Coaching situation update

It’s Day 4 of Coach Watch with the Kings. Interim coach John Stevens will remain behind the bench for tonight’s game against Columbus, and it’s almost certain that Stevens will stay in charge of the team in Detroit as well. All signs still point toward Darryl Sutter joining the Kings as coach, sooner rather than later, but multiple sources have indicated that a couple things are still being worked on: compensation with Calgary — Sutter is still under contract there — and immigration issues, which can’t be settled until Sutter officially joins the Kings. It could take a few more days. After today’s morning skate, Dean Lombardi gave a brief general update on the coaching search, without mentioning any names…

LOMBARDI: “Yes, I am closer. We’re working through the process here and we’re making progress. We’ve got a good man here in charge right now, and I’ve got the utmost confidence in him to get us through this period.’’

Lombardi also declined to discuss the “process,’’ whether he has actually interviewed candidates or whether he would wait until the end of the road trip to officially put the new coach in place. Lombardi did talk about what he thought of the team’s effort in Boston, in a 3-0 loss less than a day after Terry Murray was fired…

LOMBARDI: “I liked it better last year, when we got outshot 50-20, and our goalie stood on his head but we won. We go into Boston and probably play the best we’ve played there in four years. It’s kind of funny how that works. What I liked was, in the third period we were down 3-0 and they could have mailed it in, and they kept coming. That showed me something. Our second and third periods were pretty good, and we didn’t stop coming. That’s the irony of it. The last two times we were in there, we were nowhere as good as we were in that game.’’

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