LA Kings GM Dean Lombardi Talks Defense, Goaltending

(Photo by Juan Ocampo/Getty Images)

“Before there was no hope,” Lombardi said about the state of the Kings before he joined them. “I don’t care. You don’t have any young defensemen, your defense is 35 years old and I was hoping that [goaltenders Jason] LaBarbera or [Mathieu] Garon could come on. But let’s face it. Both guys have moved on and they’re both in the role that [they probably are supposed to be in]. They’re backup goalies. Garon is in Pittsburgh and LaBarbera is in Vancouver and they’re [number two goalies]. We were trying to use them as [number one goalies]. This is what I mean about starting to see that OK, we’ve got hope here, so let’s stick with it and do things right.”

Lombardi also warned against the temptation to rush prospects to the NHL level, especially young netminders.

“Bernier is a great example of being patient and [being brought] along properly instead of forcing him into the lineup,” said Lombardi. “There’s this whole temptation sometimes when you’re going with young players to put’em in the lineup right away so the fans can have false hope.”

“There’s a way to break’em in right and Bernier is a great example to me of why I was always so nervous—the way he came in and played in Las Vegas [a 3-2 pre-season, shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche on September 22, 2007],” added Lombardi. “I said, ‘I don’t like this.’ There’s mental side that a young athlete has to learn if he’s ever going to be great.”

Lombardi pointed out that Bernier still had some growing up to do as well.

“Remember, he went down back to junior, pouted for awhile and everything else,” Lombardi explained. “Even this year, when we called up Quick, [Bernier] did not work hard in practice. He thought this was going to be an easy ride to the NHL.”

“[Bernier has] always been one of the top goaltenders in Canada his whole life,” Lombardi elaborated. “It’s all been fairly easy because he’s so talented and he thought he would go right to the Kings. When it didn’t happen, he didn’t want to work hard. One of the biggest complaints we had was, ‘you’re not coming up here until you learn to work hard in practice.’ He didn’t do it. When we called up Quick, he kind of went the other way on us. We actually called up [goalie prospect] Danny Taylor. We played him in Manchester.”

Then it was time for a bit of tough love, but Bernier responded.

“[We told Bernier], ‘no more free rides,’” said Lombardi. “You’re a first round pick and that’s great, but you’ve got to get it done. To his credit, in the last month, it’s like the light bulb went off and he said, ‘OK, I’ve got to start looking at myself here and start competing.’”

‘I remember [Kings assistant general manager Ron] Hextall went down [to Manchester] and said, ‘wow...what a change,’” added Lombardi. “He’s working his tail off in practice, he almost got that team in the playoffs, he played really well down the stretch in some big games. Now we can say, ‘OK...now he’s starting to figure it out.’”

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