Forum answers II

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Question: Have you had any discussion with Dean or Murray about Ivanans? I'd be curious to hear Murray's rationale for playing Ivanans so regularly (albeit limited minutes) at the expense of other skaters. Last night was another example of him taking a foolish penalty with his gloves on.

Answer: To be honest, I'm a little perplexed by the fascination with Ivanans. Yes, he played quite a bit last night, but normally he's a guy who plays five to seven minutes per night. If that's the Kings' biggest concern -- and it isn't -- then they're doing pretty good. Is Ivanans the most skilled skater/player on the team? Certainly not, but there's a reason why some players skate on the fourth line. No team, not even the Red Wings, has 12 lights-out forwards. Somebody has to fill that role, and chances are it's going to be a player who has holes in his game. A young player such as Kevin Westgarth is an option, but chances are that if/when he gets to the Kings, there will be flaws in his game as well. So I hope that's a decent answer to your question.

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Question: I'll grant that I'm biased and don't like to see ticky-tack penalties called against the Kings, but in my opinion, the officiating at games has not been very good or consistent. It seems to me that there are players who always get called for things and others who don't ever get called on them. I also think that more often than not Kings' players end up on the wrong end of those calls. So when the Kings are described as having taken too many penalties in a game, they may not be doing anything too different from what they've done any other day, but are just getting called more often. I've heard that the NHL won't comment on the work done by the refs, but is there any way for a team's management to bring up inconsistent officiating with the league, or is this just something that they have to put up with?

Answer: Officiating in the NHL, by nature, is probably the most subjective of any team sport. As you point out in the your question, all you can really ask for is consistency. When the NHL put the post-lockout rules in effect, they tried to get that uniformity from their officials, but it's never going to be 100-percent effective. I'm sure every player and every coach has those moments of, ``Why is that a penalty? We did the exact same thing in the last game?'' It's frustrating, and unfortunate, but pretty much inevitable. Coaches talk to officials during the game, to try to get them to see things their way, but complaining to the league is unlikely to accomplish much. Teams woud be better served getting a good understanding of what they can and can't get away with with certain refs.

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Question: DL stated that the rebuilding process would take about 5 years. The Kings are just about 3 years in. Where do you feel they are in the process, ahead of schedule, on track, behind? What is the feeling in the room in regards to making the playoffs this season? Do the players feel like they are building something special? Can you get another interview with DL to find out what we can expect moving into the latter half of the season, trades? If there was one missing link in the organization, at this point what would that be, I assume scoring depth (but in my opinion that is system related rather than talent)?

Answer: I wouldn't say they're ahead of schedule. On track? Probably. Behind? Maybe a little, because I consider last season to be a wash, if not a full step backward. The big positives out of last season were the developments of Brown, O'Sullivan and Kopitar and the chance to get Jack Johnson's rookie season under his belt. Plus, it gave the Kings another year to stock the farm system. Otherwise, Lombardi's free-agent signings were pretty much flops and the team didn't even sniff the playoffs and start to develop that winning attitude. Those things are starting to happen this season. The clear positives of this season is the arrival and development of players such as Quick, Doughty, Moller, Simmonds and Purcell. They're learning how to play and thrive in the NHL. Next season, they'll be able to take another step forward and, in an ideal world, that's when things start to get rolling. As for the second part of your question, Lombardi probably addressed it in the quotes I posted today. Clearly, getting a top-level winger or center (or both) would be the top priority right now.

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Questions: 1.) Do you get the impression from management that the Kings are down in any way on Jonathan Bernier? I realize the whole seniority thing with Quick, but Bernier made the team out of camp last season then struggled in Lewiston, the WJC and his stats are so-so at Manchester.
2.) Any updates on Jack Johnson's contract status?
3.) Do Moller and Doughty now have to do the team's laundry since Simmonds so successfully campaigned for Brown?
4.) You pointed out that this is the midway point of the season, what has been your favorite King's moment or moments thus far. Perhaps a behind the scenes anecdote?

Answers: 1) No, I honestly don't get that impression at all. There was an issue with Bernier last season, when he got sent back to Lewiston. He was disappointed about it and is translated to on-ice performance. He got that turned around, and there's been no indication of any problems this season. His numbers haven't been oustanding, but with Quick joining the Kings, Bernier gets a chance to be the No. 1 goalie in the AHL. That's a good step in his development, and it's to him to take advantage of it. 2) No. I don't think this is a ``trend,'' necessarily, but Lombardi tends to either get these things done by the start of the season or wait until the next summer, or at least late in the season. Just going on instinct, I'd be surprised to see it done before the end of the season. Getting Kopitar's deal done with a big relief, because Lombardi didn't want to be staring down both of those contracts this summer. 3) Hmmm... well, the fans didn't vote Brown in, so that would make it a moot point, right? 4) A couple things, I guess. Just watching the excitement and enthusiasm of the young guys. Hockey players, in general, are great to deal with, but it's really fun to watch young guys come up and experience everything for the first time. You're watching them realize their dreams, and that's pretty cool. Second, the ping-pong action is hilarious. I thought that, after almost four months, the players' enthusiasm for it would have waned, but they're still going strong.

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Questions: -Has Boyle earned himself regular spot on the roster
-Are Calder, Preissing, Stoll on the trading block
-Do you see either Zeiler or Preissing waived if a trade can't be worked out
-what happens to the line-ups when Moller returns
-what plan does TM have for Armstrong and Richardson
-who gets moved over when JJ returns - Gauthier or Harrold.

