We’re eating our own here in this thread trying to answer the original question. The problem is that the Kings doomed to mediocrity until the expensive vets from the cup teams are all retired. And yes Dean Lombardi had a hand in it, but it’s not anyone’s fault in the franchise, it’s the fault of gary bettman and th nhlpa. You need no further proof of what a complete joke of a pro sport this bush league is than what VGK has done. I fully expect them to win the cup at this point.
I’m a Kings hockey fan since I was a teen in the early 90s, longer than a few of people here now, but nothing compared to the age of the pro game and the history of the teams and Stanley Cup. It’s fun to latch on to a team when they are winning, but you find other, better reasons to stick around when the home team is hard to root for. But the best part of being a fan is that there is always a new season.
Unless you are an nhl fan, then in the past 30 years, the league and players union couldn’t figure out how to slice up the pie and wrote off a couple of full and half seasons. And where we’ve ended up is this perverted cap system which underpays players who perform early in their career and locks teams into immovable contracts that are overvalued and essentially penalized.
Owners win because their monolopy becomes more lucrative through expansion, Bettman wins because he gets regional sports tv revenue by marketing parity, players win because they finally bargain for the right to retirement contracts and don’t need a felon lawyer to get it.
The only loser is the fan, especially those in markets with owners who want to buy the best players to help their team win. Until the current cap system changes, there is little Luc & co. can do to improve the teams talent. Fortunately there is an NHL cba expiration date coming up in the next few years.