It's not that that there's Stanley Cup talk around 11th and Figueroa or that they signed one of the elite free agents that were on the market this summer, it's the reality that their 39th season was just so awful.

The Kings stumbled out of the gate in the season's first month and kept stumbling until they hit the finish line at Game 82. They recorded the least amounts of wins in the league, 27 and their 68 point total was 21 less than the season before.

"He always has his eyes and ears open and he's super respectful. He's had some success but he hasn't changed one bit in his preparation. Sometimes you see a little arrogance creep into some guys' play but with Anze there are no shortcuts in his game," conveyed former Kings' captain and current Dallas Star Mattias Norstrom.

With his 35 goal campaign in the books, Alexander Frolov finally removed that pesky adjective “enigmatic” from in front of his name. The big Russian winger finally decided to opt out of the spin-o-rama moves that often took him away from the slot and simultaneously decided that sticking his head in the slot in front of the net would take him to the next level. Entering his fifth NHL, Frolov enters into his prime hockey years and the Kings expect nothing less than what his delivered a season ago.

Lubomir Visnovsky’s scoring prowess along the backline earned him a five year deal from Lombardi over the summer. His playmaking ability on the power play (8 goals, 33 points) earned his an All Star designation and he is the best the Kings have to offer along the blue line until second year defenseman Jack Johnson matures into a star. Visnovsky, who at times has been painfully shy in the locker room, better understands his leadership role for this team, his English speaking ability improved markedly over the summer, a tip to what Coach Marc Crawford needs from him off the ice and in the locker room as well.

Lombardi pays the 31-year-old the ultimate compliment by saying, "whenever you’re building a team you’ve got to have defensemen that have an offensive dimension and can make plays. He’s been a King from day one, which is important and when you have a quality player like him, it’s important to keep your own. I think that signifies a commitment to continuity. I think players like Lubo make all of the players around him better."

Sounds pretty good, eh? It would be except for the fact that hockey isn’t played with four players and the rosters aren’t 12 deep like the NBA (perish the thought). Lombardi knew that there was a serious upgrade of talent needed on this team, so when the free agent flood gates opened on July 1 he jumped in with both feet.

Unfortunately for Dean, he had to tread water for a while before he actually could swim. He doggie paddled as the likes of Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, and Daniel Briere drifted by and then signed the next wave of less notable (and expensive) free agents. While some howled that the signings were second tier talent, when you’re last in the league in wins, one shouldn’t be barking too loud.

Michal Handzus, when healthy, is arguably a number one center in the league. He started off with a bang for the Chicago Blackhawks, getting three goals and eight points in his first eight games before his knee went boom and missed the rest of the season, GM Lombardi wrote that off to plain old Blackhawk luck and inked him to a four year, $16 million deal. He pronounced himself fully recovered when camped opened and must come close to a point a game player for the Kings to be a serious playoff contender.

Next enter Ladislav Nagy, a European with that pesky moniker “enigmatic” in from of his name. While he has nice skills and slick moves, Nagy has never scored more than 24 goals in the NHL (2003-04 with Phoenix) and is coming off a poor season, 12 goals split between Dallas and Phoenix. Lombardi hopes that Crawford will pair these two and they can catch lightning in a bottle like they did went they entered the league with St. Louis at the beginning of the decade. This appears to be Nagy’s last shot to prove he’s still a top six forward in the league because that’s what one year contracts are supposed to do.

Kyle Calder is in the same boat as Nagy, only Lombardi gave this cat a little more rope with a two year deal at $5.4 million. On the face of it, the green looks a little pricey with the season Calder produced split between Philadelphia and Detroit, 14 goals and 35 points, his worst full season in his seven year career. Of all the signings, Calder has the most to lose as the Kings are the third team he’s bounced to in two seasons and yet he’s only two seasons from a career high 26 goal season. He’s shown grit and determination around the net in the pre-season that’s been an afterthought by most wingers lately in Los Angeles.

Lombardi also upgraded the blueline with two smart signings and no, I’m not talking about re-signing Jaroslav Modry (a curious move because of Lombardi’s public statement on a radio appearance last March that the maligned defenseman wasn’t in their plans this year).

