The Los Angeles Kings
are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Founded on February 9, 1966, when Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an NHL expansion franchise for Los Angeles, [1] the Kings called the The Forum in Inglewood, California (a suburb of Los Angeles) their home for thirty-two years until they moved to Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles to start the 1999–2000 season. [2]
The Kings have not had a great deal of success in their history, winning their division just once in 1990–91, [3] and failing to get out of the first round of the playoffs twelve times in the twenty-four seasons they qualified for post-season play, advancing past the second round just once. [4] Indeed, the high point in Kings franchise history was when they won their conference championship for the only time, advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 1992–93 season only to lose the series to the Montreal Canadiens in five games. [5]
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Franchise history
The "Forum Blue and Gold" years (1967–68 to 1987–88)
Prior to the Kings' arrival in the Los Angeles area, both the
Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL) and the
Western Hockey League (WHL) had several teams in California, including the PCHL's Los Angeles Monarchs of the 1930s and the WHL's
Los Angeles Blades of the 1960s.
[6] When the NHL decided to
expand for the 1967–68 season amid rumblings that the WHL was proposing to turn itself into a major league and compete for the
Stanley Cup, Canadian entrepreneur
Jack Kent Cooke paid the NHL $2 million to place one of the six expansion teams in Los Angeles.
[7] Los Angeles has a large number of expatriates from both the Northeastern United States and Canada, which Cooke saw as a natural fan base.
[8]
Cooke was thus awarded one of the six new NHL expansion franchises, which also included the
California Seals,
Minnesota North Stars,
Philadelphia Flyers,
Pittsburgh Penguins and
St. Louis Blues.
He named his team the Kings, and picked the original team colors of purple (or "Forum Blue," as it was later officially called) and gold because they were colors traditionally associated with royalty. The same color scheme was worn by the
Los Angeles Lakers of the
National Basketball Association (NBA), which Cooke also owned.
[9] [10]
Cooke wanted his new NHL team to play in the
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, home of the Lakers. But the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, which manages the Sports Arena and the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to the present day, had already entered into an agreement with the Blades (whose owners had also tried to land the NHL expansion franchise in Los Angeles) to play their games at the Sports Arena.
[11] Frustrated by his dealings with the Coliseum Commission, Cooke said,
"I am going to build my own arena...I've had enough of this balderdash."
Construction on Cooke's new arena, the Forum, was not yet complete when the
1967–68 season began, so the Kings opened their first season at the
Long Beach Arena in the neighboring city of
Long Beach on October 14, 1967, defeating the
Philadelphia Flyers 4–2.
[12] For the next two months, the Kings played their home games both at Long Beach and at the Sports Arena.
The "Fabulous Forum" finally opened its doors on December 30, 1967, with the Kings being shut out by the Flyers, 2–0.
The Kings made the Forum their home for the next 32 seasons.
Players like
Bill "Cowboy" Flett,
Eddie "The Jet" Joyal,
Eddie "The Entertainer" Shack, and
Real "Frenchy" Lemieux helped introduce the Los Angeles area to the NHL in the team's first few seasons.
Such player nicknames were the brainchild of none other than Cooke himself.
In their first season, the Kings finished in second place in the Western Division, just one point behind the Flyers.
[13] The Kings were the only expansion team that had a winning record at home, but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the
Minnesota North Stars, losing the seventh game at The Forum on April 18, 1968, 9–4.
[14] In their second season behind head coach
Red Kelly, the Kings finished fourth in the West Division—the final playoff berth.
[15] But after eliminating the Oakland Seals in the first round of the playoffs in seven games, the Kings were swept out of post-season play in the second round by the
St. Louis Blues.
After two fairly successful seasons, the Kings hit upon hard times, mostly due to poor management. Kings general managers established a history of trading away first-round draft picks, usually for veteran players (many of them NHL stars on the downside of their careers), a problem that would hinder the franchise for years to come.
[16] The Kings' attendance also suffered during this time, leading Cooke to muse that the reason so many Northeasterners and Canadians moved to Southern California was that "they hated hockey."
In 1972, the Kings moved to bring some credibility back to the franchise when they hired former
Toronto Maple Leafs winger Bob Pulford as their head coach.
It took him just two seasons to lead the Kings back to the playoffs and in 1974, they faced the
Chicago Blackhawks, only to be eliminated in five games.
