For the Kings, the more things change, the more they're likely to stay the same

Kings president Luc Robitaille said he has begun the search for a general manager to replace Rob Blake and said Blake left the franchise "in real good shape." In truth, it could be a lot better.

Instead of taking an unflinching look at the reasons the Kings’ season ended so far short of the Stanley Cup that they need to buy tickets to see the hallowed trophy at the Hockey Hall of Fame, Luc Robitaille chose to filter his gaze through Forum Blue-and-gold colored glasses.

The upshot of his news conference on Tuesday was this: They will have a new general manager next season because everyone agreed it was time that Rob Blake walked away, but it’s unlikely much else will be different as the Kings continue their unsteady attempt to climb toward the top of the NHL heap.

No, let’s rephrase that. Not much is expected to change as the Kings continue their effort to win a single playoff series for the first time since their 2014 Stanley Cup triumph. A Cup championship is too much to ask for out of a team that can’t win four playoff games, not even the group that this past season tied franchise records for wins and points and set a franchise record with 31 home wins.

Why not look outside the organization for a new general manager who has a clear, dispassionate viewpoint like they did in 2006 when they found a guy named Dean Lombardi, who rebuilt their culture and their roster and took them to new heights? That would be the hard way to go but potentially the most honest. It’s not likely to happen, though, with Marc Bergevin (senior advisor to Blake) and assistant GM Nelson Emerson so close at hand.

Judging the Kings as a 105-point team will teach club executives nothing. Being critical enough to see and judge them as the team that lost four straight games to the Edmonton Oilers after they’d taken a 2-0 series lead is the only way to identify where and why they stumbled so badly, and try to remedy the problems. They had fine moments during the season, but the Stanley Cup isn’t won during the season. It’s won during a grueling, two-month tournament that’s probably the toughest in sports. They’re clearly lacking the elements to be successful when it matters most.

Over the past few months Blake had expressed doubt to Robitaille about extending his eight-year tenure and a contract that was timed to end after this season. During their post-elimination discussions over the weekend, Robitaille said they agreed that “it was time to probably bring in a new voice just to get us to the next level.” If Blake felt that he couldn’t make the extensive commitment required to run the team and take the Kings to the next level, kudos to him for realizing it and walking away instead of hanging on halfheartedly.

As could be expected, Robitaille had nothing but praise for his former Kings teammate. “He’s left us with a damned good team and he left this franchise in great shape. And we’re very fortunate to have had a human being doing this for us,” Robitaille said.

“He’s going to leave a big hole. One of the greatest leaders in our game and every one of our players had the opportunity to talk with him and they all did and he treated every person so well. We’re going to miss him.”

Robitaille also praised Jim Hiller, saying the coach did a “tremendous job.” Those Forum Blue glasses evidently obscured his view of Hiller’s obvious postseason fumbles in unevenly distributing minutes, shortening the bench enough to fatigue his core players, and being unwilling or unable to jolt them out of the sit-back posture that repeatedly cost them leads and games. The new general manager will have latitude in choosing a coach, but Robitaille made it clear that Hiller is still the incumbent.

Robitaille went so far as to say he didn’t see a scenario in which Hiller won’t return. “You don’t want to lock up a new person that’s coming in, but the record of what Jimmy’s done this year is really, really good. It would be really hard for any GM to say, ‘Well, this guy shouldn’t come back,’” Robitaille said. “He’s been really good. I think Jimmy’s a great coach and I fully think that this guy’s coming back for sure.

“We all make mistakes, every one of us, and it’s what you learn from it, you know. Whether it’s a player on the ice, a call, or a bad trade or something. It’s ‘What do you do with it? What happened, are you willing to get better and can you get better out of it?’”

Robitaille said he wouldn’t rule out hiring a first-time GM—as Blake was—and said candidates both internal and external will be considered for the job. Still, it’s hard to believe they’ll look beyond their El Segundo offices. Bergevin, a former general manager of the Montreal Canadiens and longtime friend of Robitaille’s, seems to be the clear early favorite.

“We have to talk to everyone. You have to listen. Marc, the relationship was between him and Blakey where they worked together,” Robitaille said. “I know in the room he’s a really good hockey mind and they worked closely together and travel a lot. We have a full scouting system that these guys are really talented and he added to what they were doing as a group and he’s been really good for our team.”

Robitaille also said he had spoken to impending unrestricted free agent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (a must-keep) and UFA winger Andrei Kuzmenko (keep if reasonably priced) and told them he wants to be in contact with them soon. He hadn’t spoken to forward Tanner Jeannot, who was forceful on the fourth line before an injury kept him out of the playoffs. Gavrikov and Kuzmenko said in their exit interviews they weren’t in a hurry to make a decision regarding next season.

The Kings aren’t in a hurry to replace Blake, but they also can’t dawdle. The New York Islanders reportedly were interested in Bergevin, though Robitaille said they hadn’t contacted him about speaking to Bergevin.

“We don’t have a timeline but obviously we understand the urgency,” Robitaille said. “We know what’s coming up. There’s free agency coming up, the draft’s coming up. So, like I said, we started working on it Monday. You’re putting a list together. You suddenly have a lot of friends. You get a lot of texts when that happens.

“We understand that there’s an urgency but at the same time it’s very important for this franchise and so hopefully it will be as soon as possible but we want to make sure.”

Asked what’s missing, Robitaille said the franchise “is in really good shape.” As reasons for optimism, he cited the rise of young players such as Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke. “These guys are going to be around for a while. They’re the ones that are going to take us to the next level,” Robitaille said, omitting that Hiller played Clarke an average of only a little more than 12 minutes per game in the playoffs. Hiller also scratched defenseman Jordan Spence from the Game 4 lineup and didn’t give Spence double-digit minutes in ice time until he played 10:53 in Game 6.

Asked what he wants in his new GM, Robitaille replied, “Someone who will help us win the Cup.” Nice answer. Good for a chuckle. But it’s a serious and reasonable question.

“There’s different ways to look at it,” Robitaille said. “It’s interesting to hear different vision and how everything is seen. But you definitely want to have someone who is willing to do whatever it takes.

“The one thing that when you look at our team, man, we worked hard this year. There’s not one night that you couldn’t see [them] work hard but we still need that killer instinct, you know, just that little thing. So we’re going to be looking for that.”

Happy hunting. “I’ve always said that on July 1 if you look at your team and you say, ‘What can we add that can help us win the Stanley Cup?’ you’re there, and we’ve been thinking that way for the last couple years,” Robitaille said. “We haven’t won the Cup.

“It’s not about beating one team or winning one round. It’s about winning a Stanley Cup and right now we’re at a place where, I met with half of our team already. We’re going to look this summer at what can we add to win the Stanley Cup next year. And we’re there. We were there last year. Rob made tremendous moves in the summer, but it’s not good enough, so we’ve got to get better.”

No question about that. Those 2012 and 2014 Cup triumphs feel like relics from a happy but increasingly distant past. The next general manager can’t let much more time go by without a solid run at another championship. At the moment, that seems a lot to ask and a long way off.