Leiweke: Kings 'headed in the right direction'

That's why our budget is what it is. It's about predictability, not about cheapness.

If Lombardi were to come to you and say, "I have a chance to get an elite goalie I think can put us over the top," would you give him approval to do that?

Yup. Period.

Does it depend on who it is?

I'm not going to get into that. If Dean comes to me and says he's elite, Dean's our hockey guy. If I'm going to question elite, I'd better get rid of our hockey guy. We're not getting rid of our hockey guy. I trust Dean. . . . If he came to me tomorrow and said, 'I've got an elite winger that I can get -- a young guy that's willing to come here and we can tie him up long-term but he's going to cost us this amount of money per year,' the answer would be yes.

You may miss the playoffs this season as well. Can you live with that if you see progress in enough areas?

Yeah, although Dean would agree, and we've had conversations with Dean and [assistant GM Ron] Hextall -- "a lot more pressure on us this year, boys." The first two years was a hall pass to fix everything that was wrong, to stockpile the system to get the kids in here and grow them. Now we're in our third year and this can't be just about tying the kids up long-term or making the right draft picks. We've got to show now that they're as good as we think they're going to be.

Will this team lose money this year?

Yes. Not even close. We're much better this year. And I'm not crying, I'm not bitching, I'm not moaning. I'm not complaining. I'm not renegotiating, spinning. I'm not doing any of this. I'm just acknowledging the fact we are going to lose money. We're OK with that because quite frankly we're going to lose a lot less money this year than we did last year. We're headed in the right direction and most of all we have a team that you say, 'These guys are fun to watch and we're headed in the right direction.' There's optimism here.

I think we're OK with that. Mr. [Phil] Anschutz is probably the most pleased I've seen him in about three or four years.

Well, I guess we all have to take your word for what he thinks, don't we?

I keep on telling him, "Phil, the good news is they're kicking my . . . every Saturday in the letters to the editor. The bad news is I'm getting tired of it and I think it's time for you to step up and take your fair share of the kicking."

What about getting more local games in HD?