May 2009 Archives

The Stanley Cup Finals -- you might remember them -- start tomorrow in Detroit, so why not do a poll to see what everyone thinks will happen? I was hoping for a Chicago-Pittsburgh final, even though I predicted Detroit-Pittsburgh -- really, I did, it's somewhere in one of last month's Hockey News editions -- and now I'll go with Penguins in 6. All things being equal, I'd go with Detroit, but the Wings are banged up and I like the Pens' chances of stealing at least one of these weekend games in Detroit. What do you think?

The NHL draft combine is taking place this week in Toronto. I'll be getting some comments from Dean Lombardi, and maybe a couple others in the organization, when it's done, but for now, TSN is doing a live blog of the big testing/interview day at the combine...

Draft combine blog

Given the lack of free agents on the Kings' roster this summer, there isn't going to be a whole lot of debate about which players should return, particularly among the restricted free agents. Jack Johnson will be back, unless his dad starts negotiating with a team in Outer Mongolia, and Teddy Purcell likely has done enough to at least earn a short-term contract.

Then there's Brian Boyle. Perhaps no borderline NHL player in recent Kings history has generated more debate than Boyle. That's because everyone seems to agree that Boyle has the physical attributes needed to be a NHL center. The questions seem to be whether Boyle will ever realize that potential and whether coaches are putting him in the correct positions needed to reach that potential.

So what would you do? The Kings have three established NHL centers in Kopitar, Handzus and Stoll. Then there's a guy such as Trevor Lewis, waiting patiently for a spot. And there's Andrei Loktionov, coming off a strong junior season. Do you give Boyle a shot, or move on?

The Denver Post today ran a piece catching up with former Kings and Avalanche forward Adam Deadmarsh, who was forced into retirement after his infamous concussion issues.

Deadmarsh keeps love of hockey intact

Dean Lombardi's ``letter'' to fans this morning including an interesting quote about the Kings making the playoffs next season:

``I want to assure you that all of our end-of-season discussions with our players involved a clear message and understanding that next season carries an expectation that we will be playing playoff hockey.''

I wonder -- and will ask, at the next extensive interview -- how Lombardi reconciles that quote with the answers he gave on April 11 about making the playoffs...

Question: So let's say we're sitting here a year from now. You didn't find that `piece' you were looking for and the Kings have finished, let's say, 10th in the West. What would that mean to you?

LOMBARDI: ``What is it, `You have to make the playoffs next year to save your job'? Well, if that's the way you're going to operate, how many teams have lost their way, and lost their plan?''

The Kings have posted this morning, on their website, a letter to the fans from Dean Lombardi. It touches on all the typical themes, but you might find it to be an interesting read and a topic for discussion...

From the desk of Dean Lombardi

For those with the NHL network on their satellite/cable networks, the Memorial Cup semifinal between Windsor -- with Kings prospect Andrei Loktionov -- and Drummondville will be televised today at 4 p.m. Pacific time. The Spitfires advanced to the semfinals based on Thursday's 6-4 victory over Rimouski, a game in which Loktionov had three assists.

The winner of today's game will face Kelowna for the championship on Sunday afternoon.

Jack Johnson's father has issued a response to the controversy...you know, the controversy about his son's departure from Carolina...2 1/2 years ago.

You don't know Jack

I guess we can look forward to the fall of 2011, when Jack Sr. explains why he was calling a KHL team when his son was still technically under a NHL contract.

Not a typo... The Kings have signed 2007 draftee Dwight King to a standard three-year, entry-level contract. Here's the release from the Kings...

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LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Kings have agreed to terms on a three-year entry-level contract with forward Dwight King, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today. King was the club's fourth-round selection (109th overall) in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not announced.

