Higher expectations

Going into this season, the Kings had a clear, simple goal: make the playoffs. It was a young roster, one with a majority of players who had never been to the playoffs, and it was an organization that hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2002. Well, all of that is over now. A lot of pundits — hand raised — didn’t even predict that the Kings would make the playoffs this season. That will change next season. The Kings won’t be underdogs any longer, and it’s safe to say that when league pundits publish their list of projected playoff teams, the Kings will be included. So there was a simple, basic question for Kings players. If outside expectations are going to rise for the Kings, league-wide, will expectations rise in the locker room? Jack Johnson, Michal Handzus, Dustin Brown and Ryan Smyth answered…

JOHNSON: “Yeah, they should be. Just making the playoffs isn’t good enough. That shouldn’t be a goal for anyone. The goal is to win the whole thing. That’s why you play. Just because you made the playoffs one year doesn’t mean things are hunky-dory. Expectations should be building every year. Truthfully, the expectation should be the Stanley Cup.”

HANDZUS: “I’m sure it does (rise), and I think that it should be. We should have expectations, of ourselves, to be better. Obviously I think the whole city and our whole organization will have bigger expectations. It’s a great learning process. It’s sometimes easier to play under the radar, but next year we’re not going to be under the radar. Everybody knows we had a good team, so it’s going to be more important for us to go for it. It’s great. You go through the playoffs with expectations to win, and if you cannot handle them, you’re not going to win. It’s the same thing with the regular season. We know that next year there’s going to be a little more pressure on us, but I think that’s welcomed pressure. We know that we have a good team, to go to the playoffs and do something special. I think there’s going to be excitement next season, right from the training camp, that we have a good team and we can do something special. That comes with expectations, but it’s good.”

BROWN: “You go back a year, and our belief system is starting to form. It’s not about expecting, it’s about knowing that we’re going to be better. If you want to micro-manage that (playoff) series, there are a handful of things, very little things, that you look back on now, and reflect on, and say, `If we had done this, we win that series or that game.’ That’s up to us to learn from those mistakes and move forward. We’ll be better for it.”

SMYTH: “Obviously the goal every year is to get into the playoffs, and then a whole new season starts from there. But I really do believe that it’s a stepping-stone for next year, for sure. It’s a first-time experience for some of the guys in the playoffs. It’s building something for the future. Obviously it has taken a little bit, but now it’s finally where we have made the playoffs, and that’s what drives us as players, to get to that level again. … Every year, the goal is to make the playoffs, but it’s to win the Stanley Cup too. There’s 29 other teams that are competing at the same level, and competing at a nightly basis to get to that. I think we want to get more than we did this year, for sure.”

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