Lombardi not fan of our Dustin Penner, either | Edmonton Journal

If Dustin Penner thought he and Craig MacTavish were a marriage made in  hell here, how about Los Angeles Kings’ GM Dean Lombardi, who was so unenamoured of Dustin’s play in the playoffs he took a major rip at the one-time Oiler winger. [the beer league comment from several days ago.] The Lombardi shot sounds worse than MacTavish throwing up his hands in November, 2008, when he asked about sitting out Penner, in the second year of his five-year $4.25 million a season deal.

"We thought his contract was the starting point. He believes it’s the finish line. He’s never been fit enough for us. I can’t watch him for another two and a half years," said MacT. MacT was exasperated, but Lombardi’s level of frustration has grown much faster than the former Oiler coach’s. 

As it turned out, MacT was gone after the 2008-2009 season. Pat Quinn coaxed the best year of Penner’s NHL life out of him. Last year, coach Tom Renney liked Penner, and spoke highly of his compete level, but the team traded him after 62 games for Colten Teubert and a No. 1 pick this June (No. 19). He had two goals in 19 league games and a goal and an assist in six playoff games when he sometimes found himself on the fourth line. He has one year left on that $4.25 million a year, and he is at the crossroads as Lombardi says.

Make no mistake, Penner has lots of ability. He is a big man, over 240 pounds. He is a handful, when the spirit moves him. He could be like Johan Franzen in Detroit, but he has to look in the mirror. The question is this: he is 29 years old in September. Can a leopard change his spots? He’s not a kid any longer. That $4.25 million won’t be there in 2012-2013 if he struggles next year, too. [...] When your new GM is already calling you out, a few months after sticking his neck out to trade for you, that is not good, Dustin. Like I said, it’s a shame, because Penner has soft hands for a big guy, he can win face-offs when called upon, and when he’s engaged in the battle, he’s tough.  

Dean Lombardi’s respect for Dustin Penner | Blog Archive | Houses of the Hockey | Blogs | TheScore.com

The title of this post is somewhat misleading, seeing as Kings GM Dean Lombardi appears to have abandoned what little respect he had left for Dustin Penner. That’s not to say Lombardi has zero respect for Penner, oh no. Make no mistake, Dean Lombardi would most likely slot Penner in the cleanup spot on his beer league softball team.

[...] At least that’s what we’re going to take from this golden quote from the Kings’ GM. Via Craig Custance of Sporting News:

"Dustin is at the crossroads of his career," Lombardi wrote in an email to Sporting News. "He can choose to use his athletic ability to either become a dominant power forward in the National Hockey League or be a dominant number four hitter for the El Cid Lounge in a men’s softball league — the choice is his." 

When I first read that Lombardi quote in the Sporting News article, my reaction (like a lot of people's) was "Holy ****, Dean, tell us what you really think!" But sleeping on it, I don't think he's saying quite what everyone assumes he's saying. Everyone on earth is down on Penner right now, so it's easy to read that quote in that context and assume that Lombardi hates Penner and will unload him the first chance he gets. 

But remember the whole dust-up that occurred when Lombardi said that Jack Johnson was terrible when he got to the Kings and had to be, essentially, rebuilt from the ground up? Did Johnson like that Lombardi said this? No, he didn't, and said so publicly. (And Lombardi apologized, too; he's obviously prone to speaking his mind with all the attendent risks of that.) But when the Johnson incident occurred, everyone concluded that Johnson would soon be traded, that Lombardi couldn't say that about a player he likes or values. 

That's his style though. And, really, these are the kinds of conversations that go on behind the scenes all the time. We just don't usually hear about them. The Penner softball quote is both vintage Lombardi and exactly the kind of thing I would expect GMs to say to their staff behind closed doors about fifty times a day. As I said in a post a few months ago, this is Lombardi talking the way we talk -- like a sports fan.

My translation of the quote: Penner is expected to be a dominant top-six power forward next year and the only reason he wasn't a dominant top-six power forward this last year is that he was not prepared. 

The difference between what he said re Penner and what he has said repeatedly re Anze Kopitar's conditioning or Drew Doughty's conditioning is that he appears to be much more upset about Penner's demonstrated lack of preparedness. In Doughty's or Kopitar's case, he was discussing further potential that is expected over and above a pretty high level of achievement. In Penner's case, he's responding to the fact that Penner didn't show up at all. 

And that's not a breaking news item. 

Nor is it a surprise that Lombardi is unhappy about it. 