King, 19, recently finished the 2008-09 season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League (WHL) where he recorded 60 points (25-35=60), 51 penalty minutes and plus-9 rating in 64 regular season games. Of his 25 goals, four were scored short-handed (ranked first on the team) and eight were scored on the power-play (ranked second on the team). His 60 points ranked third on the club. The Hurricanes advanced to the 2009 WHL playoffs and in 11 postseason games, King, a 6-3, 218-pound native of Meadowlake, Saskatchewan, totaled eight points (1-7=8; ranked second on the team), two penalty minutes and plus-1 rating, with his seven playoff assists pacing the team.

King, the brother of St. Louis Blues prospect D.J. King, recorded 69 points (34-35=69), 56 penalty minutes and a plus-21 rating in 72 regular season games with Lethbridge in 2007-08 while finishing third on the team in scoring. In addition, he tied for the team lead with 34 goals and 12 power-play goals while earning the title as Hurricanes Best Defensive Forward. During the 2008 WHL playoffs, King totaled 14 points (8-6=14), 12 penalty minutes and a plus-1 rating in 19 postseason games.

King, who won a gold medal as a member of Canada's 2006 U-18 Junior World Cup team, recorded 44 points (12-32=44), 39 penalty minutes and a plus-8 rating in 68 regular season games with Lethbridge in 2006-07. The Hurricanes first-round selection in the 2004 WHL Bantam Draft was also a member of Team Western at the 2006 and 2005 World U-17 Hockey Challenges.

Following up on yesterday's confirmation that Chad Smith won't return as the Kings' strength and conditioning coach, here is Dean Lombardi's reaction to the move (with parenthetical inclusions to turn a text message into English):

``(We're) looking to put in place (a) more detailed format. We need to have (a) process where all the players on our reserve list (not just NHL team) are monitored. It is (a) huge job and requires more definitive structure. We have been working on putting this in place since (the) season ended.''

Lombardi, by the way, will be heading to Toronto for the draft combine, which officially starts Monday in Toronto and runs through Friday. A total of 104 prospects have been invited to the combine.

Chad Smith, hired as the Kings' strength and conditioning coach two summers ago, will not be returning. A Kings spokesperson said that Smith's contract is expiring and that the team has decided not to renew it. The Kings are seeking a replacement now.

The timing is interesting, given how passionately Terry Murray spoke, at the end of the season, about the need for a strong offseason training program for players. Obviously, the other members of the training staff are still in place, but Smith was a big part of the program.

It's quite a battle at the Memorial Cup. The Kelowna Rockets have advanced to Sunday's championship game, but who they will play is still very much up in the air. The Windsor Spitfires, with Kings prospect Andrei Loktionov, have played themselves into a ``tiebreaker'' game against the loser of today's Rimouski-Drummondville game. The winner of that tiebreaker game will advance to the Friday's semifinals to face the Rimouski-Drummondville winner, and the winner of the semifinal game will face Kelowna in the final.

So far, Loktionov has two goals in three games. They were both scored in a 5-4 round-robin loss to Rimouski on Sunday.

Just to clarify, so as not to give the wrong impression to certain credible reporters, there's no evidence, at all, that there was anything factually inaccurate in Darren Dreger's report about Jack Johnson today. I didn't say there was, because, well, there wasn't. My ``commentary'' on the matter was limited to the wisdom of the parties involved and the likelihood that such a move like that would actually take place.

It's been pointed out that a couple free agents to-be have signed in the KHL. To which I ask the same question I asked this morning: why isn't this tampering? Aren't players under contract to their NHL teams until July 1?

The fourth set of open forum questions and answers. Thanks to everyone for all the great questions...

Getting back to yesterday's great open forum questions...

Some of you caught an item on the TSN website from Darren Dreger, talking about how ``Johnson's father, Jack Johnson Sr., contacted St. Petersburg prior to the World Hockey Championship to see if the team would have interest in signing his son to a one-year contract'' in the KHL.

I called Dean Lombardi this morning, and he told me the same thing he said he told Dreger: ``It's news to me. It doesn't affect us either way.''

A couple other thoughts on this...

