Forum answers IV

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Questions: Why does Raitis Ivanans continue to get so much playing time, especially when facing teams with no real enforcer involved? Like against Anaheim on Tues. both May and Parros were out. Wouldn't Armstrong or Richardson be better choices for creating offense? Heck I've seen Armstrong drop the gloves if need be plenty of times. Same thing against Detroit. Do they really have a guy who goes out and looks to fight? Ivanans is a sub par player and an OK fighter, but to use him every game makes no sense. Especially since he fights when it makes no sense like after face offs. What is he exactly enforcing?

Answers: 1) It's a reasonable question, one without a clear answer, other than that Murray thinks it's the best lineup. I would presume that it's more about setting a tone. One of the major criticisms of last year's team was that it was too ``soft,'' and from the day of his hiring, Murray made it clear that he wanted the team to be more physical. That would be my guess.

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Questions: Why did DL wait 2 months after last season to end to fire Crow when it was obvious almost from the start that he was the wrong coach for the team? Did something happen in offseason communications between the two? I don't get why DL would suddenly dismiss his coach after defending him all along. It's not as though Coach Murray was unavailable the whole time and suddenly became available. Is Kings' brass concerned about the drop in attendance and do they now realize that raising prices after the last 2 years of crappy play was a bad idea? Are they still planning to raise prices next summer no matter what happens on the ice this season?

Answers: 1) Early in the summer, the Kings made the decision, based upon salary considerations and the way the roster was shaping up, to go even younger than they had planned. That's what changed. They looked at Marc Crawford and concluded that his style wasn't the best for developing the young roster, so they made a move. It's probably a realization they should have come to sooner -- or even, say, before they hired him -- but that's why it was done. 2) Raising ticket prices was a bad idea. Gas prices and the general economic gloom didn't help. I'm not sure what you might by ``still planning,'' as I haven't heard anything about ticket prices for next season. Those decisions typically aren't made until early in the offseason, I believe.

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Question: What is the contract status of Jack Johnson? Will this be completed during the season or in the off-season?

Answer: Johnson is due to be a restricted free agent this summer. As you know, no doubt, there's no schedule for getting these things done. O'Sullivan took forever. Kopitar got done quicker than anyone anticipated. Lombardi would like to have all the deals done, say, yesterday, but it's never that simple. I would expect that talks will continue at some point this season.

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Question: Really disappointed when Moulson went to Manchester. Do you feel as though he will be called back up, and why do you think he was sent down?

Answer: The way Murray treated Moulson, in general, was fairly odd. He's not a first-line player, and that whole experiment seemed sort of destined to fail from the beginning. Moulson probably deserved more time to develop in a third- or fourth-line role, a role that matches his skill level, but he would certainly be under strong consideration to come back if he thrives in Manchester or if injuries occur.

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Question: Do you expect aliens to land on the roof of Staples Center any time soon, and if you choose to print this question, in terms of thought provoking, what percentile would it fall in based on the other questions that have preceded it?

Answer: Well, they put solar-energy panels on the roof, so perhaps they're signaling the aliens.

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Questions: Would you be willing to start a petition to FSN to go back to a normal view, at least for 80 to 90% of airtime? Showing both normal and rinkside view simultaneously on FSN and FSN2 (i.e. Kings-Ducks games) might be a good test of viewers' preferences. Are you going to be at the Russian Heritage promo event after WAS game? If yes, which vodka drinks?

Answers: 1) If someone wants to start an online petition and post a link, that's perfectly fine. I'm not going to start one, and be an activist about it, because that's not my role. 2) There's an event AFTER a 7:30 p.m. game? Is there free Stoli?

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Question: OK...very simple question: Has there been any talk of trying out Moller on the Kopitar and Brown unit?

Answer: No, I haven't heard that talk, but it doesn't sound like a bad idea, frankly.

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Question: Why is "everyone" freaking out? Should I be freaking out? New coaches, new system, new players, new contracts, new individual responsibilities, only 11 games in with all of this going on... I've enjoyed watching almost every televised game so far this year, which is more than I can say for last year... Even though scoring is down, we've had production from more than just the first line, which was the big problem last year...imagine when Kopi and Brownie break their slumps! Scoring from all around!! The big hits are coming from more than just Brown. The tough guy stuff is coming from more than just Raitis. The aggressive PK is fun to watch. So... Is my head in the clouds? Should I be freaking out too?

Answer: Well, that's for you to decide. There seem to be two camps developing among fans: the camp that is fine with showing a lot of patience and sees many of the things you do, and the camp that wants to trade for Khabibulin and Gaborik and start winning NOW! To an extent, both camps have reasonable arguments, so it's a matter of your opinion.

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Question: In his LA Times interview Tim Lieweke mentioned Lombardi being close to signing another young player long(er) term. Any idea who this might be?

Answer: No. I'm still trying to figure out what he meant in 2005 when he said, ``This is the year we've been waiting for,'' or whatever that quote was. I'll let you know if I figure it out.