Recap: Lombardi on NHL Live

Today on NHL Live...LA Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi stopped by.  Below is a quick recap of the conversation where they talked about the draft, Jack Johnson, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Ron Hextall and several other things - including how to improve the team this summer.  Of course, the segment was full of great quotes by Dean...as usual.

Take a look...

* What are you looking for at the draft?  It's the ol' cliche, I'm looking for the best available player.  You don't want to fall into the trap of drafting by position when dealing with 18 year olds.  The only time you want to draft by position is when you're trying to decide between two players and you value them the same.  You use the term "asset value" - and the market place traditionally values defenseman more.

* The Kings have two good ones in Doughy and Johnson (not really a question).  That's what I told the owner when I first came in, we didn't have a young defenseman in the system. 

Dean Lombardi - LIVE!

NHL Live - broadcast on XM204 and shown on the NHL Network - will have a special guest tomorrow... LA Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi.

No word yet on if they'll be taking calls or just an interview.  Either way, there are PLENTY of topics that are sure to come up...Frolov at the World Championships, Fro's free agency, the Quick / Bernier debate, Scheen at the Memorial Cup, Manchester's playoff run, the upcoming draft in LA...and tons more.

Dean usually provides some sort of a new Dean-ism when given forums like this.  Can't wait for what he comes up with.  My guess is it's going to have a baseball twist to it.  We'll see.

If you can't catch it on radio or television (sometime between 9-11am PST), check back here.  MayorsManor.com will have a full recap.

IN DEAN WE TRUST - visit the store today

The Mayor
www.twitter.com/Mayor119

Last Kid Standing

And we're down to one.

Although the Kings made an early exit from the playoffs this season, nearly all of their top prospects were making significant playoff runs...until about 48 hours ago. Friday night it was the CHL scoring champion, Brandon Kozun and his goaltender Martin Jones calling it a season. Last night it was Bernier, Hickey, Voynov, Clifford, Holloway, etc. when the Manchester Monarchs were defeated in the AHL Eastern Conference Finals by the Hershey Bears.

So, who's left? None other than last year's number one draft pick.  The kid the Kings picked fifth overall.  Brayden Schenn.  His Brandon Wheat Kings were an unlikely pick to be playing in the CHL Memorial Cup finals later today...yet, after finally knocking off the Calgary Hitmen on Friday night (in a game where Schenn had three assists), here they are...just one win away from the Cup.

Today's final will be shown on the NHL Network at 4pm PST.  You should go out of your way to watch the game.  The semi-final was one of the best hockey games of the year - and this is in a year that included a great World Jr tournament and several incredible Olympic games.  The host crowd in Brandon was wild and boisterous throughout the game...while the action on the ice matched it...a back an forth affair that had you on the edge of your seat the entire game.

The defending champion Windsor Spitfires may prove to be too tough for the Cinderella Wheat Kings...but, that won't stop the home town crowd from trying to will their team to the Championship.

Oh, and did I mention that the likely #1 pick at next month's draft, Taylor Hall, plays for Windsor?

If you haven't watched any of the Memorial Cup action yet, here's something that should catch your eye...for all the negative press the hockey world gets for their generally antiquated presentations of games on TV, the CHL has come up with a rather novel idea...letting viewers at home listen in while the on-ice official talks with the off-ice officials about disputed goals.  This is pure genius.  Can you imagine if the NFL let fans listen in when the referee went into that little black box during the instant replay stoppages?

Kings season ticket holder and avid hockey fan, movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer, was recently on NHL Live radio and provided a myriad of ideas to improve the game presentations on television.  My favorite may have been the overhead camera, ala the NFL.  I previously reported (via twitter) the Dallas Stars were going to test something similar a few months ago.  Wonder how that turned out, never heard anything more.

Along the same lines...Kings television analyst Jim Fox provided his own idea earlier this season on ways to bring the game closer to the fans...he suggested having the NHL actually explain why a player is suspended or not suspended, using video tutorials. Great idea.  Letting fans listen to the referee is similar, only it's in real time. Love it!


Anyway...plenty of story lines to follow at the Memorial Cup...including an important one for Kings fans...Schenn is looking to go out with a bang, as he's hoping to make the jump from junior hockey to the Kings roster next season.  As such, he's hoping to bring home some hardware today!

The Mayor
www.twitter.com/Mayor119

Friday Follies

Take a break for a few minutes.  Enough will all the analyzing, critiquing, guessing, prognosticating, rumors, wishful thinking, sulking and other stuff that has gotten you to this point in the week.

Just sit back and relax...enjoy some "highlights" of a different sort...the Kings present the season in review...blooper style:



The Mayor
www.twitter.com/mayor119

Kings Out, King In...plus three other news items

So, the Kings are out of the playoffs...but, King is still alive and well.  As in, Dwight King...the 6'3" left wing - a fourth round pick of the Kings back in 2007 - has been getting his playoff groove going the last few days.  King's Manchester Monarchs appeared to be clicking just fine through the first few rounds of the playoffs.  Then, they ran into the AHL juggernaut that is the Hershey Bears.  King and his fellow band of Kings prospects blinked and they were down 0-2 in the series to the defending AHL Calder Cup Champions.

However...they say a team is never in trouble until they lose on home ice.  The boys must have taken that to heart.  They battled back in game three Monday night, rallying for a 3-2 win in OT.  Then, last night they rode the back of Jonathan Bernier (again!) to pick up a 1-0 victory.  Bamn...series tied.  The pivotal game five will be Thursday, with the winning team heading back to Hershey with a 3-2 series lead.  I'm sure Ron Hextall hopes it's the Monarchs.  Don't you?