And he's already said Penner has to show up in shape and ready to go. 

The only surprise -- which is no surprise at all if you know how Lombardi talks -- is that he can be hyperbolic and/or sarcastic about it. 

Given how double-plus ungood Penner was in this past playoffs, I am strangely confident that Penner will show up next year. Penner - Ryan Smyth - Scott Parse - Kyle Clifford is a better left side than we've had in awhile. 

Part one of my response to the Blades of Teal's eulogy of the Kings is here. Little did I know that he also ran a "director's cut" of the same post, which also requires some, well, you'll see...

The Quick and The Dead | Blades of Teal

[J]ust because the Los Angeles Kings had a 98 point regular season and seemed inspired by the loss of their best player in Anze Kopitar to beat the odds, and just because their fans may have fooled themselves into thinking that something magical was taking place, it doesn’t mean it ever was going to. 

Let me get this straight. The thing that didn't happen also was never going to... have just... happened? Leaving aside for a second the ad hominem bitchiness of that, a fair translation of that paragraph is: it would have been foolish for anyone to think the Kings could have beaten the Sharks in that series. 

Nevertheless, it's a fact that the Kings could have beaten the Sharks in that series. I do not think it is right or fair or even reasonable to claim that a team that just lost in the playoffs to another team is actually better than the team that it lost to, but for extenuating circumstances x, y or z. I don't believe you can claim to be better than a team you just lost to in the playoffs. If you're better, you win. That's the only acceptable evidence of being better.

So let me just say that, with this as the only criterion, the Sharks were a better team than the Kings this year. Got it? Sharks beat Kings in playoffs = Sharks better than Kings this year. 

But to suggest that the Kings could never have beaten the Sharks is as arrogant as it is transparent. 

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I actually don't have a problem with the actual Sharks. At least, not like I have a problem with this:

Eulogy: Remembering the 2010-11 Los Angeles Kings - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports

By S.M. Williams, Blades of Teal

Ladies and Gentleman, Just as an update, the funeral procession is currently stuck in traffic on the 10 East but on its way.

Because, you see, in Los Angeles there is lots of traffic.

Apparently, there were some delays in getting on the road as the morticians were told to match up each Los Angeles Kings player with his linemates for the procession…and they got confused.

Because, you see, Terry Murray likes to shake up his lines. 

[...] Today we remember the fallen Los Angeles Kings. Sometimes ladies and gentlemen, the passing of seemingly vibrant and healthy youth, cut down in the prime of life, can be too hard for the living and victorious to bear, but we must muster on.

Must you? No, in fact. You can't muster on. You can soldier on, but you can't muster on. 

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• Kings in Game 6s: 11-5  11-6
• Sharks in Game 6s: 3-13 4-13
• Kings in Game 6s at home: 9-2 9-3
• Sharks in Game 6s on the road: 2-7 3-7
• Twice Three times, the Kings have lost 3 OT games in a single series: Oilers, 1991; Canadiens, 1993; Sharks, 2011.
• The Sharks have never won 3 OT games in a single series.
• Once Twice, the Sharks have won 3 games on the road in a series: vs. Flames, in 1995; vs. Kings, in 2011.
• The Kings have never lost 3 games at home in a single series. 

I've been thinking about this topic for a couple of weeks now, since Kopitar and Williams got hurt. I'm going to use this post from LAKi as a leaping-off point only. The BS is 99.9% elsewhere. 

Which version of Penner will the Kings get? " LA Kings Insider

This is, admittedly, starting to reach dead-horse territory, but at the same time it’s difficult to understate the importance of Dustin Penner to the Kings’ playoff chances.

Concur. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the whole point of acquiring Dustin Penner starts on Thursday.

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That's the work of Brian Hayward, Poet Laureate of the Anaheim Ducks broadcast team. He's referring to a non-call of too-many-men against Dallas in their game against Anaheim tonight. This is what makes Hayward especially odious as a color commentator. It's not enough that the refs might have missed a call, it has to be that the refs missed the call on purpose because they have it in for the Ducks.

No.

And I'm tempted to end this post right here. But I should probably explain. I was watching NHL On the Fly last night after the Kings/Canucks game. Heidi Androl was guest-anchoring, or whatever the proper term is. When it came time to talk about Kings/Canucks, her analysis was as follows: 

• Wow.
• Just wow.
• When have you ever seen a team as good as this year's Vancouver Canucks? 
• (as her co-hosts reference the 1977 Montreal Canadiens:) I mean in my lifetime.

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