Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
Five steps closer
Larry Wigge wrote a good article about Dean Lombardi and the rebuilding of the Kings. He writes that Lombardi values character over skill in some cases, which makes his acquisitions of Calder, Handzus, Nagy, Preissing, and Stuart look more palatable.
To the casual fan, it may look like the Kings got the short shrift, because even though they were 23 million under the cap, no big ticket free agents wanted to come to Los Angeles. But they got great character guys who fill key spots to help accentuate the young core of talent L.A. has amassed.
Sure, Preissing or Stuart may not win the Norris, but they might help Visnovsky to do so. Handzus and Nagy may not score 58 and 57 points respectively again, but together, they could push the young Frolov closer to 80-90 points. And with the two-way play that all the players acquired possess, they could help the goaltenders immensely.
It's all about finding the right pieces, which Dino has done time and again with the Sharks. However, the Kings still have some question marks going into training camp in August. They have several spots that must be filled from within. Are they a better team than last season? Absolutely. Do they still need some tinkering? Absolutely. And you can bet the Mad Scientist will be in his lab doing just that.
Comments
Good stuff. Though Wigge made a couple of bone-headed factual errors in his article, the basic gist was right. I like where the ship is headed.
Posted by: Pat | July 23, 2007 11:28 AM