1) Call me crazy, but I would have sworn that Johnson Jr. actually has an agent, one that didn't move from Michigan to live with his son...

2) Isn't this tampering? Johnson is under contract until July 1. Why would people in his ``camp'' be talking to anyone, other than the Kings, about signing a contract? Doesn't seem very wise, does it? When I inquired about the legality of this, Lombardi said, ``You're right, maybe we should sue them. ... They don't have the right to solicit or express interest.''

I have no intention of challenging Dreger on his story, but note that the blog post is very carefully written with words such as ``interest,'' ``it is believed,'' and ``possibility.'' If you take all those letters and rearrange them, you can probably come up with the phrase, ``No chance in hell.'' At the same time, Lombardi said today that the Kings haven't had much recent communication with Johnson's agent -- or his father, presumably -- so I'm sure that will fuel more conspiracy theories.

The second set of questions and answers from this morning...

First, a Happy Birthday to Jim Fox, who celebrates No. 49 today. Most likely, he started the day with a large cup of Jamba Juice and will end it with a choice bottle of wine. All the best to Jim!

Here's the first set of answers. Feel free to keep the questions coming...

We're in that only real ``dead period'' of the year, between the end of the season and the draft. After that, things will pick up with free agency and the prospects camp, and then training camp will be right around the corner. For now, we'll try to find things to talk about.

In that spirit, the ``open forum'' is always fun and lively, so if there are any pertinent offseason questions that I, or fellow readers, might be able to answer, feel free to throw them out there. Thanks...

Even though he's not a King anymore, a) it's the doldrums of May and b) Jason LaBabera is always a favorite topic here, it seems. The Vancouver Sun today wrote about LaBarbera's future prospects (or lack thereof) with the Canucks.

LaBarbera, 29, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. After the trade from the Kings in December, LaBarbera appeared in only nine games and had a 2.66 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.

``It's not easy playing just once a month,'' LaBarbera said ``I've never really been a backup my whole life. As far as seeing what's out there, I don't know who needs goalies and who else will be available. But one thing I've learned is that you can never predict what's going to happen.''

Forgotten backup faces an off-season of questions

The Hockey News posted a Q&A with Alexander Frolov. As far as Frolov goes, this was actually a fairly revealing interview, seeing as how the typical Frolov interview includes him staring off into the distance for no particular reason. Nice guy, truly tries to be helpful, but just a little...different. Not that ``different'' is necessarily bad. Anyway, you can give it a read...

Hobbies/Leisure Activities: "I like to read. I like chess pretty good, but it's hard to find a partner here."

Getting To Know: Alexander Frolov

As part of the ongoing story about Jim Balsillie's attempt to buy and move the Phoenix Coyotes, the Toronto Globe and Mail today wrote a piece about the process of buying a NHL team. The story, quoted in part below, talks about the 10-page application and the amount of information that must be submitted. Presumably, first and last month's rent also have to be provided.

On a somewhat related note, Bruce McNall was spotted at a Woodland Hills mall over the weekend. From what I understand, it's a popular McNall hangout!

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``The questions range from the mundane - name, date of birth, social insurance number - to more unusual queries such as the birth place of the applicant's mother and father.

There are also questions about children, military service and requirement to list every residence for the past 10 years. Several questions involve business deals, including providing information about all real estate transactions.

Other questions are more pointed such as: Have you ever been arrested? Yes or No. If Yes, provide details about the charge, location and disposition. Another section is titled "litigation history" and starts by asking if the applicant has been a party to any litigation "including litigation alleging harassment or discrimination?" The application also requires applicants to provide all personal bank and brokerage account numbers as well as "personal references.''