Pulford eventually led the team to three of the most successful seasons in franchise history, including a 105-point season in
1974–75 that is still a franchise record.
[17]
In 1973, the Kings hired
Bob Miller as the their play-by-play announcer, and he has held that post continuously since that time. Miller, considered to be one of the best hockey play-by-play announcers in the NHL, is often referred to as the "Voice of the Kings." He was inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame on November 13, 2000
[18] [19] and his first book,
Bob Miller's Tales of the Los Angeles Kings
, was published in 2006.
[20]
After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in both
1973–74 and 1974–75, the Kings moved to significantly upgrade their offensive firepower when they acquired center
Marcel Dionne on June 23, 1975, in a trade with the
Detroit Red Wings. Dionne was already a superstar in the NHL and he made an immediate impact in the
1975–76 season, scoring 40 goals and adding 54 assists for 94 points in 80 regular season games.
[21] He led the Kings to a 38–33–9 record (85 points), earning them a second place finish in the
Norris Division.
Behind Dionne's offensive prowess, the strong goaltending of
Rogie Vachon, and the speed and scoring touch of forward
Butch Goring, the Kings swept the
Atlanta Flames out of the first round of the playoffs, but were eliminated in the second round by the
Boston Bruins in seven games.
The Kings would defeat the Flames and lose to the Bruins in the following year's playoffs as well.
On January 13, 1979, Dionne found himself on a new line with two young, mostly unknown players: second-year right winger
Dave Taylor and left winger
Charlie Simmer, who had been a career minor-leaguer.
This line combination, known as the "Triple Crown Line," would go on to become one of the highest-scoring line combinations in NHL history.
After the Triple Crown Line's first season together, Dr.
Jerry Buss purchased the Kings, the Lakers, and the Forum for $67.5 million, but the Simmer-Dionne-Taylor combination remained intact.
The next season, the Triple Crown Line dominated the NHL, scoring 146 goals and 182 assists, good for 328 points.
The entire line, along with goalie
Mario Lessard, was selected to play in the
NHL All-Star Game that season, which was played at the Forum.
In that
1979–80 season, Dionne won the
Art Ross Memorial Trophy for winning an NHL scoring title that season with 137 points on 53 goals and 84 assists.
But even with the Triple Crown Line's ability to dominate, the Kings still could not get out of the first round of the playoffs until
1982.
That year, the Kings opened the playoffs against the
Edmonton Oilers, who were led by a young but fast-rising star by the name of
Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky was only in his third year in the league, but he dominated the NHL like no other had before from the moment he stepped onto NHL ice in his rookie season. By the
1981–82 season, he was already the most dominant player in the league, and had made the Oilers one of the elite teams in the NHL, on their way to winning four
Stanley Cup championships in the 1980s.
[23] The Oilers finished with 111 points, the second-best record in the league, while the Kings barely made the playoffs with only 63 points.
[24] The Kings won Game 1 in Edmonton on April 7, 1982, 10–8, in the highest scoring Stanley Cup Playoff game ever.
[25] The Oilers recovered to win in overtime in Game 2,
and the teams headed to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4.
Game 3 would be one of the most amazing in hockey history and was later dubbed the "
Miracle on Manchester" (the Kings arena, the Forum, was on Manchester Boulevard). In that game, played on April 10, 1982, Gretzky led the Oilers to a commanding 5-0 lead after two periods and it seemed like the Kings were headed for a blowout loss. But the Kings began an unbelievable comeback in the third period, tying the game on a goal by left winger
Steve Bozek at 19:55 of the third period and sending the game into
overtime.
[26]
Bozek's goal set the stage for what was to come. At 2:35 of the overtime period, Kings left winger
Daryl Evans fired a slap shot off a face-off in the right circle of the Edmonton zone, beating Oilers goaltender
Grant Fuhr over his right shoulder to give the Kings an incredible come-from-behind, overtime victory, 6-5.
The Miracle on Manchester, the greatest comeback in NHL playoff history,
[28] is also the greatest moment in Kings franchise history as of 2007.
Not only did the Kings complete a miraculous comeback against the vaunted Oilers, but they also went on to eliminate them from the playoffs in five games.
Despite Dionne's leadership, the Kings missed the playoffs in the next two seasons, and were quickly swept out of the playoffs by the Oilers in
1985, when the Oilers won their second straight Stanley Cup championship.