Tom Priessing is a smart, mobile defenseman who grew up in the San Jose Sharks system so he knows how to play the game right. One can’t blame him if he wakes up with nightmares of flocks over Ducks coming at him (the Anaheim kind) after his performance in the Stanley Cup Finals. Priessing, a four year starter at Colorado College, had great regular season numbers in Ottawa and at 28 years old will be counted on as a top four defenseman, a paradigm shift from his role as primarily a power play specialist.

The defensive exacta was completed by Lombardi when he brought in veteran Brad Stuart from the Calgary Flames and inked him to a one year deal, an indicator that Stuart may only service in a transitional capacity this season.

Stuart was grateful to get out the nightmare that is the Boston Bruins and performed more like his old self when he was liberated back to Alberta for the second half of last season. For a big man (6-2. 215) he’s a swift skater and has a heavy shot that will be welcomed with the man advantage. Former Dallas Star Jon Klemm was a late sign but gives the Kings additional depth in case of injury, Klemm is not the physical force he once was, but has solid decision making skills.

While none of these names jump off the page at you and these deals certainly didn’t have anybody on the Westside running to the season ticket offices, you can’t deny they significantly improve the team’s talent base.

To put it another way, Kings’ fans can be relieved that that don’t have to watch the defensive pairing of Mike Weaver (but he’s a great guy!) and Kevin Dallman again this season. And that’s the first impression I got when I visited training camp last week, the Kings just LOOK bigger; a much physically larger team than last season. If the 6’7” behemoth, Brian Boyle from Boston College makes the squad as a converted defenseman (a long shot at best) they’ll even more robust.

So that's the good news from Casa del Staples, KingsNation. You have a definitively deeper offensive team, some young talent maturing into their prime hockey years and some veterans playing for their careers.

So far so good, but then there’s Chapter 2...

PIPE DREAMS

As the saying goes, you can’t get to the Promised Land without a man, a real man in the nets. The New Jersey Devils can lose Hall of Fame defensemen and top scorers but still are a threat because of Martin Brodeur. The Anaheim Ducks raised the trophy last year due in large part to Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s ability to stay injury free and his steely determination to win it all. People still think the Detroit Red Wings can win because Dominik Hasek will strap on the gear one more time.

At the other side of the spectrum, the Kings goaltending situation last season was a train wreck. No less than five goalies minded the nets last year, including the first Japanese goalie ever to play in the NHL, some guy named Barry Brust and I think if you look close enough, probably Abbott and Costello. Are you feeling me yet? Dan Cloutier, who was Crawford’s boy in Vancouver, was brought in and although he started the season healthy, got hurt AND played poorly (poorly may be an understatement, his stats were league worst).

Cloutier finally surrendered to hip surgery after 24 games and Lombardi had to make a deal for the aged Sean Burke, who recently stepped away from the game at age 40. Burke played admirably but was just a stop gap measure until the season concluded. Mathieu Garon, now on to greener (or more likely icier) pastures in Edmonton, always had decent numbers, but flopped every time he was given the opportunity to seize the number one. He seems to fit comfortably in one of the easiest roles in the NHL, that of back up goaltender.

Then there's the story of the company man, Jason LaBarbera, who spent last season in the purgatory that is Manchester of the AHL. He was beaten out for the top two goaltending spots by Cloutier and Garon last season and was sent back to the A, a risk Lombardi won’t take this year (he’ll carry three net minders for the duration of this season.)

"Everybody says it was so bad but it was a good experience for me. I understood the situation and I was ok with it. I went down with a good attitude and it worked out well," said LaBarbera, a 27-year old native of Burnaby, British Columbia.

Fearful that they would lose LaBarbera to waivers if recalled after Cloutier’s injury, the organization decided to warehouse him for the whole year. As in his past, Jason put up big numbers in Manchester and after shaking off an injury in the second half got some playoff time in the AHL. He’s declared himself fit and ready and if he’s on his game, he threw down a challenge to the other backstops in camp.

"If I play the way I did last year, there's no reason why I'm not the number one goalie," he proclaimed during the first week of training camp.

LaBarbera’s rap is that he’s an All Star at the AHL level but that may be his highest level of competency. In the 2005-’06 season, he started off 5-0 in the season’s first month but then skidded to a mediocre 11-9-2 record overall and then couldn’t make the case to start with the varsity during training camp last season. The one flaw in his game is the lack of lateral mobility but Lombardi is still a believer, inking him to a two year deal in July. Lombardi had a late signee in journeyman Jean-Sebastien Aubin, late of the Toronto Maple Leafs bringing him in just before the start of training camp as an insurance policy, but that policy might have to be cashed in sooner than expected based on the status of a former starter.