How to apply to be an NHL owner

``We couldn't be satisfied with 12-14,000 people every night and we couldn't look at an 88-point season (in 2007-08), where we missed the playoffs, as, `Well, we improved 17 points, we're getting there.' None of those were acceptable. We put expectations on everyone in that organization, certainly including me. I'm pretty tough on myself. We needed to put expectations on it. There was some criticism of, `Well, you can't put expectations on an organization that hasn't made the playoffs in X number of years,' and, `These are young kids and don't put too much pressure on them.' Well, I think when we play, or we get involved in any of this, ultimately your goal is to win. So why not say it? We expected sellouts. We had expectations to make the playoffs. So we're pleased with the progress, but all of us feel we have a long way to go.''

-- Chicago Blackhawks president John McDonough, yesterday on ESPN 1000 radio in Chicago.

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I wonder if I would get the same type of quote out of Dean Lombardi? Then again, with all respect to McDonough, it's a bit easier to tout your successes when you're sitting in the Western Conference Finals. I'm not sure we would be reading that quote if the `Hawks had been swept out of the first round. Still, given the comparisons some have made between the Kings and Blackhawks, I thought it was an interesting quote.

Si.com compiled a list of the five best and five worst owners in each of the four major leagues. The entire story is here. How did the NHL turn out?

Five best:
1. Detroit
2. New Jersey
3. Pittsburgh
4. San Jose
5. Carolina

Five worst:
1. Toronto
2. Florida
3. NY Islanders
4. Atlanta
5. Nashville

I just had a quick phone chat with Drew Doughty about his experience playing for Canada in the World Championships, plus some other pertinent issues...

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Question: Even though I'm sure you would have liked one more victory, it seemed to be a great tournament for you all around. How did you feel things went?

DOUGHTY: ``Overall it was a lot of fun. It was great to meet some of those world-class players and it was a great experience to be able to play with them. Obviously, playing with them made it a lot easier for me.''

Question: Obviously, you've had international experience at younger levels. Did this feel different, playing internationally against more established players?

DOUGHTY: ``For sure. It's a lot more difficult to play against guys like Frolov and Kovalchuk, like we did in the finals. I mean, I see Fro every day and practice against him, but you don't realize how strong he is, especially down low, until you play against him like that.''

Question: As you said, you played a lot, and in a lot of situations. Did you have expectations for yourself going in?

DOUGHTY: ``Going in, I didn't expect too much. I was the youngest D-man on the team, so I knew I would have to do some work to get my spot in the lineup. Things worked out really well and I ended up playing a lot of minutes in all situations. Overall, I kind of exceeded my expectations.''

Question: Did you get some good feedback from your coaches, or from teammates?

DOUGHTY: ``It was pretty cool, with some of the other guys complementing my game. It doesn't get to my head or anything, but to have guys like Heatley and Spezza and Doan say nice things...those some of the best players in the game, so that's nice.''

Question: It's been quite a year, from being drafted to playing a full season in the NHL to the World Championships. Have you had a chance to put it in some perspective yet?

DOUGHTY: ``Not yet. I've just been going and going. It seems like the (Kings) season didn't finish too long ago, and then it was off to the World Championships. It's nice to be home and take a week off just to relax.''

Question: What is the plan for the near future? Back in L.A. at some point?

DOUGHTY: ``For the next two weeks, I'll just take a little break and get my legs back and get my body back to normal. After that, I'll be going to the gym hard. I'm sure I'll be in L.A. a couple times a month, and my main goal is to get in great shape and really have the right conditioning.''

Question: Going forward, what are your thoughts about the Kings' defense and how you might be able to improve?

DOUGHTY: ``I think we did have a good D core last year, and there is always room for improvement. I think it's been good. We jelled together, and in order to be a good team, I think we know that starts with the defense. You have to have a good defense in order to make a winning team.''

Question: Have you heard the talk about your possible candidacy for the Olympic team?

DOUGHTY: ``I've heard a few things. It's going to be one of the hardest teams to make. Canada is going to be one of the better teams at the Olympics, with so many great players, unbelievable players. Even to be mentioned, or to be thought about for a tryout or something like that, is pretty overwhelming.''

Question: Most importantly, how hard will you be working on the ping-pong skills this summer?

