Last year, the Los Angeles Kings seemed to be on a verge of a dynasty.
A year later, their failed to make the NHL playoffs and are locking out their coach. Literally.
The New York Post reported that two sources close to the team said the Kings locked the door to their locker room to keep out coach Darryl Sutter after a road defeat within the last two weeks.
The report said the Kings did not want to hear another lecture from Sutter. After Sutter tracked down an arena employee to open the locker room, he encountered three heavy trash cans shoved against the door as barracades, and the room was empty.
Kings general manager Dean Lombardi, responding to the Post report, confirmed to the Orange County Register that the incident took place. But he refuted the time frame.
''It's factually inaccurate. The timing is wrong. It happened in Tampa (in February), not last week," he told the Orange County Register.
But according to CBSSports.com, the Kings won their game at Tampa Bay, which started an eight-game winning streak - which makes the timing of the incident more strange, if it did take place in Tampa.
But Lombardi told the Register he didn't have a problem with the incident because it was the start of a winning streak.
''No, and here's why. I could look at it and say, 'That's when we won eight in a row, so let's do this more often.' In terms of what actually happened, maybe (players) don't have to go to that extreme, but theoretically I don't have a problem with it. Here's the thing, with where this team has to get to. If you look at what a coach's number one role is, it's to give his team structure and detail. The emotion, in terms of getting that emotion to where it needs to be, if we're going to be a top team it has to come from within the room. With it, at times, the coach obviously still has to have some ability (to talk). So we're, at times, a part of raising the emotion. Obviously one of the problems this year was just that, that for whatever reason, we weren't where we needed to be mentally.
''That said, I don't know if I like the way it happened, but if you look at great teams, the perfect example is Derek Jeter. When Joe Torre was ready to blow or something, Jeter would walk in the room and go, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, I got this one. Stay out, and don't be losing it.' You see this with top players all the time. The players, essentially, you want (to be) in charge of your room. Maybe the way to do it was, 'We don't need to hear from you now. We got it,' and go out and get it done."
Still, CBSSports.com speculated that changes are coming - not in the coaching ranks, but some players, such as Mike Richards.
But for now, the Kings' dynasty is on hold.
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