Ch-ch-changes
The Los Angeles Kings new head man Dean Lombardi gives new meaning to the term "cleaning house."

Lombardi passed his time scouting for the Philadelphia Flyers (where he built a relationship with his new assistant GM Ron Hextall) until the call came from L.A. this summer. They obtained a driven -- some would say obsessive -- manager who eats, drinks and sleeps hockey.

As he was constructing his organization in the early days of his regime, he pined for the day when "I can sit in a room with my management team for twelve hours and talk hockey."

Different strokes for different folks, we guess. If Lombardi fails in the City of Angels, it won't be due to lack of hard work. That' the good news for the Purple and Black loyalists.

The bad news is that when the season ends, the Kings still won't have a championship banner hanging high over Casa del Staples.

Lombardi has gone on the record as saying it will take three years to build his organization to optimal efficiency and towards that end he's eliminated any connection to the old regime. He cleaned house from top to bottom, from coaching staff to trainers, and he even reconfigured the coaches' office and locker room in their practice facility.

He made the smart and obvious move by getting the best coach available in former Vancouver/Colorado head man Marc Crawford. He brings a winning record and a championship ring to the bench and hopefully more discipline to this team.

It's been revealed that when the team plummeted last season, there was a severe lack of discipline in the locker room. This management team will not allow a repeat performance and they have the authority from ownership to jettison anyone not on board with the program.

Lombardi paid a premium to bring back Rob Blake to the Kings, as $12 million for two years evidences. While this player's performance is still at a high level at the advanced age of 36, Lombardi and Crawford knew that a more vocal presence in the room was necessary. The GM also brought in character guys he knew, Alyn McCauley and Scott Thornton (the joke is he got the wrong Thornton from San Jose) to further reinforce the need for veteran leadership.

When discussing the character issue, one name always comes to the forefront, Sean Avery. In talking to numerous sources around the league, they always start with the same sentence: "It's a shame because the guy is not a bad hockey player."

The combative winger was embarrassingly asked to the leave the team late last season after a beef during a practice with former assistant coach Mark Hardy. While the company line is that Avery was brought back because he was a restricted free agent and an asset for a trade down the line, the reality is that ownership believes he sells tickets. So despite unprofessional behavior on many occasions, money green trumped all.

Give Crawford credit for knowing what kind of distraction Avery can be, as he purposely surrounded his locker with Blake's and Captain Mattias Norstrom's. While the soft spoken Swede captain might walk away from Avery's antics with a passing word or two, he won't get the same treatment from Blake, who won't put up with his nonsense. You can't fault Crawford for thinking he can fix this player's bad attitude but remember that this was the guy Steve Yzerman banished from Detroit back in the day.

The team had mediocre goaltending last season and Crawford got Lombardi's blessing to bring in his man from Vancouver, Dan Cloutier.

Cloutier was the odd man out after the Todd Bertuzzi-Roberto Luongo deal and his presence gives the Kings a proven NHL number one goaltender. They strengthened their belief at the end of camp by giving Cloutier a two year contract extension. On the flip side, Crawford has made his backup goaltending decision, going with last year's starter, Mathieu Garon to spell Cloutier. It's the right choice as Jason LaBarbera's play during the second half of last season told us he's nothing more than a very good AHL goaltender. The hardest part of the decision is that since LaBarbera was signed to a one way NHL contract, his $875,000 contract will count against the cap.

Blake's acquisition makes this team's strength its defense, perhaps the wrong route to go in the new NHL. Blake, Aaron Miller and Mattias Norstrom are in their mid 30's and have lost a step, but Lubomir Visnovsky is one of the most underrated defensemen in the league. Mike Weaver tries hard but at best a 5-6 defenseman and management can only hope Brent Sopel's injured knee was the reason he was a non-factor after being acquired with the now departed Mark Parrish.

Lombardi pulled therst great move of his regime by stealing the rights of former #3 overall pick Jack Johnson from the impatient Carolina Hurricanes for a checking line center and a 5-6 defenseman (Eric Belanger and Tim Gleason, respectively).

Yes, the GM had to take on a little age and green in getting Oleg Tverdovsky back with the rights to the future All-Star (Johnson), but the current Michigan Wolverine is the type of player that Lombardo can rebuild his defense around for the next decade.

"He certainly has the potential to play in the top three," Lombardi said. "The most important thing is that within his peer group, he is one of the top prospects. But I'm not saying he's Scott Niedermayer or anything like that."

The two areas of great concern for this team are goal scoring and special team's play. Lombardi dealt away their most gifted goal scorer in Pavol Demitra, opting to get back the young (and cheaper) Patrick O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan has made the varsity but may be challenged to play at the NHL this year; he may eventually replace Demitra's numbers but there are no guarantees.

Although Craig Conroy is a solid citizen and steady performer, he is not the stud pivot man on the first line that contending teams have. Crawford will lean heavily on Mike Cammalleri and Dustin Brown, looking for a repeat of last season's breakout performance from the former and seeing if the latter was truly worth the first-round pick.

Alexander Frolov is the x-factor for this team; a shoulder injury in the Olympics forced him to play hurt at the end of the season and his goal total dropped from 24 to 21. Frolov pronounced himself healthy in training camp and must score at least 35 goals for this team to have a shot at the playoffs. The Russian has the tools to be the team's top left winger but his inconsistency has prevented him from reaching elite status. He also needs to develop more of a sniper's mentality, shoot first, pass and think later.

The sleeping giant along the forward wall is 19-year-old Slovenian center Anze Kopitar. Watching him in the Kings' pre-season rookie tournament was like watching a man playing with boys. Like O'Sullivan, Kopitar will start the season with the big club, but his talent will be wasted playing the odd shift, so his best option may be a season in the AHL if he can't get significant ice time.

Crawford's coaching prowess will be severely tested while trying to fix the Kings' special teams as both the power play and penalty killing were near the bottom of the league last season. Since the Kings did not upgrade the offensive side of the puck over the summer, they won't improve markedly this season with the man advantage. With Cloutier in the net and Blake's physical presence in front of him, the penalty kill has a puncher's chance of improving; smarter play, harder work and better coaching wouldn't hurt either.

For LA Hockey Fan, this season will be defined by that ugly word, "transition." This team will be very different than the one that will hit the ice in 2008-09 but that's of little solace to fans now.

The Kings compete in a very difficult Pacific Division where every opponent has improved over last season. Since last season ended so badly, there's a tendency to forget this team did register 89 points and was seven games over .500. While they've improved on the blueline and in net, they will struggle mightily to score goals, a big deficiency in the new NHL.

The organization is making a huge bet that Lombardi can replicate his San Jose success and his prowess in getting the right to Johnson is the first affirmation they pick the right man. We agree that they've guessed right, but you certainly won't see tangible results this year. For the 2006-07 campaign, it's looking like last in the Pacific and twelfth in the Western Conference. Keep the faith, KingsNation.
 

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