DOUGHTY: ``I already had one match yesterday. My friends told me they got better, that they were practicing, but I think I got a little better too because the results were the same.''

Question: You won?

DOUGHTY: ``Yeah. I'm going to work hard. I have to take the title from Army (Derek Armstrong) for best player in the room.''

People.com reported today that actress/model Rachel Hunter will be getting married, in Northern California in mid-August, to Jarret Stole. Presumably, Kings forward Jarret Stoll knows about this... Hopefully, People won't confuse Brian Boyle with Susan Boyle.

Kings prospect Andrei Loktionov and the OHL champion Windsor Spitfires have advanced to the Memorial Cup playoffs, so there's still one more ``Kings'' player to follow.

The Memorial Cup will include Windsor, host Rimouski, WHL champion Kelowna and the QMJHL champion (Drummondville and Shawinigan play Game 7 tomorrow). The tournament begins Friday.

Loktionov, who turns 19 this month, is second on the Spitfires with 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 20 playoff games. In the regular season, Loktionov had 66 points (24 goals, 42 assists) in 51 games.

Drew Doughty performed so well at the IIHF World Championships that he became a candidate -- if not a favorite -- to make Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics. What a momentous accomplishment that would be, especially considering that the Games will be played in Vancouver.

Do you think it will happen?

Certainly, Canada doesn't lack for talented defensemen -- or forwards or goalies, for that matter -- and Doughty will be only 20 when the Games take place, but once again, Doughty proved himself in international competition. TSN's Darren Dreger called Doughty a ``strong candidate'' to make the team.

I know there are a lot of close followers of international hockey out there. If you had to objectively pick Team Canada's blue line, who would you select?

Alexander Frolov got a gold medal today, as Russia beat Canada 2-1 in the finals of the IIHF World Championships. Neither Frolov nor Canada's Drew Doughty recorded a point, but Russia goalie Ilya Bryzgalov had quite a game, with 37 saves.

Sweden beat the United States 4-2 in the bronze-medal game. Jack Johnson scored to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead and the game was tied 2-2 but Sweden scored in the third period, then scored an empty-net goal to clinch the game.

Ilya Kovalchuk was selected as the tournament's most valuable player. By a vote of coaches, Dustin Brown was selected as the second-best player on the U.S. team, behind Ron Hainsey.

My thanks to reader ``-J'' for finding this -- you always find good stuff -- an interview with longtime Kings scout Rob Laird about the IIHF World Championships. I had to laugh a little at his wording when he said the Kings hadn't made the playoffs ``in a couple of years'' and found it interesting when he mentioned Jan Marek as one of the guys the Kings had there, even though Marek isn't under contract. For the record, Marek played in five of the Czech Republic's seven games and had two goals and one assist.

Anyway, the interview is a fairly quick read. You can check it out here.

My apologies for not posting the other semifinal result, but I've been dealing with a nasty flu bug -- I'm seriously wondering if I have ``it'' -- and I didn't even get to follow the Canada-Sweden game.

Regardless, as you might already know, Canada beat Sweden 3-1 to set up a gold-medal game against Russia on Sunday. Drew Doughty played a team-high 22 minutes, 10 seconds, for Canada.

So it will be Canada vs. Russia for gold and the United States vs. Sweden for bronze.

Hopefully next week, I'll be able to catch up with some of the Kings who participated in the tournament and get their thoughts...

Russia defeated the United States 3-2 this morning to advance to gold-medal game of the IIHF World Championships. Dustin Brown scored a second-period goal to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead, but Alexander Frolov scored later in the period to put Russia up 2-1. Team USA tied it late in the second on a goal by Kyle Okposo, and the game-winning goal came with Russia's Konstantin Gorovikov scored on the power play with 1:47 remaining.

Russia advances to face either Canada or Sweden for gold, while the U.S. will play the lose of that semifinal game for bronze.

