Dean Lombardi and Darryl Sutter go out for the same reason they came in. They arrived to fix the Kings. They did that, the GM first, then the coach. Then the Kings missed the playoffs twice in thre…
Dean Lombardi and Darryl Sutter go out for the same reason they came in.
They arrived to fix the Kings. They did that, the GM first, then the coach.
Then the Kings missed the playoffs twice in three years.. Their last playoff series win came when Alec Martinez jumped on a rebound that glanced like a pumpkin off Henrik Lundqvist’s pads, and soon all Kings’ gloves were off, and a second parade in 24 months was rolling downtown.
Never mind that the Kings won one playoff series from 1993 until 2012, from Wayne Gretzky until Jarret Stoll. Lombardi and Sutter set high standards, which suddenly attacked them like Hitchcock’s Birds.
Bob Miller used to joke about the onerous task of moving the Kings’ few banners from The Forum to Staples Center. Now the two Stanley Cup banners glared down at Lombardi and Sutter, demanding a sibling.
It happens. Lindy Ruff coached the most dynamic team in the NHL last season. He was asked to turn in his key card to Dallas Stars management the other day.
When they won, the Kings were an old-school antidote to the speed-skating around them. You need size and toughness in the playoffs, right? Now the Kings couldn’t get there, and so were an anachronism. They had honest journeymen trying to keep up in Connor McDavid’s division.
Never mind that Jonathan Quick got hurt opening night. Everybody’s got something
What Lombardi and Sutter never found was a replacement for Slava Voynov, who left on domestic violence charges in the fall of 2014, a Norris candidate in partial bloom.
Lombardi rewarded Dustin Brown, Marian Gaborik and Matt Greene for meritorious service. The contracts reeked of gratitude, but not realism. Chicago has won three Stanley Cups by protecting the core and profusely thanking Troy Brouwer, Patrick Sharp, Andrew Shaw, Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell and Andrew Ladd as they show them the door
The Blackhawks beat the salary cap to the point that they have 14 players who make less than $1 million this season. And, even then, Chicago has not won back-to-back Cups. This stuff is hard.
Now the Kings see Justin Williams, Wayne Simmonds, Milan Lucic, Brayden Schenn and Jordan Weal thriving throughout the league. They wouldn’t have gotten Mike Richards without giving up Simmonds and Schenn, and probably wouldn’t have won that 2012 Cup. But at least when they missed the 2015 playoffs, they had the same regular-season record they did in 2012. The 2017 team was far more ineffectual. It cried for change.
Better, at this point, to remember that Lombardi and Sutter gave a wholly unanticipated gift to a beaten-up fan base that was getting Cub-like in its masochism
They created a howling atmosphere at Staples, among the best in the league with nightly sellouts. They also created identity. The Kings wore out teams, line by line, and when it was time to line up for a shootout you realized just how much talent was there: Kopitar, Toffoli, Doughty, Carter, Williams, Gaborik, etc.
There may never be a Stanley Cup champion, especially a No. 8 seed, that was as utterly dominant as the 2012 bunch that led every series 3-0.
And there may never be a Stanley Cup champion with the inexplicable resolve of the 2014 group that won three Game 7s on the road against the titans of the West: San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago.
Lombardi came to the Kings and saw the lower-case mighty Ducks run them out of buildings. He knew they had to counter, but he also knew it would take more time than previous Kings’ regimes had devoted.
He told the season ticket holders, “We’re tried it their way. Let’s see if my way works.” Eventually it did, but who knows what happens if Trevor Lewis, a Sutter favorite doesn’t take the puck from Dan Hamhuis in Vancouver and give it to Stoll for the series-winner?
Lombardi also fired Terry Murray, who nurtured the Kings into the fringes of contention by preaching Philly-style coarseness. He brought in Sutter. “He scares me a little,” Drew Doughty said, because the time for patience had passed, and few coaches could demand things as starky as Sutter. But the Kings also showed offensive aggression. Play in the other two zones, Sutter said. Because of that, they spent two Junes in Eastern zones.
Lombardi and Sutter gave us five consecutive playoff springs. They took the surprise out of winning. Their mistakes will be listed painstakingly in the coming days, but they should be remembered for those two black carpets that hang from on high.
Now new guys try it, and Lombardi and Sutter will be casting the shadow.
