The theme for the L.A. Kings' season is "Raise The Bar."
"Well," sighs coach Andy Murray, "I think it's pretty safe to assume we've dropped it."
Ouch! Right on their feet. Broke a few toes, too.
|  | | How can a team with Luc Robitaille (above), Ziggy Palffy and Jozef Stumpel not make the playoffs? |
If things don't improve, dramatically and soon, Murray may need a couple of days in a bar. Or, intelligent fellow that he is, get so fed up with this coaching dodge that he decides take up the bar. As a logical follow-up to their breakout 94-point season, many within the hockey fraternity had boldly predicted the Kings were poised to make the jump to the next level, the elite level, to begin crowding the big three in the Western Conference – Colorado, Detroit and St. Louis. Instead, they've opted instead to jump out of a highrise, apparently to their grisly death on the pavement below.
It's almost time to order the floral arrangements and start working on the eulogy.
Factor Rob Blake out of the equation now and the odds are ludicrously long, the prospects beyond grim.
A team that includes Ziggy Palffy, Luc Robitaille, Jozef Stumpel, Mathieu Schneider and, until 24 hours ago, Rob Blake, NOT so much as qualify for the playoffs? The prospect seemed all but unthinkable. Yet the only throne these Kings seem capable of ascending right now comes equipped with a plunger and a roll of Charmin.
L.A. looks to be adopting the sort of identity it has perennially been saddled with - a talented, fragile, dysfunctional bunch apparently incapable of putting the good of the whole before the ease of the individual. The Blake trade was forced upon general manager Dave Taylor by economics, and while it could certainly work out long-range, replacing those 28 to 30 minutes a night in all situations on defense during the present life-or-death playoff run will be nothing less than impossible.
"I think Dave Taylor did an outstanding job," said Murray of the trade. "It was by far the best proposal we had. It addresses our current situation, getting Adam Deadmarsh and Aaron Miller, a player we really like, plus our future, with a prospect, a first-round pick and future considerations.
"Under the circumstances, tremendous."
Still, the Kings did not want to part with Blake, their captain and cornerstone defenseman. Taylor admits that. The uncertainty regarding his situation is now behind the Kings, but the hole he leaves on the blueline is immense.
"I'm happy for him," said Robitaille. "It was hard, though. You don't spend 12 years in a city, with a team, and not be sad to leave.
"Sure we're going to miss Rob Blake. But there's 25 or 26 other teams in this league without a Rob Blake, either, and they find a way to win hockey games. We've just got to find a way, too."
This was a pivotal year for the Kings, still, 30 years later, trying to make significant inroads into the claustrophobic Los Angeles sports market. Their new home, the Staples Center, is now old enough that it won't draw the curious, or the casual sports fan anymore.
The 2000-2001 season was the time to make a statement.
Some statement ...
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The only throne these Kings seem capable of ascending right now comes equipped with a plunger and a roll of Charmin. |
Rewind for a moment to Tuesday, Feb. 20. Murray is whiling away a game afternoon in the team hotel in Edmonton. In their last outing, his Kings were deplorable in losing 3-0 to the bottom-feeding Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center. Following the debacle, Murray addressed the media and berated L.A.'s "lack of professionalism" and admitted that "today we had too many players who we count on have something else on their minds." Players stood up in the dressing room and said their peace, vowing to clean up the mess; to not allow the the rot to insidiously bore any deeper into the foundation.
"We've got to wake up before it's too late," superpest Ian Laperriere announced.
So the coach was anticipating a far more determined effort on this night against the Oilers. It's Edmonton, after all, that the Kings and a few others are in pursuit of for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. This, he knows, is a crucial game. It is the L.A. debut of Felix (the Cat) Potvin in the Kings' net.
Potvin, of course, has been brought in after falling on his face in Vancouver to try and shore up a leaky goaltending situation. Murray, however, has far more to concern him than merely the trials and tribulations of Felix Potvin.
"We've got to play harder," says the coach flatly. "Bottom line. I know that sounds like a cliche – and it is - but in our case it's true. It's funny but during my entire coaching career the one thing I've been able to do with teams is guarantee effort. But this season ..." His voice trails away.
"We've got to care more. About each other. About the uniform. "Look, we understood coming into the season that trying to match 94 points would be a difficult chore. Calgary was going to be better. Vancouver was going to be better. No one could've anticipated the points Minnesota is taking off teams. Nashville's improved.
"Well, we've done the things a ninth-place team does. We haven't done the things in our control that would've helped separate us from some teams.
"Last year we were tough to play against. It was reputation we made a conscious effort to attain, and deserved. This year, we're not on loose pucks, we're not playing physical, we're not playing with anything approaching consistent effort. You take all the dollars and cents away from it and the issue comes down to personal and professional pride. "Effort. I want to see that again."
To that end, Murray doesn't hesitate in accepting his share of the blame. Those in the know believe the coach has done a good job of backing off in this, his second year - it's almost automatic that a first-year head coach in a league, much less a city, tends to be almost too hands-on - but that no player has stepped up to fill the void.
"I understand we're at the whim of the players in many respects," agrees Murray. "But, still, my job is to make these guys give their best effort every night, and they're not doing that."
Although people around the Kings have noticed a decided lack of focus, especially in the last two weeks as the NHL trade deadline looms, Murray dismissed the protracted Blake situation as a crutch for his faltering team. "At the end of this season," Murray says crisply, "you won't be able to check the NHL Guide and Record Book, look at the standings, see the Los Angeles Kings and find an asterisk beside our team, with the footnote:
'Played with the Rob Blake situation.'
"You deal with things. It hasn't affected Rob Blake. He plays hard every night. Why should it affect the other players? I keep hearing how it's affecting Toronto. Please. Toronto isn't rumored to be losing the player. We are. To blame a lack of effort on trade speculation just doesn't hold up. "It's lame."
So have the Kings, this last while.
"There's still time left," says Murray, trying to drum up hope. "We're four points behind with 20 games left. We can make that up, but only if we play with the intensity and emotion we showed through last season. That has to happen. Starting with tonight."
This game, he knows - coming off the embarrassment at the United Center, marking the debut of the Cat and it being a face-to-face confrontation with the team they're attempting to catch - will be a litmus test of sorts for the resiliency, the, of his team.
Well, now he has the answers.
Six hours later they went out and got pasted 5-0. The next night they traded away Rob Blake.
Over, and most probably out.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Herald. His NHL column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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