A Quartet of Kings
Update: The Kings have signed Brad Stuart – one year, $3.5 million. There’s that gritty defenseman that I was hoping for. If the situation in goal resolves itself, this team might have a chance at the playoffs. That’s a scary thought. And here I thought we were going to be in the Tavares draft sweepstakes for sure.
After a quiet day on Sunday, the Kings ended up signing four players yesterday – Tom Preissing, Kyle Calder, Michal Handzus and Ladislav Nagy. I would’ve hoped for one more gritty defenseman, but I can’t complain. This gives the Kings a lot of flexibility on the second and third lines, and hopefully means that we’ve seen the last of Kevin Dallman and Mike Weaver with the big club. Details and a peek into Lombardi’s thought process can be found at Rich Hammond’s Kings blog.
I like to make fun of the online hand-wringing and venting from my fellow Kings fans, especially the calls for Lombardi’s head after both the draft and day one of the FA season. But I understand why people feel the way they do and acknowledge that I’m getting off easy – after all, I don’t have to make the call on whether to plunk down for season seats. Being all the way out on the east coast, my yearly (monetary) outlay for the Kings is the price of the Center Ice package.
As for my own hockey adventure, I’ve decided to skip the first Wednesday hockey instructional session – no way am I fighting my way through 4th of July madness to get to Chelsea Piers in the evening.
