Ok now thats its died down a bit. Lets all remember Lombardi as a complete ******* who throw any vet under the bus when they no longer performed well. As a guy who stuck by a wife beater until the very end, mostly because said player was still good
Good riddance Lombardi, I sincerely hope you never get an NHL job again
What are you talking about? Throw a vet under a bus? I'm assuming you mean Richards? The same guy he (DL) didn't buyout when he had the chance because Richards assured him he (Richards) was actually training in the offseason and re-dedicating his self to hockey?
The same "bus" DL was willing to throw Richards under when DL was willing to pay another team to take him and give him a shot at playing more minutes and be more of a leader? That is, until Richards was found with a prescription pad and oxy without his name on the bottle?
I don't care what ended up happening months/years later, no one has hindsight. Facts are, it was enough of an issue to break off the trade talks and having Richards' doctor girlfriend break up with him.
In that situation, DL allowed his loyalty to a player that lied to his face get in the way of making the correct business decision. BTW, what's Richards done since?
If that's your definition of "throwing someone under the bus", I would gladly be thrown that way if I'm screwing up my life after multiple chances to fix things.
As far as Voynov, he did what was correct in that situation as well. I know we live in a society where we want justice without blinking, but that is garbage. We have a court system and the right be to "innocent until proven guilty".
Voynov never played another game with the Kings after his arrest. They allowed him to go through the court process, which by the way, the league was ok with.
I've never liked this nonsense of pronouncing guilt or innocence through the media. I'm an American, I fully believe in due process of the law. In this case, Voynov admitted to his crimes and was correctly punished*. In other cases, the Duke 'rape' case leaps to mind, it can be proven as wrong but it doesn't change in people's minds.
I had the same discussion with Helene Elliott with the LA Times. From the first report, she was on twitter and in the newspaper demanding Voynov be thrown out of the country and banned from ever re-entering the moment the police report was released. Saying the Kings FO should be fired for not releasing Voynov ASAP...etc
Ok, I get it but she is in the media and that's a dangerous position to take without having all the facts. Let the police and the courts do their jobs before passing judgement.
Months later, on twitter, she was having a great time tweeting about women's soccer team blowing out China (? I can't remember the team). Anyway, I asked her what exactly was the difference in what Voynov did compared to Hope Solo?
Solo has had several domestic issues, where she was both the aggressor and the victim, with her husband. At the time, she had recently been arrested for attacking her under age nephew and sister. For her crimes, she was suspend 1 day from her pro team and 0 games from the National team and here was Elliott cheering her and her teammates on.
In fact, the biggest difference was the courts threatened to put Voynov's wife in jail if she refused to testify against her husband while a different court allowed Solo's sister and nephew to drop the charges. I still don't get that one.
I asked if Elliot was against domestic/child violence as a whole or only when it is committed by men? She said as a whole. I asked if she was going to write a similar article condemning Team USA and their fans for cheering for a team with a player who has a history of domestic violence in the same fashion she attacked the Kings, NHL and it's fan base because Voynov wasn't deported the day after his arrest, before he had his day in court?
That, she never responded to and never wrote an article about it. I'm left with to conclude that she is against male domestic violence only. Sad.
It's kind of funny, you bash DL for not getting rid of Voynov fast enough, yet after the Voynov's issue, you bash him for getting rid of Richards too fast?
Interesting way to think, I guess.
