It's a wrap
That's all from the draft party. By all accounts, the crowd reaction to everything the Kings did tonight was very positive. Quite a turnaround from last year's booing of the Thomas Hickey pick. For those who haven't been inside Nokia Theater yet...it's a fantastic venue.
I'll post the Lombardi quotes a bit later, when I get home. Sorry about the inability to comment for the latter part of the night. I'm extremely disappointed by that, and I'm hopeful that it will be resolved tonight.
Back at it bright and early tomorrow morning. Who will be joining me at 7 a.m.?

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
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 

I'm there...
I'll see you. Bright and shining faces to their places!
Best draft ever...
7am your time is much easier for me anyway, being in Europe - too bad I work today so I had to sleep during the first round, but eh :)