Dionne's time with the Kings ended on March 10, 1987, when he was traded to the
New York Rangers.
[29] But by this time, the Kings had new skaters to help lead them into the next decade, including star forwards
Bernie Nicholls,
Jimmy Carson,
Luc Robitaille, and defenseman
Steve Duchesne.
Even before the Dionne trade the Kings were sent reeling when coach
Pat Quinn signed a contract to become coach and general manager of the
Vancouver Canucks with just months left on his Kings contract.
NHL President John Ziegler suspended Quinn for the rest of the season and barred him from taking over Vancouver's hockey operations until June. Ziegler also barred him from coaching anywhere in the NHL until the
1990–91 season. In Ziegler's view, Quinn's actions created a serious conflict of interest that could only be resolved by having him removed as coach.
[30]
Despite these shocks, the Kings made the playoffs in the next two seasons, but they were unable to get out of the first round. Part of the problem was that the way the playoffs were structured (teams were bracketed and seeded by division) made it very likely that they would have to get past either the powerful Oilers or
Calgary Flames (or both) to reach the Conference Finals. In fact, the Kings faced either the Oilers or the Flames in the playoffs four times during the 1980s.
However, the
1988–89 season would be a big turning point for the franchise.
Silver and Black Era (1988–89 to 1997–98)
In 1987, coin collector
Bruce McNall purchased the Kings from Buss, and he turned the team into a Stanley Cup contender almost overnight on August 9, 1988, when he acquired the league's best player, Gretzky himself, in a blockbuster trade with the Oilers that rocked the hockey world, especially north of the border, where Canadians mourned the loss of a player they considered a national treasure.
[31] McNall also changed the team colors to silver and black (which was a take on the era's sports logo sales and the
NFL's
Los Angeles Raiders, who played up the road at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum).
In Gretzky's first season with the Kings, he led the team in scoring with 168 points on 54 goals and 114 assists, and won his ninth
Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's
Most Valuable Player. He led the Kings to a second-place finish in the
Smythe Division with a 42-31-7 record (91 points), and they ranked fourth in the NHL overall.
The Kings faced Gretzky's old team, the Oilers, in the first round of the 1989 playoffs. They fell behind 3 games to 1, but rallied to take the series in seven games, helped in no small part by nine goals from
Chris Kontos, a little-known player who had just recently been called up from the minor leagues. However, the Kings were quickly swept out of the playoffs in the second round by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Flames.
The
next season saw Gretzky become the league's all-time leading scorer. On October 15, 1989, in Edmonton, he assisted on a
Bernie Nicholls goal to tie
Gordie Howe's career record of 1,850 points, then broke it late in the contest on a game-tying goal against
Bill Ranford. The goal forced overtime, where Gretzky capped a spectacular night by scoring again to win the game for Los Angeles.
[32] At season's end, the Kings finished fourth and faced the defending champion Flames in the first round. This time, they defeated Calgary in six games, two of which had dramatic overtimes — Game 3 was won with a shorthanded goal by
Tony Granato, and Game 6 ended with a strange goal by
Mike Krushelnyski while he was flat on his back. However, the Kings were swept in the second round by the eventual champion Oilers, who were seeking revenge for the loss of the previous year.
Gretzky spearheaded the Kings to their first (and at present, only) regular-season division title in franchise history in the
1990–91 season with a 46-24-10 record (102 points, the second best point total in franchise history). Notably, it was the first time in 10 years that a team from
Alberta had not finished first in the Smythe. However, the heavily favored Kings struggled in the playoffs, winning the first round against the
Vancouver Canucks in six games but losing a close series against Edmonton in the second round that saw four games go into overtime. The
1991–92 season, the Kings' 25th as a franchise, witnessed eight Kings players score over 20 goals; Gretzky himself had a then-career low in scoring yet still finished third in the league behind
Pittsburgh Penguins teammates
Mario Lemieux and
Kevin Stevens. Despite this, Los Angeles again failed to thwart their Edmonton rivals in the post-season, losing to the Oilers in the first round. This marked the third straight year that the Gretzky-led Kings were eliminated from the playoffs by Gretzky's former teammates.