It's been a pretty successful World Championships tournament for Kings participants. Drew Doughty joined Dustin Brown, Peter Harrold, Jack Johnson and Alexander Frolov in the semifinals when Canada beat Latvia 4-2 this morning.

Doughty had an assist on Dan Hamhuis' second-period power-play goal, which made it 2-0 Canada. Canada went on to lead 3-1 and 4-2 and advances to tomorrow's semifinals to face either Sweden or the Czech Republic (that game is at 11:15 a.m. today)

Dustin Brown scored a power-play goal to held Team USA to a 3-2 victory over Finland and a trip to the semifinals of the World Championships. USA trailed 1-0 when Brown scored 10:31 into the second period to tie it. USA got two more second-period goals and held on in a scoreless third period.

Team USA will play Alexander Frolov and Russia in a semifinal game Friday at 7:15 a.m. Pacific time.

Drew Doughty and Team Canada play a quarterfinal game tomorrow morning against Latvia.

The Kansas City Star reported today that the Kings will play their exhibition game in Kansas City, against the New York Islanders, on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Tickets are not yet on sale.

It will be interesting to see if Kansas City starts sniffing around the bankrupt Coyotes...

Alexander Frolov scored a goal this morning to help Russia to a 4-3 victory over Belarus and a spot in the semifinals of the IIHF World Championships in Switzerland.

Frolov scored a second-period goal to put Russia up 3-2. Belarus tied the game a couple minutes later, but Ilya Kovalchuk scored a third-period goal and the Russians held on.

Russia will play the winner of the USA-Finland quarterfinal, which starts at 11:15 a.m. Pacific time and, apparently, is going to be streamed live at universalsports.com, with Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans doing the commentary.

There was a question earlier about whether the Kings will be hosting a ``draft party'' this year, similar to the one they held at Nokia Theater last year and at Hollywood and Highland the year before. The short answer is, no. There will be a ``watch party'' on the afternoon of June 26 at the new ESPN Zone across the street from Staples Center, for the first round, but it's not an event officially sponsered by the Kings.

Why? It's sort of a two-part answer, I'm told. One, to put it simply, the Kings don't want it to be pereived that they're ``celebrating'' a high draft pick every year, because obviously you only get a high draft pick when your season didn't go well. The attitude is that the Kings want to ``graduate'' from that and want to change that perception. The other part is, the Kings are putting their summer focus on the Hockey Fest event that's coming up in August. Details of that event are expected to be released over the next few weeks, but initial details can be found here.

The quarterfinals are set for the IIHF World Championships...

WEDNESDAY
Russia vs. Belarus, 7:15 a.m. (Pacific)
Finland vs. USA, 11:15 a.m.

THURSDAY
Canada vs. Latvia, 7:15 a.m.
Sweden vs. Czech Republic, 11:15 a.m.

The semifinals will be played Friday, with the bronze- and gold-medal games on Sunday.

For Team USA, Jack Johnson has four goals and two assists in six games and is averaging a team-high 20 minutes, 45 seconds, of ice time. Dustin Brown has one goal and five assists and Peter Harrold is scoreless in three games.

For Russia, Alexander Frolov has one goal and one assist in four games. For Slovakia, Michal Handzus has a team-high four assists in six games.

And yes, since I forgot young Mr. Doughty, he has one goal and five assists in six games for Canada.

Andrei Loktionov, the Kings' fifth-round draft pick last year, is having a great run in the OHL playoffs for the WIndsor Spitfires. Windsor is in the Ontario Hockey League finals against Brampton and leads the series 2-1, with Game 4 to be played Wednesday.

Loktionov has three goals and three assists in the series, and has nine goals and 21 assists in 18 playoff games overall. Loktionov, who turns 19 this month, was named the league's player of the week on Tuesday.

The series also features Brampton's Matt Duchene, who is expected to be one of the top three or four picks in next month's NHL Draft. Duchene has one goal and two assists in the series.

Team USA will play its final game in the qualifying round in just a few minutes, against Switzerland. The Americans have already qualified for the quarterfinals but can improve their standing with a victory.

