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Kings Get Younger; Worser
Now that your Los Angeles Kings have finally hired a coach, they can get aggressive about putting a plan in place to disappoint as many fans as possible this year. It will be hard to top last seasons next to last place finish, but then, I felt the exact same way a year ago, and the Kings didn’t let me down. (In that I expected to be so let down, that I wasn’t let down when I was so let down.)
In an interview with sportshubla.com last Thursday, even GM Dean Lombardi pretty much said the Kings aren’t going to make the playoffs this coming year. Of course, there’s nothing shocking about that news whatsoever, except maybe the fact that the Kings roster is so thin, that even the management can’t feign optimism anymore.
In the same interview, Lombardi spoke about the Kings being a goaltender, a number one and number two defenseman, a number two center, and two wingers away from having “the core” necessary to start being competitive in this league. There are some trades rumored to be in the works, but since many of them involve number one center, Anze Kopitar, improvement seems like pipe dream.
It’s funny to hear the management complain about not having any defense after trading Lubomir Visnovsky to Edmonton, and losing Rob Blake to San Jose earlier this summer. Remarkably, the Kings are going to be under pressure to meet the NHL payroll minimum of $40 million!
I’ve mentioned previously that the Kings always seem to be in the first year of a five year rebuilding plan, and this year seems to be no different. The coaches and the GM are preaching youth – as always – and seem to have spent most of the off-season getting younger. I believe the departure of Rob Blake alone lowered the teams’ median age by six years. Granted, there are a lot of young players in the system with a lot of potential – Colten Teubert, Thomas Hickey, and the very recommended Drew Doughty – the question remains whether or not players will be ready to come up to the NHL, and when they do, whether or not they’ll have any impact.
Only time will tell if the Lombardi’s strategy will lead to a better season for the Kings, or whether this year will be another disappointing one. Aw, who am I kidding? If you’re a Kings fan, you don’t need time to tell you the answer. You already know.
Did I mention that the Kings are raising ticket prices?
photo of Drew Doughty by frequent LAist featured photos Flickr contibutor Michael Zampelli