Dean Lombardi

For the Kings to reach the postseason, it would take a Miracle on Manchester-like intervention. But even if the Kings are going to be home for the sixth consecutive postseason, they appear to finally be going places. They've built a core of talented young players -- goaltender Jonathan Quick, defensemen Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Kyle Quincey, and forwards Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are all 24 or younger.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The blueprint was not original ... well maybe to the Kings, who spent too many seasons chasing success with a checkbook and patchwork trades. But General Manager Dean Lombardi followed a plan that was almost as old as the game, and had been successful during his time as the San Jose Sharks general manager. "You walk a fine line between getting younger and getting better," Lombardi said. The Kings have done both this season and are two victories from reaching the Stanley Cup finals after a 4-0 victory Tuesday over the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.

This could be the most important week of Dean Lombardi's six seasons as general manager of the Kings. If he acquires a high-impact scorer by the trade deadline of noon Pacific time Monday, he can salvage a season that began with high expectations but descended into a grim battle to score goals and make the playoffs. Failure to reach the postseason could cost Lombardi his job and there would be no reason to argue he should stay. The only elite player available and able to deliver the necessary scoring jolt is Columbus left wing Rick Nash , who reportedly listed the Kings among teams he'd be willing to join in a trade.

When Dean Lombardi landed his first job in the front office with an NHL franchise, he didn't purchase a house by one of the 10,000-plus lakes in Minnesota or dabble in the rental apartment market. This was the home address for a newly minted assistant general manager for six months: Met Center, Bloomington, Minn. The office of North Stars GM Jack Ferreira. "He had it made," said Ferreira, who is now a special assistant to Lombardi in Los Angeles. "There was a sofa in my office.

Dean Lombardi wasn't exactly warned against becoming Kings general manager four years ago. But he wasn't encouraged either. His chief mentor, Flyers executive and Hall of Fame center Bobby Clarke, had the strongest words. "He told me to be careful because he wasn't sure whether they'd stick through what had to be done because of their reputation," Lombardi said, referring to the Kings' habit of ditching rebuilding plans, reversing course and getting nowhere.

Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi said Friday his harsh evaluation of Jack Johnson's old flaws in an interview on the blog frozenroyalty.net was intended to lend perspective to the defenseman's progress, not to disparage Johnson or the University of Michigan. In the interview, conducted by Gann Matsuda and published as part of a series, Lombardi said Johnson "never had any coaching" at Michigan and was "awful as a hockey player" before he joined the Kings and refined his game enough to be chosen for the U.S. Olympic team at the Vancouver Games.

When: 5:30 PDT. Where: American Airlines Center. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 1150. Records: Kings 5-2-1, Stars 7-2-0. Update: Slowly but surely, Drew Doughty is inching toward a return to the lineup. He practiced with contact Wednesday before the team departed for Dallas, but the defenseman won't be in the lineup against the Stars, according to Dean Lombardi, the Kings' president and general manager. Lombardi is hoping Doughty will play Saturday at Phoenix, which would be two weeks after he injured his right shoulder.

Dean Lombardi has officially waved the white flag on this season. I agreed with most of the moves Lombardi has made since becoming the GM, until now. I was shocked to read that he said it was a possibility that Patrick O'Sullivan might be further along as a player if he hadn't held out at the beginning of the season. Then to say Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Gaborik had too steep of a price tag! Dean, how much cap space do we have? The Kings are so close to becoming a playoff team. This trade was a step backward.

Kings prospect Brayden Schenn , voted the most valuable player of the world junior championship despite Canada's loss to Russia in the finale, has a separated shoulder and won't be able to play for 10 to 14 days, General Manager Dean Lombardi said Thursday. Schenn, who played eight games for the Kings before being returned to Brandon of the Western Hockey League, was injured during Canada's quarterfinal victory over Switzerland. He received injections to continue playing and was the tournament's leading scorer with eight goals and 18 points in seven games.

