Brophy loves L.A.

Yes, I noticed that Brophy was high on the Kings while reading The Hockey News Yearbook. You made an exellcent contribution to the THN Yearbook, as well Rich. Thanks for sharing that story.

That's good. On ESPN the other day they had their hockey experts give a rundown on the western conference this year, nothing was said about the Kings. No surprise there.

The best was the one guy who posted that Luke Schenn is better then any defender LA has lol!

I'm surprised they even MENTIONED the Western Conference, outside of Detroit...I don't think ESPN knows that there is a Western United States, outside of USC.

ESPN mentioned something about hockey? It must have occured at 52 min past the hour and ended at 53 past the hour. I knew I shouldn't have yawned.

I didn't think ESPN knew there was such a thing as HOCKEY...

Ah, yes, now I know why I hate Canucks fans. Idiots.

I think the NHL is gonna be in for a surprise this year with the Kings. They still might not make the playoffs, in fact they are probably still going to be bottom 3 in the conference when it all shakes out (I'm curious to see how the Avalanche play this year because they and the Blues are the teams I think the Kings will compete with for the cellar), but they are nevertheless going to be competitive. This defense might need a little time to find itself but once it does it is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

And then there are the forwards! Beyond Kopitar, Frolov, Brown, and O'Sullivan we will get to see Simmonds, Moller, Boyle, and Moulson this year, and I gotta think Purcell will be back before too long. That is a very solid 3 lines! Oh yes, I think the Kings will be contending for the Pacific Crown by next season, but even this year they are gonna give teams a big shock.

No wonder he is no longer working for THN. I know, I know, I sound like Anthony. But, Brophy does not take into consideration that we play in the West. I also believe that we could be a top 20 hockey team this year, but our point total will not reflect our ability. That may sound counterintuitive, but our schedule and playing in the West will both be significant impediments to accumulating a lot of points. With such a young team, we will likely make some costly mistakes in the first half of the season. These mistakes will turn 2 points into one, and one point into none. Also, there is more pressure on rookies when they play at home. Therefore, losing streaks may stretch out early in the season. Secondly, the second half of the season involves an incredible amount of travel. I have not added it up yet, but I would bet that it would be a record number of miles for any NHL team over a 3 month period, ever. How many Kings have gone through even one season of travel with the Kings, let alone the upcoming one? Half? This is going to a huge obstacle for new Kings to overcome.
Secondly, 3 teams in the West are possible 100 point teams. Their window of opportunity is becoming finite, so expect each of them to make trades to provide immediate improvement if they are off pace. The Yotes will be a team to be reckoned with this year. I am not sure they will make the playoffs, but they should close in on 90 points if the new muscle can open up some ice for the skilled players. Therefore, the math just does not bode well for the Kings.
Having said that, I am very excited to watch the youth grow and I would not change anything DL has done.

I know we give some guys on this blog a hard time for poor posts, but some of these canadians post the dumbest comments, check out sportsnet.ca or tsn.ca, every time LA is mentioned, the morons come out of the wood work.

I don't see why everyone is so angry with the kings management. Yes, Lombardi has made some mistakes with taking so long to sign O'Sullivan, couple free agent signing last year like Handzus and of course Cloutier was awful but overall I believe he has done a good job through drafting and trading to create a team that is very young with a lot of potential. That potential may even be realized this year but if we have another terrible season where we are last in the conference then think which is worse:1) being last in the conference and gettting a chance at number one pick and tavares or hedmang or 2) we play well most of the season but end up fading down the stretch to finish around 10th or 11th in the conference with no playoffs and not even a top 5 draft pick. I personally think this team has a shot at suprising people and sneaking into the playoffs, but either way I believe next year is the year and adding another top 5 draft pick wouldn't hurt. So I see it as either we improve before we are supposed to or we get another top pick before breaking out next year. I believe Lombardi has done an amazing job putting this team together and unlike in Pittsburgh will be able to keep this team together for a long period of time

It would be nice to see them be better than dead last. Aside from the rebuilding, etc., the change in schedule might help them. Playing the Stars, Sharks and Ducks over and over and over again doesn't help the record. These have bee three high level franchises of late and playing them 24 our of 82 games (or whaterver the number was) really hurts. More games agaisnt the SE conference aside from Washington, or some of the week Eastern teams (Boston, Islanders) may help.

Of course, they may still lose a lot. I just don't think they'll lose 60 games.

Tampa bay was getting 150 to 1 in Vegas at the beginning of the MLB season, look where their young guys have taken them. they're 2 to 1 now, that's better than the Redwings are getting. Could the Kings be the NHL's version of the Rays?

Being in such a tough division, it should help that we'll be playing 2 less games against each of those teams (6 instead of 8).

I don't care where we finish this year as long as we we play tough and we play smart.

Go Kings!