The Kings would reach new heights in the
1992–93 season, but the campaign started badly when it was learned that Gretzky had suffered a career-threatening herniated thoracic disk before the season began. The concern was not mainly whether Gretzky would be able to play that season, but if he would ever be able to play again. But even without their captain and leading scorer, the Kings got off to a blistering 20-8-3 start,
[33] with left-winger
Luc Robitaille, who won the
Calder Memorial Trophy as the
1986–87's NHL
Rookie of the Year, filling in as captain for the ailing Gretzky. Robitaille led the team until Gretzky returned after missing the first 39 games.
[34] Robitaille would go on to retire at the end of the 2005–06 season as the highest-scoring left winger in
National Hockey League history.
[35]
Robitaille and Gretzky, along with former Oilers' winger
Jari Kurri, forwards
Tony Granato and
Tomas Sandstrom, defensemen
Rob Blake,
Marty McSorley, and
Alexei Zhitnik, and goalie
Kelly Hrudey, guided the Kings through a rough middle portion of the season until they found their game once again in the last three months of the campaign to qualify for post-season action. Although Gretzky came back to score 16 goals and 49 assists (65 points) in just 45 games, it was Robitaille who was the Kings' impact player that season, leading the team in scoring with 63 goals and 62 assists (125 points) in 84 regular season games, setting new NHL all-time records for goals and points scored by a left winger in a single season.
The Kings finished with a 39-35-10 record (88 points), clinching third place in the Smythe Division.
First-year head coach
Barry Melrose had his team's offense running on all cylinders when the 1993 playoffs began, and they scored an amazing 33 goals in their first-round series against the
Calgary Flames.
[36] In the second round, the Kings faced the heavily-favored
Vancouver Canucks, a team that had beaten the Kings rather handily five times in seven games during the regular season, and had not lost to the Kings in their four meetings in
Vancouver. But the Kings would go on to eliminate the Canucks in six games, with the pivotal victory coming in Game 5 at Vancouver, which was tied 3-3 at the end of regulation play. The teams were still tied after the first overtime period, but winger
Gary Shuchuk scored at 6:31 of the second overtime period, giving the Kings a 3-2 series lead, and dealing the Canucks an emotional and, as it turned out, fatal blow.
In the Campbell Conference Finals, the Kings were even more of an underdog against the
Doug Gilmour-led
Toronto Maple Leafs. But with Gretzky at the helm, the Kings eliminated the Leafs in a hard-fought seven-game series that included two overtime games and a Game 6 win for the Kings, who were facing elimination after losing Game 5 in overtime—they trailed the Leafs in the series, 3-2.
[37] In Game 6, Toronto scored two third period goals and tied the game at 4-4 at the end of regulation play. But in overtime, Luc Robitaille fed Gretzky a perfect pass and Gretzky scored to give his team a dramatic 5-4 victory and send the teams back to Toronto for a Game 7. In the final contest, Gretzky scored a
hat trick (three goals) and had an assist to lead the Kings to a 5-4 win and a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history.
In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Kings faced the
Montreal Canadiens, who had breezed through the playoffs and were well-rested. The Kings defeated the Canadiens in Game 1, 4-1. Game 2, however, proved to be the turning point in the series. Late in the contest, with the Kings leading by a score of 2-1, Canadiens coach
Jacques Demers requested a measurement of Kings defenseman Marty McSorley's stick blade. His suspicions proved to be correct, as the curve of blade was too great, and McSorley was penalized. The Canadiens pulled their goalie,
Patrick Roy, giving them a two-man advantage, and
Eric Desjardins scored on the resulting power play to tie the game. Montreal went on to win the game in overtime on another goal by Desjardins, and the Kings never recovered. They dropped the next two games in overtime, and were shelled 4-1 in Game 5 as the Canadiens won their 24th Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Despite the stinging defeat at the hands of the Canadiens in the finals, Gretzky and the Kings had generated excitement about hockey and the NHL that had never been seen before in Southern California. As soon as Gretzky donned a Kings jersey, the Forum was sold out for every game — virtually overnight, a Kings game became the hottest ticket in town. The popularity of Gretzky and the Kings also led to the NHL awarding an expansion team to
Anaheim, California; in
1993 the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (who became the
Anaheim Ducks on June 22, 2006) would become the Kings nearest rival, just 35 miles to the south. Gretzky's popularity in Southern California also led to the NHL expanding or moving into other
Sun Belt cities such as
Phoenix,
Dallas,
Tampa,
Miami, and
Nashville.
