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Tomorrow night, the Edmonton Oilers will host the Los Angeles Kings at Rexall Place. The Oilers lost Ales Hemsky in the previous match-up following a cross-check from behind courtesy of Michal Handzus. As such, you can expect sparks to fly during the LA Kings vs. the Oilers game. In anticipation of the big game tomorrow, I've recently interviewed Chris Kontos from the Los Angeles Kings blog, The Royal Half. Chris himself is an LA Kings blogger, hockey player, and an LA Kings season ticket holder for the past seven years. Note, the Kings haven't made the play during any of those past seasons. The Royal Half just recently launched on a new site, but it's been around on blogger for a few years now. I hate to say it, but it's a little bit like a West Coast version of The Pens Blog in that it's an entertaining blog full of crazy photos. To find out what the Kings fans think of the Lubo trade, Ryan Smyth, or how the Gretzky trade affected their city along with some other questions, follow the jump. Here's the Q&A with Chris Kontos from The Royal Half - LA Kings Blog 1. Prior to the start of this NHL season, there was a rumor from a credible source (Jim Matheson) about a possible trade between the Kings involving one Ales Hemsky for Dustin Brown. As a Kings fan how would you view that possible trade? I would have not been pleased with that trade. It's strange, Dustin Brown's name seems to come up often in trade proposals (a certain slinger had Brown going to Pittsburgh for Jordan Staal recently). When you look at a player like Dustin Brown you are looking at a 25 year old Captain who has been playing in the NHL since he was 18 years old. He's been among the league leaders in hits the last few seasons and has really started to grow into his role as a leader this season. I think every Kings fan had envisioned him a consistent 30 goal scorer on the first line... but this season has shown that his true role is a 20 goal guy on the 2nd line who leads on the ice with his big hits. Oh... and throw in the fact that he's at 3.5 million a year until the end of the 2013-2014 season, it makes him a great bargain. I think with all those factors involved, a trade for Hemsky wouldn't have made sense to me. Hemsky, while crazily-talented offensively, just wouldn't fit as well into this Kings team as Dustin Brown does. We already have an inconsistently brilliant offensive European named Alex Frolov. Check out how eerily similar their stats are: - FROLOV 488 GAMES 157 GOALS 195 ASSISTS 352 POINTS
- HEMSKY: 443 GAMES 100 GOALS 253 ASSISTS 353 POINTS
2. Ryan Smyth despite being a very good hockey player, was regarded by many last year as having one of the top ten worst contracts in the NHL. ($6.25 million cap hit with two more seasons left on it)… Injury aside, how has Ryan Smyth aka ‘Captain Canada’ being regarded by Kings fans this season? I love Ryan Smyth. During 1997, when my college roommates and I played EA NHL on Playstation, I was the Edmonton Oilers and I led the league in scoring with Ryan Smyth and Todd Marchant. (We weren't allowed to be our home teams.) I've always loved the way he's played and the passion he's played with. Except for RudyKelly at Battle of California, who can't stand Smyth... I feel that Ryan Smyth has been incredibly welcomed by Kings fans this season. You see his jersey being worn all around the Staples Center and I don't think there is one Kings fan who thinks that Anze Kopitar's huge step forward this season is not directly related to Ryan Smyth skating on his side. He's also a veteran leader (even though he's only 33!) who has gone deep in the playoffs before. This can only help the Kings. Obviously Kopitar's scoring went way down as Smyth's been out with his injury... but they've still found a way to win without him. I don't mind his cap hit at all... he's worth every penny. 3. The LA Kings have what seems to be a very good hockey team this season. Yet, the Kings spend just over a million and a half per year on goaltending (for 2 goalies). Should the Kings be looking around for better goaltending for a playoff push? The LA Kings have what seems to be a very good hockey team this season. Yet, the Kings spend just over a million and a half per year on goaltending (for 2 goalies). Should the Kings be looking around for better goaltending for a playoff push?
