Sheng Peng: Sutter & Lombardi's Extraordinary Demise How rare is it to fire a multiple Stanley Cup-winning GM & coach? And how often does a Hall of Fame player win a championship as a GM?

Both Dean and Darryl are gone, victims of the expectations their success created.

And doing a poopty job since the last Cup.

I think it is a situation that you look back at later on and see it was the right call. Both did a fine job getting them where they needed to be. Lombardis moves didnt pay off recently and it is probably a good thing they didnt wait to see exactly where we all know they are heading. New managment will have some time to try to right the ship with the core players that remain

Another goal scorer would have made the difference.
Gaborik wasn't the guy, way too inconsistent.
Really tough to win, even with Quick, Doughty, Martinez, & Muzzin heading the D zone if you only rely on 4 guys to score.

The statement - Better backup goaltending -
Budaj was fantastic for you guys - I don't know what games you were watching but you would have been Col without him - nice try on scapegoating Budaj - A 2.12 GA and 917% Kings had issues for sure Budaj wasn't one of them -

The statement - Better backup goaltending -
Budaj was fantastic for you guys - I don't know what games you were watching but you would have been Col without him - nice try on scapegoating Budaj - A 2.12 GA and 917% Kings had issues for sure Budaj wasn't one of them -
- dozerD10

agreed...2.12 and .917 would've been a solid year for quick

They had a good run.
some bad contracts but thats to be expected.

SHould have picked up a winger.

Pretty surprising. I'll take Sutter in NJ happily...despite my anger from 2012.

The statement - Better backup goaltending -
Budaj was fantastic for you guys - I don't know what games you were watching but you would have been Col without him - nice try on scapegoating Budaj - A 2.12 GA and 917% Kings had issues for sure Budaj wasn't one of them -
- dozerD10

Budaj was great you're correct but he had no back up to give him a rest. I watched every game and several games we lost allowing soft goals. I still think all is swept under the rug if we score. The problem was our leaders in scoring didn't score and the learning curve for out rookies was too large in such a a short time.
It was a great run and for that I thank Lombardi and Sutter for giving me a chance to watch championship hockey in L A.

From the outsider Eastern conference fan looking in, the Kings problem was more personnel then coaching. The cap situation in LA is ugly, (this is 100% on Lombardi) and unless Vegas and another team swoop in and do them a massive favor a la making Brown and Gaborik disappear this is a team that's effectively handcuffed to bring in more help up front. The addition of one 20 goal scorer would have probably been the difference to squeak into the playoffs.

Sutter is a very successful, defensively minded coach. I won't be shocked to see him maybe in Florida where their defense was the problem this year. I suppose the GM usually brings their guy in to coach though, and that's why he had to go?

Budaj was great you're correct but he had no back up to give him a rest. I watched every game and several games we lost allowing soft goals. I still think all is swept under the rug if we score. The problem was our leaders in scoring didn't score and the learning curve for out rookies was too large in such a a short time.
It was a great run and for that I thank Lombardi and Sutter for giving me a chance to watch championship hockey in L A.
- arh777

If he meant the backup to Budaj then yes - To the hockey world Budaj was the backup to Quick - one of the Kings narratives all yr was just wait till Quick gets back .. then all is well - For all intents and purposes the Kings got the worse end of the Bishop / Budaj deal - that was fireable in and of itself - Hell the way Peter played Kings may have been able to get Eaves from Dallas with their train wreck goaltenders - instead of Bishop from Tampa - still trying to see the logic in that move -

The statement - Better backup goaltending -
Budaj was fantastic for you guys - I don't know what games you were watching but you would have been Col without him - nice try on scapegoating Budaj - A 2.12 GA and 917% Kings had issues for sure Budaj wasn't one of them -
- dozerD10

agreed...2.12 and .917 would've been a solid year for quick
- YuenglingJagr

I consider Quick & Budaj the starters, Zatkoff & Bishop to be the backups this year. I wrote about this in my last article:

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=84400

"But would we even be having this conversation if Anze Kopitar and Tyler Toffoli have customary seasons & the backup goalies (Jeff Zatkoff, Ben Bishop) didn't go 4-10-3 with an .898 save %?"

If he meant the backup to Budaj then yes - To the hockey world Budaj was the backup to Quick - one of the Kings narratives all yr was just wait till Quick gets back .. then all is well - For all intents and purposes the Kings got the worse end of the Bishop / Budaj deal - that was fireable in and of itself - Hell the way Peter played Kings may have been able to get Eaves from Dallas with their train wreck goaltenders - instead of Bishop from Tampa - still trying to see the logic in that move -
- dozerD10

I agree with you on the Bishop trade but I believe Lombardi and Sutter were told turn it around or you're gone. Lombardi banked on his big guys to come through and get them in the playoffs. Narratives are always exacerbated by media. Quick, as good as he was for 17 games couldn't score.

I consider Quick & Budaj the starters, Zatkoff & Bishop to be the backups this year. I wrote about this in my last article:

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=84400

"But would we even be having this conversation if Anze Kopitar and Tyler Toffoli have customary seasons & the backup goalies (Jeff Zatkoff, Ben Bishop) didn't go 4-10-3 with an .898 save %?"
- Sheng Peng

Thanks for clarifying on the goalie situation - and yes Kings more than likely are in the mix late if the skipper and TT have regular years -

sutter was out dated, I think you guys will be much happier once you have a new age coach that values the speed of the game. Helped us in Calgary. Travis Green could be a good candidate if canucks don't grab him first.

Ron Francis and Steve Yzerman seem to be doing just fine as GM's who are former top-notch players.

It took Jim Rutherford a while, but the guy has two Stanley Cups as a GM too.