McNall's profile also rose during this time. In 1992, he was elected chairman of the NHL's Board of Governors, the second-most powerful post in the league. His support of
Gary Bettman tipped the scales in favor of Bettman's election as the league's first
Commissioner. However, only two years later, McNall was forced to sell the team to IDB Communications founder Jeffrey Sudikoff and former
Madison Square Garden president Joseph Cohen in the wake of a federal investigation into his financial practices. He ultimately pled guilty to five counts of conspiracy and fraud, and admitted to obtaining $236 million in fraudulent loans from six banks over 10 years.
[40]
It later emerged that McNall had grossly mismanaged the Kings' business affairs. At one point, Cohen and Sudikoff were even unable to meet player payroll, and were ultimately forced into bankruptcy in 1995.
[41] They were forced to trade many of their stronger players, resulting in a roster comprised of Gretzky, Blake and little else. The Kings missed the playoffs for four seasons, from
1993–94 to
1996–97.
Staples Center era (1998–present)
Phillip Anschutz and Edward Roski bought the Kings out of bankruptcy court in October 1995 and began a rebuilding phase. Meanwhile, Gretzky, who was by this time on the downside of his career, stated publicly that he wanted the team to acquire a forward capable of scoring fifty goals per season and an offensive defenseman. If they failed to do that, he wanted to be traded to a team that was a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
After all he had done for the game by that time, Gretzky wanted another chance to win an elusive fifth Stanley Cup before retirement. But his public statements forced the Kings' hand, since no team would now give them equal value in a trade because of his demands — the Kings would be at a huge disadvantage in any trade, and this would badly hurt their rebuilding program.
On February 27, 1996, Gretzky was traded, this time to the
St. Louis Blues, for forwards
Craig Johnson,
Patrice Tardif,
Roman Vopat, a first-round pick in the
1997 draft (
Matt Zultek) and a fifth-round choice in the
1996 draft (Peter Hogan).
[42] None became stars for the Kings, although Gretzky himself was an unrestricted free agent by season's end, and only played 18 regular season games for the Blues. Like
Marcel Dionne before him, Gretzky ended up with the
New York Rangers.
Shortly after Gretzky was traded, the often-maligned general manager Sam McMaster was fired and was replaced by former Kings winger
Dave Taylor.
[43] But the rebuilding phase for Taylor was a tough one, as the Kings continued to flounder—they failed to make the playoffs until the
1997–98 season.
After another disappointing season in
1998–99, then-head coach
Larry Robinson, who also played three seasons for the Kings from 1989–92 and had been an assistant coach on the
New Jersey Devils'
1995 Cup team, was fired.
Taylor turned to
Andy Murray, who became the Kings' 19th head coach on June 14, 1999. Taylor's hiring of Murray was immediately criticized by media across North America because of Murray's perceived lack of experience — up to that point, his only head coaching experience had been at the international level with the Canadian National Team and at the US high school level. Indeed, Taylor took a gamble on Murray, hoping it would pay off.
[44]
But Taylor was not finished dealing that summer. Shortly after hiring Murray, Taylor acquired star right-wing
Zigmund Palffy and veteran
center Bryan Smolinski on June 20, 1999, in exchange for center prospect
Olli Jokinen, winger prospect
Josh Green, defenseman prospect
Mathieu Biron and the Kings' first-round pick in the
1999 NHL Entry Draft.
The Kings also made an even bigger move in
1999, as they left the
Great Western Forum and moved to
Staples Center in downtown
Los Angeles, which was built by Anschutz and Roski. Staples Center was a state-of-the-art arena, complete with luxury suites and all the modern amenities that fans and athletes would want in a brand-new facility.
With a new home, a new coach, a potential 50-goal scorer in the fold and players such as
Rob Blake,
Luc Robitaille,
Glen Murray,
Jozef Stumpel,
Donald Audette,
Ian Laperriere, and
Mattias Norstrom, the Kings improved dramatically, finishing the season the 1999–2000 season with a 39-31-12-4 record (94 points), good for second place in the
Pacific Division. But in the 2000 playoffs, the Kings were once again eliminated in the first round, this time by the
Detroit Red Wings in a four-game sweep.
