He could have pulled out the heavy artillery on this toasty Sunday morning in the parking lot outside of the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.
But Kings GM Dean Lombardi left the age-distribution charts behind, apparently sparing the assembled supporters at Kings Fan Fest.
He joked about having his various charts ready to go at the morning session, one part celebration of the Kings 2014 Stanley Cup championship and one part anticipation of the upcoming season.
“Don’t forget. It’s one thing to be young. But it’s another thing to be young and good,” Lombardi said. “When you put up the top eight teams in the league, you’ve got the youngest core in the league, other than Colorado.
“When those people are around the water cooler – talking about age – because we’ve had a bad little slump here. You just call me up and I’ll send you the charts and we’ll get that part straightened out.”
Rookie camp is going on in El Segundo and the Kings will hit the ice for training camp on Friday. Medicals are on Thursday. The Fan Fest set the tone for the upcoming hockey season even if the temperatures suggested otherwise.
With Lombardi on the stage were Kings Coach Darryl Sutter, assistant GM Rob Blake, Vice President of Hockey Operations and Director of Player Personnel Mike Futa and Jeff Solomon, vice president/hockey operations and legal affairs. Kings play-by-play announcer Bob Miller was the moderator.
The format seemed ideal for Sutter’s dry wit. He got off a couple of good one-liners. (More about that later.)
“I’m humbled to be up here with the Stanley Cup,” Sutter said. “It’s a magical, magical trophy and when you go through the whole part of it, losing Stanley Cups and winning Stanley Cups, you understand how important it is. It’s what drives you.”
Sutter updated the crowd on the status of goalie Jonathan Quick, echoing what Lombardi said last week. He said that they will build Quick’s training up over the next three to four weeks. Quick had wrist surgery in the offseason.
Sutter’s best one-liner happened to be about Quick. A fan asked a question, in part, referencing New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, whose nickname is “The King.”
“Personally, I think Jonathan Quick is the King,” Sutter said.
Lombardi and his staff were back working in their offices shortly after the morning session. The Kings general manager spoke about the work ethic of the players and the staff when he was summing up the organization’s mindset for the fans.
“It’s easy to talk culture and give speeches and all that stuff – blah, blah, blah,” Lombardi said. “It’s about doing culture every day. Those are the things you can’t define. You know it when you see it. But you’ve got to do it every day.
“Giving speeches. Waste of time….We’ve still got a lot of work to do. If you take your foot off (the pedal), one second, you’re going to lose it. It’s very hard to get. We’ve still got work to do to get there.”
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