No reason to think Rob Blake can't have success, ownership is just going to have to take a long-term view of things. There are a lot of heavy contracts on this team.

It was definitely the scoring that was the problem. Excluding overtime and empty net goals, the Kings scored 178 and yielded 178. Again excluding OT and EN, their GA was 2.15 during the period where Quick was hurt, and 2.23 when he was healthy. Overall they had the sixth best defense (counting all GA) but the sixth worst offense - in other words their offense was so poor that the rest of the league collectively performed like the sixth best defense when playing the Kings.

To me it looked like the team's spirit was broken. By the time Quick came back they often looked like they were just going through the motions, the detail and energy just wasn’t there.

I think a new coach will revitalize them but I’d be concerned about some of their players. Toffoli looks like he lost a step or three since coming back from injury, he basically can’t make anything happen when he’s one-on-one with a defender. Muzzin is a total basket case, and his pairing with Martinez had some truly dreadful numbers. No idea where Kopi’s scoring touch when.

[edit: had GAA with/without Quick reversed, now fixed (it was slightly better without him)]

It was definitely the scoring that was the problem. Excluding overtime and empty net goals, the Kings scored 178 and yielded 178. Again excluding OT and EN, their GA was 2.23 during the period where Quick was hurt, and 2.15 when he was healthy. Overall they had the sixth best defense (counting all GA) but the sixth worst offense - in other words their offense was so poor that the rest of the league collectively performed like the sixth best defense when playing the Kings.

To me it looked like the team's spirit was broken. By the time Quick came back they often looked like they were just going through the motions, the detail and energy just wasn’t there.

I think a new coach will revitalize them but I’d be concerned about some of their players. Toffoli looks like he lost a step or three since coming back from injury, he basically can’t make anything happen when he’s one-on-one with a defender. Muzzin is a total basket case, and his pairing with Martinez had some truly dreadful numbers. No idea where Kopi’s scoring touch when.
- responsible_D

That's where I think things went south for Lombardi. You could see right from the start of the struggles that the Kings needed help offensively, and what does he do? He trades for a goalie...

And not just any goalie. Ben freaking Bishop.

Doesn't make any sense.

Budaj was great you're correct but he had no back up to give him a rest. I watched every game and several games we lost allowing soft goals. I still think all is swept under the rug if we score. The problem was our leaders in scoring didn't score and the learning curve for out rookies was too large in such a a short time.
It was a great run and for that I thank Lombardi and Sutter for giving me a chance to watch championship hockey in L A.
- arh777

Absolutely. Not to mention Budaj played every game the year before in Ontario with a very deep playoff run as well.
Lombardi made to many mistakes after the last cup. I get getting caught up in the Stanley excitement and wanting to congratulate players with nice contracts but....this IS a business. Gaborik wasn't right since he left the Wild. (And they couldn't wait to get rid of him) Typical player move of Kopi not living up to expectations after signing major contract. Brown being stripped of C. and huge contract. Too many grinders and no top scorers. Don't even get me started on bringing in Bishop and Iginla ? ?

The statement - Better backup goaltending -
Budaj was fantastic for you guys - I don't know what games you were watching but you would have been Col without him - nice try on scapegoating Budaj - A 2.12 GA and 917% Kings had issues for sure Budaj wasn't one of them -
- dozerD10

Budaj was the starter. Not the backup since Quick was injured. We had no backup for Budaj that could even keep you in a game. He wasn't blaming Budaj.

As much as I appreciate DS and DL for what they accomplished here in LA and I would never take any of that away from them, there had to be a change.

You don't want to get too far down the road and recognize a change should have been made that you didn't make at the time when the time was calling for it. Blake can't fix everything by next season but steps in the right direction can be made.

the one thing that has the most potential to change is the way the team is coached, how the lines are set, who gets PP time and who doesn't, and so on with the personnel.
There was too much favoritism played with vets in situations that they constantly underachieved in. let Kopi get some time in with Brodz and Kempe as his wingers, or even call up Auggie for some speed+ size. you want grit on the blue line? let K-Mac get a good look in camp. Point is , there are changes to the look of the team that DS was clearly not interested in making and I think Luc and Blakey don't have any fear of using those players to change the complexion a bit without sacrificing the solid play that got them to these high levels of success. you don't have to completely ditch the defensive play, just tweaking what we got a bit more should help a ton.

please don't let John Stevens be the new coach, I am waiting for Davis Paynes walking papers to be handed out too!

i'd be fine if they gave stothers a shot...and he was blake's hire in manchester/ontario. if they go outside the family, have to give a look at gallant. he never got a fair shake in FLA and coached a young team to the playoffs a year ago.

Blake might be fine bur mike futa should of been gm,imho but good luck with the rest of the way, and hopefully playoffs next year

The latest poor excuse from Sutter fan boys is that his system worked but the players weren't executing it.

More than half the players have been there for many years and have executed his so called "system". All of the sudden they forgot? How stupid! Everybody who has been employed most of their adult life like I have knows what it is like to be under bad managment, and that's exactly how they performed, like they were under bad managment. Beckerman said it right where basically he said the team had too much talent to not be competing.

Finally gone is the wanker Sutter and hope for a bright future ahead.

The latest poor excuse from Sutter fan boys is that his system worked but the players weren't executing it.

More than half the players have been there for many years and have executed his so called "system". All of the sudden they forgot? How stupid! Everybody who has been employed most of their adult life like I have knows what it is like to be under bad managment, and that's exactly how they performed, like they were under bad managment. Beckerman said it right where basically he said the team had too much talent to not be competing.

Finally gone is the wanker Sutter and hope for a bright future ahead.
- verwustung

The players executed the system fine.

The problem is that a bunch of the players (frank)ing suck.