The
2000–01 season was a controversial one, as fans began to question AEG's commitment to the success of the Kings because they failed to significantly improve the team during the off-season. Adding fuel to the fire was the February 21, 2001, trade of star defenseman
Rob Blake, who had won the
James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman in
1998.
[45]
In that deal, the Kings sent Blake and center
Steven Reinprecht, to the
Colorado Avalanche in exchange for right wing
Adam Deadmarsh, defenseman
Aaron Miller, center prospect
Jared Aulin and a first-round pick in the
2001 NHL Entry Draft (
Dave Steckel). Deadmarsh and Miller became impact players for the Kings, who finished the 2000–01 season with a 38-28-13-3 record (92 points), good for a third place finish in the Pacific Division and another first-round playoff date with the Detroit Red Wings.
[46]
The heavily-favored Red Wings — many predicted another four-game sweep — made easy work of the Kings in Games 1 and 2 at the
Joe Louis Arena, but the Kings got back in the series with a 2-1 win in Game 3 at Staples Center.
In Game 4, the Red Wings took a commanding 3-0 lead after two periods, seemingly restoring order to a series they were supposed to win easily. And in the third period, it looked like nothing would change. But all that set the stage for yet another unbelievable playoff comeback for the Kings, highly reminiscent of the "Miracle on Manchester," back in 1982. Seldom-used forward
Scott Thomas, a career minor-leaguer, scored a power play goal at 13:53, to give the Kings a bit of life. The Red Wings were called for a penalty with just under three minutes to play and Kings' coach Andy Murray gambled and pulled his goalie to give his team a two-man advantage. The gamble paid off as
Jozef Stumpel would follow with another power play goal at 17:33. Finally,
Bryan Smolinski tied the game at the 19:07 mark. In the overtime, Deadmarsh stole the puck from Red Wings' star defenseman
Chris Chelios in the right corner behind the Detroit net, and threw a centering pass to center
Eric Belanger, who scored the game-winning goal at 2:36 to lift the Kings to a miraculous come-from-behind win, now known as the "Frenzy on Figueroa," or the "Stunner at Staples."
That amazing win took all the wind out of the Red Wings' sails, and the Kings eliminated them in Game 6 in Los Angeles, having won four straight games after going down 2-0 in the series. It was the Kings' first playoff series win since 1993.
In the second round, the Kings went up against another elite team, the
Colorado Avalanche, led by superstars like
Joe Sakic,
Peter Forsberg,
Patrick Roy,
Ray Bourque, and of course,
Rob Blake. The Kings took the eventual champions to seven games but lost the series, 4-3.
. The most memorable game of that series was game 6. After the Kings fell behind 3 games to 1, they defeated the Avalanche in Colorado in game 5 to stave off elimination. Back in L.A. for game 6, goalies Patrick Roy of Colorado and Felix Potvin of the Kings were brilliant as the teams battled to a 0-0 tie. Through one overtime they played but still nobody could score. Finally the Kings got one past hall of famer Roy in the second overtime for a 1-0 win.
The
2001–02 started off with tragedy as team scouts
Garnet "Ace" Bailey and Mark Bavis were both casualties of the
September 11th attack. The team honored the two by wearing "AM" patches on their jerseys. Earlier in the season, the team acquired
Jason Allison who was involved in a contract dispute along with
Mikko Eloranta from the
Boston Bruins in return for
Jozef Stumpel and
Glen Murray. At mid-season they held the
2002 NHL All-Star Game [48] while still fighting for a playoff spot in which they clinched seventh place in the Western Conference where they were matched with the heavily-favored Avalanche. After being bounced out of the playoffs in the first round by the Avalanche, the next two seasons would be major disappointments, as the team failed to make the playoffs in both seasons.
Even though the Kings refused to use it as an excuse, injuries were the primary reason for the team's failures. In
2002–03, the Kings just missed breaking the unofficial NHL record for the most man-games lost to injury in a season with 536. But they would easily surpass the record in
2003–04 with 629 man-games lost.