Well, not only are we only paying 1.5 million dollars this year for our 2 goalies but GM Dean Lombardi has locked up 19 win, 23 year-old goaltender Jon Quick for the next 3 seasons at 1.8 million a year. And we have a potential franchise goaltender at Manchester by the name of Jonathan Bernier who is at 14-7-2 with a 1.96 GAA and .942 SV % this season. Jon Quick is the real deal. His GAA and SV % are not where people hoped they would be this season, but over the past 15 games Quick is starting to single-handedly keep the Kings close enough to win and he's been nearly unbeatable in shootouts this year (He's 9-4 in his career.) So I don't think the Kings need any better starting goaltending for a playoff push BUT what they do need is a consistent, strong backup. Erik Ersberg was thought to be this guy but he has taken a serious step back this year. I'd like the Kings to pick up a strong "career" backup goalie near the trade deadline for insurance. I don't want them to bring up Bernier for this role as I'd like him to go deep in the playoffs with Manchester. One side note about Jon Quick... with Tim Thomas' inconsistency this season... Jon Quick might be a consideration for the US Olympic team. This may not be the most ideal situation for Kings fans as Quick is already going to play close to 70 games this season. 4. You’ve been a season ticket holder for the past seven years. June of last year, the Oilers dealt Matt Greene and Jarrett Stoll for Lubomir Visnovsky. Oilers fans love Lubo, do the Kings fans miss him or regret the trade? I was sad to see Lubo traded. Not only was he an extremely talented offensive defenseman but he was also a Kings fan favorite. At the time of the trade, I knew nothing about Matt Greene and Jarret Stoll... well I did know that Stoll was great at faceoffs and had a killer slap shot from the Kings games against the Oilers that season. Knowing what I know now... there's no way Dean Lombardi doesn't make that trade. The Kings have such a great crop of defensemen, both on the NHL roster and in the minors, that Lubo became expendable in order to upgrade the team in other areas. Greene is an alternate captain and his play steadies the Kings each night. With Stoll... because of the Kings horrible luck with concussions (see Deadmarsh, Adam and Allison, Jason) I think lots of Kings fans were worried that he was going to be another piece of junk for the Kings. I think it took Stoll most of last season to find his way in Coach Terry Murray's system because this year he has really shined. He's got 25 points in 32 games and has really clicked with Dustin Brown on his wing. Lubo was tough to give up, but Greene and Stoll have both be re-signed to multi-year deals, Greene till end of 13-14 at 2.95 million a year and Stoll till end of 11-12 at 3.6 million a year. These guys are going to be around for a while at a great price.
I think the funniest thing about Lubo trade is that Dean Lombardi was praised for getting rid of Visnovsky's 7 million dollar a year contract... but he was the one who signed Lubo to it in the first place. There have been a lot of rumors that the Kings owners forced Dean's hand when it came to trading Lubo because they were looking to cut costs... even if that's true I still feel like it was a steal for the Kings. 5. On August 9th, 1988, the Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky… let me say that one more time for emphasis, Wayne Gretzky, to the LA Kings for a 1st round draft pick, Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelanas, and $15 million cash. How do you think this trade affected the sport of hockey in the United States and Los Angeles in particular? What do you recall feeling when you heard the news? Can you believe people were upset about losing 55 goal scorer Jimmy Carson in that trade? I was 11 years old when this trade went down. I knew there was a hockey team in Los Angeles and I had been to a handful of games in my life (mainly free tickets that friends gave to my parents) but when Gretzky came here... everything changed. Everything. The Kings were the talk of the town and in a city like Los Angeles... where it's always about style before substance... the Los Angeles Kings games at the Great Western Forum were THE place to be. There were celebrities hanging out in the aisles and it was just plain exciting to be a Kings fan. Oh, and you got to see WAYNE GRETZKY play every night. It's funny, as a passionate Kings fan who grew up in Los Angeles... when I meet people from Canada or the East Coast they are always surprised that I grew up playing and watching hockey. And then I tell them "well, we kinda had a little player named Wayne Gretzky play in LA for 8 years."
Without this trade, the NHL stays a primarily Canadian and Northeastern sport... which is why I don't feel like the Gretzky trade was the best thing for the NHL in the long term. There is no southern belt hockey explosion in the NHL without this trade. No teams in San Jose, Florida, Atlanta, Nashville, Dallas, Carolina, Phoenix or Anaheim. Looking back, I feel like the NHL expanded way too quickly in the south and you only have to look at the disaster going on (off the ice) in Phoenix to see the repercussions of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I also feel like the NHL's level of talent has been diluted by all these teams coming into the league. I know there are a ton of passionate hockey fans in all of these cities and I've been very lucky to becomes friends with many of them through writing my blog and I would never want to deny an NHL fan the ability to watch a team in their hometown... but at the end of the day... the NHL got greedy and quick cash was to be made through expanding into these territories. I've always been in the corner of the NHL embracing itself as a regional sport instead of a national sport and concentrating on selling out each team in each city instead of trying to draw people into watching it on NBC or whatever national network will show the sport. I doubt the NHL will ever embrace that philosophy but as the United States enters into a new time of financial reform... it will be interesting to see how the NHL stays afloat in many of these cities. (Even though they are very successful franchises... I call for the disbanding of San Jose and Dallas for selfish Pacific Division reasons). And it can all be traced back to August 9th.
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Do you do these interviews often? I'm always interested what the other teams think.