester.
Not getting enough for Sean Avery and pulling the trigger on the deal to early.

Not making the Roberto Lolongo deal beacause he did not want to give up a 2nd round pick

And last but not least Saying there is a plan in place and then changing the plan every month

Need I go On????

Good points DellaNooch, and you can add the fact that, through his moves, Lomardi has secured 15 picks in this draft, including 8 in the first round. For a team in rebuild, this is a great position considering this may be the strongest, deepest overall draft in years (but don't take my word for it- from TSN, "Generally speaking, NHL scouts say this is a strong, deep draft with both good quality and good quantity of prospects." http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=240884&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main)

TrueKingsFan- you're a little off with those supposed bad moves.

Jamie Lundmark came with two draft picks, a 2nd in this draft and a 4th in the last draft; Conroy was having a pretty crappy year so he wasn't worth much.

The Cammi arbitration was a player elected arbitration-how exactly did DL botch that one? If he had given Cammi what he wanted you would've been putting the Cammi contract as one of DL's bad moves.

Karl Alzner- he's done nothing at the NHL level. Come back in 5-10 years on that one.

Tom Preissing- hindsight's 20-20, but how the F can you complain about signing him to a 4 year, 11 mil contract when he had a better FA season that Suter, who just signed a 4 year, 14 mil contract. All players have bad years- can't blame the GM for that.

Sending Brian Boyle back to manchester- what, so you're disappointed they sent him back so he could get the experience of being in a playoff race and playing in the 1st round with other guys who figure to be on the team in the future. I, too, would have liked to see more of him, but this move makes sense.

Sean Avery- were you in the negotiations- do you know what was being offered- which offer would you have taken? The fact is you don't know what other teams were offering so you're in no position to say the kings didn't get enough for him.

Luongo was going to cost more than a 2nd round pick- what world are you living in. How'd Vancouver do with him this year? oh yeah, they missed the playoffs. And you would've given up Brown and/or Frolov (don't remember the exact details of what Florida wanted but it was one ore both of them) for a player whose contract was expiring with no guarantee of him re-signing with you.

The plan from very early on has clearly been to rebuild from the ground up- that's precisely what they're still doing (eg. the youth movement)

Please, don't go on.

J

Go back to lets go kings with the other so call "fans" of the team.

If you think Lombardi has done a good job you should be locked up.

THe deal for Luonggo was in place. What held it back was a second round pick. The deal was Frolov Brown and a #1 for Luongo and Florida's #1 Florida wanted a #2 this year but Lombardi balked.

I know this cause I am friends with one of the Kings pro scouts

Where was Suter playing in Late April? Ah also he was a #5 Dman and 4 years younger then Prissing. Suter will be better in the long run

Why send Boyle down? The AHL playoffs do not start till late March. He could get a hell of alot more experence in the NHL where in the long run he is going to play. Rather then play with a bunch of kids and 15th forwards in the AHL.

Ya picks for Conroy Lets see how many of those picks are busts. He could have gotten more. You do not make your trade deadline moves a month before the deadline.

Do you enjoy being in last place? Lombardi's first year we finished 28th. Then this season we were talking playoffs and finished 29th. Now we are going to be even younger next year. And the biggest mistake of all Mark Crawford. 2 years ago Lombardi told us how great he was and then he fires him 2 years later.

Lombardi had a 4 year run in San Jose and after year 3 fans were ready to throw him under a bus.

So when you wake up realize your drinking a 11$ flat beer at Staples. You let me know. You letsgokings fans are all the same. You buy the crap Lombardi is saying and really do not look deeper into it

Case in point download KingsKast from the crawford firing and listen to him and he stumbles threw answering questions and would not even say who was in the ownership meetings with him

WHAT A JOKE

Really intelligent rebuttal TKF- go back to LGK, i've got a "friend" whose a pro scout, so there. You really got me.