During the first intermission, Dean Lombardi spoke about his trade with Boston for forward Marco Sturm. Lombardi stressed that the trade is still contingent upon Sturm passing a physical. Sturm will fly to Los Angeles tomorrow and have the testing done, starting Monday at 10 a.m. If he passes the physical, Sturm will likely join the Kings during their road, but his return date — Sturm is recovering from knee surgery — is still in question. Here’s what Lombardi said tonight…
LOMBARDI: “It’s still very much contingent on the physical. Usually when you say it’s a physical, it’s a formality, but this is real. That’s why it’s an extended period on this one. There’s still a significant hurdle here.”
Question: Will he go through more stringent testing than the average player?
LOMBARDI: “Well, there’s the MRI. Obviously there was a knee injury in the past. The old one didn’t effect him, obviously, when he played in the playoffs last year, but you’ve got to look at both of them. So you’ve got everything from an MRI, a strength test and everything else. He’s got to be put through the rigors.”
Question: He will come to L.A. for the testing?
LOMBARDI: “Oh yeah, for sure. That was one of the things that made it a little awkward. Your doctors can talk and exchange videos and everything, but there’s no substitute for our own doctors. He’s flying here tomorrow.”
Question: If the physical is OK, is it possible that he would play during the road trip?
LOMBARDI: “It’s conceivable, if everything were to line up, but I think it’s probably safe to say closer to Christmas. It’s conceivable, but until our doctors see him, I don’t know if it makes much sense to guess. With what we’ve seen, up to this point, it’s a reasonable assumption that if what we’ve seen matches what we find out on Monday and Tuesday, that he could play before Christmas, yes.”
Question: You have a history with him. What made this the right fit for you?
LOMBARDI: “Well, there’s a lot of things. When we found out Parse was going to be done, I’ve been looking at something since we found out about Parse. It’s really hard to find deals early in the year. There’s just not a lot happening out there. I started looking at this about four weeks ago, as a possibility, as well as looking at our other options. This was clearly our best option, and I think it’s a good option. He’s a solid guy. He can play with good players. Assuming the knees are good, he brings a lot of speed, and he plays hard. So I think he can do a lot of things for us. He’s a very strong option for us. The other thing it does is, it keeps our flexibility. This contract doesn’t take us out of pursuing other things at the trade deadline, as well as keeping all our options open, even next year, depending on how all this works out. So it works from a player standpoint, the character standpoint and the contract standpoint. Now if he just passes a physical…”
Question: Have you kept in touch with him since you left San Jose?
LOMBARDI: “He came up to the (GM) box when we were in Boston, to say hi. All I wanted to know is if he was going soft on me. [smiles] That was the extent of our contact, and he assured me that he wasn’t. Taking him in the first round, at that time, was kind of outside the box, but he was one of Darryl Sutter’s favorite players, and you know what Darryl Sutter likes, so this kid comes to play hard.”
Question: Can you talk about what the future considerations might be?
LOMBARDI: “[laughs] Let’s just say it depends on how he plays. We’ll leave it at that. It’s kind of like the Modin thing, a little bit.”
Atta boy, Brownie! What a great shift.
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KingMe20 Reply:
December 11th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
@KingMe20,
Spoke too soon… **** Quick, stay in your net!
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YYYEEESSSS! Kopitar was a beast keeping that puck alive!
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are you serious quick? again? really?
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You gotta be kidding. Maybe now is a good time to give Bernie a look…
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That was the best shift tonight that I’ve seen from the first line. Good effort guys!
Well, it was good while it lasted. Quick doesn’t seem to have his “A” game going tonight.
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Poor quick…You gotta feel bad for him. Hes been nothing but stellar. This is nothing with even blocking shots. These are mental mistakes. Just a tough game!
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someone bungee cord him in the crease please
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what the is Quick thinking
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you people suck giving JQ a hard time—3rd best goalie in the league
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JQ’s just showing his mates what it’s like to be hung out to dry.
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0 for 5 on PP so far. I used to get excited when we go on the PP. Now, not so much. So sick of the “Johnson, wide right” calls. You’d think he’d start shooting left by now
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Johnson has not impressed this year at all. Sloppy with a capital “S”.
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Cut Quick some slack. He’s gotten us this far. Don’t be so fair-weathered. The ice is horrible, and he’s not perfect. I would rather have him in goal anytime than Bernier.
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5thLine Reply:
December 12th, 2010 at 9:15 am
@Louis,
I agree on cutting him some slack, but the ice had absolutely nothing to do with those first two goals.
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Personally I would like to see Sturm go to Manchester on a conditioning assignment to play 2-3 games before he joins the big club. I think it’s ridiculous to ask a guy who is coming off major knee surgery to jump right into a new team, and a new conference in the midst of such a tight race. Give him a couple games where he can play in all situations for the Monarchs and let him get his legs going. There’s no travel to speak of in the Monarchs division, and with those Fri-Sat-Sun games he can play 2 of 3 and not have to get on planes to head from city to city… Just a thought if you’re reading this Deano…
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puck73 Reply:
December 11th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
@Marc Nathan, That might not be a bad call. Although the way our PP is playing this season..we can use all the help we can get ! p.s fire kompon !
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Sergei Prozacutov Reply:
December 12th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
@Marc Nathan,
Good idea.
They probably won’t do it,
but it’s too bad.
It would be a better way to acclimate him, IMO.
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Why all this fire Kompon stuff? Ultimately the players have to execute on the power play. We essentially have the same guys on the units as we did last year. It worked last year didn’t it? We do not shot the puck enough. Do you think that Kompon tells the players to make the perfect seem pass and not shot the puck from the point? It’s all about the decisions made on the ice.
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KC23 Reply:
December 12th, 2010 at 10:37 am
@Bonvivant1, I usually hate the “fire the coach” stuff as well, but if you’ve watched hockey for any lenght of time you can recognize his PP is just so poorly structured and predictable it is laughable.
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Marc Nathan Reply:
December 12th, 2010 at 11:45 am
@KC23, As much as I don’t think Jamie Kompon is tremendous, compared to John VanBoxmeer the guy is the second coming of Albert Einstein.
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feelin’7-up. still can’t figure out who kompon is.but i will.it’s not harry dean stanton in REPO MAN is it?
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9 power plays, 1 goal is not getting it done. We NEED to hire Ray Bourque to tutor Jack Johnson. He NEVERS get the puck on net, thus no great rebounds. Always wide, Raymond Bourque was known for his accurate shot. Give Alec Martinez a chance, he can hit the net!!!!
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