In weekend games, Team USA beat France 6-2 on Friday but lost to Russia 4-1 on Saturday. The Kings' contingent was held scoreless against Russia, but against France, Jack Johnson had a goal and Dustin Brown had an assist. Johnson is now tied for the team lead with four goals and is second on the team with six points. Brown is second on the team with five assists.

Dustin Brown has been selected, along with Montreal's Alex Kovalev and Columbus' Rick Nash, as a finalist for the NHL Foundation Player Award, which is presented to a player "in recognition of his commitment and service to charities in his community.'' The winner will be announced at the NHL awards ceremony on June 18 in Las Vegas.

Here's what the NHL said about Brown in its press release...

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Dustin Brown, Los Angeles Kings
This season, Dustin Brown sought a program that would have a positive impact on the country's childhood obesity epidemic and encourage children to be active and healthy. He partnered with KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization with the mission of providing a place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Brown donated $50 for each of his hits this season, raising more than $35,000 that will go toward building a playground in his home town of Ithaca, NY. This past March, he also worked with children from the LA area to build a playground at the Bellflower YMCA. Brown is a spokesperson for the Children's Cancer Research Fund and encouraged fans to support the Kings 4 Kids Night that raised nearly $25,000 for the organization. He is a supporter of the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and participates in all Kings community initiatives -- including his personal favorite, the Adopt-a-Family program, through which players provide holiday gifts for underprivileged families. Brown was named the Los Angeles Kings' "Hometown Hero" at the Southern California Sports Choice Awards and recognized as a 2009 Outstanding Young Californian by the California Jaycees Foundation and the California Junior Chamber for his "commitment to challenge and inspire California's youth."

Jack Johnson is writing a ``blog'' for Universal Sports, the network that will be televising USA games in the IIHF World Championships starting in the quarterfinal round. So far, Johnson is talking about the USA games and his thoughts about France.

Jack Johnson blog

While searching Google News for any relevant Kings headlines, I ran across an item in Jim Kelley's latest Sportsnet column, which basically makes the case against Drew Doughty's candidacy for the Calder Trophy. In his column, Kelley writes, ``I read recently that it was a "joke" that Los Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty didn't make the final three as a rookie of the year candidate. Not if you did your homework.''

A couple things. One, I certainly agree with Jim that it's not a ``joke'' that Doughty didn't get selected as a finalist. Mason, Ryan and Versteeg are worthy choices. But while I have great respect for Jim's 30-plus-year career as a NHL follower, I don't completely follow his logic in terms of Doughty criticism.

In the column, Jim refers to Doughty's minus-17 rating and compares it, unfavorably, to other rookie defenseman in general and to Boston rookie Matt Hunwick in particular. I have a couple problems with that. One, we have discussed here the folly of relying too much on the plus-minus rating. I understand that it has some value, but really, how much? Is that really how we want to evaluate defensemen, by looking at plus-minus? Dion Phaneuf was minus-11 this season and Scott Niedermayer was minus-8. I don't know about you, but if I was starting a team, I wouldn't toss them aside. There has to be some context.

Along those lines, looking at the Doughty-Hunwick comparison, there's a couple key points here. Hunwick was a 23-year-old rookie with a previous full season of AHL experience. Doughty turned 19 during the season and jumped straight to the NHL. Hunwick averaged 17 minutes of ice time on a Boston team on which, at best, he was the third-best defenseman. Doughty averaged 24 minutes per game on a Kings team on which he was far and away the best defenseman and logged big special-teams minutes.

Again, I'm not saying it's a crime that Doughty wasn't in the top three. I just think it's dangerous to only use statistics to evaluate players, particularly rookie defensemen. Try to look at the rookies objectively. Based simply on talent and impact, if you could have traded Doughty, straight up, for any of the other rookies this season, how many rookies would you have rather had? Mason? Ryan? Anyone else?