Three other things Kings fans should keep an eye on:

Think About This...

It's Thursday, so I know you all wish it was 24 hours from now...while you're sitting around waiting for your weekend to begin, in honor of the Game 7s this week, here are 7 things to think about today (besides the fact that I was able to make two baseball references in an article about hockey):

*  The Kings have been off work now for 18 days, yet they moved up in the draft last night.  With Montreal winning (8th seed in the East), the Canadiens will now draft later.  This has pushed the Kings up to #19 now, from #22 originally.  That's the little silver lining for all you Cammi fans who were steamed watching him advance another round. Or did you just accept it because you were happy Sid was eliminated?

* Manchester opened their third round series with Hershey last night and things didn't go so well.  Former first round draft pick Jonathan Bernier gave up four goals - not the norm for him this season.  One of the guys probably joining Bernier in LA next season, Andrei Loktionov, scored one of the Monarchs two goals in the loss.  Assisting on the goal was a guy that possibly could be joining them in LA next year, Kyle Clifford (his first pro point).  KC was a coach's pick as MVP of the prospects camp last September and he plans on making a strong push to become a King this fall.  He's a tough-as-nails winger and dropped the gloves late in the first period, another first in his pro career.  Now can he pick up his first goal when the Monarchs skate in game two tomorrow night?

10 Tidbits for a Tuesday

There isn't a lot of hockey news right now in Los Angeles...however, from various points around the globe there are several stories brewing with connections to the Kings:

* Ryan Smyth was injured at the Hockey World Championships taking place over in Germany.  He was thought to have rolled his ankle at practice on Sunday.  Then, an MRI reveled the situation was much worse - a fractured left ankle.  He's headed back to LA tomorrow and is expected to be fully healed before camp opens in September.  TSN has the full story here.

* Team USA - captained by the Kings Jack Johnson - is in deep trouble in the same tournament.  They lost in front of 77,000 fans in the opening game on Friday.  They followed that up with a second overtime loss yesterday, this time to Denmark (by the same score of 2-1).  On the loss to Denmark - a team that didn't even qualify to play in the recent Olympics - Johnson summed it up best "It's inexcusable.”  The American squad will now face Finland on Wednesday.  With a win they can avoid being pushed into the regulation round.  Not exactly the fate you would have forecasted for the team prior to the tournament.

Kings + Michigan + IIHF + USA...and the Spirit of 76(k)

In just a few hours...in a time-zone far, far away...Captain Jack (Johnson) and his Kings teammate, Matt Greene, will lead Team USA onto the ice at the 2010 Hockey World Championships.

Surrounding them will be slightly over 76,000 fans...enough to set a new world record for hockey attendance.  And enough people to make a hell of a lot of noise.

In fact, yesterday on NHL radio an executive from USA Hockey (Jim Johannson) said that he expects most of the crowd to be standing and singing much of the game...if not the whole game.  According to Johannson, it's just par for the course when you pack a football stadium (that's soccer stadium to you Yank') full of hockey fans and get them all liquored up.  That's how they roll, Euro style.

Captain Jack and Greener aren't the only players with a connection to both the Kings and the attendance record.  Former Kings forward Mike Cammalleri was at the University of Michigan back in 2001 when the Wolverines faced off against Michigan State in the Cold War game...played outdoors at the Spartan's football stadium, filled with 74,000 students, fans and alumni.  That fun filled event set the current record, which will be broken later this afternoon.

Although the 76,000 and change that will witness today's tournament opening game between Germany and the U.S. will just barely beat the current hockey attendance record set by Michigan-MSU, it's going to obliterate the record for the World Championships.  It was way back in 1957 when 55,000 fans filled (then) Lenin Stadium in Moscow to watch the Soviets and Swedes battle it out for gold at the final game of the Worlds.  After today, that achievement will be no more.

Hey Bud, let's party...well, almost.

With their series tied 2-2, the Manchester Monarchs traveled to Worcester tonight for a pivotal game five match-up vs. the AHL's Sharks.

Ho, hum...another game, another shutout for Jonathan Bernier.

And then there's this little tidbit...Bud Holloway had ANOTHER game winner! This guy is playing out of his mind right now. The Monarchs have been victorious in seven playoff games this year, with Holloway picking up the game-winner in SIX of those!

Incredible? Amazing? Unbelievable? How about all of that and a little more...damn, Bud.

His goal was the only puck to find the back of the net the entire game.  Meanwhile, Bernier stopped 30 shots at the other end of the ice.  So, with their 1-0 victory, the Monarchs now hold a 3-2 lead in the second round series.

Holloway (3rd round) and Bernier (1st round) were both selected by the Kings in the 2006 NHL Draft, just a few months after Dean Lombardi was hired.  For now, they're polishing their resumes in Manchester.

Bud, Bernier and the boys will be looking to party hard on Friday night. A win at home and the series is over.

To view video highlights from last night's game, courtesy of the AHL, click here.

The Mayor
www.twitter.com/Mayor119

Captain Jack steers Team USA onto TV

Captain Jack Sparrow once said 'The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can’t do.'

And according to Team USA...well, Jack Johnson CAN indeed play hockey - pretty well, in fact.  Earlier today he was named Captain of the USA squad getting ready to play in the Hockey World Championships over in Germany.

More on that in a minute though.  The other big news is...and hockey fans probably haven't uttered these words since the dispute with Versus was resolved about six weeks ago...DAMN YOU DIRECTV!  It looks like NBC's Universal Sports will be televising the Championships.  However, if you have DirecTV, you won't be seeing anything - they don't carry the channel.  Cable subscribers can click here for more info.

Now back to Captain Jack (Johnson, that is)...