Coach Johnston
The Vancouver Sun has reported that former Kings associate coach Mike Johnston, a finalist for the job that went to Terry Murray, will be hired as general manager and head coach of the Portland Winter Hawks of the junior-level Western Hockey League.
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
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 jill.painter@dailynews.com.
He certainly deserves it, best of luck to him, I hope to see him back in the NHL soon.
good 4 him!
Congrats to Coach Johnston
he tried here. i don't think that there was really anything else he could do under crawford. he may or may not have got the short end of the stick in l.a., but a fresh start for him at that level will probably be a good thing for him and that club.
The Winterhawks were absolutely awful last year; he'll have his work cut out for him. Best of luck Mike and thanx for all you did for LA.
C'est la vie. Best of luck to Coach Johnston. It's good to have you back, Rich! I appreciate all the Kings material you make available for us fans!
I'd like to hear DL explain why he was good enough to be a front-runner for head coach but not good enough to be kept around as an assistant.
Go Hawks! I lived in Portland for years before work took me to Dallas. Awesome city and they love their hockey. Every financially unstable team is rumored to move to Portland.
I met him last season at the skating rink tours the Kings did. He was really approachable and a great person to talk to. I wish him nothing but the best.
Congratulations to Coach Johnston, sorry it didn't work out in LA, for him.
Best wishes for great success for him. I think it will be good for him to distance himself from Crawford and gain his own identity as a head coach. He seemed like a more personable guy than Crawford to me, but I think there may have been concern that it may have been perceived as staying with the status quo that didn't work the last two dreadful years since he had been with that coach for so long.
"Dumbardi let a great one go. he would've won a Cup with us this year"....oh snap, i'm sorry...i dunno where that came from. i just missed Anthony's comments.
19 days until Pre-Season
40 days until Game 1