Following the resume of play after the
2004–05 NHL lockout, the Kings acquired
Valeri Bure,
Jeremy Roenick and
Pavol Demitra for the
2005–06 season. Los Angeles began the new season strong, but the second half of the season saw the Kings once again stumble badly, freefalling from second in the Western Conference in early January to tenth place. On March 21, 2006, the team fired head coach
Andy Murray, replacing him with interim head coach
John Torchetti. With three games left in the season, Luc Robitaille, the team's all-time leading scorer and the NHL's all-time highest-scoring left winger, announced that, at the end of the year, he would be retiring from pro hockey.
Just one day after the end of the Kings' 2005–06 regular season, AEG decided to clean house. On April 18, 2006, President/Hockey Operations and General Manager
Dave Taylor and Director of Player Personnel Bill O'Flaherty were relieved of their duties, and Vice President and Assistant General Manager Kevin Gilmore was re-assigned to other duties within AEG. Torchetti and assistant coaches
Mark Hardy and Ray Bennett, along with goaltending consultant Andy Nowicki, were also fired. Kings CEO Tim Leiweke also announced that he would no longer be the team's Chief Executive Officer.
On April 21, 2006, the Kings signed
Philadelphia Flyers scout and former
San Jose Sharks general manager Dean Lombardi as President and General Manager. He was signed to a five-year contract, signaling big changes in the near future for the franchise. Soon after he was hired, Lombardi quickly began to revamp the Kings' hockey operations and just barely over one month into his tenure as President and General Manager, on May 22, 2006, he hired
Marc Crawford to be the Kings' 21st head coach.
There were few highlights during the
2006–07 season. On January 13, 2007, the Kings made hockey history by putting
Yutaka Fukufuji in goal for the third period of the game with the
St. Louis Blues. This marked the first time in hockey history that a Japanese-born player played in an NHL regular season game. On January 20, 2007, the Kings retired Luc Robitaille's jersey in an hour-long ceremony prior to the game with the
Phoenix Coyotes. It was the fifth Kings jersey to be retired by the team.
In the 2007–08 off-season, the Kings signed six unrestricted free agents, including center
Michal Handzus, left wings
Ladislav Nagy and
Kyle Calder, and defensemen
Tom Preissing,
Brad Stuart and
Jon Klemm. However, despite opening the season with a win against the defending
Stanley Cup champion
Anaheim Ducks in the first NHL regular season game in Europe at the new
O2 Arena (also owned by AEG) in
London,
England,
[49] the new acquisitions did little to change the Kings' fortunes as the team finished with the second worst record in the league. On June 10, 2008, the team announced the firing of head coach Marc Crawford.
[50]
In the
2008 NHL Entry Draft, the Kings had a busy day, starting with a 3-way trade with the
Calgary Flames and the
Anaheim Ducks. The Kings traded
Mike Cammalleri to the Flames, and the 28th overall pick to the Ducks. The Kings received the 12th overall pick (which eventually was traded to the
Buffalo Sabres for the 13th overall pick). The Kings used the 2nd overall pick to select defenseman
Drew Doughty, and the 13th overall pick to select
Colten Teubert.
On July 17, 2008, the Kings hired
Terry Murray, who became the 22nd head coach in franchise history.
[51] on October 8, 2008, right wing Dustin Brown was named as the Kings’ fifteenth captain in franchise history.
[52] Brown, 23, is also the youngest captain and the first American-born captain in Kings’ history.
Season-by-season record
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Kings. For the full season-by-season history, see Los Angeles Kings seasons
[53]
Note:
GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses/Shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes''
| Season
| GP
| W
| L
| T1
| OTL
| Pts
| GF
| GA
| PIM
| Finish
| Playoffs
|
| 2004–05
| Season cancelled due to 2004–05 NHL Lockout
|
| 2005–061
| 82
| 42
| 35
| --
| 5
| 89
| 249
| 270
| 1440
| 4th, Pacific
| Did not qualify
|
| 2006–07
| 82
| 27
| 41
| --
| 14
| 68
| 227
| 283
| 1215
| 4th, Pacific
| Did not qualify
|
| 2007–08
| 82
| 32
| 43
| --
| 7
| 71
| 231
| 266
| 930
| 5th, Pacific
| Did not qualify
|
| 2008–09
| 82
| 34
| 37
| --
| 11
| 79
| 207
| 234
| 1182
| 5th, Pacific
| Did not qualify
|
1 As of the 2005–06 NHL season, all games will have a winner; the OTL column includes SOL (Shootout losses).
Notable players
Current roster
Updated December 18, 2008.
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