All The Kings Men

With Monday's announcement of former Vancouver/Colorado head coach Marc Crawford as the man to lead them behind the bench over the next few years, the organization now has a face.

Dean Lombardi (more on him later) had basically a lay-up in making his first major decision as the Kings President/GM. While Crawford had some chatter with the Toronto Maple Leafs, his desire to stay in the Western Conference and remain on the West Coast made the choice easy for him as well.

"In the 36 hours I spent with Marc last week, what impressed he the most was his willingness to admit he made mistakes (accountability will be a major watchword in Lombardi's organization), his willingness to admit that while he didn’t have the answers yet (for the Kings), he was going to find them," Lombardi revealed.

"I was so impressed with Dean's passion for the game of hockey. He's got more energy than anyone I've ever worked with and I've worked with some of the greats in the game," Crawford said. "I looked at a lot of criteria while making my decision and was so impressed with everything in Los Angeles. It started with the owner, Mr. Anschutz, when I talked to him last week. What came across so vividly was how badly he wants this franchise to succeed. That was a great selling point with me.

"I'm a very different coach than Andy Murray and I say that with all due respect as he is a personal friend. I'm a very passionate in how I perform my duties as a head coach. I want players around me who work hard, are creative and work cohesively. But most of all, I look for people who care.

"The aspect that put the Kings over the top for me was the fact that everyone is one the same page. I wanted to be with an organization that had the philosophy and vision that is in line with the way I do my job. I got the strong sense of commitment from Dean, that he was going to do things the right way. We're not going to put band-aids on problems. It speaks to how you become successful, you think things out, do your due diligence and you'll come up with the right answers. That's what Dean is about and I want to be a part of it. This was the exact best fit for me," he optimistically concluded.

While Crawford supplied the sizzle on this day, it was his new GM that provided the steak after the formal press conference concluded. Lombardi was a bit standoffish during the initial moments of the media madness, preferring to let Crawford handle the spotlight but as the chatting progressed, the former San Jose head man warmed to the task.

We sat one-on-one with him and found a man that lives, dies and bleeds hockey.

No canned answers, nothing politically correct, just a leader who showed such an acute knowledge of the game that if fans had the same opportunity to chat with him as we did, they’d like him. As for constructing the team from its present permutation, Lombardi insists it will be a collaborative effort with his new coach.

"I was getting bored being by myself so this is the most fun I've had since I've been here. I finally have someone to talk hockey with," he chuckled, while noting that the bigger challenge may be building his front office more so than the on ice product, noting that it may take up to three years to build his off ice team.

In some organizations, the GM gets the players and the coach coaches them, that's clearly not Dean's Way.

"When I worked with Daryl Sutter in San Jose, he was as responsible for putting that roster together as me," Lomdardi said. "The GM has to have the final call on a player, just as the coach has to have the final say in the locker room, but the coach and the GM have to be on the same page, we're just like players. To have a Berlin Wall up between a coach and GM doesn't make any sense. You have to establish a situation where players see management working together and secondly, in the salary cap era, you're not allowed to have mistakes where coach and GM aren't on the same page. You can't buy your way out of mistakes. Frankly, I just like doing the job because it's so much fun to put eight hockey people in a room and have a 12 hour meeting. That's not work."

When we chided him about his definition of fun, he pushed back:

"Seriously, Bobby Clarke (Hall of Famer and current Philadelphia GM) once says what we do isn't brain surgery. We're doing something we've done as kids and now we're getting paid to do it. If it truly is a passion, you can never get tired of it, that's how you define passion."

He went on to talk about a non-cash method of improving the franchise.

"You're talking about a salary cap that is built to make everyone even," he said. "So where is an area that you can improve a team without spending cash? One way is by chemistry, you make your list of 7-10 things to improve the team, that's one of them and it's often overlooked. To get players to like each other, that's an advantage."

Lastly, he cites the one thing that has made the likes of Detroit, New Jersey and Ottawa at the top of the league over the past decade:

"Continuity. Everybody understands each other, everyone's on the same page."

SAY HELLO TO THE BAD GUY?

The biggest benefactor of this new management team may be Sean Avery, of all people. Avery ended last season as a persona non grata after an on ice beef with former Kings' assistant Mark Hardy at a late season practice. It's not the new regime is willing to forgive and forget, but they are will to listen.

"The great thing about this being a new situation is that you come in with just a little bit of information about any particular player," Lombardi said. "The page is mostly blank because you want your relationship to grow with people, whether it's with Aaron Miller, Craig Conroy or Sean Avery. We want a chance to develop a relationship and make an assessment as we move forward. We don't have to make any serious assessment until that first important game, which is in October. Given Crawford's fiery personality, it's doubtful that he will put up with any of Avery's antics.

"There's a classic example of where the coach and general manager have to be on the same page. With Sean, after my meeting with him, I'd say he's 'still alive.' But just based on that meeting alone, that doesn't cut it; I've been around the game too long. Sure he had issues here last year, but I'm more interested if he's capable of stepping back and saying, 'boy, I goofed' or am I going to get canned answers from him.

"To be fair to Marc, he has to have the same feeling about him; I won't saddle him with a player he doesn't want. Sean has to learn the definition of team."

Lombardi's statements may be a sincere opportunity for Avery to be included in the mix for next year or a smart move by a smart GM to keep some value in an asset as Avery is currently a restricted free agent.

SOME OF THE RIGHT MOVES

On paper, the Kings have made the right moves on Lombardi and Crawford. The GM is addicted to hockey, a driven senior executive who will be tireless in approach to a role he craved since he left the Sharks.

In the short term, he has some decisions to make on Joe Corvo and Jeremy Roenick as unrestricted free agents and it has to be assumed he will make a move to upgrade the goaltending situation.

In the longer term, he has to make the scouting function more adept at selecting better talent as the number of home grown player successes have been few and far between over the recent years.

For the critics that say Crawford has always had elite talent to coach, let's remind everyone that both Todd Bertuzzi and Ed Jovanovski were not the players they were before they got to British Columbia. Additionally, the Sedin twins have blossomed into solid NHL players, Anson Carter's career got off the flat line and Ryan Kesler has developed nicely under Crawford's stewardship, so some of the credit has to go him. He also is the only coach in Kings' history to own a Stanley Cup ring while coaching the team (former coach Larry Robinson got his with New Jersey after departing LA).

Crawford's proven he can coach the likes of a Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg and earn their respect. This wasn't the time for the Kings to go with an unknown quantity behind the bench. He had the best credentials of any potential candidates that would come into the market after the Finals, so they correctly jumped on him. As they tackle the major tasks at hand, we'll see if the Kings have made all the right moves.
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.