Crawford has refused to name the number one in net throughout camp so it’s likely that call will not be made before opening night and probably will linger until after the puck drops for real in London.

"We're going to give this decision all the time and the attention it deserves. We're going to make sure we make the really intelligent decisions this year with our goaltending," said Crawford.

Towards that end; a major decision was made last week regarding the near future of the goaltending situation as Dan Cloutier and his $3.2 million salary was sent to the AHL, not to be seen again this season. As with LaBarbera last season, if the Kings recall Cloutier at any time during the regular season, he would be exposed to waivers and could be snapped up by any of the other 29 teams with the Kings responsible for half the salary.

"Last year, he did not have a good year due to a combination of injuries or whatever. He did come back and was completely healthy, and he was really good this summer in terms of doing all the camps and working with our goaltending people to bring his game back technically. So physically, he was there," said Lombardi on the day the cut was made.

"But it still comes down to playing, and the way we were looking at it is, the reality now is that he hasn't played for three years. The only way he was going to get his confidence back and the only way to get his rhythm back is to play. The way we were looking at it, we just felt this was the best thing for him and will give him a much better base to try and come back and be the goaltender he was before we got him."

The Cloutier situation gives rookie Jonathan Bernier, the Kings' first round pick in 2005, a spot with the varsity. The French Canadian has played the strongest throughout camp but we never thought he would stick with the club and was destined for another year of seasoning in juniors. You only have to go back a couple of seasons to when the Penguins let Marc-Andre Fleury get bombed before sending him back to the AHL to save his fragile confidence.

With a marginal team in front of Bernier, there’s risk of retarding his development but if he can survive this season, he looks to be the Kings’ goalie of the future.

All the reports on Bernier’s tool box are good; we were in Columbus co-hosting The Fourth Period's 2007 Entry Draft radio show special in June and sat with Matt Ebbs, the GM of International Scouting Services and true draft guru. Though Matt blanched when the Kings went with Thomas Hickey in the fourth overall spot (ISS had him ranked in the mid 20's), he told me that Bernier is definite NHL goaltender and is the real deal.

Even with the influx of offensive talent this season, Crawford knows that a playoff run will only happen if the Kings vastly improve in their own end.

"I hope you see a big upgrade on our defensive game," he said. "Our goals against HAS to come down, you can’t be in the playoffs unless it’s down. We have to improve our penalty killing, the number of shots we give up and the coverage in our defensive zone. You’re right to observe that we are better offensively, but we have to be a much, much better defensive team. The biggest improvement will be on defense, it has to be, we were 50 goals against separated from the teams that made the playoffs and that’s not acceptable."

Intertwined with their improvement from the blue line back, is the tale of the $6 million prodigal son, Rob Blake, returning home to Manhattan Beach signing a two-year deal in 2006. While he remained relatively injury free, missing only 10 games, he had arguably his poorest NHL season ever, going goalless in his first 12 games, finishing the season with a team worst minus-26 rating and most surprisingly, not playing the type of physical game that has been his trademark regardless of his point total.

If nothing more, the former captain should be motivated by pride alone in the hopes of not replicating a season that could be his last. One couldn’t fathom a worse performance than last season from Blake especially when job one is to tutor second year defenseman Johnson on playing the game the right way. A reprise of his 2006-07 performance will kill any chance this year’s model of the Kings will have for the second season.

And what about their chances for the post season? It’s a fact that this team can go 2 ½ lines deep offensively, an improvement from the one line wonders of last season. They have better, more mobile defenseman with the additions of Priessing and Stuart. But the obstacles appear to be greater to get to the eighth spot than this team can handle.

Crawford states that they need to give up 50 less goals this season, but the goaltending is arguably worse than it was last season. In LaBarbera, Aubin and Bernier, you have a trifecta with all of 87 NHL career wins, none being playoff victories. Los Angeles still lacks a net minder that steals game, an essential when there are 48 points at risk playing Anaheim, San Jose and Dallas. While a repeat performance of last season isn’t in the offing for the franchise, they look no better than 4th in the division and 10th in the conference but the sneak tip is that GM Lombardi and the organization are really gearing this team for contention in the 2008-09 season.