Mid-January approval ratings

this must be the equivalent of Rich's sweeps week .. knowing that frustration with this team is at a peak and trying to get a spike in posts .. remember folks, they ain't selling newspapers so they got to do something to get viewers!

Hm. Wonder what Lombardi is doing differently over the last month to frustrate 10% of Kings fans.

Murray I definitely understand, though. I'm even considering voting for disapprove and I'm usually pretty patient and lenient.

No kidding, media bias. Why don't we judge them on a weekly basis, heck, why don't we on a game by game basis? Win, ratings go up... Better yet, why don't we judge the players, I mean you know that Lombardi makes his decisions by scanning the message boards.

Most of you clearly have fallen for Lombardi's act.

His grand plan is NOT working. Sure, he has acquired a whole mess of defencemen that MIGHT be really good in 2-3 years, but he still has not found a consistent goalie, and there are no forward prospects who can score a lick.

His UFA signings have been awful, and none of the players acquired by trade have made a positive impact (I will give JJ an "incomplete" at this point).

In the meantime, the L.A. Kings have the worst record in the league over the 2 1/2 seasons of his tenure, by quite a large margin.

Just watch, his next move will be to lose Frolov, because he won't have the budget to pay his market rate after loading the payroll with dumb contracts like Handzus, Stoll and Greene.

P.S. In the late 90's, much like today's Kings, the Islanders had an outstanding collection of young blueline and goaltending prospects: Chara, Berard, McCabe, Jonsson, Brewer and Luongo. How did that turn out for them?

The lesson there is that constantly focusing on how wonderful a team will be in the future, and ignoring the here-and-now, is a game for losers. Like Lombardi and the Kings.

Media Bias
so why are you bothering to respond?

I'm sure that the percentages will be down for both DL and TM...but compare the numbers.
There's a 2 loss difference (not incl OT). That's not really that much...especially with the caliber of teams we've played recently.
Stay the course!

I honestly think the real problem is the players. I know there are a lot of guys playing their butts off, but as a team - Where are the crisp tape-to-tape passes? Where is the effort away from the puck? Where is the physicality? Where are the smarts?

I think once this core has been together a bit longer these things will happen. Right now there are too many learning curves happening at the same time.

nykingfan,

Stay the course?
Murray can't even take the heat for what's going on.
He has You and some others STILL blaming the players.
The course for this ship is the bottom of the ocean.
Fire Murray now and get someone in here that can teach these kids to enjoy the game and play with skills that are actually pertinent in today's NHL.

I actually voted "approve" for DL because I don't think we're going to get anything better there, but this experiment with Murray should be over already.
He should have been fired this morning.

I vote for IGOR LARIONOV for Kings coach.
Let TM piss off back to Philly.
We don't want him here any more.

I wish Jerry Bloody Bruckheimer would buy the Kings.
We'd get a lot more respect around the league without this bastard Anschutz asleep at the wheel.

Let me fill you in PHIL, Your sports-business is a FAILURE.
You don't give a toss, get the F out.
Go make profits somewhere else.

Annonymous
Your point on the Islanders is completely wrong.
They gave up all of those players. Take a look how the players turned out after giving them up. What did the Islanders get in return for those prospects?
You just made the point of why DL should stick with the plan.

The Kings in the past couldn't wait to give up their top prospects for over the hill bums. Why didn't Larry Murphy, Ray Bourque, or Tom Barrasso have stellar careers with the Kings? Because management refused to be patient and wanted to win now.
Remember what they say about people who repeat the same mistakes over and over...
MARRIAGE!

I disapprove of Lombardi and Murray..How can anybody approve of the job Murray is doing, the offense is worse than last year, and the defense is slightly better, but that is not saying much, given last year's defense was pitiful. Lombardi has signed some awful players to some bad contracts, made some bad trades and drafted poorly. My grandma could have drafted Doughty with the #2 pick, and with the #4 pick he took Hickey, were he most likely could have traded down for him. Alzner would have been a better pick at 4. Unfortunately, who ever you hire as GM or Head Coach, will not be the answer because of AEG..

Daniel,

I agree! The players are not executing well enough and are not competing hard enough. Our fourth line and third pair defensemen have been weak all season - check out the stats, especially plus/minus. Our goaltending has been woefully inconsistant. Our top defensemen have been good, but need to be much better. That leaves our top forwards. They were expected to be the strength of the team. Instead, the Kings are near the bottom of the league in scoring and have been shut out seven times in 43 games. Brown, Kopitar, Frolov, O'Sullivan, Stoll and Handzus need to get themselves going.

this is when I'm so glad that we have a GM who WON'T hit the panic button right now, as past GM's have.

This young team is going through a mental funk, and have to look deep inside to get themselves out of it.

I'm not going to blame the coach or the GM for any of this, except for the horrible powerplay setup.

The rest of the game's failures are the players faults.

Let's face it. We just played a Detroit team, without 2 of our best defensemen. What did you expect. Glad to see the polls are still teaming towards support for the coach/gm. Looks like we have mostly smart fans.

Once the players wake the f**k up, we will be ok. Maybe not make the playoffs, but we will have big improvement over last year.

Murray needs to STAY THE COURSE with his defensive mindset, it needs to be instilled in these kids heads like second nature. After they fully understand this, the offense will come.

I'm actually looking forward to this roadtrip. I think it's exactly what they need. They've all been spending too much time at home. They need some true bonding time to get a better "team" aspect into their minds.

I approved early on of the defensive improvements. I'll be the first to admit that I was previously happy with TM. After seeing last night what we look like without Doughty (who logs the most minutes on the ice), I can see that it's less what the defense has been taught and more what Doughty brings to the table. There's a definite lack of direction for many of our "defenders" who can't decide what to do on fast breaks and make no decision whatsoever between two offenders pursuing the goal(Gauthier especially).

Plainly, the most glaring of all things is the fact that Lombardi says that we are building toward something. His actions follow the words which is why I approve of him. However, with TM constantly altering the lines, the chemistry that certain players had last year (when paired together) is gone. Players are always looking at different faces and I don't see how they can develop as a cohesive unit with things changing as often as they do.

Quality teams efficiently pass the puck around trying to draw defenses off balance during a power play like Detroit and New Jersey did to us. We bunch up and overload sides just trying to keep control of the puck whether on PP or not. There's no shape to our game. There are very few moments of brilliance where goals develop for reasons other than just brute force. It's the fumbling about that bothers me most. I could complain about the choice in players. However, more importantly, the lack of chemistry shows and I think TM is directly to blame for that.

Besides, I don't like the double-standard of productive players being punished for making the rare game-effecting mistake (Stoll and Frolov), and rewarding players whose reckless abandon is mistaken for extraordinary effort (Harrold, Gauthier, and Ivanans). In what kind of world does Ivanans play on the 1st line? Worse yet, how do you justify putting Ivanans on the ice in the closing minutes of the game with a one goal deficit? His job is on the checking line targeting players, not goals.

It looks to me like TM is grasping for straws and coming up with air. There's no method to the madness. Just madness.

Terry Murray reminds me of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless.

Alen,

By the end of the movie "Clueless," Alicia Silverstone's character had actually learned something and made us laugh.
I think you're giving Murray too much credit.

Rich,

Do you recall the vote count for the first two polls? I only ask because there seems to be a lot of votes for this voting period.