Redleaf
Active member
cw said:hockeyfan1 said:From: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2012/06/12/spector_los_angeles_kings_win_first_stanley_cup/
The purple and gold Kings have been hockey's door mat to varying degrees since Jack Kent Cooke bought the team and built the Fabulous Forum. From years of trading away draft picks and prospects in search of the Hollywood quick fix, it was a goaltender named Jonathan Quick - drafted 72nd overall in 2005 - who carried off the Conn Smythe, a metaphor for this California knock-down and rebuild that's been seven years in the making.
This Cup is comfort food for those fans in Toronto and Edmonton, and other places where rebuilds have been undertaken, yet the losing still stings.
It didn't happen fast here. They went through a couple of general managers, a few coaches, and a bunch of expendable veterans while the right young players were drafted or acquired, and then properly groomed.
Quick and Kopitar were drafted in '05. Brown in '03. Doughty in '08.
This was no overnight success, nor was it in Chicago or Pittsburgh, two organizations that undertook the same rebuild and won Stanley Cups six or seven years down the line.
Source: Sportsnet
Heard Luc Robitaille, now a part of the Kings front office, interviewed last night. He preached that they had a plan, stuck to it and really stressed that they were patient. I thought of Burke when I heard those words ... in a hurry to make the playoffs.
The 'had a plan, stuck to it' sounds like what Burke's been preaching. The patience part, not so much.