Answers: 1) Not yet. He's getting a little closer, but he still has moments when he needs to remember that he's 6-foot-7. 2) Stoll? No. Calder or Preissing? Well, I suppose, but with all due respect to their abilities as NHL players, I wouldn't say there's necessarily a market for them. It's not like Lombardi puts out the word, ``Calder and Preissing are available,'' and offers start coming in. LaBarbera was different, because he's a goaltender and Vancouver had a specific need there. 3) No, they wouldn't be waived. Players have to clear waivers if they're sent down, so that would be a possibility for at least one of those guys. 4) I haven't the slightest idea, since that's still at least three weeks away. 5) Armstrong will continue to be that ``spare'' guy who can fit into the lineup when needed. I'd imagine they will give Richardson a look when he's completely healthy, and then they'll see how it goes. 6) Harrold could be moved to the wing, although that would create a logjam there as well. It's probably 50-50 at this point.

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Question: Thanks to Lombardi and improved scouting, the Kings are showing some great potential to be a cup contender within a few years if not sooner. But the Kings have had the same potential before in their past 40+ years. What makes this team different and what steps are Lombardi and the management doing to ensure that this potential will not be wasted?

Answer: It's two parts. Lombardi's primary job is to stock the system and give the coaches good talent to work with. Murray's job (and by extension, his assistants' job and the AHL coaches' jobs) is to take that talent, develop it and mold it into a winning team. The first part of the equation is getting close. There is tons of defensive talent in the organization, which you could never say in previous regimes, and there are a handful of quality goaltenders. Now, of course, that talent actually has to develop. Out of all these defensive prospects, are ALL of them going to develop into NHL players? No, but Lombardi has acquired so many of them that his percentages are pretty high. The next step is recognizing when these guys are ready, and giving them a chance. That's the stage the Kings are in right now. If you see these young guys start to prove themselves and have success, you'll know the Kings are on the right track.

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Question: What are the attitudes of the players at the present time of the season? Are they developing that "winning" attitude? Is it a positive or negative atmosphere when they lose? What's being done to foster a good attitude and good team dynamics off the ice?

Answer: That's a hard thing to describe. It's more of a feel than anything, but I do think that players are more angry about losing than they've been in the past. The young players are very competitive, and there are a lot of ``winners.'' That's why things such as the World Juniors are important. These kids who play in that tournament and win medals, they get a taste for winning at a high level, and they don't like to lose. The worst thing you could ever be, as a pro athlete, is complacent about losing. The young players seem to be getting along well. Quincey, Moller and Simmonds are living together. Handzus has been a good mentor to Simmonds. Brown and Kopitar have taken to Doughty, with some good-natured ribbing. Those are positive signs.

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Questions: 1) any luck digging up that old "Ask a King" with Luc explaining the Versailles Treaty?
2) updates on my favorite prospects (I will leave off the obvious ones, since we've been hearing a lot about them -- Hickey, Teubert, Voynov, Lewis): Parse, Loktionov, Cameron, Campbell (heard he's been underwhelming), Martinez (heard same), Azevedo (a point a game so far in AHL, but injured now...call up, or is that madness?), Roe, Cliche (heard he's skating and "close," true?), Clune (about to return...but just how good was his camp from DL's point of view? Is a call-up just my little pipe-dream? I'm guessing yes)...I'm probably forgetting someone.
3) since we are gearing up for the giant second half road trip, I would like to know who rooms with whom on the road.
4) I think you should set up some corner of your blog for predictions by blog visitors. It seems to me that a big chunk of commenting is on the topic of what is going to happen by when and who is going to have this many points, who is going to get traded, etc... It would be unbelievably cool to have a place where we (the loyal and clinically obsessive readers) could go to check up on our past opinions and predictions and see how it's panning out. Now that I'm typing this, I can see there's no way it's going to happen, because it's a web-design issue and probably a lot of work for someone. Okay, but related to that:
5) the search engine on your site: any way to get it to return hits on the comments. I find it very difficult to find the various stupid things I've said and end up poring over entire months of old posts, which is of course fun but time consuming. Is there a way for your IT geniuses to add a button where we can choose to target just your posts or the posts and the comments in order to find what we're looking for?
6) did any of the players feel the earthquake?

Answers: 1) I'll have to put that to the Fox Sports people one day. They should pull out a bunch of those for a highlight reel.
2) I'm not sure that any of those guys are lighting the world on fire, to the point that you'd start thinking about a call-up. And for the most part, that's fine, since they're not guys who would reasonably be expected to make that jump right now. I can't give you player-by-player scouting reports offhand, but I've heard really good things about Loktionov and not enough good things as I should be hearing about Martinez. 3) I really don't have the entire list, but the most significant one is probably that Dustin Brown, the team captain, rooms with Drew Doughty. 4) Yeah, I had the same thought when I asked for preseason predictions. We should definitely go back, at the end of the season, and revisit those predictions, see who came the closest. I'll have to remember that. 5) Hmmm...all of that is way over my head. I'm just a words guy! I'll try to see if our online guys can figure something out. I know they're sort of constrained by what Movable Type offers, so we'll see. 6) You know, I didn't ask, but those of us sitting near the top of the arena sure did.