The Alberta high couldn't even last 24 hours for the Kings. Forward Jeff Carter , acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets shortly before the league's trade deadline, injured his ankle late in Wednesday's resounding 3-0 win against the Flames at Calgary. From what Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi was saying, it sounded as though Carter would not be able to play Friday at Edmonton. Still the team is calling the injury day to day. "It happened late, but he was able to finish the game," a glum-sounding Lombardi said on Thursday afternoon in a telephone interview.

Ownership was "involved" in dismissing Terry Murray as the Kings' coach, but the season-saving decision to hire Darryl Sutter was made solely by General Manager Dean Lombardi, Tim Leiweke, the chief executive of parent company AEG, said Tuesday. Leiweke said Sutter is "exactly what we needed," and credited the blunt-mannered coach for transforming an underachieving team into the mature, cohesive group that upset the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs.

The Alberta high couldn't even last 24 hours for the Kings. Forward Jeff Carter , acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets shortly before the league's trade deadline, injured his ankle late in Wednesday's resounding 3-0 win against the Flames at Calgary. From what Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi was saying, it sounded as though Carter would not be able to play Friday at Edmonton. Still the team is calling the injury day to day. "It happened late, but he was able to finish the game," a glum-sounding Lombardi said on Thursday afternoon in a telephone interview.

You could never quite call it a circus-type atmosphere for the Kings at the Toyota Sports Center, not with the Lakers occupying part of the El Segundo complex. But it came close Friday with the departure of defenseman Jack Johnson, the looming arrival of just-acquired forward Jeff Carter from Columbus, trade rumors engulfing captain Dustin Brown and the completion of defenseman Willie Mitchell's two-year, $7-million contract extension Not long after the trade for Carter became official, Brown became a trending topic on Twitter in Canada on Thursday night, rocketing like a hot initial public offering.

It only seemed as though everyone in Philadelphia owned a camera phone and managed to snap a picture of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards out on the town. The pictures were all over the place when the two were running mates in their Flyers days and later when Richards headed to Los Angeles and Carter to Columbus in June. They resurfaced again when the duo was reunited by Thursday's trade with the Kings sending defenseman Jack Johnson and a conditional first-round pick to Columbus in exchange for Carter.

This could be the most important week of Dean Lombardi's six seasons as general manager of the Kings. If he acquires a high-impact scorer by the trade deadline of noon Pacific time Monday, he can salvage a season that began with high expectations but descended into a grim battle to score goals and make the playoffs. Failure to reach the postseason could cost Lombardi his job and there would be no reason to argue he should stay. The only elite player available and able to deliver the necessary scoring jolt is Columbus left wing Rick Nash , who reportedly listed the Kings among teams he'd be willing to join in a trade.

When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 1150. Records: Kings 24-16-10, Blue Jackets 13-31-6. Record vs. Blue Jackets: 1-1. Update: Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi said that concussed forward Simon Gagne has made "marginal progress. " Gagne, who has a history of head injuries, suffered the concussion Dec. 26 against the Phoenix Coyotes and has missed 14 games. "Is he close to playing?" Lombardi said.

This is what the Kings were looking for, and why they will announce today that Dean Lombardi is president and general manager. Lombardi saw an opportunity before the 1998 NHL draft and acted, with a jackpot payoff. The Nashville Predators, who held the third pick, craved center David Legwand. Problem was, the San Jose Sharks were looking down on them from the second pick. Lombardi, then the Sharks' general manager, had already decided to draft defenseman Brad Stuart.

The work ethic that Dean Lombardi seems intent on bringing to the Kings was apparent shortly after he was introduced as the team's president and general manager on Friday. An hour after the news conference, Lombardi was meeting with Mattias Norstrom, the Kings' captain, and Craig Conroy, an alternate captain, to discuss what went wrong this season. Lombardi was moving almost as fast as the Kings did.

There were signs as early as the fourth week of the season that the Kings were curiously flat, strangely "out of sync," according to their annoyed General Manager Dean Lombardi. Those subtle signals morphed into a full-scale distress siren by the end of a stretch of four straight losses, three of which came at Staples Center, forcing Lombardi's hand. He boarded a plane Monday morning in Los Angeles, flew to Boston and fired his old friend Terry Murray, who stood one win away from 500 in his coaching career.